I spent the last several months building a new engine for my wagon and I wanted to share with the results with the group.

Disclaimer* I am not an engine builder or a machinist, just a guy in his garage that likes to do stuff myself and see if I can do it. I know that much of this can be done better and probably cheaper by a professional. I did everything in my garage except boring the block and grinding and balancing the crank.

Background: I had a 455 in my wagon that I had put together with used parts and a few iterations of iron heads that I worked on myself and ran a best of 13.2 last fall at Milan and because my buddy has the Pontiac version of the same wagon but with a supercharged 5.3LS that was running a 12.8 last summer, I wanted to beat him. So began the work over the winter.

Resurfacing K heads on my mill:



New bronze guides, bowls and chambers cleaned up and a fresh 3 angle valve job.


New Ferrea valves installed.


Fresh rods and new Diamond .030 over pistons.


I ended up getting the crank internally balanced and so I had to cut the weight off the damper with my lathe.


I got a screaming deal on an older 850 carb and replaced all the crusty soft parts.


Working on valve train setup.


Ready to go in the car.


Weight of the car without me in it. I'm 6'6" 285 so add that plus helmet etc. for about 4700 lbs.


Onto the dragstrip


After some tuning...


The Pontiac with the blower ran a 12.43 on a cool day this spring moving the goalpost, but I was still able to capture the trophy. So now I have my family cruiser with heat and A/C and room for everyone capable of low 12 sec passes.

 

Finally a thread on here I can sink my teeth into! Great job!

 

First, the use of production heads I commend, the divider welded, bronze guides with carbon reliefs, porting, I'm sure the heat crossover is filled? Notice how wide the short turn is? Good job. Then time slips with a known weight, my kind of thread!

 

Thanks! Yes, the crossovers are filled. As a jab at the LS swaps, I melted down an LS valve cover to do the filling.

 

Cam specs? Converter? Trans?

 

Nice...............I have a furnace for that myself

 

I see you got after that valve cover rail with that fly cutter as well! Lets see some under hood pictures if you can?

 

284/290 229/236 @ .050 .517/.528 lift with 1.6 112° LSA Flat Tappet but I have 1.7 rockers

200-4R that I built and calibrated

Boss Hog Street Bandit Converter 9.6 in 2800-3200 advertised stall but in my heavy car with a 461 it's a bit closer to 3500 rpm

 

 

Thats great HP with that cam and drive line! I like your ingenuity. After seeing under the hood I now understand how you got to 4700 pounds, its a driver as well as a race car, coolest thing I've seen in a while.

 

This thread was already good but that made it great. My front license plate frame says. "Just say No to LS swaps"

 

Nice! Very cool build.

 

Thanks guys.

Yes, it's a driver for sure. I drove it 2 hours to the track, and 2 hours home after and my kids love getting dropped off at school in it.

 

Very cool build !

 

Nicely done.

 

Awesome job, love the DiY guys.. my kind of car guys and gals. Especially the melting down ls valve covers.. lol. Like feeding your enemy a meat loaf of his pet..lol

 

Very cool, nice work!

 

Is this Chris from Michigan?

 

I've actually had my hands on these heads. He did a great job with the porting. Glad to see this car going down the track. I saw your time slips the other day from our mutual friend

 

I love stories like this!!!

Speaking of “moving the goalpost”, your next move should be to add a small nitrous kit. Don’t say a word to your buddy, and do your best to hide the system. I would think a 50 or 75 shot would easily put you in front. Me being the smart *** that I am, I’d run JUST enough nitrous to post a better timeslip, but have a kit big enough to maintain that superiority.

This could be fun!!!

 

Great job Chris from 1 big wagon guy to the next

 

Very impressive build! What rod and main bearing clearances did you use? Also did you have the main bearing saddles line bored?

I’m hoping to start assembly of my 455 for our 442 this fall. Engine is out and apart right now. It ran ok, but the main bearings showed some damage, I think the previous builder set it up with bearing clearances that were too tight. Also have Edelbrock heads for it…still need cam, pistons and likely new connecting rods. Then balance etc etc. For transmission, like you, 200-4r home built with billet internals. Just installed one in our 67 Camaro and it’s awesome! Have 2 more cores so will build another for the 442.

I’ll be using your build as my reference going forward…..wanting to get our 442 well into the 12’s. 🤔

Thanks!

 

Thanks!

 

Here's my wagon. Let's line them up

 

My clearances are huge and probably not anything I'd suggest anyone else run but I do know that .001 - .002 on the mains was not enough for what I was doing with the engine. There are actual professionals on here that can guide you on recommended clearances.



I think lighter pistons with a modern narrow ring pack made the biggest difference compared to previous iterations of this engine but again, not an expert.

Here's the list of what I used:

 

I have a feeling you'll wallop me.

 

Next trip up to Michigan I might bring the car. You should come by the shop and help with the Dyno if you're available

 

Thanks very much for the list of parts you used….very helpful. I’m currently finishing up a fresh build for our 67 Camaro….a sbc 400 with AFR heads, and Mahle pistons with narrow rings. So hopefully I’ll see a nice performance improvement too. I also am using much larger bearing clearances than some experts suggest, so we’ll see how that works. Like you tighter clearances did not work for me. I think if everything is machined straight, round, and true then tighter clearances work well.

interesting….my 400 sbc crank is at Crankshaft Craftsman right now being machined! 👍

 

My 350 in my Cutlass has turned up lame after 30plus years of storage. My own fault for not backing off the rocker arms after fogging it out years ago and letting critters take up residence in two cylinders. It’s running well enough for what l use the car for but power is down so it looks like the ‘71 455 under the bench is going to get torn down for a rebuild. Your build is looking really good to me and may take some pointers going forward. 👍

 

What a badass wagon!!! Great job that thing is moving!!

 

That’s awesome! You need some video too!

Any trouble getting the valve covers to fit over the Harlands? Thick edelbrock gasket? Baffle?

 

Love the engine color. Is that John Deere green?

 

They are "tall" valve covers from Ebay. They clear but the baffle leaves a lot to be desired, hence the catch can.

 

Thanks, Rust-oleum Hunter Green

 

 

good to see it’s drivable long distance…what rear gear?

 

4.10:1

 

Very cool ! Congrats !

 

Awesome combo and truly interesting build!

 

Thanks guys, it has exceeded all of my expectations.