BUICK 455

[brandonu]

I specialize in building custom BOPC engines, I mainly build Pontiacs but I do a fair amount of Buicks and I am always blown away by the power they can produce with a hydraulic flat tappet cam,
last 464 I did made 582hp 603tq pump gas
the oiling system needs a lot of work but its worth it when you're done, by far the most explosive street engine I've ever driven
I make custom 3/4 groove main bearings for these and so far they work well but yeah its pretty common to go through a few blocks to get a suitable candidate for a build up.
the 76 buick 455's that came in trans ams is the best and thickest of the 455's also known as a blue block
I wouldn't go more than .040 over 4.3525

This particular 455 that Carl is machining is for my customer to go into a super clean 1967 Skylark street/show car. It is a 1972 block, .030 over forged, TA Performance aluminum head (Stage 1, Street, with their T&D shaft system), Jones hydraulic cammed 462 that will never see more than 5500RPM. A lot goes into making these things oil correctly. Drill and tap the cam galleys, drill and tap the left deck surface feed hole, relocate the main bearing feeds to match the bearings, grooved cam bearings, modify the feed tube from the pump, steel booster, and an external relief, to name a few. They are an expensive build, but worth it when you hit the loud pedal!

[Krooser]

Back in the early 80's i was using a friends Chevy dually (454/4 speed) to haul my stock car. During one winter he spent big $$$ on some Edelbrock parts that were touted to up the fuel economy from 5.5 mpg to 8 or 9 mpg. He wound up with 5 mpg. After calling E-brock's tech line several times with new tuning info the guy at E-brock told him if he wanted decent MPG with more towing muscle he should have installed a 500" Caddy!

Seems that was pretty common on the coast….

[Barry Burch]

My first and ex wife worked for a time for Mr Vic Edelbrock jr.
From the story's she told me. He's damn lucky I didn't clean his clock.

[900HP]

I specialize in building custom BOPC engines, I mainly build Pontiacs but I do a fair amount of Buicks and I am always blown away by the power they can produce with a hydraulic flat tappet cam,
last 464 I did made 582hp 603tq pump gas
the oiling system needs a lot of work but its worth it when you're done, by far the most explosive street engine I've ever driven
I make custom 3/4 groove main bearings for these and so far they work well but yeah its pretty common to go through a few blocks to get a suitable candidate for a build up.
the 76 buick 455's that came in trans ams is the best and thickest of the 455's also known as a blue block
I wouldn't go more than .040 over 4.3525

Sorry, no Trans-Am's ever came with Buick V8 engines. In '76 they were still using the Pontiac engine and starting in '77 or '78 some could be had with the Oldsmobile 403.

Boring the 455 Buick to the Mopar bore of 4.35" is much more common (.038" over) as there are shelf pistons available in this size

[CNC BLOCKS]

You should be fine at .040". It's when they've been bored .060" over there is no place left to go.

FWIW, back in the day, when Pontiac and Buick 455"s were routinely bored .060" for Stock class racing and decked for max compression, they'd have problems with ring sealing. We've sleeved a couple back to standard and honed with a torque plate, they actually went faster than they did at .060".

Got the Buick 455 all honed and could not believe how much the torque plate distorted the cylinders the worst one was .0045 from low to high the rest averaged about .004 distortion.

I am sure the pistons may go in a little dry but should be fine once the heads are torqued on. Sure glad I had a good hone to do the job!!!

[mystic1582]

Awesome. So a little off topic. With today's motors in production cars that can easily see 200k on the odometer. Are the cylinders designed differently to not see so much distortion? I can't imagine they are machined with torque plates or even machined/honed to any high level of accuracy in a production environment, even though CNC technology could improve on 60's technology.

[CNC BLOCKS]

Awesome. So a little off topic. With today's motors in production cars that can easily see 200k on the odometer. Are the cylinders designed differently to not see so much distortion? I can't imagine they are machined with torque plates or even machined/honed to any high level of accuracy in a production environment, even though CNC technology could improve on 60's technology.

Using better hardware will show more distortion over factory fasteners, Clamping force is a lot less with factory fasteners and will show less distortion.

The newer LS based engines use long head bolts which do not affect the cylinders as far as distortion.

Bigger the bore the weaker the cylinder which will show more distortion.

With OEM type engines your not dealing with a lot of dynamic pressure.

Here is another link to look over
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39782&p=494521#p494521

[wyrmrider]

Bore distortion
anyone else find Olds to be worse
and some others?
anyone have to toque plate heads when doing a valve job?

[CNC BLOCKS]

Bore distortion
anyone else find Olds to be worse
and some others?
anyone have to toque plate heads when doing a valve job?

Chevy 400 blocks.

[900HP]

Carl, don't forget to gap the rings with the plate on, it makes a difference on these because of the excessive bore distortion. I'm sure you are aware of it, I'm just pointing it out for everyone else.....

[MotionMachine]

Carl, don't forget to gap the rings with the plate on, it makes a difference on these because of the excessive bore distortion. I'm sure you are aware of it, I'm just pointing it out for everyone else.....

Last BB Chrysler I did got KB's, .0025" clearance. I put the torque plate back on the block to gap the rings but just for fun tried to put a piston in a cylinder without it. It went but took a lot of effort. I warned the customer about it for when he assembled it. He did tell me it turned over hard until he put the heads on. Pretty scary sometimes.

[Robert Kane]

Awesome. So a little off topic. With today's motors in production cars that can easily see 200k on the odometer. Are the cylinders designed differently to not see so much distortion? I can't imagine they are machined with torque plates or even machined/honed to any high level of accuracy in a production environment, even though CNC technology could improve on 60's technology.

Using better hardware will show more distortion over factory fasteners, Clamping force is a lot less with factory fasteners and will show less distortion.

The newer LS based engines use long head bolts which do not affect the cylinders as far as distortion.

Bigger the bore the weaker the cylinder which will show more distortion.

With OEM type engines your not dealing with a lot of dynamic pressure.

Here is another link to look over
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39782&p=494521#p494521

Also the head bolt screw into there block where they don't contact the tops of the bores and distort under clamping loads.
Robert.

[CNC BLOCKS]

Carl, don't forget to gap the rings with the plate on, it makes a difference on these because of the excessive bore distortion. I'm sure you are aware of it, I'm just pointing it out for everyone else.....

I am not end builder but it looks like a set of Sealed Power none file fit rings,