Hey guys. I have 3, bare (w/caps), 2 bolt, standard bore 454's sitting in my garage. A buddy of mine wants one, but I have no idea what these are worth these days. I used to sell 454's for $500 all day, but maybe times have changed and the price has lowered.

Recently I've taken interest in a complete, minus engine, 1972 Nova sitting acrossed the street from my buddy's house. The guy is moving soon and wants $500 to get it out of his driveway. It has the usual rust in the lower fenders and quarters, but nothing too serious. The floors are solid and the interior is there, but wasted.

The car is totally a project, but my wife likes the body style and I would like this to be her 'toy' car. She too loves BBC's.

Anyway I was thinking of selling a 454 and maybe some other things and picking up this Nova. My buddy says I can keep it in his (locked & gated) storage yard for as long as I want.

So, two questions. How much for a 454 and is the Nova worth $500?

Thanks guys!!

A pre-80's 454 is probably worth $5-700 where I am at. The more complete they are the more they are worth. I have gotten a couple for under $500 and thought I was getting a good deal.
The Nova IMO sounds like a reasonable deal.

Standard bore bare block is worth between $300-500
If it has a 70-72 date code, it's worth considerably more.
The value of the heads will vary greatly depending on the castng number. Some are almost worthless and others are worth $300-up

Standard cranks are getting hard to find. Cores are worth $200-250
To give you an idea. The local machine shop sells ground 454 (.010/.010)cranks outright for $350 and can't keep them in stock long at that price.

Bottom line here is......if you're going to sell one of your 454's, but you don't know the condition of all of the parts, you better let it go cheap or guarantee the parts.

A couple years ago I was given 3 different 454's.
2 were .060 overbore-junk
1 was .030 and had to go to .060 to clean
3 of the heads were cracked. junk.
2 heads had intake and exhaust seats. Intake seats are not good.
The only good head was an 049 that I sold for $125.
2 of the cranks had bad thrusts-junk
the other one was already .010/.010 and had a welded journal

so................after pulling one of these engines out of the 76 Chev pickup by myself, I ended up with 1 ok block, about 20 good rods, 1 nice oil pan, 2 good dampers, a few pulleys, a 454 flywheel, some alternator brackets, a good PS pump and brackets and a pair of exh manifolds (that I later sold for $40)

Considering my time and the labor involved, I took a big loss.


As far as the Nova goes, unless it's a big heap of trash, you won't go wrong on it for $500 as long as the DMV is current.

I thought the 454s would go out to .100 with ease? cant you get a new scat crank for about $240 for a 454? for a mild motor, this should be fine, dont you think?

I thought the 454s would go out to .100 with ease? cant you get a new scat crank for about $240 for a 454? for a mild motor, this should be fine, dont you think?

Pistons get pretty expensive after .060 overbore.

Take your el cheapo scat crank to your machinist and see how much it's going to cost you for him to fix it so it will work in your engine. That's all I've got to say. If you need to find out the hard way, go ahead and buy one.

Take your el cheapo scat crank to your machinist and see how much it's going to cost you for him to fix it so it will work in your engine. That's all I've got to say. If you need to find out the hard way, go ahead and buy one.

I'll assume you've heard this from someone who heard it from someone else and you have never personally never owned or had any problems with SCAT cranks, etc.

I've built several SBC and BBC motors using SCAT cranks (cast & forged) and never had ANY problems. Awesome parts IMO.

On the other hand a buddy bought a 'CAT' crank and it need at least two, if not three slugs to balance out, and the rod journals were out of round straight out of the box. They had to turn a brand new crank 10/10 just to use it.

Take your el cheapo scat crank to your machinist and see how much it's going to cost you for him to fix it so it will work in your engine. That's all I've got to say. If you need to find out the hard way, go ahead and buy one.

What's wrong with Scat stuff? Even Wolfplace recommends them. :confused: