Are these any good? Whats the story? I found one for cheap wondering if it's worth doing anything to. Hard to find parts for?
Thanks graemlins/thumbsup.gif

My first reaction would be to take a close look at it and ask questions like you are doing. The 455 is a bad a$$ motor and would make a great power plant for any cruiser/racer. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

What year and model did it come out off? Great engines to leave stock with a mild cam.

Much power and manners graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Im trying to figure some history on it right now, I think it's a bone stalker. Im going to check it out right now, I'll try to get some numbers and info on it and report back ;) Maybe we can figure this thing out! I wouldnt mind a 455 at all graemlins/thumbsup.gif

There good to leave stock? What kind of mods would make this puppy fit in the 71' ?

not many people offer mods for that motor. but there is one place. that motor came available in Fbodys during the second generations. go to fbody.com and go the the 1st &2nd gen message board and those guys know that motor like the back of their hand. and they love em and know where to get parts for them and all. its a very torquey motor. i know a guy around me sells em (used ones) with a mild cam and something like "G" heads (stock olds head with good flow i think) or "C"heads. i dont know a whole lot bout em cuz im young (no offense to some of you, like my grandfather who frequents this site haha) and cuz im a chevy guy. i bleed hugger orange.
oh yeah, and i think you would have to redrill the motor mounts but the trans should bolt up fine and everything else should be pretty good.
Edit: edelbrock offers some things for the 455 olds. not a wide selection.

I believe the Olds 455 is a relatively small bore, long stroke, motor.. So anything that you would do to boost bottom - midrange torque should work well. I dont think that these things like to become high winders without some big $$$$$.

I'm a big fan of the 455 Olds..in fact,my old 71 442 clone had a mild 455 (222 @ .050 cam) 9.5 to 1 comp,stock convertor/TH350 and 2.73's..best it ever ran was a 12.99 on street tires w/open headers..corked up,it ran 13.20's..that car is the whole reason why my 70 SS454 has 2.73 gears..I figured if an Olds can do it,so can a Chevy :D
455's are "square" motors..meaning the stroke is bigger than the bore,so they don't rev past 5500..in fact an Olds spinning to 5800 is like a Ford 289 spinning to 9000..tradional mods that work on a BBC won't work on an Olds..its proven time and time again that they like single plane intakes (the Edelbrock Torker is the BEST intake)
and big tube headers when cam timing gets out of the "mild" category..stock,they can't be beat..even a stock cam with just headers and mild gear will go like snot.

We used to build a lot of 455 Olds engines for boats back in the 1970's. They work real well in flat-bottoms, either v-drive or jet applications. Port sizes were limited (this is before Edelbrock came out with decent heads for them), and the valve train is pretty weak in stock form. The engine makes a lot of torque and is very stout (other than the rocker arms), therefore is a good street engine with a few modifications. RPM is usually limited to 5000 to 5500, but that should be sufficient for a torque monster.

An Olds 455 has a 4.125" bore x 4.25" stroke so are basically very good lower rpm torque motors!!!

The highest rated ones were out of the '70 Toronado's at 400hp at 4800rpm and 500t at 3200 rpm with 10.25 to 1 CR.

I think Joe Mondello is the Olds Guru if not mistaken??

pdq67

You are asking for one big headache if you're thinking about putting that Olds in your chevelle, you need a BOP transmission,starter is on the wrong side,motor mounts would be simple I guess if you just welded them in. I think it would be one big pain in the a$$ to do that swap graemlins/thumbsup.gif But...it would probably run good once you got it in there.

Olds are second only to chevys on my list. If you are interested in learning more try www.realoldspower.com. (http://www.realoldspower.com.) The site has a nice forum and the people there are frienly. They should be able to tell you more about your find. Thy have quite a few of the 455 powered street cars running 11s.

sevt_chevelle has a 455 in one of his Chevelles.

Joe Mahan, of www.RealOldsPower.com (http://www.RealOldsPower.com) , has a 64 442 Olds at 3670 lbs, 455+.060, 9.8:1, 1 7/8 headers, 3000 SS, and 4.10s. He runs my O288/296R9, 255/263 at .050, .668/.668 valve lift, 109 LSA, in at 102 ICL. He called me this week and told me he was in the 10.60s now, he ran a 10.91 at Norwalk in 2002 with 3-year old slicks and 1200 RPM launches.....
I make a number of cams for the 455 Olds, from easy street pieces, on up.

UDHarold

There is this kid I went to school with. He has a 68 Cutlass S he put a 455 in. He spent about 2x to 3x as much on his motor than I did on my 350, I ran a 13.5 he ran a 14.7... I still need gears etc... I felt kinda bad for him.

It sounds like a real interesting engine, I dont know how I feel about having limited parts to buy. It might even be somewhat nice to not have a million things to choose from. I didnt actually buy this sucker either. It was @ a pulling yard they said they had a few of them and I went down and went through dozens of cars and parts, fun trip but I only saw one 455 and it didnt look so healthy graemlins/sad.gif Too much sludge to tell what condition it was even in, get it home clean it or get that sucker baked at a machine shop and find out it has fractures or heavy cracks! It would be nice though, after all the work, maybe it will be easier to go as planned and save up for that 502. I love my 350 though, she was my first build smile.gif

Originally posted by RacnJsn95:
There is this kid I went to school with. He has a 68 Cutlass S he put a 455 in. He spent about 2x to 3x as much on his motor than I did on my 350, I ran a 13.5 he ran a 14.7... I still need gears etc... I felt kinda bad for him. lol..I bought a used 455 for $500,and put it into a 71 442 clone with 2.73 gears..it ran in the 13.20's-13.30's on radial t/a's and a stock convertor..

My tow car is a 76 Cutlass S with a .030 over 455, Richmond 5sp and 2.41 posi (I ordered the car new with a factory 5sp, but with a smaller V-8). Several here have seen it at Chevellabration. Sometimes I tow the 70 conv on a flat trailer with the Cutlass. As mentioned above, the 455 is a great torque engine. Over the years, they have been used as an engine of choice in motor homes, irrigation engines, turnkey jet boats, etc. If you want to run a manual tranny behind one, MAKE SURE you have a block with the threaded hole for the clutch ball stud (some 455 Olds blocks don't even have the boss). The Olds 455 engines use a ROPE rear main seal. DON'T use it, use a rear main seal for a 460 Ford, it works great. Also, it is true, Mondello is a very knowledgeable Olds person, AND HE CHARGES FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are many aftermarket performance parts available for the big Olds, and they are more expensive than Chevy parts (because the demand is less). One of the BEST mods that I did to my 455 was to install the Comp Cams adjustable rocker arm conversion. Stock Olds rockers ARE NOT adjustable. Their kit supplies everything needed to convert an Olds to adjustable roller tip rocker arms. Headers are available, but I chose to maintain a stock factory look with cast iron exhaust manifolds. A FACTORY, DUAL EXHAUST right hand manifold is VERY SCARCE. They ONLY came on cars which came from the factory with dual exhaust, such as 74-earlier 442s. The Olds dual exhaust RIGHT side manifold only has ONE outlet. ALL other Olds right side manifolds have an inlet for the crossover pipe from the left side, then an outlet behind that.

Originally posted by BruteSBC:
not many people offer mods for that motor. but there is one place. that motor came available in Fbodys during the second generations. go to fbody.com and go the the 1st &2nd gen message board and those guys know that motor like the back of their hand. and they love em and know where to get parts for them and all. its a very torquey motor. i know a guy around me sells em (used ones) with a mild cam and something like "G" heads (stock olds head with good flow i think) or "C"heads. i dont know a whole lot bout em cuz im young (no offense to some of you, like my grandfather who frequents this site haha) and cuz im a chevy guy. i bleed hugger orange.
oh yeah, and i think you would have to redrill the motor mounts but the trans should bolt up fine and everything else should be pretty good.
Edit: edelbrock offers some things for the 455 olds. not a wide selection. Actually 2nd gen fbody's didn't receive an olds 455 from the factory. Some of the later 2nd gen firebirds did get olds 403's though. Olds 455's are a big olds engine, the 403 is a small olds, though I believe some parts interchange, but the olds 455 has bigger outside dimensions making them a challenge (not impossible) to fit in a 2nd gen fbody, though many have done it. I think the 455 you are thinking of going into the fbody's from the factory is the pontiac 455 going into firebirds and trans ams. the pontiac 455 is a different engine than the olds 455 and the Buick 455 is yet another different animal. You'll find lots of people that will try and tell you they are all the same engine. Now you are one up on them.
Also, the tranny will not just bolt up to a chevy trans. Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac (BOP) used the same bolt pattern for the bellhousing. Chevy used their own. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I just don't want to lead him wrong. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I would probably buy the olds 455 if you can get it cheap. there is no replacement for displacement. To have a nice affordable build, you will just have to learn about what stock parts to look for (heads, intakes, ect..) and what mods to do to them. You may not want to put it in your chevelle, but maybe you'll have a car to put it in some day, or maybe someone will have some chevy parts you want and they will happen to want some olds parts. you never know.

graemlins/boring.gif graemlins/boring.gif graemlins/boring.gif

Originally posted by Texas70:
graemlins/boring.gif graemlins/boring.gif graemlins/boring.gif Thats helpfull tongue.gif

The olds 455 is a great torque motor like mentioned already. Alot of 73-87 chevy pickup guys use it after swapping out the olds 350cid deisel motor in their trucks. Nice broad torque curve, tons of low end. Put a slightly larger cam, some nice headers, 9.5:1 compression, a single plane intake, and some adjustable rockers on and your good to go smile.gif

Can't you just grab onto the mounts and such from an Olds A-body car of the wanted year(s) and install everything into a Chevelle??

Should be a bolt-in if the BOP auto-tranny is included...

Or am I missing something?

pdq67

The Chevelle and Cutlass share the same frame. I put a 455 olds into a Chevelle using stock 442 headers, without denting them anywhere for clearance. I used the motor mounts that came from the donor car (a '73 Olds 88) and re-drilled the Chevelle frame so that I could bolt the mounts up. Worked fine, loved it.

Get the tranny and everything so you don't have to fool around trying to match BOP stuff with Chevy stuff.

The 455s in the BOP are each unique, such as a 455 Olds, Poncho 455, etc.

Some factory Olds V8 installations use plates that bolt to the block which relocate the engine mount. Some other Olds V8 factory installations bolt the mount directly to the block. It depends on the car in which it was originally installed in. Something to remember.

Pdq,
Yes, all you need are the FRAME mounts from a Cutlass of the same generation. TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy!

Dennis,
Yes the 455 is the big one and the 403 is the small one-------------------------sort of.
The Olds 260, 307, 350, 403 are LOW deck, and the 400, 425, 455 are TALL deck blocks. ALL OTHER DIMENSIONS ARE THE SAME!!!!! EVERYTHING BOLTS TO A 350 OR A 455. For example, the Olds 455 block has ABOUT 1in taller cylinder decks than the LOW deck blocks (such as a 350). Since the 400-425-455 are taller (that's all, just taller), then of course, the heads are a little wider apart, thus, the intake manifold is also wider. BUT, the intake-block-exhaust surfaces of the heads are the same, the head bolt patterns are the same. For obvious reasons, you wouldn't want to do it, but you can literally bolt a 260 head onto a 455 block (just like you can bolt a 283 head onto a SB400 and vice versa). All Olds valve covers share the same bolt pattern. If you replace an Olds 350 with a 455, ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the brackets and accessories just bolt on (totally unlike swapping a BB Chev for a SB!!!). All you need, to swap a Tall Olds for a Short Olds, is longer belts because the alt and ac comp are a little further apart.
Now, where the differences really occur in the Olds engines, is internally. For example, a 455 crank is much heavier than a 350 crank with bigger journals. Even though the 403 is a short deck block, it has the BIGGEST bore of any Olds engine (4.351 and 4.125 for the 455). But, the 455 has the biggest stroke (4.25). The 350 and 403 share the same stroke (3.385) but the 403 has almost a .300 bigger bore!
Even though the 455 is a taller block, both the short and tall blocks share the same distributor length, because an Olds dist goes into the block BEHIND the manifold (not through it like a Chev dist), thus it is a little harder to get to the dist on a 455 than on a 350, ESPECIALLY an HEI dist!!!

One difference in the valve covers is that in 1977, five of the ten valve cover bolts (and holes) were eliminated. The same shape was retained.

Originally posted by mr 4 speed:
lol..I bought a used 455 for $500,and put it into a 71 442 clone with 2.73 gears..it ran in the 13.20's-13.30's on radial t/a's and a stock convertor.. See don't you feel sorry for the kid? He has 2.73s also. Most of his times were in the 15s, his 14.7 was the fastest for the night.

IMHO, off the subject but is applicable anyway!!

First the big 500 Cad. (what is it, 625 pounds ready to run?)...

Next, the big 455 Buick. (About the same as the big CAD. AND is the all time stock, torque champ!!!)...

Next the 454 BB Chevy. The best there is due to parts availability and coming from Chevy!!!

Next, the Pontiac 455, (definately a GREAT old WAR-HORSE motor!!)...and

finally the big Olds 455, (Great for out and out low-to low, high-speed grunt!!).....

pdq67

Tom,

Thanks for the info. I knew that there was at least some interchangability between the different olds engines since I know of a guy that put heads from a 425 or 455 onto his 403. That tall deck and short deck difference sounds a lot like the difference between pontiac 301's and the 326-455's. The 301 is a short deck version of the more common pontiac block. The nice thing about the distributor behind the manifold, at least on a pontiac, is that you can change intakes without having the pull the distributor. I plan to cut the water passage off the intakes on my pontiac 455, then take it to the dyno. I have 3 intakes I want to test back to back. The swap can actually be done very easily at the track if you wanted to test different intakes there as well. Sure the timing will have to be adjusted to get the most out of each intake, but you get to skip some steps and don't have to mess with the coolant either. but yes, hei distributors can be a pain with some manifolds. :(

thanks again for the info Tom.

As you can tell from my sig, I'm into the Olds stuff also. These make great low-buck high power pump gas street motors. Most of the best parts are on 455's from 68-70. Keep the build simple. I have a 3500lb. 67 442 that has a 455 with a 230*/236* @ .050 hyd. cam, 10.5 comp, C heads, 1 3/4 headers, torker and an 850 Holley. T-400 with a 10" 3300 rpm. A-1 converter. 12 bolt with 3.73 gears. It runs 11.50's thru the full exhaust on pump gas. A best of 11.37. And 10.50's on a 225 shot.
Stay away from Mondello. Go to [/URL] or [URL=http://www.realoldspower.com] (http://www.oldsmobileracersonline.com) and ask questions. Lots of parts available and you can build it pretty cheap. It's an easy swap into a Chevelle but I don't know why you'd do that. JMHO

Randy

HERE ARE THE FLOW NUMBERS ON A SET OF OLDSMOBILE EDELBROCK PERFORMER RPM HEADS IF ANYBODY IS INTERESTED

With a plug , 4.155bore, radius intake,
WITH PIPE

.100 - 67/59
.200 - 134/117
.300 - 203/153
.400 - 250/185
.500 - 265/196
.600 - 265/213


I AM BUILDING A 455 + 30 OVER WITH THESE HEADS A TRUE 10.5 TO 1 COMP ITS GOING IN TO A 1968 442 CONVERTIBLE

Randy,
I'm glad that you made that "stay away" comment! I didn't want to say it.

when doing exhasut research I ran into the Hand brothers doing some testing on a 455 Olds wagon. Kripes, they were, if I recall, deep into the 11s with a very mild motor. Absolutely 100% streetable with mild gear running 11's. wow.

Gene, Your right on Hand's car, other than it is actually a Lemans wagon with a pontiac 455, and a GTO front end, so it looks like a GTO wagon. The rear gear is 3:55. But the tech info in the exhaust article should be valid no matter the make or model. I have posted the link to the article on here before. If you haven't read it, take a minute to give it a gander.

Here's the article on exhaust by Jim and Tom Hand:

http://www.pontiacstreetperformance.com/psp/exhaust.html

For some info on his wagon, if anyone is interested, check this out:

http://www.pontiacstreetperformance.com/psp/rebuild455jh00.html

Jim and Floyd Hand really have those Pontiacs flying at HEAVY weights with REAL mild combos that use alot of stock and reworked stock parts. Same with Nolan and Marty Parker and Nolan's son Gary.
I've known these guys for over 20 years and still can't get over how they run so hard with so little. Tons of R&D, testing and tuning.
I was with them at the Motorplex for the TMCA Challenge race. Quite an experience.

Randy

Hi All
I ran a stock body olds 70 442 built 455 12bolt chevy rear end
4.11s full interior buckets console ect ect beat every one on street (including vaunted ls6 chevelle)455 pontiacs (not stock either.
(was tossed out no rollbar) car was stock looking with widened rear rims ran 11.2 no nitrous with nitrous final combo with mondello
ported heads
( c casting) 10.6(estimated street time) that was in 1996!
Drolds

There is this kid I went to school with. He has a 68 Cutlass S he put a 455 in. He spent about 2x to 3x as much on his motor than I did on my 350, I ran a 13.5 he ran a 14.7... I still need gears etc... I felt kinda bad for him. My bone stock 400", 4 speed, '66-442, which had a 400 ran 14.54 @ 100.86 MPH with the stock 3.55 gears and NO posi-trac. That being said the heads and a somewhat weak bottom end doesn't make this a very good platform for a race motor. If you want a motor that will go 11s pretty easy and don't expect it to make 800 H.P. and kill every Chevy in sight you'd probably like it. The motor came in the 70-72 Olds 442s and i think all small and big block frame mounts from any Olds should fit in a Chevy's frame as they are pretty much the same. As mentioned above several things have to be relocated. The biggest authorities on this motor are Joe Mondello and Dick Miller. A guy in Chicago and one in New York race them but have some hard to find Batten heads. Bulldog has some new heads out that pump the engine's output up as does Mondello but this engine is expensive to build into a really high performance piece.

Holy crap this thread is almost 3 years old!

Did anyone see the '70 Cutlass is this month's edition of Car Craft (I think it was)? It had a 455/TH400, cage.....ran an 11.8 or so....makes me want to build an Olds A body with a 455 combo. :thumbsup:

My experience with 455 Olds include a '78 Seville with a 455 substitution for the 350. Heads cleaned up a bit and a Chet Herbert ground cam, the Caddy ran 13.8s @ 102mph off the street, no slicks, no headers.

I presently have one in my '66 Corvair. Again, a little head clean up, small cam, tri-y headers, and modified "switch/pitch" convertor on the '66 Toronado drivetrain. The car is a "little" rear weight biased ;) and VERY quick through low gear.

If anyone wants a VooDoo hydraulic cam for the 455 Olds, call Steve at Lunati, 662-892-1526. Lunati has masters for the VooDoo cams for their regular cam grinders.

UDHarold

Guy's,

I gotta warn you that there are two (2) 400" Olds motors!!

A 4.00" B x 3.975" s and a 3.87" b x 4.25" s!!

A buddy of mine had both in a '67 Cutlass back then and promptly blew the FIRST stock, long stroke motor up real fast b/c of too many rpm's! The other shorter stroke replacement motor ran very well!!

pdq67

I have a 455 in my 69 Cutlass. It is a torque monster as a stock engine. That car will plain roast the tires off the rims with 2.76 gears in it no problem with the A/C on. I will say however, they like Q-jets. I had a Holley 1850 on mine, I took it off and put a Q-Jet on it and it ran 100% better. The only mods that engine could use is a mild cam, aluminum intake and some headers. To make one fit in a Chevelle, simple, drop it in and get a BOP bolt pattern transmission. You will of course need the Olds accessory brackets.