I actually used 1972 & 1973 Buick 455's for dirt track racing with huge success. Absolutely loved them. Only modifications I made we're switching to HEI, hi volume oil pump and a comp cams 268 cam. Otherwise 100% bone stock. I beat the snot out of those motors night after night and they just took it. Loved em.
So at one time, the entire engine has been rebuilt. .030 over pistons, a rebuild tag on the heads. Might still be in decent shape, except for wherever it picked up all that water/rust in the ports... More boost....I mean if you are gonna blow it up with boost, you might as well go big..
lol...I said the same thing on the other video that it was the head gasket and the last run the water was shooting up out of the water pump very high....a lot of people was saying it was a piston do to ring Gap
At least clean the rust out of those intake ports, I would hate to see some of that come loose and damage something for no reason. Does the 30 stamped in the pistons mean .030 over?
I thought this was a stock motor? Stock motors don't come 30 over. I'm surprised Richard didn't either notice that it's been bored or touch on the fact that it was bored. So what's the compression ratio? Did they put different piston's in this to keep the ratio stock or does it have more then stock?? Cmon Richard let's find out.
Hell yeah! I guessed it! Chambers look good. I like the shape of the quench areas. Comparable to modern heads in some aspects. If it were my engine, I'd have the heads flycut (ideally, put through a shaper) and then have the block decked to make sure they're nice and flat, otherwise the next set of gaskets might just blow anyway.
@John Presnell I've seen built 455 Buicks making over 800+hp NA with a single 4-barrel. They have plenty of potential, but the parts are expensive as hell.
I was thinking the same thing. Only issue with that being it's feeding an engine that's over 50 cu. in. bigger than a typical 383/400 SBC. Makes me wonder if a streetable 600hp is possible with ported stock heads and a good cam.
Don't forget to pocket port those heads after the seats are cut for the bigger valves. Those heads were pretty clean under the covers, maybe somebody did a valve job on it at some point.
Keep them coming Richard awesome video I had a stage one Buick back in the day. It was a 1970 455 stage 1 Cran Cam fireball 3310-1 Holley carb ran good. This was 1979
Take the stock cast iron intake and remove as much of the middle 4 hole Q-Jet part as you can to see if it will help increase top end power with the holley carb! I really enjoyed the other guys motors, keep up the good work!
I just found out about this video. Not sure what all happened before,. BUT ... This is from the Buick GSX-tra magazine ... the "bible" for Buick engine building. The Comp Cams 910-16 springs are a simple drop on and are the same as the factory Stage 1 valve springs (single spring w.dampner). Around 95-100 lbs. on the seat and over 275 lbs open with a .500" lift cam, as best I remember. Your "stock" springs are just a single lo-po "Electra" variety spring. No machine work needed for the 910's. Will take up to a .500 lift cam. No 455 built this mildly will make its power over 5200 rpm. But it will make plenty of hp & torque up to ~5200 rpm.
Whew......only a blown head gasket. Easy fix. Since your in it this far go ahead and cam it, the torque curve is way ahead the hp curve. The 455 is craving more cam!
The Power dynamics of Big Bore , Short Stroke motors are legendary. Ford 429's shared similar bore/stroke with similar impressive results. Destroked SBC 400 blocks [4.125"bore] with 3.25" and 3.48" strokes equally prodigious with good heads. Apparently these combo's fill and empty combustion chambers more efficiently.
I figured it was a head gasket. Id like to see you copy the set up me and my pawpaw threw together on my new to me 76 Delta 88 with 68,000 miles on the clock the whole car is in amazing shape. We put a edelbrock torker intake from the 80's and a rebuilt Holley 750 double pumper my pawpaw has had for years a comp xe274 hydraulic flat tappet cam and lifters and comps cheapest pushrods, pac valve springs and a petronix hei distributor and a melling fuel pump my pawpaw found a set of mid length headers I m turning it to 6100rpm and i found a used tci 2200rpm converter its got a n.o.s big shot wet plate system jetted for a 100 shot but haven't sprayed it yet I was waiting to see how all your tests went. It definitely picked up alot of power i welded the spider gears up and now that big boat gets silly at red lights
@@kylewilliams6349 He sure does! LoL he's been racing and a church of god preacher since the 70's, my grandparent's are who raised my iv been goin to the track with him since i was 5 until he stopped racing in 2004 when I was 14 then he put me in the car and started running 7.0 index racing if it wasn't for him i wouldn't hide money from the old lady to buy race car parts lol. When I bought the Delta 88 3 or 4 months ago and he found out it was a big block car his exact words where " I haven't fooled around with a Oldsmobile for a long time " that was it about a month later this is where we are... LoL its been a good time but this winter that boat anchor is coming out and a turbo ls setup is goin in I bought the car to see if i could go fast on 26's big wheel racing has blew up around where i stay in Alabama
@camaroguy 66 but it backfires on my sometimes lol last month i bought a drum of ignite red e90 and she happened to walk outside and caught me struggling to get it unloaded and she asked where i got the money and I qas about 4 tenths of a second late on my answer and got busted lol you said you didn't have the money to take me out for lunch but you got money for that stupid truck lol!! I understand alot of people dont like big wheels but there's a right and wrong way to do it in my opinion there's a fine line between looking nice & classy and guady. But I've always liked big wheels in 2006 when I got my license i had a 94 Cadillac deville and i saved for a year to buy a set of 22's for it. But i grudge race more than anything and at the moment thats where all the money is and i figured since iv been pretty fast on hard tires I would give it a shot. Ive ran consistent 6.30s on a 400 treadwear 275/60/15s at 120mph in my small tire turbo 99 z28
@@ZboeC5 I feel the same way there will always be a set of Hoosier's and some front runners laying around for mine but I also look at like the challenge of goin fast on a hard tire with no sidewall there are a few cars nmm on 26s that are getting close to the 9's in the 1/4 and pretty low in the 6's in the 1/8
Awesome video. I honestly thought the engine was going to be far worse off than it is. Seeing as you are going to fix it up and run it stock to get the 500 before you put your secret end of video plan together, can you run the aluminium intake on it with everything else stock, to see how good/bad the factory piece is? That way we can see if the only performance gain is the weight reduction.
I stand corrected; I guessed ring gap. I like the idea of 'just' a new head gasket. Run it til it fails! I'd like to see how much abuse the 455 can handle before the lower extremities fail. However, I'm impressed it produced over seven hundred foot pounds, held together, and only pushed out a head gasket. I hope a stronger gasket is available for the Buick.
I love the videos this guy does! Everybody's engine ends up in a video, on the dyno, and almost every one under boost to see them pushed hard. Anyone who spends this much time away from "Chevy land" deserves big props!
Headgaskets are a problem. I have had multiple issues of headgaskets blowing out between cylinders given the super thin area between cylinders. The good news is it will run good on 6 cylinders although it is weird to hear all piston events from one bank at highway speeds :p
Awesome videos. Richard my wife blames you for my Magnum 318 turbo build. She always seems to find your videos up on the screen. Keep up the good work.
Well glad to see that I guessed wrong on losing a valve. I wonder if the gasket got wounded on the nitrous and the turbo finished it? Maybe you can cheat and shim the stock springs for a little more open pressure. Edit, and maybe let us know how far down the hole the pistons are, thought I saw an oversize stamp on them. Cheap rebuild ones can be short and cause issues... but I'm sure you are well aware of that.
Why not shim the stock valve spring, when you put it back together (before going the route of machining the head), or do you think that it's not going to give you much more?
BTW Sir the music is freaking awesome. As you have said before, vets at this stuff don't listen the the haters. I think that thing was a champ for the old gaskets to make it that long. New ones with a bit of deck sanding and the heads machined and a tweak little extra tisty-twist on the head bolts, it will rock. Freaking amazing vids as always
If you’re not going to surface the heads or block, put studs in it to improve the holding force. And as others have said, clean the rust out of the ports. A rotary wire wheel should make quick work of it. Thanks for documenting the tear down.
Glad to see it was just a head gasket. Looking forward to more mods on this engine. Good to see something different. Would be cool to see a heads, cam and intake upgrade on this engine, with the boost.
This is fun to watch, but I'm looking forward to the real build. Buick 455's love to spin if you can get some oil to them through that crappy lubrication system.
That engine was rebuilt. I noticed a 30 stamped on the pistons at 6:33. Usually means .030 over. When you do the heads you should hog them out a bit or just clean up the edges etc.
It's good that was a cheap fix. Nice heads on that engine. I was thinking about how hard it is to find a 455? My friends had trouble finding 440,s, 454 parts are pricey but I'm not sure about how easy they are to find. I see lots of 460 ford engines but they are newer ones with EFI. I look forward to more 455 thrashing.
Back in the early 80s, I had a 71 Skylark that I "swapped in" a 71 455 out of an Estate Wagon. Within 500 miles, I had about the same thing happen to me. Unfortunately, the water washed out my rings and bearings. A local 'hero' who owned a machine shop convinced me to knurl the cylinder walls, saving me from having to buy new pistons. I used plain iron Hastings rings and Moraine 400 bearings on the now .020" under main & rod bearings - yeah, they were that bad! We hot-tanked, sand-blasted, and tanked again the heads, then gasket-matched the intake ports to an Offenhauser 360° aluminum intake. Found a totalled 71 TA and yanked the 800 cfm Quadra-bog. Slapped in a parts-store HEI. It took 3 days of driving it to & from work, and 4 runs down the dragstrip, for the rings to figure out the knurled cylinder walls and stop smoking! What a great learning curve there for a 19 year old!
I think a stock parts build would be interesting. Maybe a 9 or 9.5:1 compression to be boosted for great midrange real world power, and cruising. Being a high reving low compression, boosted 455 would need many high dollar parts and only be good for the track.
Called it.. also heck yeah shim the springs for fun... lol Didn't really see the head bolt arrangement well. seemed odd that it pushed to the valley dead center in the quench area with near perfect shaping???
Good job Richard.. gotta fiddle w the heads some once you have them off. Even w New springs the Stock Cam Intake lift is not quite .400... Not gonna make much difference up top.
I personally ran the SNOT out of the mid 70s 455s because they had the larger oil transfer journal from sump to pump so they were harder to blow up.. the low compression sucks but the bottom end is strong on those guys.. I knew it was gonna be a head gasket when it happened :D
Richard Holdener sounds like a good plan you have there. Probably a good idea would be after you clean the decks, to at least take a strait edge and feeler gauge to check the tolerances. You did push a gasket so it would suck if there was a bad low spot at the #4 and it just pushes another gasket. Also maybe measure how far the pistons are in the hole so you can see what the compression ratio is. Alot of Dodge 318's were known to be between .040-.060 down so it would be interesting to know on this Buick.
So why did the headgasket blow? Headgaskets are like a fuse when something goes wrong in a turbo motor. Bad part?, loss of bolt torque?, detonation- bad fuel distribution- oil getting up in there?
If you are just gonna put it back together stock, might I suggest at least cleaning up those ports? Not a full port job, but at least knock off the high spots LOL.
I have to say Richard, you are a work 'Animal"! It takes a lot of patients to monkey around with the stock hardware as much as you do. I'd get too impatient and end up rushing right to the head, Intake, & cam upgrades. And then of course to the most awesome stage of the build, BOOST!
Head gasket and rear main rope seal, are the only things I ever had to change. Did both in the street in front of the house. fished the rope seal over the crank with doubled up fishing line. Your not gonna get much over 5k rpm , no matter what you do to it.
Awesome that it was just a head gasket. I still think that you should pull the pistons and gap the rings so you do not have to do it later or possibly damage a cylinder liner. Thanks again for including us in the dyno fun. 😁
It came out cheap, I was completely wrong I thought it was piston rings, definitely run stock cam with the new springs and see how far you can push the RPMs, weird looking cylinder heads with those huge intake exhaust crossovers, the floor from the intake runner is pretty much flat, I guess porting is out of question, I always heard to stay away from the floor of the runners because it hurts flow, definately it needs a pair of Eddy heads if thst is possible, COMETIC .027" head gasket ???, Weight the OEM intake vs the Aluminum one, like to see how many tons difference in between.
That was awesome... Just felt a big relief when you showed the piston and valves were just right, hope to see all the thing you have in mind with this engine and hopefully as u said on the last video, put forged internals and see what this nice engine is capable of! And im really waiting to see the upgrades for the inline 6 292 turbo!!!
Would like to see ring gap change, cam and spring upgrade, rebuild and test. You certainly are a worker to get so much done this late. Thanks for sharing.
We’re you using a main stud girdle? They are a must for making any kind of real power. Call TA performance in Scottsdale for help. I don’t represent them or anything, but I delivered part to them when I was between real jobs, and was quit impressed. Good luck Richard, and anyone else who wants to build something different. I would get the aluminum intake from TA, and I’d you can afford it a pair if their heads. I’m watching these, and this whole series. Over 20 years I built or supplied parts for custom engines. Not to brag, but my last job was at Federal Mogul. I took parts orders and took after hours phone calls for technical assistance. Badvising both professional race shops for Richard Petty, Jack Roush, and Bob Glidden to name a few. Along with those I took calls from private parties who were doing their own prformace build as FM owned TRW, Sealed Power, and Fel Pro at that time, along with Bower BCA and National bearing and seals. If you need help please don’t hesitate to message me. Set up a throw away Email and I can get in touch with you after receiving a message to do so here. Best of luck Richard!
Go back and look at my comment on the last video, I even nailed what cylinder it was!! Pretty obvious since you could see the water pouring out before you even started the run. :-) Bound to be some better springs available that would fit without machining. Also do not put that head back on without some real good studs!!!!! Cometic probably not a good option on there unless you get the head and block machined correctly for them. Maybe an old school sold copper gasket if you can find one?
I'm so happy to see that it wasn't something super serious Richard! I like your phased upgrade approach as well, I'm curious how the "upgraded" heads with springs and valve job and larger valves do with the stock cam. It looks like it's been rebuilt at some point in the past judging by the 30 on those cast pistons, hopefully the bores are in nice shape! Cheers from Japan!
Head studs maybe? I was wondering if you've done a test between a four hole Quadrajet adapter vs the open style on the divided barrel manifold like that Buick has. It seems to me that using an open spacer on that style manifold would produce a lot of turbulence in between the manifold and the carb. Maybe it wouldn't affect power much, or would it?
So yeah thats a 73 engine, 71cc heads .030 over. that makes it a 462. looks like Sealed Power 392AP 30 cast pistons. Probably around 8.1:1 static compression. So far the same as my Regal's engine. Curious to see what cam your gonna put in it. I run a Comp Cams 268 High Energy straight up.
One thing i found during my time as a Cadillac mech was when i did a valve job ,alway replace the springs, and i ground a 15* cut on the top edge of the valve above the 45* seat margin. Really woke up the big block caddy. Intake and exhaust
Nice head gasket. Can the stock valve springs be shimmed? Would that be worth anything? Advance the stock cam timing for fun? The people need 10# of boost on the stock configuration for science. 😎🤘🏻
I would look for a 4hole q-jet to sq-Bore adapter, or a intake swap, i see about 700+ in the tq Dept, if it holds up! I never seen a head gasket go like that before! Not that deformation in one spot!
This particular set of dished pistons is kinda good. The dish gives you the valve clearance that a notched flat top would. The quench ring is clean, so the deck clearance is reasonably close. This is an overall good setup. With a good cam, I'm gonna guess for 510 foot pounds at 3500 RPM and 410hp at 4500 RPM. Gold ground will be anything over 530 foot pounds and 420hp, NA.
No way I'd put it back together like it is. You (and we) can already guess the rest of the stock results. Go ahead and freshen those heads up while you have them off. That alone should be good for a few horsepower. Then you can go to the manifold swap, cam swap, etc.
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Anyone who does this much work deserves to blast all the disco music they want :thumbsup:
Rave
Hipsters & Hippies : Whhoooo( di dee di dee) Whhooo (da dee da dee).
Dyno porn music
Head studs?
I actually used 1972 & 1973 Buick 455's for dirt track racing with huge success. Absolutely loved them. Only modifications I made we're switching to HEI, hi volume oil pump and a comp cams 268 cam. Otherwise 100% bone stock. I beat the snot out of those motors night after night and they just took it. Loved em.
Thats awesome. No real damage, and I'm really looking forward to this build.
me too!!!!! so nice to have something different.
If it doesn't cause coil bind maybe shim those stock springs for all they're worth! Let us know!
I would love to see the stock heads ported and big valves together with a nice intake and a cam, you know, old school shade tree
Richard must have the best wife ever to let him stay out this late!!
You get to a point in a marriage. Where wife’s prefer you’re not home 🤣.. as long as the bills being paid
hahahahahaha
@@mrcasperjensen can't wait
My ex let's me walk on the freeway anytime I want!
Ha ha ha yeah that's probably true he be the luckiest man on the planet lol
So at one time, the entire engine has been rebuilt. .030 over pistons, a rebuild tag on the heads. Might still be in decent shape, except for wherever it picked up all that water/rust in the ports... More boost....I mean if you are gonna blow it up with boost, you might as well go big..
Wow, that was the best case scenario.
Best case Ontario.
Told you it was a head gasket! The video showed the steam pouring out!
lol...I said the same thing on the other video that it was the head gasket and the last run the water was shooting up out of the water pump very high....a lot of people was saying it was a piston do to ring Gap
Glad it's a simple problem, looking forward to see what's next. Also, very excited to see the cad 500. Under-square for the win!
The Cad 500 is square. 4.3 x 4.3
At least clean the rust out of those intake ports, I would hate to see some of that come loose and damage something for no reason.
Does the 30 stamped in the pistons mean .030 over?
Yes. .030 over.
@@hendo337 OK, I'm going to be that guy. It's actually 462.087 if you do the math. :-)
I'm sure he'll clean them up?
I thought this was a stock motor? Stock motors don't come 30 over. I'm surprised Richard didn't either notice that it's been bored or touch on the fact that it was bored. So what's the compression ratio? Did they put different piston's in this to keep the ratio stock or does it have more then stock?? Cmon Richard let's find out.
@@hendo337 462
Also agree, shim the stock springs like "shade tree" would.
Only with Richard could a blown head gasket = blessing lol
And it is! Because more dyno pulls!
Asks if we want a tear down, delivers in record time hahaha Can’t wait for more of this build
Hell yeah! I guessed it! Chambers look good. I like the shape of the quench areas. Comparable to modern heads in some aspects.
If it were my engine, I'd have the heads flycut (ideally, put through a shaper) and then have the block decked to make sure they're nice and flat, otherwise the next set of gaskets might just blow anyway.
Just the best video content FOR FREE, Richard all your hard work is appreciated thank you
Hmmmm weren't Buick stage ones quicker than the Hemi on the street back in the day ??
@John Presnell I've seen built 455 Buicks making over 800+hp NA with a single 4-barrel. They have plenty of potential, but the parts are expensive as hell.
The sequence of upgrades being incremental along with testing of each change is very helpful. Thank you.
How do you have under 100k subs.....this is what every car enthusiast wants to see. Love this vid and all the comparison vids. Keep up the good work.
just started this year-its growing but not interested in getting bigger so much as better
There are adaptors you can use to adapt bigblock Mopar intakes to bigblock Buick engines. Tunnel Rams & shit.
I never saw inside a Buick port before, only really SBC.
Looks kinda like a good aftermarket SBC port.
I was thinking the same thing. Only issue with that being it's feeding an engine that's over 50 cu. in. bigger than a typical 383/400 SBC.
Makes me wonder if a streetable 600hp is possible with ported stock heads and a good cam.
I thought those ports looked pretty good considering they're vintage Buick Grandpa car parts.
I would like to see them with a basic port job
@@of_lion22 600hp ain't hard to get with a 455 Buick. Stage 2 heads make it real easy.
Don't forget to pocket port those heads after the seats are cut for the bigger valves.
Those heads were pretty clean under the covers, maybe somebody did a valve job on it at some point.
I think I saw a 30 stamped in the top of the piston. I'd check the bore to see if it's been rebuilt.
I had a 76 model 455 out of a station wagon in a 71 GS. It had a small Kenne Bell cam, Hooker headers, and a HEI. It ran 13:10 in the quarter.
Keep them coming Richard awesome video I had a stage one Buick back in the day. It was a 1970 455 stage 1 Cran Cam fireball 3310-1 Holley carb ran good. This was 1979
Take the stock cast iron intake and remove as much of the middle 4 hole Q-Jet part as you can to see if it will help increase top end power with the holley carb! I really enjoyed the other guys motors, keep up the good work!
I just found out about this video. Not sure what all happened before,. BUT ... This is from the Buick GSX-tra magazine ... the "bible" for Buick engine building. The Comp Cams 910-16 springs are a simple drop on and are the same as the factory Stage 1 valve springs (single spring w.dampner). Around 95-100 lbs. on the seat and over 275 lbs open with a .500" lift cam, as best I remember. Your "stock" springs are just a single lo-po "Electra" variety spring. No machine work needed for the 910's. Will take up to a .500 lift cam. No 455 built this mildly will make its power over 5200 rpm. But it will make plenty of hp & torque up to ~5200 rpm.
Your plan sounds great. Love stock engines with turbos for us poor folks. Keep the vids coming!
Whew......only a blown head gasket. Easy fix.
Since your in it this far go ahead and cam it, the torque curve is way ahead the hp curve. The 455 is craving more cam!
Richard I just sat through an entire cat food ad that came on after this video and I did it for you.
The Power dynamics of Big Bore , Short Stroke motors are legendary. Ford 429's shared similar bore/stroke with similar impressive results. Destroked SBC 400 blocks [4.125"bore] with 3.25" and 3.48" strokes equally prodigious with good heads. Apparently these combo's fill and empty combustion chambers more efficiently.
I figured it was a head gasket. Id like to see you copy the set up me and my pawpaw threw together on my new to me 76 Delta 88 with 68,000 miles on the clock the whole car is in amazing shape. We put a edelbrock torker intake from the 80's and a rebuilt Holley 750 double pumper my pawpaw has had for years a comp xe274 hydraulic flat tappet cam and lifters and comps cheapest pushrods, pac valve springs and a petronix hei distributor and a melling fuel pump my pawpaw found a set of mid length headers I m turning it to 6100rpm and i found a used tci 2200rpm converter its got a n.o.s big shot wet plate system jetted for a 100 shot but haven't sprayed it yet I was waiting to see how all your tests went. It definitely picked up alot of power i welded the spider gears up and now that big boat gets silly at red lights
Sounds like paw paw like to party 🤟
@@kylewilliams6349 He sure does! LoL he's been racing and a church of god preacher since the 70's, my grandparent's are who raised my iv been goin to the track with him since i was 5 until he stopped racing in 2004 when I was 14 then he put me in the car and started running 7.0 index racing if it wasn't for him i wouldn't hide money from the old lady to buy race car parts lol. When I bought the Delta 88 3 or 4 months ago and he found out it was a big block car his exact words where " I haven't fooled around with a Oldsmobile for a long time " that was it about a month later this is where we are... LoL its been a good time but this winter that boat anchor is coming out and a turbo ls setup is goin in I bought the car to see if i could go fast on 26's big wheel racing has blew up around where i stay in Alabama
@camaroguy 66 but it backfires on my sometimes lol last month i bought a drum of ignite red e90 and she happened to walk outside and caught me struggling to get it unloaded and she asked where i got the money and I qas about 4 tenths of a second late on my answer and got busted lol you said you didn't have the money to take me out for lunch but you got money for that stupid truck lol!! I understand alot of people dont like big wheels but there's a right and wrong way to do it in my opinion there's a fine line between looking nice & classy and guady. But I've always liked big wheels in 2006 when I got my license i had a 94 Cadillac deville and i saved for a year to buy a set of 22's for it. But i grudge race more than anything and at the moment thats where all the money is and i figured since iv been pretty fast on hard tires I would give it a shot. Ive ran consistent 6.30s on a 400 treadwear 275/60/15s at 120mph in my small tire turbo 99 z28
@@ZboeC5 I feel the same way there will always be a set of Hoosier's and some front runners laying around for mine but I also look at like the challenge of goin fast on a hard tire with no sidewall there are a few cars nmm on 26s that are getting close to the 9's in the 1/4 and pretty low in the 6's in the 1/8
Awesome video. I honestly thought the engine was going to be far worse off than it is. Seeing as you are going to fix it up and run it stock to get the 500 before you put your secret end of video plan together, can you run the aluminium intake on it with everything else stock, to see how good/bad the factory piece is? That way we can see if the only performance gain is the weight reduction.
I stand corrected; I guessed ring gap.
I like the idea of 'just' a new head gasket.
Run it til it fails!
I'd like to see how much abuse the 455 can handle before the lower extremities fail.
However, I'm impressed it produced over seven hundred foot pounds, held together, and only pushed out a head gasket. I hope a stronger gasket is available for the Buick.
Also weigh the parts as you change them. Cant wait to see NA #'s after head and intake upgrades.
Those are all great before and after tests. That’s why we are all watching. Thanks again
I love the videos this guy does!
Everybody's engine ends up in a video, on the dyno, and almost every one under boost to see them pushed hard.
Anyone who spends this much time away from "Chevy land" deserves big props!
Hooray thanks for tearing it down so we could see!
Headgaskets are a problem. I have had multiple issues of headgaskets blowing out between cylinders given the super thin area between cylinders. The good news is it will run good on 6 cylinders although it is weird to hear all piston events from one bank at highway speeds :p
I think Richard has fallen in love with this Buick.
I so badly want to build a GSX clone
With a Cadillac 500?
Welcome to the club Richard
455 Buicks do not have many head bolts and the iron on both sides of the gaskets is fairly thin when compared to heavier heads and blocks.
Awesome videos. Richard my wife blames you for my Magnum 318 turbo build. She always seems to find your videos up on the screen. Keep up the good work.
I'm sure she thinks it's better then porn. Lol
Well glad to see that I guessed wrong on losing a valve. I wonder if the gasket got wounded on the nitrous and the turbo finished it? Maybe you can cheat and shim the stock springs for a little more open pressure.
Edit, and maybe let us know how far down the hole the pistons are, thought I saw an oversize stamp on them. Cheap rebuild ones can be short and cause issues... but I'm sure you are well aware of that.
I can tell you if I had mentors back in the day like Richard id be a much nicer mechanic today. Guy looks like he just has fun at work.
dyno testing is great fun-its a lot of work-but very cool stuff
Why not shim the stock valve spring, when you put it back together (before going the route of machining the head), or do you think that it's not going to give you much more?
Yes
With that low lift, shim those suckers about .060
BTW Sir the music is freaking awesome. As you have said before, vets at this stuff don't listen the the haters. I think that thing was a champ for the old gaskets to make it that long. New ones with a bit of deck sanding and the heads machined and a tweak little extra tisty-twist on the head bolts, it will rock. Freaking amazing vids as always
If you’re not going to surface the heads or block, put studs in it to improve the holding force. And as others have said, clean the rust out of the ports. A rotary wire wheel should make quick work of it. Thanks for documenting the tear down.
Glad to see it was just a head gasket. Looking forward to more mods on this engine. Good to see something different. Would be cool to see a heads, cam and intake upgrade on this engine, with the boost.
Thanks for doing this video. You have a solid plan for this 455, looking forward to seeing more videos on it.
Thank you for spoon feeding us we lost so many motors along the way that could have been used.
I like how this is turning out.
EXCELLENT NEWS ! 👌😎👍 Looking forward to more !
P.S: Are you adjusting the piston ring gap at this time ? 🤔 You should. 👌
not yet-fingers crossed
Thats great it just blew a HG. The cylinders and pistons look in great shape. Maybe the bottom end was overhauled at one time.
This is fun to watch, but I'm looking forward to the real build. Buick 455's love to spin if you can get some oil to them through that crappy lubrication system.
That engine was rebuilt. I noticed a 30 stamped on the pistons at 6:33. Usually means .030 over. When you do the heads you should hog them out a bit or just clean up the edges etc.
I was surprised he didn't say anything... maybe I missed it.
Agreed. Have a non-expert do a backyard port job like any typical hack might do.
It's good that was a cheap fix. Nice heads on that engine. I was thinking about how hard it is to find a 455? My friends had trouble finding 440,s, 454 parts are pricey but I'm not sure about how easy they are to find. I see lots of 460 ford engines but they are newer ones with EFI. I look forward to more 455 thrashing.
Turn up the Hard Bass! You deserve it Richard.
Back in the early 80s, I had a 71 Skylark that I "swapped in" a 71 455 out of an Estate Wagon. Within 500 miles, I had about the same thing happen to me. Unfortunately, the water washed out my rings and bearings. A local 'hero' who owned a machine shop convinced me to knurl the cylinder walls, saving me from having to buy new pistons. I used plain iron Hastings rings and Moraine 400 bearings on the now .020" under main & rod bearings - yeah, they were that bad! We hot-tanked, sand-blasted, and tanked again the heads, then gasket-matched the intake ports to an Offenhauser 360° aluminum intake. Found a totalled 71 TA and yanked the 800 cfm Quadra-bog. Slapped in a parts-store HEI. It took 3 days of driving it to & from work, and 4 runs down the dragstrip, for the rings to figure out the knurled cylinder walls and stop smoking! What a great learning curve there for a 19 year old!
I think a stock parts build would be interesting. Maybe a 9 or 9.5:1 compression to be boosted for great midrange real world power, and cruising. Being a high reving low compression, boosted 455 would need many high dollar parts and only be good for the track.
Called it.. also heck yeah shim the springs for fun... lol Didn't really see the head bolt arrangement well. seemed odd that it pushed to the valley dead center in the quench area with near perfect shaping???
Good job Richard.. gotta fiddle w the heads some once you have them off. Even w New springs the Stock Cam Intake lift is not quite .400... Not gonna make much difference up top.
Awesome. Planning on running a brush on those ports just to clean up the rust?
I personally ran the SNOT out of the mid 70s 455s because they had the larger oil transfer journal from sump to pump so they were harder to blow up.. the low compression sucks but the bottom end is strong on those guys.. I knew it was gonna be a head gasket when it happened :D
Hey Richard. Please run the new comp cam in the stock head, so we can see the actual gains with bigger valves after the change.
no springs
Order of upgrade events makes perfect sense
Cool, glad to see it didn’t hurt a piston, can’t wait to see it making all that brutal torque again! 😁👍🏻
Cool just a head gasket. Awesome tear down. And more beer stuff to come. Thanks Richard.
That smogger intake is stupid heavy I agree! Thanks for all the hard work Richard! This is great stuff for a buick guy.. loving every minute
Richard Holdener
sounds like a good plan you have there. Probably a good idea would be after you clean the decks, to at least take a strait edge and feeler gauge to check the tolerances. You did push a gasket so it would suck if there was a bad low spot at the #4 and it just pushes another gasket. Also maybe measure how far the pistons are in the hole so you can see what the compression ratio is. Alot of Dodge 318's were known to be between .040-.060 down so it would be interesting to know on this Buick.
U have to love those TQ numbers. Now let's make this combo reliable so we could enjoy
So why did the headgasket blow?
Headgaskets are like a fuse when something goes wrong in a turbo motor.
Bad part?, loss of bolt torque?, detonation- bad fuel distribution- oil getting up in there?
yes
That engine looked pretty good inside. Rebuilt?
I thought I saw an oversize on pistons?
Yah, it has been bored/honed to
.030 over
What do you think caused the gasket failure??
Detonation?
Age?
Not enough clamping force on gasket?
Combination of factors?
OH YEAH!!!! That was just plain lucky!!! May as well put in the lifter boss supports. What about head studs? This is turning out GREAT!!!!
MLS gaskets and new head bolts possibly? Can’t wait to see this thing with a decent set of heads, manifold and cam!!
If you are just gonna put it back together stock, might I suggest at least cleaning up those ports? Not a full port job, but at least knock off the high spots LOL.
I have to say Richard, you are a work 'Animal"! It takes a lot of patients to monkey around with the stock hardware as much as you do. I'd get too impatient and end up rushing right to the head, Intake, & cam upgrades. And then of course to the most awesome stage of the build, BOOST!
Head gasket and rear main rope seal, are the only things I ever had to change. Did both in the street in front of the house. fished the rope seal over the crank with doubled up fishing line. Your not gonna get much over 5k rpm , no matter what you do to it.
Awesome that it was just a head gasket. I still think that you should pull the pistons and gap the rings so you do not have to do it later or possibly damage a cylinder liner. Thanks again for including us in the dyno fun. 😁
I love seeing this and these kind of "how much boost or power will a stock motor take" videos...Thanks!
Hi Richard
You are doing a great job 👍
Update to stage 1 😁
The world is enjoying your awesome video and tests
Your milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...
👌🤣👍
And damn right, it’s better than mines... 😁
Pervert...
You are so gay.
@@Joe11Blue you're a troll 💩
Those intake port remind me of LS intake ports.
Was thinking that same thing
Yep they are pretty big
SBC actually
@Mutleytech So does a Ford, Mopar, Buick etc etc. THAT was the best thing about the SBC. 14 head bolts, 5 per cylinder
It came out cheap, I was completely wrong I thought it was piston rings, definitely run stock cam with the new springs and see how far you can push the RPMs, weird looking cylinder heads with those huge intake exhaust crossovers, the floor from the intake runner is pretty much flat, I guess porting is out of question, I always heard to stay away from the floor of the runners because it hurts flow, definately it needs a pair of Eddy heads if thst is possible, COMETIC .027" head gasket ???, Weight the OEM intake vs the Aluminum one, like to see how many tons difference in between.
That was awesome... Just felt a big relief when you showed the piston and valves were just right, hope to see all the thing you have in mind with this engine and hopefully as u said on the last video, put forged internals and see what this nice engine is capable of! And im really waiting to see the upgrades for the inline 6 292 turbo!!!
Would like to see ring gap change, cam and spring upgrade, rebuild and test.
You certainly are a worker to get so much done this late.
Thanks for sharing.
We’re you using a main stud girdle? They are a must for making any kind of real power. Call TA performance in Scottsdale for help. I don’t represent them or anything, but I delivered part to them when I was between real jobs, and was quit impressed. Good luck Richard, and anyone else who wants to build something different. I would get the aluminum intake from TA, and I’d you can afford it a pair if their heads. I’m watching these, and this whole series. Over 20 years I built or supplied parts for custom engines. Not to brag, but my last job was at Federal Mogul. I took parts orders and took after hours phone calls for technical assistance. Badvising both professional race shops for Richard Petty, Jack Roush, and Bob Glidden to name a few. Along with those I took calls from private parties who were doing their own prformace build as FM owned TRW, Sealed Power, and Fel Pro at that time, along with Bower BCA and National bearing and seals. If you need help please don’t hesitate to message me. Set up a throw away Email and I can get in touch with you after receiving a message to do so here. Best of luck Richard!
I have
Go back and look at my comment on the last video, I even nailed what cylinder it was!! Pretty obvious since you could see the water pouring out before you even started the run. :-) Bound to be some better springs available that would fit without machining. Also do not put that head back on without some real good studs!!!!! Cometic probably not a good option on there unless you get the head and block machined correctly for them. Maybe an old school sold copper gasket if you can find one?
Glad you are gonna fix it and send it again with the boost! Be very interesting to see what happens!
I'm so happy to see that it wasn't something super serious Richard! I like your phased upgrade approach as well, I'm curious how the "upgraded" heads with springs and valve job and larger valves do with the stock cam. It looks like it's been rebuilt at some point in the past judging by the 30 on those cast pistons, hopefully the bores are in nice shape! Cheers from Japan!
Head studs maybe? I was wondering if you've done a test between a four hole Quadrajet adapter vs the open style on the divided barrel manifold like that Buick has. It seems to me that using an open spacer on that style manifold would produce a lot of turbulence in between the manifold and the carb. Maybe it wouldn't affect power much, or would it?
open spacers on a dual plane tend to reduce low-speed torque and can add peak power-it makes the dual plane act a little like a single plane
@@richardholdener1727 I get that. I guess I'm not asking the question the right way lol
So yeah thats a 73 engine, 71cc heads .030 over. that makes it a 462. looks like Sealed Power 392AP 30 cast pistons. Probably around 8.1:1 static compression. So far the same as my Regal's engine. Curious to see what cam your gonna put in it. I run a Comp Cams 268 High Energy straight up.
One thing i found during my time as a Cadillac mech was when i did a valve job ,alway replace the springs, and i ground a 15* cut on the top edge of the valve above the 45* seat margin. Really woke up the big block caddy. Intake and exhaust
Nice head gasket. Can the stock valve springs be shimmed? Would that be worth anything? Advance the stock cam timing for fun? The people need 10# of boost on the stock configuration for science. 😎🤘🏻
I love tearing down carnage. You never know what your guna get!
I would look for a 4hole q-jet to sq-Bore adapter, or a intake swap, i see about 700+ in the tq Dept, if it holds up! I never seen a head gasket go like that before! Not that deformation in one spot!
This particular set of dished pistons is kinda good. The dish gives you the valve clearance that a notched flat top would. The quench ring is clean, so the deck clearance is reasonably close. This is an overall good setup. With a good cam, I'm gonna guess for 510 foot pounds at 3500 RPM and 410hp at 4500 RPM. Gold ground will be anything over 530 foot pounds and 420hp, NA.
check block and heads for straightness?
I admire a video host that does his own work and gets dirty like the rest of us do!!!
No way I'd put it back together like it is. You (and we) can already guess the rest of the stock results.
Go ahead and freshen those heads up while you have them off. That alone should be good for a few horsepower.
Then you can go to the manifold swap, cam swap, etc.