...as I trudge into another month on this project-from-hell I was wondering what the overall length of some of these 455 buildups were. My previous street engines (ultra basic buildup) took between 6-8 weeks. The current POS is entering month 11. Technically it's month 19 since it took 8 months to locate the problem in the first block. So, what are the horror and/or success stories?
Four months for me. Mostly machine shop lethargy. I did spend about ten days of evenings home porting my heads. Was not is much hurry though since I had an acceptably running engine in the car.
Well the tags on my car as it sits now... says 08-02.. soo thats almost 2 years... 1. College 2. Girl friend. 3. No job Took care of 2 and 3. Should be running this weekend.
well, it has takin me about 1 year to get to the point that i am now , wich is im putting it together tomorrow nite . i cant wait to hear it run...... mike
1 1/2 years on mine. It has more BB Chevy, Dodge, and Pontiac parts then Buick, but it works and was much cheaper than all Buick parts.
It took about 90 days for me to build the motor what with waiting for parts, machine shop woes, etc. I'm about a year into the overall project and hope to finish by 3/05 :3gears:
well..... 2 years, but they were ready to do it within 6 months. I put them off because the car was not even close to getting finished. It was a good thing too, because I made many mods that would not have been done, all due to the V8!:TU: :bglasses:
I've got an Olds 455 on an engine stand that took about 3 years from the time I dumped the block and crank at the machine shop until it ran for the first 1/2 hour. Had a defective lifter, and now it's been another 3 months to swap cams, etc. I'd say that makes me the King of Delays. All kneel before the throne!
~ 5 weeks at the machine shop :eek2: That included hot tanking, magnifluxing, deburring, chasing threads, honing with plate, O-Ringing, resizing rods, balancing assy., cross-drill and chamfer crank after 10/10 turndown, short block assy, head assy (but no porting...already done), and port matching. Im sure I forgot a few things too I Supplied them with ALL the parts - almost totally ordered from TA If I remember correctly, totaly charge including heavy metal for crank came to just over 2K .....The motor prolly has 30,000 miles on it now - 6 years later As a matter of fact, I wan nowhere NEAR expecting it that soon and it had to sit in the garage for almost 7 months until there was a car ready to wrap around the mill.
Alright Schurkey !!! Way to go, looks like you get the trophy. Doesn't it make you mad when it takes all that time and it still doesn't work right the first time. Blair
Clint, I took my engine into my builder in Sept/03. Since then they have managed to have the crank turned, the rods were shot peened,and he assembly was balanced. All of these things were done elsewhere. The only thing they have done is drill and tap for a rear oil pressure sender at the back of the cam,and test fit a piston and rod for deck height.:af: Needless to say I'm getting very frustrated. I Really get the feeling they either don't know how to build a buick or there just not interested. The problem I have is I don't know were else to go! Live in Ont./Canada Gettin ready to do it myself. Sorry for writing a book on this:ball: just wanted to vent. Good luck, Jim
I was lucky enough to get a machinist who asked me not to bring the block and crank in until he was ready, and he was ready when he said he would be. That took a month, so in the meantime all my new parts arrived. Took him two weeks to get everything in order, I had a magnaflux on crank and block, then hot tank the block, remove old cam bearings, install new ones, blah blah blah bore and align hone, break ridge, check for true on crank, turn crank, assemble pistons to rods after resizing and balancing the whole mess. Tommy did a thorough professional and timely job for me. He has sold his place in Waltham Ma, I am told, and now works...somewhere else...his name's Tom Cavuto, and if anyone can track him down in the New England area, he is the guy to talk to for this stuff, in my opinion. Assembling my engine was a breeze with TC's work backing me up. I did it in 2 weeks including weekends, and that was working on it 2-3 hours a night after work, and then 10 hours on a weekend day. i checked and re-checked every clearance, and TC was on the money every time, no exeptions. The only flaw in the whole thing was a casting problem on my #3 main saddle, the oil hole was maybe 1/64" off from the bearing's hole, which I enlarged ever so slightly with a teeny file. So call all that 65 hours for assembly, and it didn't even go past t-stat temp on initial start up. Tommy knows his business! If everything was so easy and painless as dealing with Tommy and then assembling the engine he did the machine work on, I'd be driving a 100 pt daily driver! There's nothing like working with a real pro. For the car itself? What year is this, 2004? So that would be, oh, 15 years with no end in sight.
Wow, it's either < 6 weeks or more than a year. Very little middle ground. I'm surprised given how quickly I've turned around street 455's and plain old chevies in the past. It's all down to the particular businessman it seems. Thanks for the notes guys, helps my motivation to know I'm not completely up the creek on time.
