I'm not a newbie when it comes to Buicks but a lot of you know way more than I do. My first buick was an 1983 Regal with a 231-V6. Unable to leave it alone and sixteen years old I had an itch to try an hot rod the six banger. Just so you know the time period this was in 1991. My first upgrade was a mild Kenne Bell cam. I remember it was a 260deg duration with a .420 lift as I didn't want to remove the heads to have the guides cut down. Next was the Kenne Bell Number One intake manifold with a Holley 390cfm 4bbl carb. Then came full length headers, duel exhaust, and 3.73 rear end gears. It was no rocket but did run a lot stronger than stock as I could run circles around the V6 Camaros and Firebirds of the day. A couple years after high school in 1994 I was looking for an old car to play with and found a 1968 Skylark coupe with 64,000 original miles on it. The price was right and I acquired it from the original owner. This car was the arch-typical "little old lady drives it to the grocery store and church" only. It was garage kept but had a few dings and the trim was knocked off from her having mishaps with the garage. Otherwise the interior looked and still looks new and the body was straight with a couple of rust spots behind the wheels on both front fenders which are typical. It had a 2bbl 350V8 with 2 speed auto. I saved up money for over a year and had the car repainted in the original Cameo Cream color in early 1996. Fast forward to 2000 and I wanted to upgrade the transmission and I installed a TH400 transmission with a 2500 stall converter, HD clutches, and B&M transpack valve body kit. A year later I went ahead and pulled the engine to have it rebuilt by a local engine rebuilder. I would have done it myself but was working an enormous amount of overtime and really didn't have the extra time. This was my first mistake. After dropping the engine off to get a rebuild to stock specs I waited over two months with no response from the rebuilder. I finally got ahold of them and they told me it would be another month. OK I told them. The engine was coming from Texas after all I thought. Another month goes by and no engine so I called them with not much change. Keep in mind they told me the turn around time was supposed to be 4 weeks. I threatened them with an attorney that if I didn't have my engine back in a week from then I was going to sue them. Wow it must have worked as 3 days later I had my engine back. Now this is all good but I had more plans for this engine. Also keep in mind I was still a little young and stupid so I made some poor decisions. I purchased several things from TA Performance. Stage 1 intake;TA 403 cam, lifters, duel valve springs retainers and keepers; chrome full length supercomp headers; double roller timing chain; TA aluminum valve covers; ARP engine fastner kit; and a few other misc. items. I installed everything, got the engine running and broke the cam in just as instructed. I couldn't believe how great it sounded and ran. Unfortunately it was short lived as 50 miles later the cam failed and filled the engine with A Lot of fine metal particles. A little disheartened I set out to find out what happened and discovered I should have had the guides cut down to eliminate the contact between the top of valve guide seals and the retainers. Expensive mistake and learning experience. I removed the engine and had the block cleaned and re-honed with new Poston cam bearings installed. I also had the guides cut down and machined for the correct seals this time too. I reassembled the engine with new chrome-moly rings, bearings, Poston 114 camshaft, and broke the engine and camshaft in with pretty good results this time. 50 miles later the cam was still in good shape but it developed a bad oil leak between the intake and engine block at the front by the distributor. A little put out and discouraged I parked the car and it sat until 2009. I had other projects I was working on at the time. I pulled the intake and resealed it to fix the oil leak only to have a massive vaccuum and coolant leak. Further pissed off this time it sat until fall of 2022 where I'm now much older and wiser. I worked on the Skylark and had to do a lot more to the car now because of it sitting so long. New gas tank, new wheel cylinders, one new brake drum as one rear one was completely seized to the shoes, And finally resealing the intake manifold properly. I found one of the alignment pins was bent slightly. Got it running again and everything sounded great. 5 minutes later the driver side head gasket started leaking oil. BAD. I removed the steel head gasket and reinstalled a new steel one with gaskesinch sealant. No more leaking head on driver side. 5 minutes into running again the passenger side starts leaking oil. Now I really think this engine is cursed. I last worked on it in January of this year and know what I must do to fix it. BUT I HAVE ANOTHER PLAN. I recently purchased a 1976 455 from a LeSabre with plans to build a nice performance street engine. Nothing too wild but runs good and sounds good with plenty of power and torque. I've already acquired a set of 73-74 closed chamber heads for this and will be soon getting to the 76' engine shortblock for disassembly and rebuild. And no headers this time. I found it nearly impossible to get to the bottom center header bolts on the 350. Funny how I don't remember it being so hard to do 22 years ago. I hope for a fairly easy swap to the 455 but know there are few must knows to get it right. I've already acquired the frame and engine mounts from TA. From my research I found I need a 68-69 fan shroud for a GS400. I just purchased and acquired one from CARS Inc. Part #FS689. The fan that came with the 76 engine is slightly too large a diameter to work with this shroud. Do I need a fan from a GS400 or can I use my small block fan? Pulleys? I don't have many pictures right now but will upload them when I can. The car still is pretty slick with a couple minor dings from garage/shop storage. I appreciate the posts from other members and hope to be able to contribute some knowledge myself. Any help is appreciated. Jim
Welcome to the site. You've been down a long road but I feel you've made the right call going with the 455. Plenty of knowledge and parts here.
Welcome from Florida! Glad to see you haven't given up on it. Looking forward to seeing the build thread on this one, too.
Welcome from Central Florida, Jim. Many of us (including myself) have come down the same road you have traveled. Now that you're here, keep the info and questions coming with lots of pics to help us help you. The 455 swap is fairly easy but, of courses, has a few things to be sure to remember. Have fun with your new bad-ass Regal.
Here's links to a couple videos of my Skylark running for the first time since 2008 and one of under the car looking at the oil leak. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GmQrrVASDezOeHHGll8tNatjA_KtowjY/view?usp=drivesdk https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GqRJORn5QdjuXn1vIQcl7XASj60rKn5Z/view?usp=drivesdk
