I just bought a nice '71 GS locally. It was appearently a Georgia car for many years. The original engine is long gone. The replacement I am told is a '70 370hp 455 from a Riv. Unfortunately I don't know much about this engine as it sits. It has headers, Ed. Performer intake, Quadrajet and what seems to be a nasty solid lifter cam. I have no idea what the compression ratio is. The P.O. told me it was a Riv engine due to the "SF" designation on the head? The car has a T400 and a 12 bolt 3.42 posi, the convertor is stock. This car will barely squeal the tires from a stop, THIS MUST CHANGE:laugh: So far the only sources I have are this board and a Postons catalogue that came with the car. I want to turn this into a street/strip monster without pulling the heads or getting into the lower end. My thoughts on what might work are as follows. I like Postons GS-113 cam 113 degree centers, 284/204 duration and .490 lift. I don't feel the need to run the engine over 6000rpm. I was going to team this cam with Rhoads lifters dual valve springs and "no wiggle retainers". Questions on this??? Are the cam bearings a big deal? Should they be replaced with the cam? Postons makes it sound like the cam bearings are an issue in upper end oiling. What is the scoop here? Can I do cam bearings without a total dis-assembly of the engine. I am a little rusty, I've been wrenching on my German cars lately and not Detroiters:bglasses: Then I was going to turn to the T400. I definately want to go with a switch pitch. The trans is leaking a little at the tailshaft anyway, so I was going to pull it and have it built. How complex is the SP conversion? I have a guy that has done a lot of tranny's but probably never a SP. With the above cam, I was planning on a 3000 high stall. This will be mostly a street car. What about the Quadrajet? I was hoping to keep it and possibly go with the S-divider manifold from Postons. I was hoping this might be a little better suited than the Performer, opinions? We have Wed night drags this week. I am going to run it as is for a baseline. I ran a 13.8 @102 last week in my Porsche(302 4 cam V8 3500lbs). I kind of doubt the Buick can beat that in its over cammed (IMO) tight convertor form. I would like to see the Buick run in the high 12's on pump gas am I nuts? Thanks in advance for any help, this lookslike a great forum:beer P.S. Pictures tomorrow:TU:
If you don't want to pull the heads, you're pretty limited in what you can do performance wise. Heads are an important...probably THE most important and best performance upgrade.
Brent, welcome to the V8Buick board! We can never have enough of us northerners here. If your 455 barely squeals the tires, you have some tuning issues to work out. My 350 in mild street form has no problems turning 'em over. I can't offer much advice for your 455, but there's plenty of guys here that will chime in before long. The more details you can provide about your current combo, the better the feedback you will get. And you have one of the top 455 builders in your backyard in Jim Weise, of Tri-Shield Performance in Mnpls ( www.trishieldperf.com ) . By the way, try to get your hands on a TA Performance catalog, or check 'em out online at http://taperformance.com Great performance products there. Again, welcome aboard! :TU:
