Struck up a deal for $700 for the heads, rockers, pushrods, valve covers, pistons, and oil pan. Took heads over to an engine shop and had the valves removed. Valve seats look hardened, valves aren't bent, pistons look OK. Based on several comments on this thread, these may be original early '70 Stage 1 heads. I've sold them to a buddy here in Central Florida for what I paid plus a steak dinner and beers. He's building a 455 and needs only the block, crank, and an intake. Thanks again for all the input.
So while were talking about cast iron 455 heads, I'll tell this story to open a few eyes about a 455 buick motor that came to me to be rebuilt after it was rebuilt by a reputable buick people that are no longer building 455's, this was long ago, years back in 2008,. true story.. So I am not a professional buider but learned a lot from pro's and info on this board and the old GSCA board, telling my age now.. So I was a little surprised who put this motor together,.. this has nothing to do with the owner of this board or any reputable buick builder thats been mentioned on this board in the last 15 years,. their all good reputable builders... Enough said, to the point... The 455 motor had 8.8-1 comp. 70 stage 1 heads, Poston split pan that was leaking,.the big cam was like a 240-250 at .050 on 525-535 lift on 108 CL, dialed in at a 104 centerline to create torque, thats what the owner of the car was told from the builder as he told me, with my eye brows raised.. The combo of parts was never going to work...!! or make horsepower...!! ---The heads: 70 stage1's not ported, the valves were literally sunk in the chambers and chambers not unshrouded,. killing horsepower and were done by a reputable michigan company not the builder.. The rest of motor was Kenne-bell headers and 3" exhaust to the rear bumper,.Eddy performer intake with a 870 Holley vaccum sec carb, stock bottom end, with dished TRW pistons not valve relieved, not decked, deck height was like .085 ... crazy,. Owner complained it would burn rubber in first gear and that was it, rear had 3:73 gears in it with turbo 400 and 2500 stall conv. on 275-60 street tires and buick mags, a legit 70' stage 1 car, very nice but the $5600 dollar motor wouldn't get out of its own way... --Heads: instead of the buyer getting different 70 heads, I took out all the valves and pain stakenly laid back all the high ridges around the valve's down close to the seats and blended into the chamber floor, then unshrouded the chambers and milled them to 61 cc chambers.. and valve springs were changed also,.. with a steel .020 head gasket raised the comp approximently to 9.4-1 with t/a roller rockers 1.6 ratio.. and I did some porting clean up under the valve's and match porting... -- Cam was changed to a GSCA sp-2,.. 230- 235 at .050 and 501 lift 113 installed on 108 CL. then insalled a MSD dist set at 35' timing and 6al box 5800 chip.. -- short block was fine, 400 trans was fine with new 3500 tci stall ,.. the car was now blowing the tires off thru all 3 gears uncontrolably.. The owner was shocked, grinning ear to ear.. Those heads were a total mess but worked out fine after all the work was done to them.. Cast iron heads can make a huge difference in a build when done right.. The owner said his friends could not believe the way the car ran ... Those 70 heads will work just fine for any street / strip build...
