I have a 455 Buick in a Chevy S10 pickup that I drag race only.If you could change one thing what would wood it be. The S10 weights 2900 lbs. with me in it The motor is a late blue block with no core shift . The crank is very strate and is a not ground just polished To make it shine.The mains have been aligned honed with studs .The connecting rods are stock but reconditioned. A set of 40 over flattop Wisco pistons and a TA 413 cam round out the bottom end. Of corse many oil mods with a line to equalize oil to the back of the block goes without saying. The top of the engine sports a cast iron set of wet flowed stage 1 heads. Intake 320 at .6 inches super heads. a TA SP1 intake and a 1050 Dominator Much attention was used in putting this motor together What I am asking where is the week point and if you could change one thing what would it be. The drive train is a turbo 400 and a 3600 rpm converter with a 3.70 rear end. Best 60 foot 1.49 sec best et 10.77 @124 mph Thank You RonJ
Gary the shift points are 5500 5500 6000 Is their anything in the engine build you would change? The air is on the average is about 6000 ft. Thanks Ron J
I have a few questions to ask, first, has the rods been debured? Beamed and Polished?, #2, is the rods and pistons balanced within a gram or less of each other?, Does the crank have any modifications besides the polishing? , What type of convertor you have? (Name brand and stall speed. ), what size headers if using any and exhaust ( size of pipe and size and name of muffler? What Type of Transmission? (Turbo 400-350 or Powerglide.) , How made the cam, is it roller, solid or hydraulic lift. what size ( lift, centerline, duration) , . For the weight of you truck, I would consider using a powerglide. How tall is your rear tires and are they slicks or something else.? Did you have the intake ported to the heads and to your combo? This things are a major factor for drag race only vehicle . Now if you are doing this for hobby, then you still have to tell me all these things to help you out. The best thing you did was wetflowed your heads compared dry flow, many have different opinions on this but, wetflow does not lie unlike dry flow. Sincerely Gary M.
Gary the rods are balanced and the beam is polished . The motor is balanced with in a gram. rod bolts are arp as the head and mains are studs. The converter is B&M with a 3600 stall speed. This is just a hobby for me .The tires are 28.5 inches. The stall speed is 4600 just a little mistake.
What is your static compression ratio? Do you have a main girdle or block girdle? Not bad of time for your build..
RON J , A T/A 308S cam and a better quality converter would pick it up a good bit. I have a 308s cam in the parts for sale section if interested. A coan converter would be an excellent choice.
Second on the converter! I had a cheap junk B&M once upon a time, TransKing cut it open to show me what happens. :shock: The stator was chewed up and the impeller looked like the big buick took a hammer to 'em. I like Coan but I have to admit my old Hughes was cheaper and just as fast. A little nitrous oxide will fix your atmospheric pressure problem :laugh:
Dave I will find out about my converter when I service the turbo 400 It is a b&m but not a cheap one. The nitrous sounds like a good idea but I think i will just turn it loose in the cab.
For drag race only a converter does a lot. 3600 stall is unfortunately far too low to make good use of the converter as it is barely above the rpm drop point with a TH400. A good quality converter with a stall close to 5000 will really help. I'm new to Buicks, but I'm assuming the 5500 shift point is cause you don't want to rev it higher, so a higher stall will allow you to take some gear out to reduce the top end rpm a bit. With 2900 lbs, and 455 inches a TH400 is almost too much gear for consistency anyhow and I'd normally say go to a glide, but something like a 3.50 rear gear will lower the top end rpm and work the converter harder, and the TH400 will still give you more total ratio than you want. Although the 6000 feet altitude probably makes it less of a concern. Clearly your making some decent power. Something like a 4800-5000 stall in an 8" if they can do it, and less gear and the launch should be more consistent, you'll work the converter harder through the 60', then work the converter on each shift. Keep the engine in it's max power band, try and bracket the power peak with the stall speed and shift point. A good quality converter allows a much lower rpm shift point cause you no longer care about the rpm drop on shift; and back on the converter after the shift allows it to multiply torque and get more power to the real wheels.
I wouldn't go any higher than 4200-4500 on the converter if you are only shifting at 5500. Any higher and the converter will never really lock up. Basically be driving through it.
Depends on the quality of the converter. I've run an ATI 8" with a 5400 stall and a 6000 rpm shift point and there was less then 5% slippage. Only a 10% engine rpm range. It was an education how low an rpm I could shift it and the car went faster. But it does depend on the converter quality. If Bubba (apologies to anyone named Bubba) has been in there hammering the fins to make sure it stalls high and ruin the efficiency there is no question there would be problems.
I like the rpm to drop a fair amount when shifting. I run a 4200 ATI (8in) and shift at 6500. If I shift at 5000 the rpms barely change on the shift. Feels like slippage to me. Maybe going thru the traps its not slipping though..... I'm sure if I was trying to set records a 5500 conv and 6500 shift point would be at least a tenth or two quicker. But I've run 1.34 60 ft with 3.50 gear....doesn't seem bad for what it is.
