I am looking to build a new motor for my 455 83 Regal The car is race only and is a trailor queen. I am on a limited budget and would like to know where to spend the money that I do have. My best run with the following combination is a 13.01 at 105 and some change Basically this is the break down of what i have. 1983 Regal The motor and tranny came from a donor 1972 Electra with 141,000 miles! Aluminum radiator with two electric fans, 1 push 1 pull. motor 455 standard bore, pistons, rods, crank, bearings. standard cam shaft 455 heads hardened seats installed. Edelbrock Performer intake Edelbrock 1405 600cfm carb Accel 8mm Super stock wires Ngk v power plugs Msd 6T ignition box Points distributer TH400 trans with Hurst Stage 2 street strip shift kit stock convertor Fabricated drive shaft 1350 u joints 8.5 GN posi rear with 3.42 gear set 29.5x9.0x15 Mickey Thompson ET/Drags set at 9.5lbs The car with me in wieghs 3119lbs with 39.9% rear weight. For suspension mods Competition Enginering 3 way shocks up front set at 90/10 V6 front springs V6 rear springs Rear air shocks with individual lines running 70lbs in the right rear and 15lbs in the left rear. That is about it I think. If there is anything i might have missed let me know. I only have access to the computer about once a week so bear with me if I don't reply right away. I appreciate any help you can give me Thanks Dustin
If the engine don't need a rebuild I would start out with 1. Bigger carb, 800cfm minimum 2. Cam. You may need to change the convertor at the same time 3. Convertor 4. Headers Throw the air shocks away, put in cheap oil shocks and a beefy swaybar instead My .02$
455 regal Hey Dustin! Here are a few cheap ideas to help you pick up some time at the drags. I do not know if you tried this stuff or not, but here it is anyway: Since your car is going to be trailered to the track, get rid of the power steering. Also put an universal electric water pump kit on it. Use the Moroso kit even though 455 Buick is not in the list of applications. It will fit! I use it on my car. Also put a crankshaft pulley off of a Buick 350 on it. It is a smaller pulley, so you will have to change belts. This way you will only have one belt on the car going from the crankshaft to the alternator. Between getting rid of the power steering, using an electric water pump, and going to the smaller crank pulley you will pick up two or three tenths. I know I did. Get rid of the air shocks and put a set of drag shocks on the back set at 50/50. Also you can put air bags in the rear coil springs to preload the suspension. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask. Tony Rossini 81 Olds Cutlass / 455 Buick powered:TU: 11.86 best et
tony tony I have already parted with the power steering. I just put a jumper hose in. as far as the water pump goes do you have a part number or is it just a basic kit from jegs ect. Do you know where I can pick up a used crankshaft pulley or should i just go through Postons? AS far as the belts go If i run electric water pump, I might try to get rid of the alternator. I already run one optima red top. for electronic componrts I run two electric fans, a msd 6t ignition box, a tach. line lock, amp gauge and tail lamps Do you think I would lose power(electrical) at the top end? I could always run another battery and put some more weight over the slicks. I run the air shocks to clear the slicks without them she rubs on the fenders when I launch. Will the air bags and the 50/50 drag shocks give me the clearance I need? thanks Dustin
Hey Dustin!! Hows the project going? I figured that you got rid of the power steering, but I still had to ask anyway:gt: The electric water pump kit that I use on my car is the Moroso MOR-63750. In the ad it only states that it will fit a buick 350, but it will work on a 455!! As for the 350 crank shaft pulley. I bought one off of the v8 board for $15.00 with shipping. You can get one from postons, but it will cost alot more. The only problem with using a stock 350 pulley is that you will have to shim the alternator out a half of a belt witdth. The 350 pulley moves the belts out about a half of a belt width. Since you have a drag only car this is not hard to do. The postons pulley is a direct fit pulley. No shimming is required. I run the same amount of electronics that you use. I have two batteries in the trunk and still use an alternator. Try and follow me on this oneuzzled: I have a 12 volt wire that goes to the alternator. This wire is on a cut off switch. After my burnout, I turn the switch off. In turn, the aternator is no longer charging. It is still spinning, but without the 12v going to it, it no longer is charging. After I go through the traps on the far end, I flip the switch and it begins to charge again. Without the 12 volts energizing the alternator there is no resistance on it. For some reason my car will run a tenth faster with the alternator "turned off".o No: Pretty neat huh? As for fender clearence, I do not know what to tell you if the tires will rub or not? I run 28x9 Hoosiers with a Ford 9in. rearend in my car. My car sixty foots at 1.55. If you send me your email address I can send you pictures of my car to show you how I did the water pump, crankshaft pulley and the 12 volt cut off switch for the alternator. That way you can see exactly how I did mine. Let me know if this helps, Tony
Alt question The wire goes to the plug in on the alternator. Since my car is a race only car, I do not use any of the factory wiring. I have a 12 volt wire going to the stud on the back of the alternator that is a constant 12 volts all the time. The switch that I rigged up goes to one tab of the white plug in that is on the side of the alternator. The other tab of the white plug in also goes to the the stud on the back of the alternator. I do not know how to explain it any better than this? Hey Joe, I tried to post pics on this website before and the pictures would not attach for some reason?o No: It keeps telling me that the file is too big. I'll try and post a picture one more time, but if anyone wants to see how I did this my email address is trossini73@yahoo.com. Email me your address and I will send a picture to you:Comp: Tony
Tony My email address is smdonker@ole.augie.edu I would appreciate any picture that you have, I know a little when it comes to cars but can use all the advice and help i can get. It is always easier to listen to someone who has been there and done that. This way your less likely to make mistakes! How wide is your 9in? I run the standard GN rear with a 15x8 wheel, 33/4 backspacing, and the 15x29.5x9.0 MT. with out rolling the inside lip of the fender and air shocks I would shave the sidewalls off. I have been told also that the hossiers don't have as much side wall protrusion as the MT's I wish my car sixty footed at 1.55 I need new slicks for next year i might just have to try them out. Have you done any fram modifications to your car? I welded a bar across the rear to tie the rails together 18in or so in front of the horns. i also made a radiator mount that ties the front rails together and connect them to the cross memeber. I will try and get you some pics so you can see what I am talking about. thanks Dustin
My buddy runs a 9" in his regal. Its from a Lincoln Versailles. Its 58" wide and has disc brakes. He sacraficed his rear from his sportwagon (blown up anyway) to get the control arm brackets and used the converter kit from Southside Machine. He got 31 spline axles from Currie and had a friend put a nodular third member together with 3.89 gears and a Detroit Locker.
455 engine are you going to rebuild the engine? if so i would go with some 10 to 1 pistons, arp rod bolts and main studs. and a good cam like the ta hemi killer. if you hunt alittle you might find a good set of stage 1 valved heads as some people have gone to ta aluminum heads. you do have some good times for a stock 455. you could deck the block alot to get compression up ..020 is worth almost .5 so .040 would make your stock pistons close to 9.5.but i would get as many of the oil mods done as you can to keep motor together at high rpms . with a bigger cam you will need a bigger carb and torque convertor. good luck:TU: andy
Dustin, Where did you get that hurst stage 2 shifter from? How is it working out for you? do you have 3 or 4 speed? thanks.
It is good to see that you are running a regal. I have a regal powered by the awsomw 455 buick motor and mines will do low 11's in the quarter mile and 7.40's and some 30's in the 1/8th.
shifter I picked up the shifter and shift kit from summit about a year and a half ago. I would rather have a ratchet shifter, i also run a th400 trans
