Hey all, i am in the renovation process of my Rivi. I want to change the heavy original intake to a lighter aluminum version like edelbrock B4B etc. does anybody has experience with the hood clearance on this combination? On the mid term i want to change the heads to TA aluminum as well and get the shorty headers and a mild cam. The car is pretty silent in the moment and and the engine runs nicely.I want to keep it so, just want to add a little more power to it. Maybe its better to keep the original engine as it is, put it to the side and swap a 455 with all the stuff. What difference would it be to change from 430 to 455 cui? Whats your opinion?
Besides increased power, the 455 oils slightly better. They redesigned the rockers and pushrods to improve oiling on the top end. There's more support and parts for the 455, and there's also all the aftermarket goodies for them. For the 430, not so much. If you have an original 67 430 the thing to worry about is the heads; apparently they fail and crack. This problem apparently wasn't fully corrected until the advent of the 455 in 1970. IMHO either engine is fine; I've had both, and the 430 in my Wildcat is still the original one with 134,000 miles on it, and it still has oodles of power and is running clean. I'll rebuild it only when it blows up.
there isnt much power gain from a 430 and a 455 given they have similar compression. I ran a bone stk 430 right from the junk yard, never changed bearing or rings, just gaskets, my heads I take mild .500 lift cam. but everything else was straight off my 464........ran it for about a year b4 the rod stretched, ran 11.30s, my big motor still wasn't up yet so I had a .030 455 with slightly lower compression and you would had never known I changed blocks.........it ran virtually identical time slips. so the 32 cubes given about 1 pts in compression wasn't much change
