Recommendation 455 build, 11.30's-12

Larry agreed, I throw that out there as an example of a very careful build with an eye toward staying as stock as possible, which isnt important to most.. But there's many ways to skin a cat, and a good set of aluminum heads is a very cost effective path if originality isnt a consideration. Between machining and my time, I've probably got the cost of a set of TA street eliminators tied up in mine and they probably flow half as well. And I've been in builds where all I could do was hang stuff on an unknown shortblock and hope for the best, and most of those engines made better power than i expected

That aside, I would really be surprised if my heads flowed any more than 240, I mean I really barely touched them

 

Exactly!! Making a fast car and making a fast street car are two different things.

 

It wasn't hard. Plenty of people have done it. Is it easier with ported irons or aluminum heads? Of course it is. Just saying it can be done and be completely streetable as mine was and my son's car is. Jim's converter works great in his car. No overheating in traffic either. He picked up a set of drag radials last weekend and he is planning on running it at Cecil next Friday.

Ken

 

Heard heads are nearly sold out everywhere. Or won't ship until February

 

It's not easy, and I screwed around for +/- 6 years to get there. And to your earlier point, I cant agree more that power output means nothing without chassis work. Assuming there's no blatant issues, I wont do much at all with the engine before I've got the car able to launch clean. I learned a lot from Tom Telasco and Tom Miller on that score. But thats me,. some guys WANT to spin the tires!!

 

Not sure I agree on it only being tenths - Look @ Jason Line's car/times. Yes, surely maxed out on the HP but also rule limited. Much of that (high) 9 sec. ET must be in trans, rear gearing, and suspension. Otherwise, everyone on this site would at least be going 10's w/their 455's.

 

I agree that the total et is a value of all the sums you put into your car, but I think Lines car is not the best car to compare to. His car is literally the the beyond peak in performance. There are things done with that car that the average car guy just can't duplicate. That motor makes hp way beyond what your normal build makes.......but given that......how long would that live not only on the track. But the street, same as that trans. He has as much in his transmission as many have in their motor.......and again, using those parts comes at a very dear cost. Crazy upfront price, and extremely short life span.......none of which applies to what the OP wants.

So yes its a great example of what can be done. It showcases how important it is to perfectly match ever part, its a great example of squeezing literally everything out of car in the ET department. But its comparing apples to oranges to what the OP is doing

 

Agree wholeheartedly on all points but I wasn't comparing to what the OP wants to do - Orig. was just countering Larry's assertion that the only way to go fast is HP & weight reduction & when I added suspension, trans, & gears he basically said (paraphrasing) "yea, but they're only tenths" to which I replied with the example of Line's car but there are many others that are maybe not as extreme.

But look at a different extreme - take a very good purpose built tube chassis that's dialed in - Yes it's light but besides taking the weight alone into account, it doesn't take nearly as much HP to run high 9's/10's as starting w/one one of these old cars. Why not?

 

Block is stripped. Cam was junk. Not gonna use the Heads. This is all I'm left with. Cylinders and pistons all look good.

 

Yes we found a good 70 455 core! Going to show him the ropes of buick improvements. And the importance of this fine group of people here on the board. Lots to decide on a combo now. On a side note,has anyone ever seen this on that front area of a block. Looks like someone tried welding numbers backwards,code?? I've taken apart a ton of 455's and never seen that.