Just curious if any of you have any specific performance upgrades that have worked really well for you, and also if there was anything you tried that really didn't work out that you would recommend I avoid. Basically I have a stock 455 w/ 360 hp & 510 ft lbs of torque. It's a 70 Wildcat motor and I'm really stoked to have it. Considering the fact that the motor feels very strong already, I'll probably start out with the normal bolt-ons (headers, electronic ignition, maybe an intake, etc.), however, my long term plans are to pull the motor & warm it up a bit. I know that some of the Buick motors actually had pretty decent intakes from the factory, and I know that the nailheads LOVE big quadrajets. So, if I'm not planning to go crazy with a huge cam & dome pistons, is it worth the money buying something aftermarket or is the stock one good enough that should I consider leaving it? Eventually I'll end up going with a bigger cam & upgraded valvetrain, and maybe have the heads done & whatever, but nothing really radical. I'd like the car to be streetable enough that I could run A/C (Florida is hot). I would think I could get this motor well into the 400 horse range without too much trouble. What do you guys think? If any of you guys have been down this road & have any suggestions I'm all ears.
Well, I'm no expert in the Buick arena, but www.V8Buick.com is the place to go. Those BBB have great potential. They came with 800 cfm q-jets. Tons of torque to move those huge boats. The hot set-up is the aftermarket heads if you want to spend big bucks. Your 70 castings should be plenty for what you want though. Little port clean-up and then headers and good exhaust. TA Performance has the intakes, cams and other Buick specialty stuff. I think 400 hp will be easy as falling off a log.....
I am in process of getting catalogs to build on for my T. I have a Poston catalog and am waiting on one from T/A Performance. There is one other place that has a stroker kit but I cant remember the name of the place at the moment. I know that doesn't help you at the moment but thats where you can start to look for some parts.
I added a Poston intake to mine and it had a noticable gain in performance. Next was an MSD box, and that worked well as well. Bought a cam for it but sold the car before ever installing it... still in the garage somewhere.. lol
[ QUOTE ] ...The hot set-up is the aftermarket heads if you want to spend big bucks.... [/ QUOTE ] Shit Terry, I'll spend money on heads. I remember our conversation about the nailhead in your blown Riv that PAE built. You're right. I need to be asking these questions over on the Buick boards. My Riv runs so damned good that I haven't frequented them in a while.
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