I bought a 71 firebird that has a 455 Olds in it, and I know absolutly nothing about Olds motors. I have a couple of questions about the motor; are they basically like Pontiac mills were they are good to about 5800rpms, any weak areas that I need to know about? I'm not keeping this motor and will eventually replace it with a 455 poncho but i don't want to destroy the thing either. Anything I need to keep an eye on... or not to do's...
http://www.mondellotwister.com/ Joe Mondello, king of Olds engines, read thru the articles section and youll know everything you need. If youve got it, keep it.
You'll get a lot of bad advice from that site now. It is no longer run by Joe Mondello and the person who runs it is not as near as good with Olds as Joe. A better site is Real Olds Power.com. Lots of knowledgable folks there amd very helpful.
For what its is worth i have built several 455s . They are a very good and tough engine.They rarely give trouble and they make good power easily and inexpensively.I liked using the C series heads.There is a C cast on the heads visiable looking down at the valve cover. Thye were built as high as 11 to 1 compression back in the day. They were the highest torque of any production engine for awhile. You have to match parts to the engine design but they will make enough power you wont ask for more. Don
js292 Get a hold of Ross Racing Engines in Niles Ohio .he is also a Hamber .Specialty is Oldsmobile engines .His phone is 330 544 4466 .Ask for Ross or Tony .Good people and know there craft
outstanding mill lots of useable torque and a great power band with little work. the only hold back is non adjustable rockers,BUT you can buy these and the skys the limit. put a rocket in your pocket.
don't go out and put the pedal to the floor while in low gear and shift "when it sounds about right" and you should be OK.
For what it's worth, I just got back from the Olds Nationals in Sturbridge, MA, where I sat through one of Modello's infomercials, er, I mean "seminars". The first thing Joe did was to introduce Lynn Welfringer as his "business partner". It appeared through the conversation that Joe is still somewhat involved, though Lynn now makes all the business decisions. Joe talked about their planned new 455 block castings (four bolt mains, accepts bores up to 4.300"), and he continually deferred to Lynn for answers to questions about it. When Lynn quoted a price of $700, even Joe was incredulous. I'm not holding my breath.
I found this to be the most informative site when I was in to Olds engines... it will help with part swaps, best flowing heads, engine identification, etc... http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/oldsfaq.htm
I had a few 455 olds. They are completely different than ponchos. I never liked turning them more than 5200 with a cast crank 5500 forged, unless balanced. They are about as durable as you can get if they have been maintained.
Great summery on the 455 stolen from the net and is what I remember from my jet boat engine: "The 425 and the "early" 400 engines were both phased out for the '68 model year. Oldsmobile lengthened the stroke to 4.25", and the 455 was introduced. Along with the longer-stroke 455, there was a "new" version of the 400, using the longer 455 stroke and a very small bore of 3.870. The newer 400 is a poor choice for performance use because of the small bore's interference with large valves and airflow around the valves. For about the first month of production, the Olds 455 received a forged steel crankshaft. After the first month, only cast iron cranks were used. No production-line Oldsmobile engines have 4-bolt main caps, although some were produced for NASCAR racing. Oldsmobile big blocks have rather poor combustion chambers and are prone to "ping" and detonation. In addition, the 455-stroke (4.25") engines in particular tend to have bottom-end problems if used at high (5,500+) rpm for any length of time, in part because oil drainback from the cylinder heads is poor--so the oil pan is pumped dry while the valve covers are full of oil. The oil drainback issues are common to all these Olds engines. Fixing some oil system problems and careful attention to parts selection and machining techniques can result in excellent power production."
I can't give you details and specifics like some of these guys, all I can do is share with you my experience. I have a 1970 Olds 455 in my 47 Oldsmobile. I have personally put over 109,000 miles on the car over the past 8 summers. The engine came out of a streetrod and before that it was in it's original car. I have no clue how many original miles are actually on the engine at this point. I not only drive the **** outta the car BUT I also run him down the dragstrip as well. I have not had one issue with the engine this whole time, not one. I was a former SBC lover but now I'm a firm believer that this engine is the BEST bang for my buck period.
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