Looked at a Olds motor today, it's either a 425 or a 455. Th eowner is in jail for 45 days so I couldnt' get all the info today, but from talking to him before it was a really good motor he built and then sold. The guy who bought it fucked around and spun a bearing so the builder bought it back and had planned on fixing it and usiing it again, but he never even tore into it. I THINK it's a 455, it had an Edelbrock torker intake on it, and some erson chrome valve covers on it. i couldnt' get real close to it to look at it close since there were about 8 engines in teh corner, but it looked clean and had a plate on it to keep crap from getting down the intake. I'm trying to find something to use in the hot rod project and I want something you don't see all the time, makes decent power, and is half way reliable. Are these worth a damn? Any cool finned goodies and multi-carb intakes for em?
Olds 455...torquey bastard!... they used them alot in jet boats...check out these guys....http://www.mondellotwister.com/
good motor with lots of power & tourQ but with that much damage better be real cheap i have two of them both 425s one out of a car & is a 4 brl one that i would take $200 for & other is in 66 delta vert is 2 brl but would take 400 for whole car so that one should be dirt cheap
I like them ,almost indestructable. Great in 1/2 ton p/u`s . 400 ,turbo w/ shift kit,recommended. Jerry
I got a 455 with a 400 tranny in my buick and I have nothing but praise for the motor. It has been extremely reliable and very good to me. It was put in in 1990 with 100,000 miles on the motor. The only thing that was changed was the timing chain. I figure there is at least 160000 on it now and no sign of aging. Motor is still running strong.The only downfall I can think of is the current price of gas sucks right now when you only get 9 mpg.
Those engines are great. I've seen more than one big olds with a 425 leave a set of tires in a pile of rubber dust. The spun bearing is a common problem. These engines were never made to spin high rpms and in stock form should not be taken over 5000. They do make oil restrictors to keep the oil on the crank when revving higher. Mondello can probably help you there. They also have some valve train deficiencys that need adressed if doing a performance build. they do make a great replacement for a sbc in you pickemup truck. About double the torque and almost always better gas mileage too.
As others have said, they are a tough engine to kill, and torque monsters too. I'm building a 455 for my sedan. The only thing that sucks is there are no aftermarket tr-power or multi-carb intakes made for them, other then two-4 intakes. The ONLY tri-power set-up was a one year only(66) olds w-30 tri-power set-up that was on the 442. Rare, hard to find, and spendy if you do. I lucked out on a complete all original carb/intake tri-power set-up that was on my bros daily driver olds in high school 20 years ago. He just got married, knew how bad I wanted it, and sold it to me real cheap for my car. Heres a pic of it
They aren't good for anything. Please ship it to me and I will take it out of the hands of those likely to hurt themselves with it.
Check out www.442.com. If you go to the FAQ page there is some great information on the big block Olds. You want to pay special attention to the heads you're using. Mondello also has some great machining tricks to greatly improve performance. Personally I think it;s a great engine. Good Horsepower and torque at a really reasonable price. You won't be disappointed.
I've had several of thos in early seventies luxo cruisers. Always worked great! One of the cars had the secondaries on the Q-jet wired closed and it got 16-18 mpg on a long highway run. I fixed the secondaries and the milage fell a little,but I DIDN' NEED A MILE OF CLEAR ROAD TO MAKE A PASS ANYMORE!!!
been awhile since i posted, but as an olds man i can say go for that bitch! if you really want info on aftermarket goodies and such go to www.realoldspower.com and as for the "poor" mileage...i know of a guy on that site that runs a 455 in an '87 cutlass that hits low 12's in the 1/4 and still gets 20mpg on the highway. that's better than i'm getting outta the 307 in my delta. as they say over there at realoldspower...got torque?
You Extremely Lucky Basturd...!!!! I kept getting outbid on the tri-carb sets on ebay (only by a couple of thousand dollars!!! ) so I bought the next best thing..., Dual quad on an Offy manifold with Offy Valve covers...!!! Goodies for the 455 Olds...! I've got a little over $400 in this setup and that's what I paid for the 1968 455 (390 h.p. version) and the rebuilt turbo 400. (That's cheaper than many of my budget SBC's...!!!) Do you think that this is enough engine to push a 2,000 lb. roadster...???? A BIG P.S. A fellow I know from my earlier drag days showed up at "Nostalgia Days" at the Grove and he has been running a fairly stock 1974 455 in a 27 T Roadster at Great Lakes Dragway since 1982..., 11.46 seconds in the qtr. at 115.6 MPH...! His slips all look the same from the past 24 years he's been running this thing...!!!
Yeah I definitely lucked out for sure. The set-ups I've seen are selling at $3000, so I'm a happy camper! But you know your setup looks great, theres nothing wrong with that! And you got it at super prices too, it'll look great on your car. I'm excited to see how it runs in my sedan too, should smoke the 7.50/16s nicely!
He's running an Edelbroch carb and aluminum intake, Mallory dual point, and Custom made open headers. The caged car weighs 2,300 lbs. has 3.20 posi with 29" tall 9 inch slicks, "No stall convertor" puts it in drive and stands on it...! He's never had to take the engine apart except to change the timing chain!!!! This engine has 60k miles and has never been rebuilt!
I ran a 425 in a '66 442 stock car lots of years ago. Torque monster, and nothing sounds like a big block! Double check side clearance on the rods when assembling-seems to be critical on these motors-too tight or too loose can cause bearing problems.
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