Thread: '73 SS454 help

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What can be done to a 1973 SS454 El Camino to increase power over the pitiful 240 net HP as delivered. The car is a VGC unrestored original so I don't want to get too carried away, but I figure there has to be a bunch of HP hidden away in there.

Thanks,
Smac

Intake, heads, headers, and cam. Together, this should net you 400 hp if you pick the right parts. Just be conservative and avoid really radical parts.

Well, first off, it's not as bad as it sounds. The carmakers changed the way they reported flywheel horsepower in the early 70's by running all accessories on the motor, whereas before that time they had run the motors less accessories.

There was a real problem with these motors though, and that was the lack of static compression ratio. the arab oil embargo was in full swing and the tree huggers were screaming about cleaning up the air, so we were all forced to change to unleaded, low octane fuel.

These motors need to be torn down and the squish needs to be tightened up as well as the static compression ratio increased. Also, my friend Ken Thomas tells me that the timing marks on the timing chain sprockets were retarded, so you would want to use a '68-'70 427/454 timing chain set.

I don't mean expensive aftermarket heads, I meant early production closed chamber heads. There is a problem if you have open chamber heads currently, you would have to swap in some pistons designed for closed chambered heads.

Turns out its a a '74 (not '73) SS 454. The current owner tells me he has '66 heads on the stock '74 lower end. Says he has to run a mix of racing fuel and premium to keep detonation down due to the 10.5:1 compression...

Is this what you were refering to?

Don't know if I'm real fond of having to run that mix of gas. I was looking for pump gas friendly daily driver mods...

Thanks,
Sean

take the valve covers off and look up the casting numbers .and you could use a bigger head chamber like the 402 113 heads and a recam small hyd roller cam some thing to make good tq and not worry about hp you will make a lot more tq good intake