Thread: Building an Olds 455 for towing

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Looking for some pointers/arcticles on building a 455 Olds for torque/towing.

Looking for reliable power, the engine is for my 53 Ford F350 Dually. I've got a couple of core 455's to start from. Couple pair of "J" heads, quadrajet stock intake. So basically a late 70's smog motor.

Cam seems easy enough, there are some 4x4 cams avaliable that have a good low end. What I'm wondering is it worth messing with the heads if i'm not looking for high horsepower, any cheap easy gains I can get through piston or other part choices?

thanks

Chuck

ive looked at the olds engine before you can build a cheeap stroker with buick rods and pistons and countergrind a olds crank. supposed to be good for motorhomes
i am not shure about the best stock heads but i will do some checking a really good site is the(olds faq) site tons of info re what to use.
i had a 72 olds 88 with a 455 about 10 years ago and it was the nastyst big 2 dr boat i had ever driven . a true 140 mph car till it finally let go.

Not a lot you have to do to a 455 to make it a good tow motor, but I would reconsider the "J" heads. These were the most restrictive, smog heads available from Olds from about '73 to '76, and have very small valve pockets. You don't need to scrounge up a set of pricey "C" heads, but almost any other head available from Olds would be better. We have a set of "C" heads, but elected to use some "G a" heads on my kids '29, because for the street they should actually work better in the range they will run at.

Cam, there are so many RV grinds available to choose from. Just work with your cam grinder and tell them the weight, etc and they will get you one that is right for your application. An aluminum dual plane might flow better, but the stock intake with a quadrajet would be ok too.

Tons of these were used in industrial and motor home applications, so you should be fine with just minor refinements for a little more power. Olds made some industrial exhaust manifolds that flowed well and tucked into tight spaces, and these can still be found.

Top it off with a good vacuum advance distributor (electronic) and you are there.


I love these big Olds engines.


Don

hey don your right about the industrial motors. i have seen 455 olds running on natural gas turning huge irrigation pumps, no exhaust and the ex manifolds are literaly glowing they will run for hours day in and day out.
really amazing what abuse they will take.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Not a lot you have to do to a 455 to make it a good tow motor, but I would reconsider the "J" heads. These were the most restrictive, smog heads available from Olds from about '73 to '76, and have very small valve pockets.

Don

I've got a line on some "E" heads, not sure if they are the big valve version or not. Sounds like this may be a relatively low buck build, it helps that the cores are practically free

I'll keep an eye out for the industrial manifolds. With the C30 IFS on my F350, I havn't got a lot of room to work with as far as headers go.