Thread: Rebuilding an Olds 455

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I purchased an Olds 455 and want to rebuilt it to put in my 79 Trans Am. This is my first rebuild. The engine that I have came bare: block, heads, oil pan, pistons and the tranny (which is a TH400). I want to start from scratch and build this thing to fly. I want max horse power, I want my TA to go as fast as possible and still be street legal.

But, I'm unsure where to start. Right now the engine and heads are apart, well oiled and wrapped in plastic. The engine is up on a stand and the heads sit underneath it. I was thinking about tearing the block the rest of the way down and having it dipped along with the heads. I need good suggestions on where to get a good high performance rebuild kit.
I know that I want flat top pistons and I will need to have some machine work done, other than that I've been reading forums and checking internet site. Any help would be great!!!!

K

Originally Posted by TAgirl

I purchased an Olds 455 and want to rebuilt it to put in my 79 Trans Am. This is my first rebuild. The engine that I have came bare: block, heads, oil pan, pistons and the tranny (which is a TH400). I want to start from scratch and build this thing to fly. I want max horse power, I want my TA to go as fast as possible and still be street legal.

But, I'm unsure where to start. Right now the engine and heads are apart, well oiled and wrapped in plastic. The engine is up on a stand and the heads sit underneath it. I was thinking about tearing the block the rest of the way down and having it dipped along with the heads. I need good suggestions on where to get a good high performance rebuild kit.
I know that I want flat top pistons and I will need to have some machine work done, other than that I've been reading forums and checking internet site. Any help would be great!!!!

K

HI,There are a bunch of Olds people out there.
Mondello,Dick Miller.
Check out there web sites.

Sounds like you may want to decide just 'how much power' you need for whatever you have planned for the car.Would suggest you determine that first and get suggestions off this site from people like the first two,Erik and Denny(and some others that are experienced builders)then go searching for the parts.
'Flying' and 'max horsepower' mean different things to different people.Be specific about what you want it to do and you'll get alot of good info here.

sorry,double posted

We built the 455 Olds for my Son's 29 Ford, started with a '73 block, had the usual machine work done..............bored 30 over, decked, deburred, line bored, hot tanked, etc. Then we added forged flattop pistons with ARP connecting rod bolts. For heads we went to a set of Ga heads. We also have some C and D heads, but these were already done with stainless valves and some polished ports so we used them For a cam we went with a pretty radical (forget the exact specs) Crane hydraulic cam and kit, and topped it off with a '66 442 tripower setup.

You don't really have to do much to these 455's to get some great street performance, they are torque monsters. You just have to get the compression back up, especially on later engines, and get some breathing with decent heads and a good dual plane aluminum intake with something like an 800 cfm carb. You won't need a crazy cam, although we did because we wanted it to rock and roll at idle.

If you still need some more power, a 150 HP shot of nos will sure help, but you will want forged pistons for sure.

Don