Richard Holdener 455 testing

Because of the smoke poured out I was thinking it was only a head gasket. Rockers look like they were replaced sometime. Those springs and retainers don't look like they belong together although the pressure seems about right for stock replacements.

 

It's 30 over too,..

 

I would rather he just do the heads,..cam and open up the top rings to .026 or so that's more what anyone with any sense would do if they were gonna boost a junkyard pull,..if it lives thru the next test it will make 700hp

 

Buick 455 is the king of torque, PERIOD

 

80ish psi of closed valve spring pressure.......10 psi boost on 2" valves is about 62 psi of pressure trying to open the valves and in 80 trying to close it????? That sounds like a bad combo

 

but kind of fun to watch these

 

Looks like he is turning the 455 into a mini series! For the low budget guys, these tests take out a lot of the bench racing scenarios. Fun to watch

 

I expected way more disaster.
The headgasket only that's good news.
And I hope we see good # with cast pistons now

 

I would gap the rings, clean up the heads, change the springs and reassemble.

 

This looks like a good time for some Orange Crush head gaskets and some drop-on Stage 1 valve springs however he probably has a deal with Comp and those spings will need machining to install. I'm thinking that adding ring gap will be during the cam swap. They might not need it though. Going by what I'm seeing with the current rebuilt engine the rings they used might be the standard rebuilder special "no gapping needed rings" so they might be pretty wide already.

I'm thinking the 268H cam is in the mail already. In this case maybe it is OK because of the turbo.

 

Nah you don't wanna put good head gaskets on a setup like that,..the gasket is your relief valve,..when and if it gets pistons then you can seal it up tight

 

I really never watched any of his Brand X videos but I think he likes to push them to see how far a stock type engine can go and as you said a normal head gasket will be the fuse. I don't think he has any plans on changing the pistons, at least at this time. Thankfully it has been rebuilt at some time in the past so the pistons aren't 45 years old. Maybe they will hold up longer?

With only 193*(est.) at .050" intake that intake tract has to be starting to back up with boost pressure. When he changes the cam to anything other than what is in it now the HP will start shooting up at a higher than 4500 rpm.

The low end torque gets me nevous about the main webbing. The good news it is only there for a few seconds on the dyno.

 

There was an ole fella here local ran a clean 81 Malibu on n20,..car ran 6.30s every pass,..wheels up and on a string,..but he would always be pulling heads changing gaskets,..not terribly often but every few dozen passes ... asked him one day man why don't use a better gasket than them cheap fella pro blues,...he said sonny,..this a 75 truck engine with a cam a 3 angle with a 250 shot,...that's my "relief valve" I left a little smarter haha

 

Hopefully he had head studs or else he wouldn't have much head bolt threads.

 

Yea it was studded,...would spray them gold or silver metallic spray paint and cinch um back down,..had an aluminum bar stock with air file paper and would do some good ole dragstrip machine work ha,..that's how we roll down here in the bible belt

 

Dad always said there has to be a week link, and try make be something that was cheap and quick to repair

 

760 Ft/lbs!

 

The man and his new toy. Very cool.

 

Lots of torque!
Being a junkyard motor....I wonder what the timing chain looks like?