i'd like to pull the 350 in my 71 and put in a 455, eventually. i also think the 200r4 the last owner put in would have to go...it's just too weak without a lot of work. the rear should be fine, 8.5 10 bolts can take fair power, right? my goal would be to just get a running or close-to-running 455 and do a rebuild with maybe a beefier cam, headers, and an intake. head work would be nice, but likely too expensive to do at the time. i've seen lots of 455s for under 500 bucks or so, but how much work would i need to do to get it done right? would the old rotating assembly work, or would i need to pay for reconditioning and maybe some new pistons, ect...then you get into machining costs and such... i'm also not sure on the tranny. a 350 would be a direct swap, but would a 400 be better suited for the 455? how much modification would be needed to make it work? just a new mount and driveshaft mods? so overall, who's tried to do a swap on the cheap, and how did it come out? it just irks me that if i rebuilt the 350 for about a grand with lots of new parts, it would still not outperform a stock 455, most likely.
