Tore down the new frozen 455 last night and...

teh thing is full of rust. The rockers had a white powdery residue all over them, and under the valley pan gasket, the pushrods and lifters were frozen rust. Some liquid wrench got the pushrods out and the heads off, but when I took off the oil pan, the whole crank, connecting rods, et al. looked like one solid mass of orange. In the pan itself with it's own rust holes, there was dust and debris, almost like the oil dried up. So, the tranny is still bolted to it, and I want to tear this thing down to just the block but I cant spin it to access the convertor bolts. Any ideas on how to unfreeze it and does anyone know of rusted motors sitting outside for 10 years being resurrected?

 

Paul, anything can be brought back, as long as the rust hasn't removed all the usable metal and machining won't work.
As far as the convertor bolts, I've been there my friend. Is the engine out of the car? If so, just unbolt the trans bellhousing and separate the engine from the trans keeping the convertor on the flywheel. It'll leak some trans fluid, so be ready with a drain pan.

 

I did unbolt the bellhousing but i don't see how the torque converter separates form the tranny., And any suggestions on getting the pistons out of the cylinders if they are frozen or oxidized?

 

The converter may be rusted into the trans input shaft. Was this engine at the bottom of a river??? I've never heard of one that rusted up on the inside that was still all there..
To get the pistons out I would coat the walls with some penetrating oil a few times, let it soak and apply persuasion with a BFH. :grin:

 

put brake fluid in a spray bottle and go crazy. Let it soak in real good. Then try to disassemble.

The converter should slide out once the bell housing is unbolted.

If you have the oil pan off, remove the main caps, maybe that will help to rotate that crank.

Just my $.02

 

This may be a dumb question, but with 455 engines so easily available, why would you want to try and use one in that bad a shape?o No: You could buy one in decent shape for just a couple hundred bucks. Sounds like the one you've got must have been at the bottom of the ocean for a while.
Randy

 

Randy, I am coming to Texas for my next 455. The east coast especially the north-east does not have many if any 455s at all. I call every yard within a couple of hours drive every couple of Saturdays just hoping I will get lucky. I found one about a year ago and the lifter bore was broken ($250 down the drain). There is one yard with several but they are in the same condition as the motor Paul is dealing with now.

Paul DON'T use brake fluid unless you don't mind removing paint etc... from everything else it comes in contact with. Once the paint is removed with brake fluid new paint will not stick without problems.

Use WD40 or white vinegar.

Mike

 

You can find them here for $150 to $250 depending on condition.
A year or so ago a friend and I each bought one for $175ea delivered to our houses. Complete engines carb to pan. We were not able to determine if they were runnig before cars were put into salvage but in decent shape. And of course we planned to rebuild anyway. I have seen them in good running condition for about $500.
Randy

 

Randy, get me the name and number for the yard. I will call them and see if they will ship a couple\few of them up here for me.


Thanks
Mike
carcrazy455@yahoo.com

 

455

Another source who can deliver is BOPCONNECTION. He's on the board, just made a swing by the east coast this summer. I bought a running 455 from him. Give him a call/PM. If there is enough interest he may come back soon-er!

:TU:

- Bill

 

Hey Paul,
Just cause its outside doesn't mean its junk. I gave my buddy a 76 motor because he split a cylinder wall in his race motor. It sat out for at least 5 years and was rusty inside but it was able to turn. He bored it .038" over and ran 12.5's with his 69 sporty. In your case, you can resurrect that rusty pile, but at a heavy cost.

Hey Mike,
Your looking in the wrong place for a motor. I've gotton 3 of my 455's by buying the whole car. One was a 70 Riv the others electras. My last purchase was a 78 Mercury wagon with a 460 and a 9" for $75. My buddy has bought 2 rivs and an electra recently. One of the rivs had another 455 in the trunk. The usual cost for the whole car is around $500, but look at all the stuff you get. Once you get all the good pickens from it you take it to the junk man and get your $100, just make sure you have the title and prepare to take the tires off.

 

This may be a dumb question, but with 455 engines so easily available, why would you want to try and use one in that bad a shape? You could buy one in decent shape for just a couple hundred bucks. Sounds like the one you've got must have been at the bottom of the ocean for a while.
Randy

Randy,
there are none up here that I can find, I did want the 70 blcok and heads but for the $200 I got it for, I figure some more to have the block checked would be worth my while, if not, lesson learned

 

Joe, I wish I could find them but around here there are none to be found. There is the occasional 5 or 6 thousand dollar Riv or Electra but I can't see buying them for the motor. If there were a 500 dollar Buick with a 455 in the local paper I would know trust me. I also check the yards regularly.
Most of the yards around here will crush anything older than 10 years without even saving premium parts. Land is at a premium and the "not in my back yarders" or environmentalists have them all selling to builders before they get fined into the poor house for contaminating the land.

Maybe I need to ride the 4 hours to Pittsburgh (it is closer than Texas). Let me know if you see anything good.

I would bet this is the same problem Paul has up north.

And before long it will happen to your town!


Thanks
Mike

 

I got my 455/400 turbo from a 73 Electra that I bought for 500 dollars and drove home. It was dented in the front a little but the interior was great. I almost hated to junk it. I thought about putting the 350 out of mt GS in it but it was summer and that was just more work! They are out there, would check out the "free" newspapers if you have those where you live. That is where you would have a better chance of finding a donor car cheap as most of them don't charge to run private ads. Also check out the "hood", the early 70's Olds, Buicks, and Caddy's are always popular there and I have seen a number of them for sale in the north St. Louis area. I don't think I would spend the money on that engine. You may find out after some machine work that it is not going to work anyway. Good luck! Brian

 

CarCrazy: You have a PM

 

I agree with you Mike. It will happen here too.

The problem with the junkyards around here is that the owner's don't know what's in the yard. I know of 3 different yards that have 455's in them. And if you would ask the owner about it they wouldn't have a clue where they were or what condition they're in (these have been sitting for a long time...at least as long as I can recall).

The one yard advertises in the parts and accesories section of one of our newspapers as having 3000 cars. If you would go to the yard the number is more like 6000 (at least 100 acres worth). They have cars from the 40's there. They even have a 68 or 69 GTO covertible that they forgot about, let alone the 74 buick 455 sitting under a chevy astro van.

Another yard that's just a few miles from me has at least 3 BBB's. The problem is that they are in a pile of engines. The pile is about 20 feet high. The BBB's that I found are on the top and towards the back. They don't look so good.

This is why I find it easier to pickup a rusted out electra that you can drive around. They're not in the paper every week but they pop up every now and then (None this week, I checked both newspapers, but not the free-ads trader or the horse trader)

 

you guys are lucky, here in new jersey and apparently maryland, 400s 430s and 455s are very hard to find. i have a hard enough time finding q-jets in the yards.

 

Here in the Midwest it's no different. Only thing in the yards out here is early 80's to mid 90's econocrap.

 

What exactly is the method of cleaning up a block? Do they media or sand blast it then magna flux it and if so, what parts should be maganfluxed? The block without anything on ti, the crank, and the heads. Anything else?

 

The one yard I mentioned with the insane amount of cars also has a bunch of school buses. They aren't for parts but to store parts. There are 2 up near the entrance full of carbs, and I do mean FULL!!! (I found a 70 BBB Q-jet. I hid it cause I needed to buy something else and had no cash for it. Wouldn't you know I forgot where I hid the thing.) There are also buses with starters, distributers, flyweels, heads, you name it there's probably a school bus full of it.

This yard is one of those extreme cases of waiting for scrap prices to go up. I think they've been waiting since the early 70's.