hey guys, I'm Mark. New to this Fourm and came looking for advice. i currently own a 64 skylark that i restored a few years back. looking for a new project for this summer and rather than building another car i want to focus on the one i own. i am looking to swap my original 300 for a 455. i found a few on craigslist in my area and before getting too serious about any, i was wondering what year 455 is recommended to swap with in my car. thanks! <object type="cosymantecnisbfw" cotype="cs" id="SILOBFWOBJECTID" style="width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block;"></object>
Welcome to v8! I don't know what to tell you about the 455 swap, except a lot of guys are very happy with it. There are several on here that can give you plenty of advice though. I would like to say that you have one sharp looking car!! I am a bit partial to the '64s.
thanks for the information it was very good, so I became more extensive insight .....:beer <img src="http://www.bediro.com/images/4/w1.png" />
Love the 64's. 1970 455 has the best heads and pistons, later years had a slightly better oiling system and were less prone to core shift, but have significantly bigger head chambers, thus lower compression. All have forged rods which are pretty good units. Good luck with your project, sounds like it will be a cool car!
From my experience dropping a 455 in my old convertible i'll tell you what to watch out for. The Exhaust is going to be a pain unless you are going to use factory exhaust manifolds or stage 2 heads and stage 2 exhaust headers. If i was going to do one again i'd go with the stage 2 heads they fit great and once you are done reconditioning factory heads you are better than half way to the cost of stage 2 heads. Normal heads and headers wiil fit but plan on using a hammer and copious profanity to get the headers in there. If your car has air-conditioning the clearance between the AC box on the fire wall and the valve cover is tight but it will fit getting the valve cover off with the engine in the car is really tight if not impossible. I used the TA frame pads and engine mounts to move the engine rearward a bit. I used a set of accessory brackets from a 68 electra with the exception of the power steering pump. Most power steering pump brackets for the big block engines position the power steering pump too low for the A body so you will need a GS specific power steering bracket or I found that the 73 rivera power steering/smog pump bracket i had mounted the pump high enough; i customized mine to remove the smog pump mounting to make it more attractive. I used a radiator from summit; it was a universal fit from Northern Radiator that was nearly a drop in and cooled a very healthy big block with zero drama and it was very reasonably priced. for front springs I forget the exact ones I used but they will need to be changed to support the addition weight of the big block. Your engine harness may need to be modified to have all the connections reach the starter and alternator etc on the larger engine. M&H made a new harness specifically to fit the 455 in the 64 chassis modified for an internally regulated alternator for me . I also beefed up everything behind the engine, transmission and the rear end to handle the extra power the 455 was putting out.
do you do you have contact info for m&h for the wiring also ,I left the original front springs in the car n put an aluminum intake on it ? your thoughts ?
Man that is nice! Love the first gen Keystones too. Welcome aboard. Can't talk engine without talking trans- are you going to go with a 3 speed auto? Or manual trans? I guess an ST400 would handle the 455 too.
do you have contact info for m&h for the wiring also ,I left the original front springs in the car n put an aluminum intake on it ? your thoughts ?[/QUOTE] Here is the web address for M&H's web site http://www.wiringharness.com they had to make up the wiring harness for me as the 455 was never offered in the 64 chassis. I had to wait a bit as it was a custom order but it was worth it. As fas a front springs you could keep the original springs if you wanted and see how it works if you want and then change them down the road if you found that the car was nose heavy. I figured if the factory used different springs for the big block cars it was for a reason and once you had gone to the time and expense of swapping a big block into the car the added expense of the new springs wasn't that much to get the car to handle and stop the watt it should. Try to run a search of the board for 455 into a 64 chassis and you should find a ton of information to review. I know when i was in the planning stages i found pretty much all the information i needed so that there were very few surprises when i actually got the tools out. any other questions just ask and I'll let you know what i did on my car.
