455 Build Questions

Hey guys I have a 1970 buick lesabre custom 455 (what a title) anyway's im rebuilding the engine and wanted some input. I've got a 2.73 rear end just for reference. She's all stock and looked great when we took her apart. unfortunately 1 cylinder had a scratch in it bad enough to need boring. Got a local machine shop boring hopefully only 20 over, 30 if needed, but we'll see i geuss. I know the 70 heads are supposedly the best stock heads other than the stage 1's and that my block is the weaker of all the different years and it's oiling passages/pickup tube are suspect at best. All that said, the machine shop im using doesn't know buicks (if anybody knows one in or around arkansas let me know) so i might try to get him to do the oil pickup mod but probably not the oil passage mods....besides the ta performance guys told me it wasn't really necessary for my purposes. I personally might use a dremel to align the main bearing oil holes as their not all the way lined up. yes er no on that one? going with repro cast pistons couldnt find any better for the price can you? Timing cover looks cracked and a bit pitted but wasnt giving me any problems the year ive owned the car and been driving it so prolly throwing that back on. SHould i have the block decked or the heads shaved? What cam i was thinking small like maybe ta112 to keep my powerband down low. Im sure this is enough to take in for now thanks for any info fellas.

 

I am sure others will chime in, but if you cant do anything yourself and dont have a shop around that knows Buicks then pay what it cost to send the engine to a reputable Buick builder.
I am not aware what builders there are in Arkansas but you are not far from Michael Garrison - High Torque Racing - hes in Kansas or Wildcat Engine in around Atlanta. You can give Mike Phillips at AMP in Kentucky a shout, but he is about to retire and dont think he takes in more work.

 

x2

 

Thanks for the input fellas. I don't have the money to ship this block and or heads of to some buick specialist in Australia or any other far away land so im getting a local machine shop to bore this thing out and check it for cracks and clean it up and what not. Is their anyone i could put him in touch with that could walk a worth his salt machinist through the most necessary stock/moderate builup oiling mods. The reason i ask is that the motor had 80,000 miles on it the oil pump looks like solid gold no chewing or grinding or pitting all the cylinder walls were perfect and still had some factory crosshatching. No lip at the top no spun bearings lifters are good and push rods are straight so the motor got 80,000 miles on it without any of these modifications so why do them. In essence i would like to do them for the insurance but if it means taking it to some buick god mechanic for 6 grande then i think i can do without. THanks for any input.

 

Australiao No:

 

I don't know where your from, but no, shipping it to Australia is definitely not necessary. Haha. There are multiple competent Buick builders here in the u.s. (dare I say more than anywhere else)

But since you seem content with your local shop, here is some good in for on the oiling mods for the block

http://www.buickperformanceclub.com/oilflow.htm

And here for the riming cover

http://www.buickperformanceclub.com/OilingMods.htm

Any competent machinist/builder should be able to properly do these.