Although I have followed this board for quite some time now, this is my first post so I believe that makes me a newbie. I just completed rebuilding the Stage 1 455 in my 1970 GSX. I have owned the car for about 5 years, but I believe I have learned more about Buicks in the last 6 months watching this board than that entire 5 years. As a result, I tried to follow as many rebuild suggestions as I could. The original block had never been bored so we bored it .038 over to use the TA SRP/JE pistons. Did some port work on the heads and used the TA roller rocker set up. I went with the TA 413 cam advanced 4 degrees. I have an 800 cfm Q-jet, Poston headers, TA billet double roller timing chain, Orange crush head gaskets, TA oil pump and TA timing chain cover. We have calculated the compression at 9.8 to 1. The car has stock 3.42 gears and the factory TH400. We used a 2500 converter since the car will mostly be on the street. I just picked up the car this weekend. I'm hoping I can get some miles on the car so I can take it to the dyno. Jim Weise gave me some advice with regard to the rebuild (if I lived anywhere near his shop, I would have taken the car to him). I'd like to say that he was extremely helpful and he doesn't even know me. Thanks Jim. also, Dave at TA was a great help. Thanks Dave. Most of you have vastly more knowledge and experience with regard to Buicks, so how many miles should I put on it before I take it to the dyno? Thanks.
QQGSX, this is almost the exact same combo I was planning for my GSX. What are your likes/dislikes? Does it perform up to your expectations? I'm thinking about the T/A aluminum Stage 1 heads instead of iron. Is it doggy on the bottom end with that tight of converter? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to make the correct upgrades to my car the first time.:beer
I do have to push the car a little to get it going from a stop. Once it gets going, it takes off. It is considerably stonger since the rebuild. At this point I have only put about 100 miles on the motor so I haven't worked it too hard yet. In the next few hundred miles, I'll start to see what it can do.
