HUGE UPDATE TIME! I bought a 455 with matching th400 (pretty sure its a long shaft) and torque converter for 400 bucks! The guy i got it from said it came out of around a 75 big bodied car, Lesabre he thought. I haven't had a chance to take a real look into the motor yet. surprisingly clean inside the valve covers. needs some work and I think the carb needs a overhaul but I am not quite sure. Engine turns free, only down side is 1 or 2 exhaust studs are broken but I will extract them so that should be okay. Going to order some engine mounts tonight, as well as a gasket kit. I am super excited to finally have a big block! hopefully with minimal work it will be running, eventually I plan on doing the basics like headers, eventually heads, and cams but for now I am going to go for a stock running and driving big block!
I've been looking around and I cannot seem to find any information about the stock carb and intake on the 455, does anyone have a diagram showing where all the lines go to and from? I am not sure if my intake is missing lines, there is also a hard line that is bent up and connected at one end. No idea where its supposed to go. I will take some pictures tomorrow after work
While changing out the valve cover gaskets I took pictured of the places on the intake manifold I cannot figure out, the first is a hard line that is connected on one side and the other side is free and looks like it broke off or got detached, it is on the firewall side of the carb. the second is a small threaded hole just by the heater hose spout. this one is on the passenger side rear it looks like it might be threaded deep within, on the opposite side it looks like there is a bolt that mirrors it and finally is a line coming out of the bottom of the carb, in the picture it is the one called fuel injection hose, the darkest colored one, it is a long tube and im just curious if it is a actual fuel line or if it was just used as a vacuum hose.
Good that you saw the exhaust studs. I had extra thact one after I dropped my engine in. Also did the oil pan gasket after I installed it so my advice at a minimum do the oil pan gasket before dropping that torque monster in. Congrats and awesome story of getting your Buick back!
And you said you never got lucky. Nice job buying the car back!!! I'll try to help on that carb and intake. That is a great quadrajet by the way. Don't get rid of it. It is an 800 cfm hot air choke. It can be converted to electric choke. It has an adjustable APT setting. Anyway, it is a good carb to use for stock, mild or strong built 455. And, check out quadrajetpower.com if you want me to fix it up for you. It's a little hard to see on your pictures. I'll give my thoughts in same order. 1. May be talking about the hot air intake to the choke for the carb. Should have a small tube from intake that goes in to the side of the round choke assembly. 2. That threaded hole is a mount for something. I think there was a bracket that held the heater hoses. No big deal if it is let as is. 3. That is an intake manifold bolt, and needs to be added back. Probably took it out to bolt a chain on to pull the engine. 4. It is a vacuum line, should be going to the rear of intake to the PVC valve. Fuel line goes straight in front of the carb.
Thank you so much for your help! answered a lot of questions I had, I have one more for you though. I was attempting to get the carb off of the car today but I don't have a wrench the right size to get the fuel line off the front of the carb, if i remember the hard line is a 3/8 but do you know the size of the larger one so I can pick up a wrench this weekend?
Big crescent wrench for the big fitting =P I answered your PM but figured I'd put it here too for public info.
The fuel line was so rusted and gunked up, maybe the previous owner used a sealer? I ended up having to unbolt the carburetor from the engine and slightly bend the hard fuel line and unscrew it by twisting the entire carb. I have a new brass fuel filter housing as well as a new stainless steel hard line coming in the mail. This is what the fuel filter looked like, thankfully no rust was inside the carb itself but the filter was solid. This is more than likely the reason I couldn't get the fuel pump to fill the bowl. I also need to buy a new vacuum switch, mine was so brittle i tapped it with my knuckle and the lines broke off. Also my TA Performance mounts are on their way, I was going to get the aluminum ones but it was a 4 week wait so I got the cast iron ones. Getting closer and closer every day. With my school and work schedules I only really get to work on it from 9pm to whenever i go to sleep. slowly but surely it is getting there!
I wouldn't even worry about getting a new vacuum switch. It's benefits are negligable when you discount the emissions factor.
It already shipped out this morning so I guess I will use it anyway. What do you do with the vacuum lines if you don't use one? I also thought it was for the choke?
Motor mounts are here! The v6 should be getting pulled out this weekend so I can get to work cleaning the engine bay and getting it prepped for the new motor!
Definitely not used for the choke. You can follow the lines to see where they go for sure but I think one is for the EGR valve and the other for the exhaust back pressure valve. The EGR you are probably eliminating anyways and the back pressure valve you are certainly eliminating.
So both of the posts with vacuum lines attached to them can be deleted? The plastic one i broke which google tells me is the EGR valve and the other is a TVS switch. http://repairguide.autozone.com/znetrgs/repair_guide_content/en_us/images/0900c152/80/0b/13/f9/large/0900c152800b13f9.gif
Yes. Maybe not necessarilly deleted, but simply removing the switch from the equation. That is convoluted as it gets. Shows two vacuum thermal switches on that engine, and one for the ignition vacuum advance. Both can be eliminated entirely with zero noticable effects. One delays vacuum advance timing during warm up (aka the first 5 minutes of driving) and one delays the EGR function during warm up and switches the hot air riser vacuum (redundant or not needed, pick one, it doesn't matter for 99% of folks, and in either case the coolant vacuum switch can be eliminated) so unless you are running the EGR isn't really needed and again is for when the engine is cold. If you are running a functional EGR valve and finding the engine stumbling when cold, then use one of the TVS switches, but I certainly wouldn't run both (worthless complexity) and with a 455 upgrade I'm assuming smog checks aren't high on the priority.
I was talking with a friend today and the more I think about it the more fun I think it would be to have a 4 speed in the car, mainly because a TKO transmission is completely out of my budget. So i've been doing a little bit of research and it looks like either a M21, M22 or a Saginaw or maybe a T-10 with a bop bellhousing?
Yes they fun! This is just a completely stock '72 455 with a single 2" glass pack exhaust with the stock 3.23 rear end. [video=youtube;R_CCLSwdLhU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_CCLSwdLhU[/video] For a while I had a modified 1st gen F-body clutch an brake pedal installed in the car, until a friend of mine located a '78 Nova with a manual trans in the junkyard and he grabbed me the clutch pedal assembly, the rods and Z-bar and frame plate (the z-bar attaches to). The Z-bar is the hardest thing to come up with but they pop up from time to time. The whole assembly used to pop up on E-bay from time to time in the $200-$300 range. I've never been happy with the work that comes with a hydraulic clutch, but a good functioning hydraulic clutch is pretty nice on the leg.
Hello everyone, I was just thinking about headers for the 455, and how expensive they are for the Buick, but the Olds and Pontiac 455 headers are at least 1/2 the price of the Buick ones. Would they be interchangeable or is the design completely different? Or can a 455 run the 400 headers? according to TA Performance http://www.taperformance.com/products.asp?cat=387 their headers are for the 400-430 and 455? Just trying to find a cheaper alternative to paying around 600 dollars for headers.
Buick engine headers are unique to Buick. Other 455 headers will not work. 430 and 455 headers should be same for Buick.
