Oh and if anyone is interested, I propped the heads on a scale for a back to back comparison of weight. The iron ones are '70 small valve heads with big valves installed and some light grinding in the ports and bowl area and the TA SE1's are just a stock set. A shade under 25lbs a head.
A tad less than I had estimated (Re: 1977 Skylark) Dear Silver Buick and V-8 Buick fans, Thanks for sharing your weigh in comparison. My estimate was a bit too optimistic. I had assumed a 60 lbs overall weight savings. Oh well, my car won't have as "trim" a figure as I thought! :laugh: Cheers, Edouard :beer
Re: A tad less than I had estimated (Re: 1977 Skylark) Between the headers, SPX intake and now these aluminum heads, this engine weighs a ton less than it did when I first put a 455 in the car. Heck, I'm now going for lighter weight pistons, though I think the cam and lifters are heavier.....
Guesstimate 100 lbs aluminum savings (Re: 1977 Skylark) Dear Silver Buick and V-8 Buick fans, I looked into this question briefly to try to figure out the difference in weight between the 300 cid V-8 in my 65 Wagon now and the 448 cid V-8 that Jim is creating for me. Not sure where I got the numbers, but I came up with 450 lbs for the 300 and 650 lbs for the big-block. My guess was that the aluminum components would be worth about 100 lbs of weight savings. So the engine would come in at about 550 lbs. Still requires beefing up the springs, but not as stressful on the front end. Certainly that some benefit for your 'lark. Does anyone have better estimates for these parameters? Cheers, Edouard :beer
Re: Guesstimate 100 lbs aluminum savings (Re: 1977 Skylark) When I first put an all iron 455 in the car I left the original 231 V6 springs in it. I didn't notice any difference in ride height when I put new springs for a Chevy V8 in it.
Looks like I made it into the recent issue of Car Craft for going to the Car Craft Anti-Tour in May. I'm still waiting for the issue to show up, but this was posted on another forum for me :TU: **It won't post as a picture even though it shows up as one when I paste it into the IMG tag :spank:
Hi, Nice photo from a great Buick,i saved it on my computer to look and enjoy it:TU: Im not such a person who worry about fuel alot but im curious to know how much fuel the 455 engine use per 100 miles.
Mine uses a shade over 5 gallons per 100 miles (~19mpg), but the drivetrain has been modified too. On road trips I've gone 330 miles between fill ups. With some enthusiastic use of my right foot though I'm sure I could make it use 20 gallons per 100 miles :3gears:
Thanks, I kinda march to the beat of a different drum and don't mind sharing even if no one wants to listen, lol, glad a few are! My go to guy for the EFI stuff doesn't think there will be any problem/signal interference from the pulley or harmonic balancer and has given me an off the shelf part number for the pickup. The trigger wheel is off an early 90's Ford Escort, and he thinks the sensor number he gave me matches the vehicle, or even if it doesn't, it'll work.
I'm waiting on the balanced rotating assembly to show up, hopefully today and the freeze plug kit Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday I painted the engine block and just set everything on the block for a little motivation. I made quite the mess with the RTV a year or so ago when I put that water pump on, I may clean it up this weekend. I also bolted my modified pulley with trigger wheel to my old balancer to see how it fits. My EFI go to guy still thinks it'll be fine for fitment and signal, or has other smaller sensors etc to recommend.
Nothing fancy on the body or interior. I may go to a digital dash cluster some day. I still have some parts to experiment with, but I have higher priorities to work on first. Body wise I do would like to get paint on it soon, but that may or may not happen.
I love the look of high tech dashes in older cars, I would do it if I had the money. What do you have planned next mechanical wise?
Depends what I break on Drag Week next month, LOL. If nothing breaks, then nothing really. Get the A/C working, cruise control, little things.
Looks spiffy! (Re: TheSilverBuick's 'lark) Dear SilverBuick, Thanks for sharing . . . that's certainly motivation for everyone else. Photos like this are getting me itchy for the engine Jim is putting together for my wagon. Thanks again! Cheers, Edouard :beer
does cruise control work the same on new cars then old ones? just holds the throttle at a set speed? are they electric or mechanical?
Until roughly the 90's cruise control ran off vacuum to pull the throttle and afterwards had electric solenoids. Old cars used a transducer on the speedocable between the transmission and dash to reference speed and adjusted vacuum to the throttle diaphram to manage speed. Later units used the vehicle speed sensor (VSS) and electronic controls to change vacuum to the throttle diaphram. My TKO-600 has a VSS so I want to use a later version that uses that. I have one that has a transducer and one that uses a VSS, and could use either, but I prefer the VSS one because it's more compact.
