Ok, got a '73 Buick from grandpa with a 455 (nice garage...I mean house warming gift). I'm gonna take the motor and tranny and run it in my mud truck. I'm wanting this motor to turn high R's, and run alcohol. What's a guy gotta do to the motor to run alcohol? I know what to do to get higher R's out of it, but what about alcohol? Am I gonna need a certain type of piston, valve, or other stuff?

You do not need to do anything special to the motor to run alcohol, but may want to take advantage of higher compression as alcohol runs cooler then gas. Your fuel system will need almost double the capacity as alcohol is used at a 2 to 1 ratio over gas. Alcohol is corrosive. It also is hard on any seals (pump, carb)it contacts. You will need to clean and maintain the fuel system regularly.

I would advise against high rpms in a big block Buick. They are built for low end torque and midrange HP. The large main journal diameter is not good for oiling at high rpm. 5800 or 6000 is all the RPM you will want to turn with a stock set-up, and 6500 rpm is about all you would want to turn in a light reciprocating mass 455 engine with aftermarket rods.

Thank you. I'm planning on getting bumping up the compression ratio and freshening up the motor. While I'm in there I'll upgrade to some performance parts. I'll do some homework and see what will work best for seal material.

graemlins/wavey.gif Hey, Koowip,

There is a Guy in the restoration forum, who is LQQKING of parts for a '73 Centurion. I told you that there would be someone interested in that car. graemlins/thumbsup.gif graemlins/thumbsup.gif graemlins/beers.gif

graemlins/shield.gif Tom Gallagher graemlins/shield.gif

I'll look him up. It's not as nice as it used to be though; gramps let it go a little, now there's rust on it and the paint's faded. Coolant leaks and boiled over on me last night. He said he put some stop leak in there, and there was thick foam coming out of the overlow bottle. I think that stop leak junk gummed up the thermostat or something. Did an 8 hour road trip fine, then the next day coming home from the store it boils and overflows...WTF...Another thing to figure out.

I'm ordering up Auto-Meter gauges for this motor, and would like to know if a standard electric temp gauge is gonna work, or am I gonna need a different sending unit? Same with oil pressure. Speaking of oil, since this '73 455 I have has a front sump oil pan, is the sending unit on the front of the motor? There is currently no gauge in the factory gauge cluster for oil pressure, so I'm not sure where the sending unit would be on the motor. I know where the sending unit location is on a Chevy 350, would it be in the same place on the 455 but in the front? On the Chevy 350 the water temp is on the drivers side exhaust bank between the 1&3 cylenders; the same on the 455? Thanks!