1970 455

[71grinch]

anyone know much about the cam size and all the info ont he cams in the 70 riviera 455's? also is it true these motors had more horsepower than advertised or do i have it the other way around? thanks, just trying to get a feel for what this motor will do in my 71 skylark

[bob k. mando]

it's really only the GS Stage 1 455 that's under-rated. and even that is only short like 25 hp. where Buicks kill everybody is on torque. sucker as many people as you can into a roll on drag race.

you do have the small combustion chamber 455 so premium will probably be a given for you.

has any work been done to this or are you intending to give it a freshen up before install or what?




just trying to get a feel for what this motor will do in my 71 skylark

assuming it's in good tune, is smoking the tires the length of the block good enough?

[71grinch]

to my knowledge its bone stock (1231738) is the code. Its a very clean motor so i think somewhere down the road it was rebuilt. I'd love to do some upgrades to it to keep the chevy and ford guys behind me here, any suggestions? its going into a 71 skylark that is stock and still has the 10 bolt non posi-that will be replaced in time

[71grinch]

and yeah smoking the tires a block is cool lol-hi from venice sarasota area by the way

[bob k. mando]

do you know anything about doing this swap? and, what motor is in the Skylark now?



to my knowledge its bone stock (1231738)

that's just the block casting, it doesn't mean much. if you take one of the heads off you can check for the oversize Stage 1 valves. that's about the only factory 'performance' option you can hope for on this engine. some of those showed up in big blocks for the full size cars.

the "engine code" should be "SF" and it should be stamped here:
http://www.teambuick.com/reference/i...gine_where.php


the bad news about the 1970 block is that it's really poor on the oil passages. you've probably got a 1/2" ID oil pickup ( 72 and up had a 5/8" ID ). i'm pretty sure you're going to have to look at this anyways, the Riv had a center sump oil pan. all other Buick applications require a rear sump pan.

so you'll have to replace the pick up while you're putting a different pan on. might as well make sure it's 5/8".

if your going to freshen this motor up, i'd do the full suite of oil passage and pump mods.


the simplest performance things for you to do would be:
install an HEI distributor
recurve the distributor
make certain the Quadrajet is working well
factory cams aren't all that great

you might want to talk to Scotty Guadagno:
http://www.scottysracingtechnology.com/index.html


seriously though, as long as you're running a peg leg rear end you aren't going to be beating too many guys. you'll be making too much smoke.

[71grinch]

i know i need to swap the frame mounts and im putting in 4 core radiator and 7 blade fan, i also have the turbo 400 from the 455 so ill need to relocate the trans mount and shorter driveshaft.

[bob k. mando]

you'll probably also need the fan shroud from the Riv.

[6806goats]

How difficult is it to find a 72 and up 455? My 67 Rivi has the 430 (of course) but if I decide to beef it up I don't want to take a chance on hurting the original engine. Other than online searches from here there's no way to really dig anything up. Do they all have 5/8 pickup and are the rest of the oil galleries enlarged or is that needed on any 400-455?