74 buick electra 225 with the 455 is gutless

[electraleadfoot]

Ok like the title says i have a 74 buick electra 225 with a 455. It is a work in progress that i am trying to slowly restore. I have a exhaust stemming from a broken manifold bolt in the block that is in the very front on drivers side. I haven't figured out how i am going to fix that yet. But i am wondering when i try to pull hills it seems gutless. It has a hard time doing 35 up hills and is not a speed demon on the flat either. I figure some of that is due to the leak but i don't think it would be that bad. Any ideas or help is greatly appreciated.

[fallsoff]

The leak kills everything.

[Bob]

An exhaust leak isn't going to make any difference. You may just have a tired old motor. You should do a compression test first. The next step would be to make sure you spark advances are in good working order, they can kill performance and mileage.

[fallsoff]

Exhaust leaks kill torque and yes, a tired old engine is bad enough--throw in an exhaust leak, (leans the mix, heats the cylinder, can warp exhaust valve, etc, etc...(and then there's the darned NOISE!). You can get into a real mess very quickly.

[electraleadfoot]

Ok I will try to be quick with this especially since this is my second time trying to post a reply. kept getting pulled away from it not I have a laundry list of stuff to tinker with including 5 vehicles and a 4 wheeler then a house project list. I cut muffler off and that woke it up a bit cause it was needing it. replaced sending unit in tank and cleaned tank out. have plans for dual glasspacks and a compression test some time this week. I only took it around the block twice and it seemed to respond better but not the way I like. I had to tighten tranny pan bolts and added fluid cause I noticed a big puddle under it. I couldn't even do a weak burnout. you know when you hold the brake and give it the throttle the back end lifts a bit. It did all that but no tire spin. It is not wanting to slam and take off but take its sweet time. So what should I be expecting as far as power and response??? Is it just a cruiser or can it get up and go??? Also what should my readings for the compression test be??? Oh yea it wouldn't even spin in the gravel.

[bob k. mando]

when you took the muffler off, did you also remove the catalytic convertor?

cats are notorious for backing up once you get over 100k miles.


sounds like time for a full rebuild.

[electraleadfoot]

when you took the muffler off, did you also remove the catalytic convertor?

cats are notorious for backing up once you get over 100k miles.


sounds like time for a full rebuild.

had no cat on it. Do you mean a full engine rebuild??

[bob k. mando]

yeah, a full engine rebuild.

i had been thinking that 74 would have had a cat as OEM but evidently that didn't start until 1975.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converter

[electraleadfoot]

ok I decided to dive into it a bit more. took off the intake and when I took the drivers side head off I saw a bent push rod. when I got the head off I saw what I think are the exhaust valves on 3 out of the 4 rusty looking. So it does look like I will be into at least a top end rebuild. I know I need gaskets and probably new valves and rods and such. I am wondering if I should look into getting into this aluminum heads and stuff I keep hearing about. Maybe to wake her up and reduce weight. I want to stay within a budget but also want to be happy with it.

[bob k. mando]

alum heads flow better out of the box than a max effort porting job on factory heads.

so, if you're going to do any kind of a performance build it's better to just start with new alums. call www.TAPerformance.com and get them priced and you'll see if you want to put the money in. loaded basic alum heads are about $2600.


you should have a LOT of success just doing a basic rebuild on the engine though. clearly it's very sick right now.

oil passage upgrades are always a good idea.