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Best 454 block for rebuild and parts

Ended up finding a good deal this morning on craigslist. 1985 454, complete.

And yes I picked it up in my wife's minivan. She's pretty cool.:biggrin:

C102E609-C274-4E5D-ADB0-267A04E0A029_zpsf3ucze0e.jpg
 
Nice find. How far you planning to tear it down? Keeping the factory rotating assembly? Machine work? Bore it? Bore and stroke it?
 
AJs72K5 said:
Nice find. How far you planning to tear it down? Keeping the factory rotating assembly? Machine work? Bore it? Bore and stroke it?
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Going to at least replace the head gaskets and check the bores while I'm there, and all the seals. If they look reasonably good, I'll seal it back up and run it. If anything looks overly worn that I won't get at least 20k more miles out of it, I'll tear it down and rebuild. Probably won't bother stroking, it's gotta be plenty of power compared to my small block.
 
Same plan as me. I read an interesting food for thought, stock 454 peanut ports flow more than the vortec heads people used to always swap into the TBI350. When I was researching into 454 swap I never found anyone that complained about lack of power, only common complaint was low mpg.
 
mrk5 said:
Same plan as me. I read an interesting food for thought, stock 454 peanut ports flow more than the vortec heads people used to always swap into the TBI350. When I was researching into 454 swap I never found anyone that complained about lack of power, only common complaint was low mpg.
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When you go bbc you don't worry about mpg anymore......
 
I regret not running the bb I built in the 90's...wound up selling due to divorce #2 and job transfer....

10.25 compression, comp cams 292 magnum cam...I dream of what it would sound like.
 
Hoss7979 said:
If your worried about weight.....maybe a BBC & fullsize blazer isn't for you! lol
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It's more about the height on my front springs. A few inches lower and my exhaust crashes into the front axle housing. I guess I have to do new exhaust anyway.
 
mrk5 said:
Same plan as me. I read an interesting food for thought, stock 454 peanut ports flow more than the vortec heads people used to always swap into the TBI350. When I was researching into 454 swap I never found anyone that complained about lack of power, only common complaint was low mpg.
Click to expand...

True....not once have I said "gee I wish I wouldn't have put a BBC in the Maiden"!

bp71k5 said:
It's more about the height on my front springs. A few inches lower and my exhaust crashes into the front axle housing. I guess I have to do new exhaust anyway.
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What springs are you running? I have 6" superlifts and am all Iron except the intake, and you'll have to change exhaust anyway right?
 
bp71k5 said:
It's more about the height on my front springs. A few inches lower and my exhaust crashes into the front axle housing. I guess I have to do new exhaust anyway.
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You gotta let that beast breath once installed, nothing less than 3". I'm on 5" of lift and never had an issue w/ my exhaust......
 
A 454 might weigh maybe 100 lbs more than a 350...I never really noticed any difference in ride height or quality after swapping a 454 in vehicles that had small blocks--if anything they rode a little better with the extra weight..

I did not have to do any work to any of the 454's I had,they all were good running take outs from rotted out cars in the mid 70's..they were the smog era low HP versions with peanut port heads,but had no lack of power,despite being "only" 240 HP and 360 ft/lbs torque..

As for MPG,I actually got a bit better mileage from the 454's and the small blocks that were in the vehicles previously...they had highway gearing and the big block cruised nicely at low rpms,where the small blocks were lugging and you had to stuff your foot in it more to maintain speed on hills..

The older I get,the more I regret not having held on to more of the vehicles I had--or at least the engines that were in them..back then it was not difficult to find a nice running BBC for 500 bucks or less,now a "core" sells for 1000...
 
76zimmer said:
True....not once have I said "gee I wish I wouldn't have put a BBC in the Maiden"!



What springs are you running? I have 6" superlifts and am all Iron except the intake, and you'll have to change exhaust anyway right?
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Springs are 4" tuff country easy ride. It's possible it'll be a non issue from others experience. Supposedly swapping to aluminum heads and intake is a 100lb savings. Although I think I removed 50lbs worth of smog junk last night.

Backing off aluminum heads may be safer due to all the other considerations I have to figure out with combustion chambers, rockers, valves, etc. Maybe my dream of taking on "Farmtruck" in the 1/8th mile just need to stay a dream.
 
Iirc, you can add a leaf up front and go from ez ride to HD.
 
bp71k5 said:
It's more about the height on my front springs. A few inches lower and my exhaust crashes into the front axle housing. I guess I have to do new exhaust anyway.
Click to expand...
I was trying to keep the weight down. Like @diesel4me mentioned the 454 isn't that much heavier. My searching came up with 150lbs. I tried to do as many little things as I could to save weight; aluminum intake & water pump were the main things. Plus I figured running headers saved a few pounds along with a mini starter.

I weighted the crew cab before the swap so I could compare to the weight after with the 454. I haven't weighed it yet but I did measure height to the front fender body line before and after and it has stayed the same. I've done some driving around plus my heavy ass climbing in and out of the engine compartment so the springs should be pretty well settled out. Seems like a good indication the weights might be pretty close to the same.
 
Seeing you deleted a lot of weight by using an aluminum intake and the lighter mini-starter,water pump,and the emissions stuff,I bet the 454 weighs very close to the small block it had now..

Even if you left the 454 as it was,150 lbs is "nothing",most people weight that much--think of it as having another passenger on board..
I cant really detect any difference in ride height or quality if I have a passenger in my truck..heck,two batteries would weigh at least 75 lbs if it had dual batteries (optional ,or standard on a diesel)..
The two group 27's I had in my diesel I scrapped after they croaked weighed in at 90 lbs on the scale at the scrapyard..
 
You'll lose about 70lbs going w/ the aluminum heads but cost to lose of weight has to be evaluated as well. Kinda like when your looking for more HP. You need to see the cost to HP gain before ya dive in....

So for around $1K for aluminum heads to save 70lbs...pretty sure you have gut something else in the K5 for get 70 more lbs off. But that's just my thinking...
 
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Hoss7979 said:
You'll lose about 70lbs going w/ the aluminum heads but cost to lose of weight has to be evaluated as well. Kinda like when your looking for more HP. You need to see the cost to HP gain before ya dive in....

So for around $1K for aluminum heads to save 70lbs...pretty sure you have gut something else in the K5 for get 70 more lbs off. But that's just my thinking...
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The more I read about pre-assembled budget aluminum heads the more I'm leaning away from them. Supposedly all the mass produced (I.e. Sub-$1000 heads) need valve work to seal right. So I'm leaning more toward some decent iron heads. Maybe just put a bigger fuel tank in the back to even out the trucks stance. :)
 
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