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Stupid reliable

Just a thought, but a carb/tbi 454 will last just as long as an equivalent 350. Its basically the same thing, just larger. And the parts are just as available for the most part. And really not that much more expensive for basic parts, waterpump, fuel pump, gaskets, ect. Rebuild or speed parts are more expensive, but its bigger, so thats part of it.

An LS I wouldnt trust for the end of the world thing, way to much crap to go wrong on them if EFI. A carb version wouldnt be so bad though.
 
I love the 454. However, my last carbed big block ate a cam. I swapped in a new one but sold it before I could put a lot more miles on it. Prob only a few thousand miles before I sold it.

My old vortec 454 made a lot of valve noise at start up. Had the wonderful leaking intake gasket too. 140+k on that one before I traded it in...loved the performance and got 8 city / 12-13 highway
 
62 fat guy said:
if you're not in a hurry, I'd go 6.2l diesel...:pimp:
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:doah:yeah....I pulled my 6.2 out when it puked water and fuel at my inlaws 'junkyard'. I barely had "WHAT the F*CK?!?" out of my mouth when my wifes cousin said he just got a 350 that we could slap right in. I had a sh*tload of work coming and wanted NO downtime. Never even investigated why the thing puddled....regretting it now....
 
The reason I questioned the tbi454, is that there are quite a few around here that are 200k plus, and I know of three that are 300-320k (they are tired but still gettin it done).

There are also lots of 6.2/6.5 trucks around here, and only one that I can think of that has made it over 200k (and it has had NOTHING done to it). the rest all have exciting stories of different engine failures.

around here, atleast a couple times a month, there will be a 6.2/6.5 truck on craigslist that needs an engine.

for me for ultimate dependability (and total all around usefullness), it is tbi 350, or 6.9/7.3 ford.
 
My TBI 350 and 454 have been great. My 454 I put together and has gave me a few problems here and there, but its not finished and I expected that. The 350 on the other hand has never missed a beat besides a waterpump and intake gasket.

These TBI's can run with just about every sensor out on them. Limp mode will get you home. It wont do burnouts, but it will putt putt all the way home. Hardest thing I ever had to diagnose minus a scanner was a tiny vacuum leak on the base gasket. Took forever to find it because your mind always tricks you into the most expensive fixes first.
 
If you have a tbi 454 replace the timing gear, it is plastic coated aluminum that eventually fails and takes out push rods and bends valves

Which is the only reason I got my suburban for free, so I'm not that mad:whistle:
 
I didn't trust using any high mileage engine that never had the timing chain and gears replaced,after having one jump time about an hour away from home...the tow back cost more than fixing it did,and it died in a bad spot of course,put me in danger...had 2 fiber cam gears on straight sixes fail on me too,but they had over 150K on them and it was my own fault for not replacing them before trusting them far from home..
 
diesel4me said:
I didn't trust using any high mileage engine that never had the timing chain and gears replaced,after having one jump time about an hour away from home...the tow back cost more than fixing it did,and it died in a bad spot of course,put me in danger...had 2 fiber cam gears on straight sixes fail on me too,but they had over 150K on them and it was my own fault for not replacing them before trusting them far from home..
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Don't know why gear drives weren't the standard. I've always wanted to throw a kit on. I bet I should be tossing a new chain on, and the above are all the reasons why :D
 
IH motors were all gear drive cam, like the 345 that came in a Scout II. These were all 300k motors on carbs, would easily be more on EFI. Many were documented over 500k.

What kills them is same that kills all flat tappet cam motors today, oil has no Zinc and Phousphoruos as it was taken out and all new motors are roller cam.
 
Also, cant use gear drives on knock sensored motors (read any EFI engine), the noise from the gear drive sets off the knock sensors. And, 75% of daily drivers are 9 to 5rs that would find it annoying.
 
Some 366 & 427 BBC engines came factory with gear driven cams,ones put in C-60 and larger chassis up until 1969 or so--they used a reverse rotation camshaft and distributor drive gear too...

I know a guy who put a "3/4 race cam" a friend gave him in his old tall deck truck 427 ,and he called me asking why the dam distributor wouldn't drop into place,when he was ready to button it up and fire it up.....I was baffled at first too,then remembered reading about that in a rebuilding book long ago--if he swapped the right gear onto it,the engine would never have ran anyway,it'd just blow flames out the carb!...

A double roller chain and gears will usually outlive the rest of an engine,and dont cost all that much more...I put Cloyes ones in my engines back when I had a job at parts stores,but have since used cheap three peice timing chain sets with single roller chain and steel cam gear in a few small blocks since then,knowing I wont be going far or putting as many miles on yearly like I did when I was younger...even those will go 50K easy,and thats more than I'd probably drive the vehicle as long as I owned it anyway...

I hate doing the straight six cam gears,it meant either taking the engine out,or removing the grille & radiator,and jacking it up off the mounts so you could hopefully get the cam out,then you had to take it to a shop to press the old gear off and install the new one,and 90% of the time the thrust plate that holds the cam in the block thats trapped behind the gear will crack in two,and finding a new one wasn't easy back in the 80's when that happened to me twice,the dealer had to order one and made me wait 3 days for a 5 dollar part...couldn't find any aftermarket ones then...

I put aluminum cam gears that Sealed Power listed for only a few years (75-77 I think) on a 250 six ,only some heavy duty truck engines had them factory,but they all fit the same ...was more expensive but I hated fiber gears,I dont even know how those even last a week,never mind 150K miles!..:dunno:..
 
Well you can run a gear drive with EFI and a knock sensor. I've done many IH TBI conversions that work fine. They are silent.

But you are right about some aftermarket gear drives. I have no idea what they were thinking when they made them SO LOUD? WTF? I've heard a gear drive louder then open headers?

There was a guy who could not figure out why his EFI ran horrible, I helped on a forum and just could not find anything wrong? He then posted a video of a surge at idle, which was just a small issue compared to how poor it ran. Well as soon as I saw the video and heard the gear drive screaming I knew his knoc retard was maxed all the time.
 
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