In traditional "mydejavooo" style, I have decided to undertake a project that is sure to garner criticism from some, "who really cares" from others, and maybe a few "hey that's pretty cool"s from others. I am anything if not willing to do anything once, whether the end result be good or bad.....hopefully good in this particular instance. What you will undoubtedly see is ME, floundering here and there....in an attempt to do what some may have already done...and that is a "budget" minded 454 build for my 76 Corvette. This is a car that will never see the racetrack, and really is a car that I am building for my wife. The car has seen better days, no doubts about that, but where I have the will and a rather limited budget...I will be building this up over the next few months, with the idea of having it put together by summer. Whether or not I make it, is really anyone's guess. My wife would like to have the car driveable by this summer...and I think it's a feasible task. Maybe!

I had pulled the 74 350 truck motor that was in it, purchased a TPI motor, but have since chosen to go back to a low-tech approach to this build. It's not that I can't do the TPI swap, but after many "zen" hours spent f-ing around with the 91 F-body 350, I have come to the epiphany that what this car needs, is a 454. Don't ask me WHY I came to that conclusion....but I just did.

So today I traded the old 350 for a 454 engine out of an 85 Chevy truck. The engine looked to be pretty solid....looked being the operative word. There was no expense for the trade, and I figured if anything, I could always sell the engine for a builder-core if it is not worth rebuilding. I have never done a rebuild on my own before, but I have re-ringed an IHC 345 engine before. I have always wanted to mess around with a 454, but have never really had the space to do it in, nor the right opportunity to do so. I am also picking up another 454 and transmission tomorrow from a guy that has had his engine in a Nova, and it's already been rebuilt .030 over with a mild RV cam...so if the first 454 is a flop, I can always recoup my out of pocket expenses.

So here is a picture of what I have to work with. And again....bear in mind that this is really just something to satisfy my own personal curiosity, and maybe others out there are equally curious...I dunno. I like to take stuff apart to see how it's put together, so this should be fun!!













As you can clearly see, it's seen some outside elements, which may be an issue...I dunno. Some cosmetic surface rust is one thing, but internal rust is another animal altogether. Where this particular motor came out of a truck, you can see the huge array of pumps, pulleys, belts, etc.....and it's just a mess. Obviously that will have to go before anything else can be done. So here's the AFTER teardown photos.









Just taking the pulleys and crapola off of the engine reduced the weight by a good 150 pounds!! The engine was covered in dirt and debris, so I wire-brushed as I went, thus removing another 40 pounds of dirt! Ok...perhaps an exaggeration...but you get the idea. Upon removing the exhaust manifolds, I encountered a few "Hmmmm"s. It appears that some water may have gotten into cylinder #1, because I see some flaky rust on in the exhaust port. Not a good sign. Pulled the plugs, and there was rust on the plug too. Again...not good. The very back cylinder on the driver's side is really wet from oil, so I think that there must be a ring or valve seal issue there. The others seem "ok". I also noticed that the harmonic balancer has come apart...which usually means that some component has seized up. Turning the crank bolts with a breaker bar yielded yet another "oh no". It will not turn at all...leading me to believe that the rings may be rusted on that #1 cylinder.

The heads actually look alright, with no sludge or debris present. Rocker arms are as tight as they are supposed to be. I have not pulled the other valve cover yet, but I expect similar results there.

So tomorrow I will be putting the engine on the engine stand, and pulling the intake, heads, and oil pan. This should reveal the source of the stuck crank, and will set the pace for the rest of my meddling. This may prove to be no more than a boat anchor dis assembly thread, but time will tell.

Deja

 

Whoops...forgot to give some technical numbers here...in case anyone cares.

Block Casting #: 14015445 - Gen IV "Hi Perf" block
Block ID#: TF1520994
Head Casting #: 14081045

Deja

 

Heads:14081045...78-87...oval...OPEN...454

Block: 14015445...454.......78-90...2 or 4 bolt

from MorTec

they don't really identify which heads have the peanut ports (ones that really don't flow much)

Looks like you've got a good project going. Nothing like BB power.

 

Hey Deja,

Good luck and keep us all posted!

I love these budget, look what I did in my garage threads! Gives me inspiration as to what mine will actually be like! lol.

I know some guys have the green to chuck at these cars but its great to see what can be done with little or no money, a great forum community and a little desire.

Now, go out and strip some more and let us see what you are working with!

 

Best of luck with your project, it should be fun. If you are ineterested I have a set of redone 781 heads that have had work done to them, never used yet since rebuilt. Since I bought a set of 215's, I won't be needing them. I am sure whichever way you, it will look great when your done............ Tom

 

I bet those are PP heads, not bad for a budget build but since they have to be rebuilt you might as well look for some large oval heads. It will give you better options down the road. If you stick with low compression I'd use these parts:
750 vacuum secondary carb
Edelbrock RPM intake
Cam with 220-225* @ .050" lift and 108* LSA. Summit sells a couple with these specs.
1.75" headers

 

I look forward to updates, many of us have the same mentality, esp. during this "great" recession!

 

454 of anything is lots. $454, 454 people, 454 Hooters Wings, 454 bottles of beer on the wall. 454 cubic inces, now that is a lot of cubic inches. You could burn rubber at idle. Good luck with your project becaues deep down we all know that it's torque that is king on the street. Instead of racing Mustang 5.0s in the quarter, just tow one, uphill, with the AC running, in the quarter. I drove a duramax turbo diesel pickemup once, don't ever do that unless you have about $35k in the bank. It's like cocaine, one hit and you are addicted. Do they have a clinic for torque addiction. How about torque and sex addiction? Can I bring my car magazines?
Bee Jay

 

Keep us posted, and definitely keep those pics coming.

 

Searched YouTube to find out how this motor would sound and what it can do in it's stock configuration......found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6jab...eature=channel . The straight pipes make it pop a little, but there is still no mistaking the BB sound! Plus.....if it can light up 4 tires in a 1-ton, 4-door crew cab pickup truck....just THINK of what it can do in a car that MUST weight about 2000 pounds less. (Big grin!)

Ok...off to tear off the intake manifold and heads!! Wish me luck.

Deja

 

Nothing like a Big Block for visual impact. You won't regret it. Good luck!

Marty.

 

I like the way your going about this. How did you say the Zen effect!
Laid back attitude. Makes me feel better about trying to do one also.
A friend of mine lives in NE OK and has a running 427 in his farm truck that he might want to sell. I may have to give him a call.
Keep up the good work.

 

BBC's are always cool. My first engine build at age 20 was a 454 I pulled out of a 70 Chevelle; built it and installed it in a 70 Camaro. It ran low 13's @ 110 mph with the 3:08 gears. I used an engle cam with a 510 lift and i think a 280 ish duration. Well it was 34 years ago and i mostly recall how much fun that BB was.

I cant wait to see how your build work out!

 

Any specific plans for this now that you have an Idea of what the short block condition is?

 

You dont me a Tall Deck do you?

 

I did a 74 vette with a 427 BB. It went very smooth. I purchased most of my brackets and pulleys from Dr. Rebuild and his catalog has excellent exploded views of the brackets. Other than that it was motor mounts, electric fans and headers

 

As promised (to myself) I burrowed into the engine this afternoon...right after I made a pitstop at Lowes to get another 9/16" socket. Trust me when I say that not all sockets are created equally, and the $20 full set of 1/2" drive sockets do well for the most part, but the torque on the head bolts was just more than the little feller could handle, and gave up the ghost in a puff of stripped socket material. So a $40 set of Kobalts is now in my hot little hands, and they work very nicely.

So with my tongue held in the right way, all bolts were set free. Happy days. And in a "clank" the head came off.......and revealed......well......take a look for yourself.











Here's where it starts getting interesting....if you could call it that.





Any idea what THIS is??











And the head area of the #1 cylinder....



So as you can see, I clearly located the reason why the crank would not rotate by hand. I'm almost certain that the rings are rusted to the cylinder wall. It's due for a good dose of PB Blaster in order to see if I can unstick the rings. I still need some bolts in order to get her on the engine stand, and the other head has to come off. I don't expect the bad things there like on the left side. Not nearly the scale and rust. It's a good think I didn't pay good money for this engine, or I might be put off by this.

I picked up the other engine today as well. I talked with the former owner about it, and it sounds like it's a "stock" motor with 8.5:1 compression, very mild RV cam, rebuilt heads, short oil pump and pan, and 30K on the rebuild. It's anchored to the trans, and I managed to pickup both for $500. Not too shabby, and the core is worth that much.

Someone asked about my intentions with the first motor.....at this point I really can't say. I need to see if I can get the crank to rotate first, and then check the condition of the crank and bearings. The cam looks "ok", with no flat lobes...but one is a little on the dark side...the #1 cylinder. I am not sure why the cylinder would fill up with that large ball of ??. It looked like a ball of rust, but broke up real easy. I had thought that perhaps the head gasket had failed, and water sat in the cylinder. I will also be checking to see if there are any cracks in the block. Perhaps it will be hot tanked and magna-fluxed....if I decide to even build this one.

Can someone give me an idea of the cost to have the crank turned or even just polished if it's ok, the block hot tanked, and new cam bearings installed? I will see if the cylinders need bored. I've not had any machine work done before.

More to come...stay tuned!

Deja

 

Aw man, take that thing to the lake and give it the floatation test. Toss it in, if it floats bring it back home with you. If it sinks, it was a witch and needed to die.
Bee Jay

 

Yeah....it was a sad sight to see. What I THINK happened, is that it sat outside and water filled the intake manifold, and flowed into the #1 cylinder. You can even catch a glimpse of the water line on the piston. Now WHERE all of that material came from, is anyone's guess...because there was handful of the stuff! I'm not sure if it can be salvaged or not. If it can, it would need to be bored out, maybe .030 over, to get rid of the inevitable rust ring that is most likely a permanent part of the cylinder wall. And I have yet to take the pan off to see how much damage there is there, but I would almost guarantee that water has seeped past the rings and down into the pan. Bearings are most likely ruined as well. Such is life.....and it's far too short to get all fired up about it.

Deja

 

She sure is dirty...., but hopefully will clean up nice. I am about to start a similar build.
Look forward to hearing and seeing your progress.
Think about that very first pic and then the day you turn the key on it for the first time. That will be cool..
Good luck...