Swapping engine... 455 or 468?

[JacobSchni]

My buddies dad knows someone with a couple 455 for sale. not sure if would want to build a 455 or stick to my original plan with a 468. im wanting to make around 500+ hp when i build, but i wanna still be reliable. Whats you opinions on building a 455 or a 454?

[geezer#99]

455----Olds or Buick?
Either one needs wiring changes. Starter on other side etc.
Also you need a tranny that bolts up. Different pattern than chevy. Or use an adaptor.
Olds is stronger.
Buick known for weaker block and lower end oiling problems.
Buick does make more torque down low though.

[JacobSchni]

Im not positive, but i believe its olds

[andrewmp6]

What about a turbo small block or a diesel swap?

[Firebirdjones]

Is this a factory big block truck?

Personally, I'd just build the chevy. Less headaches, drops in with no fuss. 500HP is fairly easy to obtain but in a full size truck destined for the street I'd pay more attention to the torque curve and let the HP fall where it may.

I had thought about a diesel swap but thought it would be a shame to ruin a factory big block truck in my case, so I bought a new duramax truck instead.

I've had my 79 1 ton for 20 years, and tow with it occasionally, my wife daily drives it. So when I rebuilt the original 454 I had torque production in mind. I kept compression at 9:1 so there would be no pump gas issues under heavy load and towing in mind, don't want to push the envelope in that regard. I kept the factory heads with pocket port work, bowl blending and mild gasket matching to pick up the flow. An aftermarket dual plane intake would work fine and I ran one for a while, then decided to go back to the factory intake with some heavy mods inside the runners, mostly under the carb changes, and a modified 1" carb spacer that I've had luck with on the dyno, original Q-jet on top with tweaks. Cam is a Melling grind with 460 lift, 218 @ .050 duration and a tighter than stock LSA of 112. 1 3/4 headers and 3" exhaust. Alot of wideband tuning with this setup, distributor recurving etc...and it's full of torque. Stock converter in the 400 turbo and 3.73 gears. It moves this 5300 lbs. truck very nice and has surprised a few people. It was never meant to be a big HP race type build, it drives like stock but has twice the grunt when it was stock and is knocking down 14 mpg.