My nephew and I are just starting a 454 83 Camaro build.me and another guy just towed the car to my house a couple days ago.I have seen several 454's for sale but one thing I am unsure of is are there some motors to stay away from ???one guy has one that is seized up, kinda makes me a little nervous.another guy has one out of a 91 school bus.
the intended use is the build it to 496,and make it streetable. nothing to wild but nothing to mild either.Jason (my nephew) wants a nice car to be able to take to car show and I am sure he would like to show of its power a bit lol.this motor would be carbed and 100% natural aspirated,no power adders.just something very fun and reliable.Jason is over in Iraq right now so I am kind of his gopher.


so what castings should I steer clear of?? thanks in advance for any input you guys may have.

 

91 is junk. It's a Mark V engine. GM only made them for a few years before going to the Gen VI engine. They're boat anchors.

You want just about anything from the early 70's to 1990. It's easy to sell any used BBC as a 454 but they're not all 454. Through the late 60's there were no 454 engines only 396, 402 and 427. There are also tall deck truck blocks in either 366 or 427 configurations.

Your best bet is to find a late 70's or early to mid 80's pickup truck engine. It should have 781 casting heads. When buying an engine like this, try to get it with as many accessories and accessory brackets as possible.

I wouldn't spend more than $400 on a BBC engine that doesn't run and even the running ones are not worth more than $1000.

 

ok I just got the casting number from a guy selling a "454" by me however the casting number I.D.ed the motor as a 366.the casting number is 364779.the heads that come with this motor are I guess the ones I want (781 castings) BUT if I can't put a 496 rotating assembly in this block then it is useless to me,or will a 496 rotating assembly work in this block with no more work than a 454 would???? it doesn't look like I can get a big enough bore for one out of a 366 and I am not sure if the 496 crank would fit in the mains??here is a link to where I decoded the casting number.
http://www.roadsters.com/bbc/#blocks

 

The crank fits, but the bore won't go out that far. It's also a tall deck, which doesn't fit will between 3rd gen strut towers.

 

366 is a boat anchor. Not good for anything except putting it back in a 3 or 5 ton truck. It has no performance potential. A good 350 SBC can easily outperform it.

427 and 454 blocks have 4.250" bores. The 366 has a 3.935" bore with a 3.76" stroke. It's actually smaller than a 350's bore. The 454 has a 4" stroke while the 427 has the short 3.76" stroke. A 427T block has good potential because of the larger bore but not the 366T. It would be like trying to build a 305 to compete against a 350. Same money spent for less performance.

The 781 castings are good. Invest to get some 2.19/1.88 valves and do some port and polish work and they'll perform very well on a 454.

Unless you're well educated about BBC, stay away from the tall deck blocks. There's a lot more involved in using them.

See if you can buy just the heads but don't spend more than $200 for the pair.