I'm currently gathering information about the impending BBC swap and I here mixed reviews about the the 454s in circulation regarding the standard and tall deck versions. My overall goals are to accomplish ~650rwhp through a standard transmission in a primarily street car.

Now my question is this, for performance purposes which would be the best way to go and why? I also plan on stroking it to achieve my goals.

I have found a complete early 70s engine with a standard deck for $550, snag it or let it pass?

 

I would avoid tall deck big block simply because of the fitment problems in the car.

 

There's a lot of work to rebuild a tall deck. You need to change just about everything. The deck is .400" taller than a short deck because it's a truck engine. The truck engines have pistons with one more compression ring. This bigger and heavier piston needed the taller deck. The taller deck allows for more stroke when building a new engine however as mentioned above, it becomes more difficult to install in a third gen. Add in some aftermarket heads with raised exhaust ports and header fitment becomes even more difficult.

Buying a used engine is always risky. If it can be heard running, it might be a good deal. There are a lot of different castings for BBC parts. Not all are worth the money for a performance rebuild. Without knowing if there's any damage to the engine or what any of the castings are, to me it's only worth $200 as potential parts and I already have lots of spare BBC parts in my garage.

A complete running engine, that's never been rebuilt, including accessory brackets and having worthwhile castings should be worth $600-$800. If it's been rebuilt, how many times has the block been bored, line honed etc? The more machine work that's been done to it, the less it's worth.

 

If I you are going to rebuild the engine anyways, I wouldn't pay $550 for it. Sometimes you can find them for free. I recently got a Mark IV complete engine (minus oil pan) for free, but it needs an overbore and complete rebuild. But I would have done that anyways. I got it from someone who only bought it to take the $500 oil pan off. You just have to know who to ask and where to look.

Early 70's enigne means nothing. That could be an LS-7, and you could make your 650 HP with the stock heads, or it could be some crappy truck motor with peanut port heads. Post up the block and heads casting numbers.

It could be worth $600-$800 if you plan on re-using many of the parts on it to accoplish your goals, but if all you want to re-use is the block, maybe $200

 

I think the price can change radically by geographical location. If you live in the land of plenty, like Washington state (I lived there for 28 years), the prices will be cheap. In Illinois almost 100% of the older cars are off the road because of rust. You will pay a whole lot more for a big block back here. The OP lives in PA and it probably isn't much different.

 

Thanks tremendously for the above information.

The prices locally around here are insane (up to 1200 for a complete UNTOUCHED bbc). The 550 is for a checked and completely dissassembed but other wise untouched engine. I will look into the casting numbers to find out what it was originally but the reason I jumped on here with a lack of info is mostly because one I find it difficult to locate a std 454 and two this is where the real knowledge is without having to double check everything.

The fitment issues with a tall deck escaped my mind and thanks for reminding me of that fact, I was a little ahead of myself. And to the know where to look aspects, all I have checked are craigslists, papershop and local yards (which have been little help). Working two jobs gives me little time to scout about. Where would be the best place to look?

 

The cost to buy a used engine to just use as a replacement isn't bad however you're going to want to rebuild it to something that you want. The cost to rebuild an engine can skyrocket to much more than you expect. The cost of parts, pistons, bearings etc is expensive enough but when you add in all the machine shop work, by the time you're done, it can be easier and probably cheaper to just buy a new crate engine.

Your $550 deal, if rebuilt properly, should cost a few thousand dollars before it's completed. Depending how much work it needs and what you want to do to it, expect to spend around $5000 to get it finished. If you just want a bone stock engine under the hood then it won't cost as much but then you're also doing a lot of work for the swap to keep it bone stock.