What is the most limiting part on this motor in order..My preliminary plan is a carb,intake,camswap..Either that or headers and install the engine/harness as is..I cant afford to take the heads apart yet though.Headers would the most economical but for now I dont want a wimpy BBC

Engine is out..1990 454 from an SS truck..rated at 230Hp and 385 lbs/ft of torque..It comes with the TBI,exhaust manifold and the harness etc..

Daz

 

Cam, intake and carb will wake that engine up a lot.

 

He has a Marine crate that he got from a chevy dealer when the dealer swapped the 2 454s (150 hours freshwater) for 502s in his boat. My buddy worked as a mechanic there and he did some stuff to it. He put on:

alum Merlin intake (120 new)
Cast iron Merlin heads (400 dollars used)
Crane cams energizer cam w lifters (99 dollars)
GM Roller rockers (300 bucks)
True Dual exhaust.
750 Vac secondary holley. Needs more carb though. He thought it was ignition but wasn't. He added an MSD 6 HEI kit with box coil and cap, but that didn't help stumbling above 4500RPMs. Can't feel stumbling but you can hear the engine wanting more.
He has a new electric fuel pump, so its not that.
New Monroe shocks and struts, new front and rear sway bars.

He has a 3 speed tranny in there, but has a 4 speed OD tranny with proper stall.

He wants to sell it. The inside is bare except for center console, new Carpet, door panels, and summit alum dash w water, oil and volts gauges. Has a 5in tach w **** light.

He works at a body shop now in Orange county NY. It is primer gray ready for paint, comes with both tranny's. it was inspected and passed.
3000 firm. Seems to me that it is a good buy. Power windows and such.
PM me if you are interested. He was thinking on painting it up and selling on ebay.
--Dan

 

At least it's still a Mark IV block. Ditch the intake, TBI and wiring harness and make it a mechanical engine. You should have no problem selling the TBI. It's huge compared to SBC TBI's. Install a performer rpm intake and a 750 carb. Vacuum secondaries will be better for the street.

The factory cam's not that great. The engine is extremely de-tuned from the factory to meet emissions. Drop in an Xtreme Energy cam.

What's the casting numbers on the heads?

The engine is very low compression. 7.9 - 8.1 max. You're not going to get a lot of performance from that but will have no problems running low octane pump gas.

www.454ss.com can tell you a lot of information about the factory engine.

 

it came out off a 90 454SS pickup..I was told that they have the oval port(not the peanut)..hmm I wonder what a tiny 50HP plate system do to it?I have no idea what castings they are(yet)
Daz

 

Rut roh........

 

My 91 454SS uses a GenV block. It's the same HP rating as the 90's but uses a different transmission and rear end gearing. The truck weighs 4600 pounds and usually runs low 15's. With a 100 shot of NOS I've run low to mid 13's.