I was thumbing through the local classifieds in the Auto Parts section, just seein whats out there and came across this deal:

454 BIG Block, bored .060 fresh, two bolt main, large oval port 049 heads, PS, AC, etc needs rebuild, $250


I saw that and nearly crapped my pants. See, my cosuin had a Big Block 87 IROC Camaro that me him and our other cousin assembled. Its what inspired me to get into Camaros, 3rd Gens especially. He put a 396 w/ TH400, Performer intake, Performer carb, and painted and chromed it under the hood big time, really nice. Primer black, small cowl hood, T-tops and man it would roll. Talkin you punched it and it would leave 30 ft black marks easily at 3/4 throttle, it was a monster (to me). Basic posi, nothing special, but it was fast, I never got to see it in action at the track but when he raced my stock LG4, he gave me a full car length head start and the strip was like a quarter mile. When we crossed the finish line, he had like 2-3 cars on me maybe more.

Anyways heres my dilemma. Called the guy about it and he said it was in pieces, just needed reassembling. Stock crank, rods, pistons, etc. So, I mean I would make this my winter project motor, slowly build it up....is this motor worth it? the heads any good (from what you can tell)? I know you can make the same HP out of a small block mainly but just to go to a car show and pop the hood, people ask "What you runnin under there man?" I say 454 and people are all askin how I got it to fit and such....plus Ive got a dual carb intake for a BBC so thats another plus...and the cool factor

What do you think? Is it worth it? Or should I just keep on pushing the little SBC 305 along, buy a 350 for 300-400 bucks and drop it in now, or just snag that Big Block right now and start putting it together piece by piece, prepping it for the next race season, while the 305 keeps the Camaro chugging along? Any advice is good

 

It's too cheap....

I'd be willing to bet it has The Starter Problem.

But, it's a good risk; you can pick up a naked 454 block easy enough, and the rest of the parts are worth that much, if they're any good. And, even if you can't use it, put it together and re-sell it, at a profit.

Of course, it's anybody's guess whether you'd be able to use the PS and AC it supposedly comes with.

Better call him quick.

 

Whats The StarterProblem? And is that .060 block unusuable? I thought it could be sleeved and be allright? Just curious

 

The Starter Problem = where they drilled the starter bolt holes too far from the crank

About 1 in 4 or 1 in 3 of all 70s blocks have it; 6-cyl, SBC, BBC, all of them. The gang-drill machine that did it, must have drifted off sometime around 1971, and GM finally discaovered what was causing the problem and fixed it around 1980; so blocks from in that time frame are liable to have it. I have a car with a 454 that had it so bad, it broke a starter completely off of the block.... like, I hit the key, and the starter fell to the ground. You've heard cars that have it, you just might not have known that's what you were hearing; it makes a horrible grinding and squeeeking kind of noise, like gears with no lube on them meshing incorrectly (which is of course exactly what's happening); and the engine turning over VERY slowly. You can hear it from a couple of hundred yards away.

If you ever see a motor for sale that's been run, looks good, nothing wrong with it that you can see that would have taken it out of service; and the owner makes some kind of weak lame-*** excuse about why it's for sale; and it's WAY too cheap, then there's a good possibility that that's why. I've seen it more times than I care to recount. This one smells like it's going to be one of those.

454s will go to .060" about 80% of the time. People call that a "468". I wouldn't worry about it, if the cyl walls are in good shape.

I'd sell that dual 4-bbl intake to somebody with a street rod, and get a Performer RPM or something. It's for somebody that wants looks and doesn't care about performance. The car will go faster and cause you far less trouble with a single Holley HP950 on it.

 

More than .060", is what our good-ol'-boy engine builder says. 1/8" is usually no problem - really thick cylinder wall castings on 454's.

Or so he says...

You didn't describe the "cure" for "The Starter Problem".

 

I'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

 

I say go for it!

 

Hell if all the machine work is truely done I'd say go for it, thats a hell of a deal unless theres something about it hes not tellin ya..