so, i know nobody likes newer stuff here and neither do i. but a buddy of mine has this big ass camper, itasca motorhome 78' sitting at his place and told me i can have the 454 in it and trans. so i am peeling this thing apart. i have yet to get the numbers off it to really get a rundown of what kind of 454 i got, guess im just wondering if someone has any idea what i got. ill try to get some casting numbers after work today.
obviously its a smog turd. has all that junk on it for 78, i think its a mark iv W porcupine. i been ripping shit off to try and get to it and its been a pain cutting and yanking stuff off. but i think tomorrow im gonna yank the motor out and update. i got a 37 chev frame i pay stick it on and possibly start a new project like i need one, all i need is a old 32 body to slap on it.
There aren't too many different 454's to worry about. It's a truck and may have a steel crank. Other than that they are good motors to build. Pat
Well, the price was right. Nothing wrong with a '54, cubes is cubes. Do what needs to be done to it, call it good.
indeed, thats what i was thinking, heads and cam. go through it and slap it in something cool. the price was definitely right!! i really havent goofed with big blocks much, always small. so im curious to see what comes of this lug
I had one in a 34' motorhome, it had 20 feet of 3" dual exhaust, and believe me, once you hit the "sweet spot" on the throttle it sounded absolutely beautiful..... I called it my six-ton Corvette.
2 bolt main, cast crank, probably peanut port heads. Nothing special in motorhome 454s. It's what you put in it, that makes it special.
Can't beat the price and if it turns out not so good you can get your money back. Ha! Good swap material also and chances are the trans is a T400, they don't give those away anymore like they used to. Good luck!
ya, i figured it was a win win. i been stocking up on my th400's too! it is one which is nice. thanks ! its actually alot of fun pulling it out because i get to wreck some stuff lol, he said hes digging a hole and burying the camper after all the goodies are taken off. im sure DNR will love that lol
W hat you probably have is your basic truck motor. Nothin wrong with that and unless you are really into bragging about cubic inch displacement it really resembles a 427 or a 396. The heads are probably not real good and may even be peanut port heads, so without a cam and head change it is going to be just your basic stump pulling low RPM motor. But in a light car even with highway gears you should have a pretty good hole shot.
ya i was reading up that a standard thing is a top end upgrade since the 454 had a late start when they came out. emissions and fuel spikes back in the days.
Check the transmission for an overdrive unit added to the tail shaft. A friend just found one in a free camper.
It will have the peanut port heads, low compression pistons, etc. it should be a 4 bolt main, cast crank, standard rods, drop the pan, easy to determine if cast or steel crank, GM made some real good BBC parts, steel cranks, dimple rods, forged pistons, cams, iron oval and square port heads, (flowed well) and alum L88 heads which I had a pair back in the day on a 427+ .060. I built a mild peanut port head 454 + .030 forged pistons, comp 10:1 (I was going to play/experiment with small nitrous kit) cast crank, rebuilt/stock rods, match ported heads/intake, comp cam/kit, blueprinted/balanced for my 32 back around 2007/8 on dyno with a 750 holly, made 425 HP with 550 torque, pretty amazing for not much done to it and not that much money spent (approx $4500) Never did install in my 32, after sitting for several years, sold it, (correction, gave it away, should have let it sit as a shop conversation piece) I might be interested take that boat anchor off your hands if you decide it's not for you.
Where at in WI are you? I may have some goodies around the farm here you may be interested but there is so much you would have to swing by. I’ll keep you in mind Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The later heads are normally not a problem. In motor homes for some reason they used the crappiest heads they could find. One of the things that we sometimes do on our older big blocks is use the lazy open chamber '70s smogger heads to lower the compression a little bit. They can still be made to breath. On that motor which is probably already a lower compression motor you may want to look for the older closed chamber heads to boost your compression a little bit. That perhaps is a jim (@squirrel ) question. He plays with Big Block chevy motors a lot. I can make one run but he doesn't have to think about it to make it work.
Just pulled one out of a similar RV, it was two bolt, cast crank, peanut heads, BUT it has the th475, heavy duty version of the turbo 400. If it has the brake on the back, you can buy a slip yoke to fit it.
Ya once I get this thing out and in front of me, I’ll come back with some info on what we got. And maybe @squirrel you could throw out there what a guy could do for high 500hp I don’t want to throw a ton of money at it but I’d like to make it snappy @porknbeaner I’ll have to look into the lazy heads a bit and see what I can find. May slap trick flow or brodix on it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tell me about this? I never heard of that trans before. So it had a brake on the tail shaft?? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
the 475 has straight cut planetary gears, and a few other goodies. Kind of overkill for most hot rod applications. Do you want the engine to look traditional (late 60s)? or what? do you have some idea of how many miles it will get driven, and under what conditions? And what the intended RPM range is? Or does any of that matter, you just want an HP number?
its hard to say, id prob have it for more driving and tearing around than track days, but would be liking around 6500 for it to stay together. occasional track
Given my options I would go with trick flow if I went to modern heads. I run them on my SBC and they work. I am no expert but I think you'll find that your compression is in the 8:1 range on that mill. If you want an easy 500 hp out of it a cam change a proper valve grind and a 671 is the way to go. You shouldn't even have to get crazy with your boost. If you are not going to huff it you probably don't want the smogger heads you are going to need compression to make your zot. When I suggested smogger heads I was talking about older big blocks that were already on the 10-11:1 range from the factory and need a little less compression to run pump gas.
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