It is just trash the 3rd pic is actually pretty clean that’s some dirt from an old rag I used to sop up some oil I poured in
Olds 455 With some rust in cylinder
- Thread starter Wesleey
- Start date
- Status
I’m going to grab some steel wool and some naval jelly and scrub it now that I took the pistons out and post some more pics dropping it off Monday at a machine shop hopefully they can just hone it my crank needs work however as one of the rod bearings wore out bad causing some light scratches on the journal
No, not a 455 with heavy pistons and stock rods having bottom end issues, never heard of that😉. Make sure they put adequate clearance on the journals. Some of the Big Block Olds guys will tell you what is ideal.
IMO it looks like the rust is below where the rings bottom out. If you get the cylinder wall smooth enough, even if it is slightly pitted you should not get any more side wear on the piston skirts than any in any of the other cylinders. Even if a small portion of the pitting is a LITTLE above the rings, as long as there is nothing for the rings to catch on and wear, it shouldn't affect performance. By that far down in the stroke, all of the work is done.
The Speedpro forged pistons are very heavy and Olds "forged" rods are soft like bendy straws. Add in large bearing sizes and a heavy crank in a marginal block, it requires careful planning. Olds 455's need the right clearances and upgraded, lighter and stronger parts where possible to live long lives seeing higher rpm. Speedpro pistons on stock rods will require larger than stock clearance and the rpm kept as low as possible.
Yet somehow hundreds of thousands were produced and put in everything from jet boats to motorhomes to muscle cars to 98s and managed to survive. I guess those guys were all just really, really lucky.
I've said it here before, and I'll go ahead and say it again. I had several friends with 455 Olds (I was a 455 Buick man myself) and the best that they had at the time was beam polished stock rods with ARP bolts, TRW forged pistons, and a balance job. These guys showed zero concern for these engines in that the most conservative of them shifted at 5500rpm with a 230-ish duration cam. I never once saw an issue with any of them. Oh and I forgot to mention the pounds of nitrous that these guys ran with zero computer controlled help.
Another friend (a Chevy guy) had a jet ski boat with a 455 Olds (with beautiful aluminum exhaust manifolds) and I spent miles and miles and miles and miles in that boat at 4100rpms cruising.
Nothing wrong with these engines that isn't wrong with others. When you pass 1hp per cubic inch on any stock engine you will find the week point, be it valve springs, rod bolts, oiling, you name it. Just like the old "when you hit 500hp with a 5.0 Ford it will split the block in half" BS. 99.9% of the people passing this BS along have never owned a 5.0 Ford, not to mention a 500hp 5.0 Ford.
Put it together and go hammer down. Rebuild it if you aren't happy.
- Status
Similar threads
