Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck.

[jetsetw31]

Hello Fellow G- Body owners. I'm jetsetw31. And as the name implies, I'm a die hard Olds FANATIC I'm still pissed GM killed us off, but I know and respect all their motors strengths and weaknesses. But being killed off is a touchy subject with me. :? I've been working on cars (mostly GMs) for about 30 years. I love to learn as much as I can and try to spread the knowledge. No one knows everything!
This is for the engine lovers out there. What are your top 5 favorite engines in GM? I want to hear about it. What are your top 5 favorite Torque monsters? And finally What 5 engines would you say is the best bang for the buck?.
Of course there are rules. 1. Don't even think of mentioning non GM engines. 2. Lets keep it friendly. (Unless you mention a non GM engine ) 3. All GM engines are welcome 4, 6, and 8.
So lets hear what you have to say.

 

[Evan11]

Re: Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck

For me: (1) olds 350 and olds 455 or even any bop 350/455( very reliable with plenty of power to shut most up, great torque) (2) Chevy 327(great low end torque,many had great power, many of them had more Hp than 350's if there day),(2) turbo charged 3.8 Buick(fast,awesome power for the time period, did I mention they were quicker than vettes of them years!) (3) fuel injected 3800 v6(a well built motor built to last, good power and mpg, great motor that gm was stupid to get rid of! (4)350 Chevy(cheap,easy to find parts,reliable,but everyone & their brother has one. My 5th favorite Would be a quad 4, 4cyl. They are some peppy lil things, straight out ricer killers. Invented by the olds team, 1st appeared in fwd olds Calais, then 89 up grand am's. I had one, it would simply fly for what it was. Of course, we'll all have different opinions, which is cool.

 

[jetsetw31]

Re: Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck

I'll be happy to start with, My no.1 engine is chevy's 327. I think it's a world beater. I have 2 at my disposal and when finished i would put the main one up against any motor. My no.2 is the Olds 350. I can hear the comments already. The Olds 350 has relatively the same bore /stroke ratio as the 327sbc and in W31 form will embarrass a lot of engines. My no.3 chevy's LS motors. Have to give credit where it's due. It's a great engine. No.4 is the Buick 455 A all around sleeper. Even 454 LS6's could lose a race to this thing. And finally my most controversial no.5 The Olds Quad 4. Why? it was the leader in NA HP for 14 years in HO spec and Still no.1 in W41 spec. Yeah it had its complaints, but non were more than the average of a engine of it's type. And no one ever complained about it's power. All comments are welcome.

 

[jetsetw31]

Re: Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck

My 5 favorite torque monsters in GM. 1. Olds 455. It's my choice because it was crazy underrated. I pulled one from a 75 motor home and dyno'd it. The thing was putting out just under 600 ft lbs of torque. Wish i hadn't sold it. 2. Caddy's 472 and 500. Put a 500 in a 84 Monte SS for a friend. Talk about a sleeper, when he did catch traction, he ran a 11.9 and broke the transmission bellhousing on that run. No mods to the engine, just duals and a torque strap. My no.3 pontiac SD455. it was wasted on the Firebird. The plans to mass produce it and put it in the Grand Am never happened. The 455HO was a bad *ss, but the SD was the monster. Chevy's 502 is my no.4. Bad timing. This motor should have been made in the 70s. My last pick is a small block that acts like a big block. Most underrated engine i ever saw. I swapped one in a 85 Grand Prix. and with no mods (just a new timing chain and fuel pump), even had a single exhaust, and a 350 transmission, this thing ran a no traction 13sec in the quarter. Curious? It was the Buick 350. Yeah a stock Buick 455 would have run faster, But I got the motor for 100 bucks with only 70,000 miles on it and it's only about 60lbs heavier than the V6, even with a iron intake. And it pulled better than my 400 sbc in my 81 Monte.

 

[Mike P]

Re: Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck

The top of the heap would have to be the 500 Cadillac or it’s smaller brother the 472.

In no particular order the next three would be the Buick Olds and Pontiac 455s.

In number 5 it would be the 454 Chevy.

In stock form the Caddy or BOP engines are just flat out torque monsters. Generally speaking they don’t they don’t have extremely impressive HP numbers but they tend to make all their power down is an RPM range that is useable on the street. The 454s (again in stock form) tend to wind up a bit quicker and tighter and are a good engine but personally I just like having have the torque down a bit lower and torque curve a little flatter.

Bang for the buck depends on your perspective. If your talking about in stock form around here I can find the Caddy engines a lot easier cheaper than the BOP 455s, however over the last few years as the supply decreases the 500 Caddy motors are getting more expensive (although the 472 are still relatively cheap, especially if they are still in the car). The 454 are pretty easy to find and fall in the price range between the Cadillac engines and the 455s but again generally they don’t make the torque of the other engines. If you’re going into it looking to do a lot of performance mods, hands down would be the 454, it is flat out the big block best supported by the aftermarket. Performance parts for any of the other big blocks are available, but due to small production runs and limited R&D you will pay the price for them.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not anti BB Chevrolet, but lets face it, it is the most common GM Big Block out there (and for a lot of good reasons), but having something a little bit different also has a big appeal for a lot of people.

 

[DRIVEN]

Re: Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck

Not in any particular order;
1. L79 327. They just got it so right.
2. W41 Quad4. Glad someone else already mentioned it. Revolutionary design. Feuling made over 1200hp with 2.3liters.
3. Buick 455. Such a sleeper. Oversquare makes me smile.
4. Cadillac 500 (1970). No further explanation necessary.
5. 4.3 turbo (Typhoon/Syclone). Proof that GM can make even the lame 4.3 fast if they made an effort.
6. DZ 302. Underrated and full of potential. Smokey made over 500hp with over the counter parts for a HotRod article in 1969.

Yeah, I know there's 6 but I couldn't narrow it down.

 

[pencero]

Re: Top 5 GM favorites. in Torque, Hp, and Bang for the buck

I think the 3800 is definitely the best engine made during its century. I had one and except spark plugs never had to do any maintenance besides oil change, which it never burned a drop of and also never used it's coolant either bc the engine ran so smooth the fan was good enough. Also, I had the n/a version so when the car didnt charge right due to an old batt. terminal cable all I had to do was run w the car forward in neutral jump in and it would crank while rolling, then switch to drive and give it some rpm's and I was gone *_^

2nd of all ... nobody has mentioned the vortec 4300 v6 which is an obvious 2nd best in terms of reliability, although a lot of people would reverse the order of my top 2 choices^ I have heard about the 'spider' fuel system problem but it never happened to me or my buddies we all had blazers around the same time clocking over 120,000 miles one of them 185k w/o this issue so I believe that issue is more rare than people exagerate it

3rd... no I'm not going to say 350 b/c I'm tired of seeing them to be honest they are fantastic but I'd rather hear a 383 stroked out any day by the right engine builders sounds what can only be described w the adjective 'magnificent' especially when you live in Indiana where there are plenty of '383s' built by questionable sources, so you have that comparison of crap to the real deal and know a good one when you hear it (not see it, hear it )

4th my dad's 6.0 litre Firebird w/ the 403 engine sounded very nice and made a minor impact on my childhood. It was very powerful but for a guy w/ kids it was practical too bc it wasnt putting out that top end hp that gets people that speeding ticket in a moment of getting carried away!

I'll stop at 4 because it's a tie between the vortec 5.7 I had and L05 for last place. They were both engines that I should have had a fantastic experience w/ , but due to irritating security features (vats), oxygen sensors, and worn trans being behind both of them I'd have a hard time choosing which one I thought was better, since those problems kind of detracted from the exp of owning those engines. My vortec definitely wanted to run on higher octane gas which was probably being caused by a computer error or missing o2 sensor somewhere, while the L05 will chew up the crappiest most BS gas that would make other cars puke and burn it right up smoothly w/o issue. Being po` these days its hard for me to choose between them bc I know the vortec is way better design on paper but I did have a bit of a resentment against the particular one I had for causing me so many electrical problems and wanting to run rich!


6th my 307 terrible not even 150 hp I bet but it gets like 17- 19 a gallon, although the vortec did that with 43 more ci right , so... :lol: