205hp Buick 455 from 1976

I've found a local Buick 455 for sale for a pretty decent price. It's a 1976; apparently that's the lowest HP 455 they made. Rated at 205hp & 345torque. I was wondering what a decent cam & headers would do to wake this thing up. Would it be choking until the heads were replaced? Doing the least for the cheapest isn't always the answer, but sometimes the results can surprise. Anybody have any thoughts on how this engine will respond to mods?  

the heads will make or break the motor  

The pistons are also low compression. So you'll probably be capped compression wise at 8.5:1 even with good heads. You'll want good pistons too.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

Do you have any thoughts about how this engine will respond with basic/cheap changes? Cam & headers and maybe intake & carb. How much will those HP & torq #'s change? 345lb.ft. isn't bad.  

You'll want to do a cam change first and fore most. If Buick engineers designed they're engines like Pontiac did in the mid-70's the cam is the limiting factor.  I think CC did an article of bolt on's to a '76 Pontiac 455, the engine hardly responded to any of the bolt ons.  Then they swapped the cam with the bolt on's in place and the engine picked up over 100Hp with the cam swap.

Pick a cam like in the recent CC article, (TA 112?) and that ought to wake the engine up quite a bit. Then work on bolt-ons.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

Thanks for the input. Anybody else out there that's worked with a wheezing/detuned 455?  

I would replace the distributor advance weights and springs as well as put an adjustable vacuum advance canister on it too. I did this to a 78 Buick 350 and it works pretty well everything else stock including EGR and thermal vacuum switches. A cam like the other poster said would probably wake it up nicely but not before doing your distributor.  

without going into the bottom end you are limiting your self to 4500-5000 rpm MAX. but with an overdrive trans. and 3.40-3.70 rear gears this eng. combo is reliable and has good power/torque. With under .475 cam lift you need a good valve job but you need decent springs.stock rocker&shafts are fine at this lift but put in new buttons and inspect tips of rockers for wear & shafts for cracks.Any more lift you'll start spending money.Read the article they just did (carcraft) about their 455 build up.I suggust you use the dual plane intake with a quadrajet carb. 750/780 cfm at least. mine is a low profile single plane offy with a spread bore holley double pumper.it works great but i'd like to try the dual plane with my carb. you don't need hedders yet either.a clean set of duals 2.5 inch is enough. can you say 87 octane.  

I just recently bought a couple of '76 Buick 455's. from reading this thread i can see that they dont make increadable power in stock form with all the A/C and emissions srap weight on them. What i am wondering is if anyone knows approxamately how much hp and torque it will have after removing emissions, A/C copressor, and the fan (i run an eletric)I also have the exhuast opened up to 2.5in with glasspacks. Also what carb would be better to run on it? i have the factory Quadrajet, a 600 cfm vaccume secondary holley, and a GM list number Holley 3310 (780 cfm i do believe). if one of the Holey carbs are better what size jets would be best on the stock build.  

maybe another 15hp.you need alot more than that to even notice it  

A/C hardly kills any power unless on, Fan Clutch's kill negligable power, especially on a less than 300Hp combo.  Emissions stuff kills negligable power at WOT as well. The EGR closes off at WOT so you are looking at only the friction of the Smog pump which if hooked up properly (and I recall right) bleeds off most the air it's pumping at WOT through the breather on it to minimize loading up the engine. Or simply cutting the belt reduces it to a simple weight penalty.  And weight penalties have no bearing on the HP of the engine.

You need a cam, some compression and some air flow.

I just bolted an A/C compressor back on my car last weekend in the trek for by Spring to have a working A/C system.  If my SPX intake had provisions for an EGR I'd probably hook it up too with computer control for the low speed drivability. I'm not worried enough about CO to think about a smog pump.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

I was just curious what i might gain with that. The A/C was pulled cause the box was smashed when i first changed the motor in the car from a natural aspirated 231 to a 350 buick small block. any thoughts on what carb would be better on it? I have had some bad luck with the quadrajets before. so i was considdering switching to one of the Holley's though i know they would need re jetted. seeing as they were set up for the 350.  

I'm a Q-jet guy and can't recommend any other carb.  Funny enough I was just telling some people that so far with my EFI my Highway mileage hasn't been able to beat the highway mileage of the not even attempted to tune for the engine Q-jet (since I intended to only break the engine in with it, ended up putting 8,000 miles on the engine with it =P ), the mpg is the exact same.  But the drivability is 10x better as well as the cold running and probably my around town mileage.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

dude,rebuild the factory Q-jet.get the book. read the book,read it again.if your not in your comfort zone, buy one from a Jet rebuilder.second choice is your spread bore Holley w\high of 76-78 jets.but if your not comfortable building a Q-jet leave the holley alone and get a Q-jet.
O.K your not making a lot of power but you ARE making a buttload of torque.Horsepower will take you over the mountain.BUT Torque will move the Mountain.  

If you want the best out of the 3 use the 3310 holley.  
Professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells Engines and torque wins races.