Buick 455 into 4th Gen. Firebird/Camaro, baaaaahahahhahahhaahahah!!!

Anyone swap a Buick 455 into a 4th Gen F body Firebird/Camaro? Yall might remember my last project of swapping a Buick 350 into a Caprice, still running good. Now, big brother is about to get prepped for instalation into a 4th Gen. Firebird! Should be interesting.  

that ought to be a good challenge.   theres not much room in there.   put some pics up if you figure out how to shoehorn that motor in there.  

Parts are on the way, re-ring kit and a Lunati Voodoo cam kit(68001). Stinkn Edelbrock intake jumped way up in price which sucks. Plugn away at it though!  

Got the grooved TA cam bearings. I think I should order the oil pump booster kit too.  

Have to get a non E 700R4 tranny. Might have to take the one behind the 350. Anyone try to make one of those 4L60E tranny work without a computer?  

Parts are all in except camshaft. Have to wait on that to install the cam bearings.

The gasket set I got came with the rope seal for the rear main.

Has anyone used the neoprene seal on the 455 Buicks?  

your gonna have a mean ride when you get done.   id love to see some pics when you get the motor in there.  

I've had pretty good luck with a cadillac 360-500 rear main, and I now have a T/A no trip rear main that doesn't leak either.

I bet this swap is one of the easier into a 4th gen.  The distributor is in front  and the engine itself is rather compact compared to the other big blocks.  
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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. '69 Firebird replaced!

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

Update: Got the cam bearings from TA Performance, you know the ones that come with a little piece of paper in the box called "instructions"? Well, local shop put em in for me and wouldnt you know it but they were indexed all over the place except the way the instructions read! What to do, what to *** Go online to that shopping place that starts with an A and is the name of some wonderful river women and order a cam bearing tool, L* brand for a good ole $140. Got the tool in and made in China on it, DRAB! Sorry, if you know of one that is made in the USA for around the same price then let me know in case I want to buy other tools.

Anyways, the tool is real nice with nice soft rubber like sleeves that dont score up the bearings like the local shop did with their turned aluminum dirt empregnated ones did. Knocked the bearings back out and put em back in THE CORRECT WAY mind ya and slid the cam in and wouldnt you know it, not one bit of bind unlike the, yep, you got it.

Lesson: if you want it done correctly, just do it yourself!

Got the rest of the parts, bearings, rings and gaskets. I did order the TA P- rear main seal which should be in later this week along with other stuff. I will drop the crank in once that stuff arrives. Its a gitn thar!  

I should start taking pics. Would be nice to look back on.  

I bought a cam bearing tool after TWO machine shops refused to install them, saying they didn't like the directions.  Afterwards I heard from other Buick guy's that they either had the same experience I did or you did.  
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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. '69 Firebird replaced!

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

The TA Cam bearings work correctly when indexed per the instructions, right?

Not sure how the it works cuz the holes in the bearings do not line up with the feed hole for the mains or the lifter passage.

Last two parts I hope will be a timing chain and an intake. No preference on the chain and gears yet but looking at the Edelbrock intake.  

3 and 7 o'clock right? I've installed them twice, once for two years then they looked good when I pulled the engine, but when I dropped the engine off at a machine shop to bore the pistons out he said he had to take the bearings out because the hot tanking or something would partially eat them anyways.  So I put another set in.

They work by keeping oil pressure in the main feed passages instead of in the lifters and rockers. Lifters and rockers don't need much oil. Then it applies the oil pressure that does feed the cam journals to the 3 and 7 o'clock spots as supposibly with the rotational shearing of the oil and with the lifter forces TA has determined the ideal spot to introduce oil pressure were at 3 and 7 o'clock.  I'm sure there was a bunch of engineering and testing that went into that design.  
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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. '69 Firebird replaced!

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

Thanks SilverBuick! I would like to see a video of that injected 455 you have.  

No problem.

Here is the most recent video I'd taken, back in May. I forget why I took it, but it was right before I tore the engine down and bumped the compression, bigger cam (roller) and aluminum heads. I think the mic in my camera is going out  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5XgziOZIHg

This one is from right after I got it running with said upgrades, but it's only of the rear and the exhaust, doesn't show the engine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxFKO-lmNQE

And going back to April 2009 when I first put this engine in with a Q-jet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CozGE4VQC9Y

I'm due for a new video, I just converted to a crank trigger and it's been a while.  
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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. '69 Firebird replaced!

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