I am swapping out the wore out 454 for a 502. My question is will the stock distributor work? It does not have the crank sensor on the front cover. Can I take the reluctor ring off of the 454 and use that? Also what do I need to eliminate from the 454 sensors to the 502?
502 swap
- Thread starter Bwear
- Start date
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WHAT VEHICLE? WHAT MODEL YEAR?
A 454 distributor should drop right into a 502. If this is a Vortec 454, you'll need the crank sensor to get ignition. Either that, or you use an older, non-Vortec distributor likely without computer control (although I could imagine a TBI distributor or even an old coil-in-cap 7-pin module unit being kludged into the wire harness.)
"It" meaning the 502?
If your 454 has a crank sensor, you'd better plan to transfer it to the 502. That means sensor, reluctor, front cover, and probably the torsional damper from the 454 need to be on the 502.
If you're planning to gut the computer control of the engine, you wouldn't need some or all of the engine sensors and computer outputs...but then you'll have to play games to get the transmission to shift properly.
Wild Guess: You're WAY better-off to transfer everything from the 454 to the 502 in terms of sensors and outputs, and then pay someone to "tune" the computer so it works with the added displacement.
You'd better talk to the folks you buy it from, to see how much of the warranty you void by changing parts (damper, front cover, etc.) to use it in this application.
