The Official Vortec 454 Info thread

BNielsen · Dec 31, 2022

Piratehunter said:
The price of that motor is about what I had into machining, rings, bearings, and complete gasket set. So not too bad. The adjustable valve train for the xr270 will be a bit over another $1k. I would see about providing those parts to him and get a bit off the base cost. of course, now it is a custom build. His warranty may not cover you upgrading parts on your own. Part costs are up since I bought them. Shop around, I saved quite a bit sourcing parts myself.

That's what we've been going back and forth on, although one hurdle we've discussed is the heads, he said it's going to be better in the long run to go with aftermarket heads instead of machining the factory ones, and while I'd love to do that, the prices for heads are absolutely ridiculous. I know building a 454 isn't cheap to begin with, but the factory heads respond quite well to a good port/polish, cleaning the runners and a good valve job from what other members have reported.

Piratehunter · Dec 31, 2022

I used to do the all in porting, polishing, bowl cleanup, flow matching on my 7000+ rpm SBC race engines. They made huge power gains through the entire rpm range and way higher power at the top of the range over non-preped heads.
Just my opinion, save your money on the high flow heads. No doubt there are some power gains to be had, but the rpm’s you’ll be operating at most of the time, I personally don’t see the ROI.
That xr270 cam, 36# injectors, headers, and tune has me pulling a camper trailer in 4th gear through the mountains with throttle to spare. I’ve got 5:13 gears which puts me in the middle of the power curve at 70 mph and when I want to pass unloaded on the highway in 5th gear it will still take off when needed.
just my experience though.

Christian Steffen · Dec 31, 2022

BNielsen said:
As laborious as it is to swap a cam in a 454, I figured since this one has close to 200K it's going to be sooner or later something is going to let loose.
And again, turnaround time; I can have a brand new engine built and ready to go in a fraction of the time as pulling this one down, all the good machine shops are 3-8 weeks out on anything, or at least that's what I've deemed justifiable for getting a crate and putting a cam in it.

If wear metals look good on oil analysis, do a compression test to try and get an idea of how worn it is. If everything looks good I'd run it.

BNielsen · Dec 31, 2022

Christian Steffen said:
If wear metals look good on oil analysis, do a compression test to try and get an idea of how worn it is. If everything looks good I'd run it.

I was planning on pulling an oil analysis last oil change but it slipped my mind, next one I'm definitely going to pull a sample.

Piratehunter said:
I used to do the all in porting, polishing, bowl cleanup, flow matching on my 7000+ rpm SBC race engines. They made huge power gains through the entire rpm range and way higher power at the top of the range over non-preped heads.
Just my opinion, save your money on the high flow heads. No doubt there are some power gains to be had, but the rpm’s you’ll be operating at most of the time, I personally don’t see the ROI.
That xr270 cam, 36# injectors, headers, and tune has me pulling a camper trailer in 4th gear through the mountains with throttle to spare. I’ve got 5:13 gears which puts me in the middle of the power curve at 70 mph and when I want to pass unloaded on the highway in 5th gear it will still take off when needed.
just my experience though.

What you're doing is all I want, pulling power and passing power, I know the biggest benefit after cam and headwork will be a regear to 4.10s.

Christian Steffen · Dec 31, 2022

BNielsen said:
I was planning on pulling an oil analysis last oil change but it slipped my mind, next one I'm definitely going to pull a sample.

What you're doing is all I want, pulling power and passing power, I know the biggest benefit after cam and headwork will be a regear to 4.10s.

What does your oil pressure look like at hot idle?

I'm sure a regear will help a ton too. I really don't understand why gm had the 3.73 as an option with a 454.

Christian Steffen · Dec 31, 2022

BNielsen said:
I was planning on pulling an oil analysis last oil change but it slipped my mind, next one I'm definitely going to pull a sample.

What you're doing is all I want, pulling power and passing power, I know the biggest benefit after cam and headwork will be a regear to 4.10s.

OR

Your ring gap is probably nicely worn in for boost. Turbo her and leave it stock. Lol

You guys see what Lawrence Tolman did with his stock 8.1? Over 800 HP and like 1150 ft lbs to the wheels.

Supercharged111 · Dec 31, 2022

Christian Steffen said:
OR

Your ring gap is probably nicely worn in for boost. Turbo her and leave it stock. Lol

You guys see what Lawrence Tolman did with his stock 8.1? Over 800 HP and like 1150 ft lbs to the wheels.

You see what this guy did with his much more meager powerplants? Both have blowers! Time to nut up BNielsen! And the 454 is hilariously strong too, Engine masters cranked one up to at or near 1000hp on a stock bottom end. They are no joke. Christian is making more juice than I am.

Christian Steffen · Dec 31, 2022

Supercharged111 said:
You see what this guy did with his much more meager powerplants? Both have blowers! Time to nut up BNielsen! And the 454 is hilariously strong too, Engine masters cranked one up to at or near 1000hp on a stock bottom end. They are no joke. Christian is making more juice than I am.

As long as tuning is good they'll handle some pretty good power! Richard Holdener needs to finish his big bang tests for the the l29. Last test I saw he was pretty well over 1000 HP on the stock bottom end.

I've had mine to 15 psi with the s475. It feels ridiculously torquey

BNielsen · Dec 31, 2022

Christian Steffen said:
OR

Your ring gap is probably nicely worn in for boost. Turbo her and leave it stock. Lol

You guys see what Lawrence Tolman did with his stock 8.1? Over 800 HP and like 1150 ft lbs to the wheels.

I hadn't seen what LT did, guess I need to watch

Supercharged111 said:
You see what this guy did with his much more meager powerplants? Both have blowers! Time to nut up BNielsen! And the 454 is hilariously strong too, Engine masters cranked one up to at or near 1000hp on a stock bottom end. They are no joke. Christian is making more juice than I am.

If I could find a Whipple I would absolutely throw it on my current motor, intercooled and everything.

Christian Steffen said:
As long as tuning is good they'll handle some pretty good power! Richard Holdener needs to finish his big bang tests for the the l29. Last test I saw he was pretty well over 1000 HP on the stock bottom end.

I've had mine to 15 psi with the s475. It feels ridiculously torquey

I watched a lot of what Richard Holdener has done, it definitely makes me think my meager goals are totally obtainable.
I do have an HX35 I was going to swap on my 6.5L; should it make a slight detour?

BNielsen · Dec 31, 2022

Christian Steffen said:
What does your oil pressure look like at hot idle?

I'm sure a regear will help a ton too. I really don't understand why gm had the 3.73 as an option with a 454.

Hot idle is just under 35 pounds, verified with a mechanical gauge. Still decent but here recently I've noticed a little bit of cold weather clatter on startups.
3.73s wouldn't be bad if I still had the factory tires, but 285s are all I ever plan on running from here on out. They look too good.

The Official Vortec 454 Info thread

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