some questions about my 91 454

[midnightblue]

so first of all, im wondering what engine i have. its a 91, and i think its the original motor, but a local mechanic told me there is a chance it is a crate motor? it has these fancy aluminum black painted valve covers with the face of them machined off, and it says 454 on it. the rest is wore off and you cant read it. my dad knew the previous owner and he said there is no way this guy would put any sort of money into the truck especially valve covers. . stock or not, i just want to know which 454 i have here. i also found it weird that closest exhaust manifold bolt to the fire wall on the passenger side was broke off? secondly i was wondering what all i can do to get some more power out of it. it runs great, but im thinking about porting/ polishing the heads? is it worth it?

 

[outalne94z71]

91-95 motors did have those ribbed covers, you have a gen v motor, common for that bolt to shear, changing to a edelbrock performer cam will help but porting the peanut port heads wont do much, you can swap to vortec heads which bump you from 7.8:1 to 9:1 compression, anything more than that cam and heads and you will need a custom tune.

changing to a edelbrock tbi intake also will not do much other than save weight, its modeled after the 91+ factory intake just made out of aluminum.

 

[Blue95]

Best thing for the BB TBI's is let them breath. A set of LT's headers, mod the stock intake track, good tune up, free flow muffler, high flow cat, TB spacer, and advance the timing a bit and you will be much happier.

 

[MOBS]

I agree with letting them breathe....but unfortunately they share the same problems the small blocks do....their heads are their major bottlenecks....if you went up in size then you'd REALLY need an upgrade in throttle body size. But back to what you were asking, I don't remember what it said, but I was looking at a 90 or 91 with a 454, and the valve covers had some sort of weird name, sounded japanese to be honest. Can't think of it atm tho. But those cast-looking covers I'm sure are legit....I've never actually checked if they're cast or just ribbed steel.

 

[outalne94z71]

Best thing for the BB TBI's is let them breath. A set of LT's headers, mod the stock intake track, good tune up, free flow muffler, high flow cat, TB spacer, and advance the timing a bit and you will be much happier.

even at that the heads and terrible compression really limit the breathing, the cam with long tubes does really wake them up though even with the limitations

swapping to long tubes will require adding a heated o2 sensor to have it run properly

 

[outalne94z71]

But those cast-looking covers I'm sure are legit....I've never actually checked if they're cast or just ribbed steel.

they are cast similar to the 502 covers but no chevrolet on them and the decal in the middle

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[MOBS]

wtf does that say under the "454" on the valve cover?

 

[outalne94z71]

wtf does that say under the "454" on the valve cover?

by tonawanda engine

 

[MOBS]

THAT'S the word I couldn't remember earlier.......I knew it sounded foreign....almost sounds like a marine engine company name lol.

 

[outalne94z71]

THAT'S the word I couldn't remember earlier.......I knew it sounded foreign....almost sounds like a marine engine company name lol.

tonawanda engine plant in tonawanda new york

its where the good motors were built in the late 60's early 70's