We'll continue to post these episodes here on KZfaq. If you can't wait for the rest of the build, visit our site to binge-watch: www.powernationtv.com/shows/horsepower

I remember growing up watching these show. So glad they are posting them to youtube now

I miss Joe, he was a legend.

Jet boat applications proved how tough the Olds 455 and Ford 429/460 motors are, run wide open from one end of the lake to the other. Saw quite a few BB Chevys scatter trying to do the same. We used to say the best marine application for a Chevy is use it for an anchor!

It's always good to see some people still enjoy a great motor, can't beat an Olds 455

joe taught me a lot i used a lot of his information to build a 468 olds reworked the quadrajet with one of joes kits made a bit over 600hp and almost 600ft lbs of torque it looked almost stock that was 27 years ago damm i miss those days i put that motor in a 71 chevelle it was quite the combo a 455/468 in a chevelle i can say id invest in head studs and a gear drive for this build ! if this motor doesnt get 700hp you guys need to go back to the drawing board ! nice parts

Had to add a comment to get away from that evil number. RIP Joe you are definitely a legend and pioneer for us Olds guys

So just found out that at 16 years old my grandfather has a 1967 Olds 442 with the 455 rocket in it rotting into the ground with a tarp on it. I’m gonna take it and build it over these next few years and have my dream car

Hogging out the heads then putting on a untouched intake has me scratching my head.

Awesome episode, great show. This needs to be back on TV.

Awesome 455 big block,thanks for sharing.

I'm so glad you guys post these I can now show my kids the just werr I learned a good part of my car knowledge thank you

I always wanted to see this 455 bulit up nice thank you PN.

From a production standpoint, these guys are TOP NOTCH video producers. Even vloggers (like I used to be) should watch and learn from the production staff that make these videos. Volume levels = Perfect! I'm not riding the volume control. Information flow = Perfect! Concise and to the point. I could go on and on but my food is ready. Later.

Im glad to see oldsmobile get a lil love on this show been watching this on sat morning every weekend for yrs go old s 🚀🚀🚀

You may want to check your math..joe bored the cylinders .030 over increasing the cubic displacement to I think about 468 so keep tuning

I appreciate that you guys showed when you goofed up a bit. It shows that youre human and can make mistakes.

Nice to see that things aren't always perfect first time out for TV... The trouble shooting is the BEST part of these dyno runs.

A good Qjet may be better... Oldsmobile engines seem to just love em.

750 carb works fine on a single plane intake manifold. You want to almost double that for a dual plane manifold. Each cylinder is now only breathing through half the carb. Dominator 1150 :)

Great freakin channel guys. I love when you tear down the 5.3 junkyard find. I did a 350 to a 383 stroker in my 1987 formula. The TPI loves the new powerhouse.

VACUUM ADVANCE: Disappointed to see two supposedly 'pro' engine builders thinking that a leaky vacuum advance hose is going to steal all their horsepower. At 12:15, he says he's found the problem, in that the leaky hose is 'preventing the distributor from pulling full advance' and insinuating that this is the root issue why they are missing some 100+ hp. Perhaps we should review how & when vacuum advance works and what it's for. (Please forgive the following cut-n-paste from an article I wrote some years ago for a local gearhead newsletter) -Two advance mechanisms in most older points type and HEI distributors: mechanical advance and vacuum advance. Mechanical simply relies on engine speed to fling weights around and cause the rotor to pivot a bit opposite the normal direction of rotation and allow the spark to be advanced. Most mechanical advance setups provide about 25° to 35° of total advance (total = initial idle advance setting + the mechanical advance provided at engine speed), generally all in by 3400 rpm or thereabouts. -The vacuum advance works strictly on engine vacuum (either ported vacuum [vacuum above the throttle plates] or manifold vacuum taken straight from the intake manifold...ported vacuum was a BS emissions trick that didn't work worth a crap, so 60's and early 70's muscle cars and engines used manifold vacuum almost exclusively...the ported vacuum engines were mostly mid-to-late 70's and early 80's). Engines only have any appreciable vacuum at idle and small throttle openings, so there's your hint as to 'when' the vacuum advance will be functional. -To dig deeper, know that the ease with which an air-fuel mixture ignites and the speed at which it burns is closely related to how rich or lean the mixture is. A richer mixture lights quickly and burns fast (within reason...a super-rich mix will soak the spark plug and cause a miss). A lean mixture is harder to light and burns slower. If we're talking about a track-only vehicle here, with a big cam that allows little idle vacuum and where the car is being thrashed almost constantly, a vacuum advance is never given a chance to do anything or the engine is incapable of generating any appreciable vacuum. The distributors on many older racing engines don't even have provisions for a vacuum advance canister. -But any car that is regularly driven on the street needs that vacuum advance. Why? Smoother idle, for one (at least with manifold vacuum...ported vacuum setups have no vacuum advance at idle, so their idle might be sucky, especially on a built engine). But the real reason is at highway speed...cruising. Tooling down the road at 60 mph, the throttle is barely open, so the mixture is very lean...which is fine. We don't need a lot of power to cruise down the road. But, if all we have for advance is the 30° to 35° from the mechanical advance, we're getting a crap burn from that lean mixture. It's lighting way too late, and can even cause header & exhaust manifolds to glow cherry-red, as the burn is happening so late it's completing in the heads' exhaust passage and even downstream from there. That's power that is not being used to propel a piston down the bore. That's big power lost and fuel wasted. -So the obvious answer is to use the available vacuum that we get at cruising speed to further advance the timing. The advance unit simply has a rubber diaphragm that connects to an arm that pulls on the breaker plate (or the plate that the HEI triggers are mounted to) and the plate rotates around the center to provide an earlier trigger for the spark. A vacuum advance unit can advance the timing 20° to 25° beyond what the mechanical advance is capable of. So yes, bopping down the highway on a lazy day can mean the timing might be advanced as much as 55° or even more. Lean mixtures under little load can take big chunks of advance with no pinging/detonation issues. Stomp on the throttle, and the intake reverts back to atmospheric pressure pretty much instantly, and timing drops back to whatever the mechanical advance supplies, and no pinging (as long as your fuel doesn't suck). And when it comes to fill-up time, your wallet will thank you. (end article) So you can see why the assertion that a bad vacuum advance hose is stealing horsepower on the dyno is a silly one. The only time there's any vacuum in this case is at idle...the rest of the time the throttle is WFO trying to make lots of dyno horsepower and manifold vacuum is non-existent. Worst-case scenario is they mighta leaned the mixture a tad, but a small vacuum leak like that isn't going to screw you out of 100+ hp. Anyway, sorry for the freaking book here...just seems that with newer cars everywhere no one remembers (or ever knew) what vacuum advance was for or how it works. ✌-out

1hp per cube don't take into account the overbore.

I had a 425 Olds in a 66 that was flogged hard and regularly. Toughest big bore engine I ever saw.

What a torque monster. I love big blocks!!

Those olds are clean, compact, and simple.

This is why the 442 was a hemi killer back in the day

Nice to see that things don't always go smoothly.

amazing mechanical skills great video

TIMING (vacuum advance) and VALVE adjustment (pre pump lifters) After 30 years Still finding same old mistakes!

I had a one on theses on a jet boat in the mid seventies when I was a kid and gas was cheap. It was said to be high performance 390 horsepower. I don’t how many thousands of gallons of gas I put through it and most of it at WOT. When I sold it, it smoked a bit at start, probably valve guides. It had a Holly spread bore 750 double pumper on it when it came from factory. The only problem I had was the fuel pump had a check valve the would at random times hang up and loose pressure. That drove me crazy because it would work when you tried diagnose. The only mod was a rev limiter so I didn’t have to lift between waves. Dam I beat the heck out of it......and it lived.

great show some much info cheers guys

Thank you for posting these. So hard to find here in Australia

Great video 👍👍

I wish i could get a dyno tune like this on my 383. It would be awesome to learn and trouble shoot with the dyno data and these guys experience.

Man that red looks horrid on those seats🤢

Had one of these mean things in our jet boat and it was sick

Whisker biscuit? More than cubic inches on your mind.

Those header bolts are sweet!!!!

I had one of these on a 69 Vista Cruiser...HOLY SMOKES!! Turbo 400 trans and Posi rear...it was a real beast..lots of fun to drive. 250K later my brother took it apart to rebuild it it was in good spec and still had honing marks on the cylinder walls. Great motor!!! TORQUE GALORE. He has put it is several cars over the years, he says he will never get rid of that block. One more thing these are getting hard to find in Bone Yards...Nothing else sounds like a 455!! The only thing I would do different is go with a twin turbo, on Natural gas..That would go to 500HP.

Had a 70 olds 98 455 rated low at 390hp 510 lbs ft of tourqe. Stock olds rocks.

I had a 455 in a 79 olds and it was a big sleeper! It had torque for days

Considering these engines were rated between 275 and 400 horsepower in stock form the 456 hp/ 537 lb-ft of torque was a good number for this mild build on a vintage muscle car engine. Nicely done.

If you guys used a torker intake, you could've got the 500 a lot faster.

the intake manifold is holding it back

And another thing! As my old high school janitor once said, when I asked him if he wanted to drag his ‘65 Impala against my dad’s olds 98, he said, “Oldsmobile? SHEEEEEEIT!” LOL

Those same mods on a 454 Chevy would be well over 500 hp. They did the 454 with stock heads and low compression pistons and made 408 hp. Then they installed dome pistols aluminum heads roller cam and had over 600 hp.

That flat performer intake is killing that engine

great shows!!!!!!

The best way to adjust valves hydraulic or solid is to roll the crank over, go from cylinder to cylinder and as each intake valve starts to close you adjust the exhaust valve and then when the exhaust valve begins to open you adjust the intake valve. If you have a lot of overlap it ensures your on base circle.

....nice work gents, would have like to see what springs and force you spec'd/went with...thanks for this vid!

Those front covers should stay loose until the balancer is on as if its not square the balancer seal will leak.

Excellent!

I’d love to see a test with a single plane intake and a Holley Dominator. It still seems about 50 horsepower low.

Edelbrock heads you better take them apart cause the guides will leak. And never pump up any howards / morel roller lifters . or any anti pump up lifters . VR1 Valvoline high zinc and a bottle of zinc additive. Never had a cam issue and break in cam vary the rpm every 5 minutes for 30 minutes from 2000 to 2700 rpm. Like 2200 , 2400 , 2500 , 2700 then back down. So oil is slung off crank at different angles onto the camshaft.

Love my Oldsmobiles and I put a 455olds in a 77nova rally SS and you talking about badass, it was a bone stock engine and we raced a guy who had a short bed Ford pickup and he had a big block in it and over$4000, dollars in high performance parts and the nova blowed the doors off the Ford 🤣🤣🤣

OLDS POWER for the WIN!

I remember watching these guys when I was 18, they had 3 guys on this show. I remember when Mike join there show and they did the “pocket rocket” the Honda Civic. Along with many other cool cars they had built. Love this show! Wish Stacey David was back on under the”Trucks” he used to build.

Mike and Joe are the best on Powerblock! I've been watching this since its inception.

EVERYTHING WAS GOING SO WELL UNTIL THAT SUMMIT 750 CARB CAME OUT

These fine gentlemen are artists. They just need more episodes that revolve around using EFI. I die a little bit inside every time I see them do these wonderful builds and then strap a carb on top.

Hell YA! Way to stick with it 😎👍

Man i love the kids drive had to get it done ✔

+30 is 461 on the 455 Olds. It needs an advance curve kit,a 4-hole 2" spacer on that intake and a 800 cfm webber afb carb. Use the C casting heads if you can find any,and port like Joe. You will have about 505 hp and over 600 tq. This engine ruined my 85 Cutless with the tq twist. It actually popped my rear window out on a hard launch. Use a chain to the frame rail from the head or it will break the engine mount. Have fun folks!

I had a 427/425 BBC and always set timing at full advance about 2500 rpm not at idle, used to have one of those tapes' you would put around the balancer, seemed 36-38 was fine

You don't pick up 20+hp because of "cool dry air", unless you're using uncorrected numbers, which aren't repeatable. They fudged they dyno correction just enough to get the 1hp per cube, so it doesn't look bad.

One HP / CI used to be THE elusive ultimate dream target goal of ALL hot rod engine builders with the normally aspirated. Today? - Many ways to get there! With the same block and rotating assembly practically. I bought an Olds '98 brand new off the showroom in 1972. Drove it 6 or 7 times then put it in storage for some years while overseas, came back to it just in time for the gas crunch. Had a '76 VW bus. YUP! An Olds 455 in a pretty VW bus that everyone thought they would pass. nope. nope. HA! The honking they did when they didn't get the results they expected.

I can tell you guys one thing the Olds 455 makes a really great Tractor motor for pulling blades across your lower 40 and when done makes a great Boat anchor...

Wasn't gold for the small blocks? 330's 350's etc. Blue for the big blocks.....

They've got a different definition of "whisker biscuit" than I do...

Good video. Did you go back to the smaller carburetor?

No vacuum at wide open throttle boys.😨

12:06 The first thing they teach you school is that the vac system plays no part in the ignition timing at WOT but it is very important for part throttle driving.

You guys being Chevy everything don't seem to understand that a Olds 455 is a long stroke torque motor. This is why they are so popular in jet boats.

My very first car was a '72 Olds Delta 88, 455 4 barrel. Great car, but a little hard on Gas.....

I trust him building my engine now that dedication 🎉

"I'm not showing you what we do." As he puts the lifter he just pre pumped into the motor...

Someone needs to fill him in on what a Whisker Biscuit really is! Lol

4:30 Some people apply a vacuum pump to the oil container. That makes the job go much more quickly. 11:37 Actually it would need to be a little more than 455. I'm not sure what overbore this engine has, but it has resulted in more cubes.

If you look at your dyno sheet, engine torque is in lb-ft, not ft-lbs. ft-lbs is twisting torque used on bolts, lb-Ft is a measure of work capability.

Does leaving the water pump without paint to rust increase HP?

This engine would likely pick up 25 hp and as much torque with an air gap intake vs the performer, would like to see the comparison

Do I still see rust in the block water jackets? Thought all that would get cleaned out

Rocket power!!!

I love watching your guys' videos, but why would you install components on painted surfaces?

What a coincidence. Posted on my birthday and I also own a 69 Cutlass with a 455 😁

How many off the shelf part motors will you guys build? Make some real power one day

I had this motor in my 65 Cutlass back in the late 80's. I had so much trouble getting the rubber seal under the front of the intake manifold stay in. Seemed like once a month I was putting in a new one. Now you guys don't even use a rubber seal. I wish that silicone existed back then. Or maybe it did and I just didn't know about it.

Had a summit branded dist do that and had the reluctor slipping on the shaft, drove me crazy for a week.

Um... a small vacume leak at the distributor isn't going to effect timing at WOT...you know, when there is almost no vacume. It will lean the engine out slightly though, depending on were the vacume is sourced.

4:00 hot coolant run through the intake so it’s going be hot anyway.

How do you deep clean fox body seats? I have the same seats just need a good cleaning

Whoa....stock 455 W 30 supposedly makes 370 horsepower...what cam did they run? Not sure I caught that..Those Edelbrock heads had huge valves....2.19 Int and were they 1.84? exhausts? Hmm, yeah, that manifold could be suspect. Many years ago I built a 455 +.030, stock "C" casting heads, Lunati .570 lift solid cam, with 255 degree @ .050 , 2 inch Hooker headers 800 Holley D.P. Q-jet replacement carb, (spread bore) on an Edelbrock single plane intake. With stock 10.5 to 1 compression, the motor made 485 horses....(don't recall torque). Ran 11.50's at 117 with a 9 inch tire in a 68 Cutlass...

VERY COOL

Build an Olds 455 for torque. ALL torque. A mild dual pattern marine cam for daily driver, not attracting attention. Injectors and velocity stacks, not a big carb. Higher compression ratio while you're at it. Now gear it 272:1. The busted gear teeth and twisted drivetrain can be dealt with AFTER. Torque is what you FEEL everyday. It's the fun. And the biggest reward of this build? GREAT fuel economy if you aint nailin' it all the time. Surprise!

a few years ago I I watched a engine shop trying to get 500 HP out of a lightly built Olds 455 and they had the same intake as this one . they were struggling to get it over the 495 hp mark tell the old man who runs the shop had the idea to use the stock Olds aluminum intake the engine had from the factory. it turned out it had bigger runners and better flow then the fancy modern one. the engine ended up making 525 hp after they changed the new intake for the crusty old one still in the factory gold paint. the owner of the engine was very happy about the power numbers but still had them put the shiny intake on the engine and kept the crusty one for later some people .

no dyno graph to show for all that. thumbs down. peak numbers are not the entire story.

Where did you get the splash gaurd for the lifter valley?

Painting seats "Rinse and repeat every 6 months" I will live with what I have that has lasted many years even though it does not "pop" If I really want a change ... replace the cover

Great show, thanks for sharing, When was this recorded ?