Saturday, February 7, 2004  -  As some of you know, I've been toying around with the idea of dropping a 455 Olds engine into my pickup. I've just been waiting to get the 240-I6 pulled so I could lower the 455 down onto the frame to see what sort of modifications would be needed. Well, today I was supposed to finish the cab sandblasting and get started welding patch panels, but I seem to have misplaced one of my patch panels, so I started cleaning the shop figuring I'd find it while I was cleaning...and when I still couldn't find it, I decided to go ahead and get started stripping the frame down, so that it can get sent off to be power-coated. This would also be the perfect time to trial-fit the 455.

I pulled the 240 out of the chassis (Fig. 1) and then hooked onto the 455 and set it down onto the top of the I6 perches. I was planning on trying to compare the perches from the I6, the small-block and the FE series, to see which one might position the engine best. However, I made a startling discovery when comparing the perches...the FE perches are identical to the I6 perches! Who'd have thought? Anyway, I found that the Olds engine would not work sitting on the top of the perches. The Olds engine mounts are just barely above the top of the oil pan, whereas the FE engine's mounts are halfway up the side of the block, setting it into the engine bay farther. If I set the 455 onto the top of the I6/FE perches, there ended up being nearly 8 inches of space between the crossmember and the oil pan (Fig. 3). Therefore, I decided it would have to be mounted to the crossmember using stock 455 frame mounts. I removed the I6 perches and then replaced the 455 to a position relative to where it would sit with the Olds mounts. While it was definitely tight, it would fit...but there were a few things which would have to be addressed to make it work. After looking at what would be involved, I've decided against using the 455, and will be going ahead with plans for a 390 buildup. However, I've decided to post the pictures (and my notes) here in case anyone else decides to look into using this or a similar engine. In all these pictures, the 455 was just hanging from the engine hoist for visual purposes and for making some measurements.

Fig. 1  -  Removing the 240 engine, which will be sold to finance the project.

Fig. 2 - Here you can see that the engine perches mount the engine 3 inches to the passenger side, which is evident with the tranny crossmember as well. Plus this offset puts the engine/tranny centerline in line with the rearend yoke.

Fig. 3  -  I first tried setting the engine down onto the I6/FE perches. Because of differences in where the mounts are bolted onto the respective engines, the Olds 455 would be sitting WAY to high in the engine bay.

Fig. 4  -  In this shot, similar to Fig. 3, you can see where the 455 mounts would be sitting roughly on top of the I6/FE perches and the resulting mounting height of the engine in general. Also, starter removal would be impossible due to it's position immediately behind the driver's side perch. You can see the driver's side Olds pad is bad (the lower portion is missing) but this is roughly where the engine would sit. At first I figured I'd fabricate an adaptor for each side as a flat 3/8" steel plate with a stud to attach it to the Ford perches, to which I'd mount the 455's original frame mounts. However, after seeing how high the engine would sit, I nixed the idea of mounting it in this manner.

Fig. 5 & 6  -  I then removed the Ford engine perches, figuring I could use the Oldsmobile frame mounts, which mount directly onto the crossmember and are only about an inch high. Once I set the engine down to where it would be with the Olds mounts, I found there would be some exhaust concerns. In this shot you can see there is only about 1/2" clearance between the left exhaust manifold and the manual steering box. I didn't try it with a power steering box...however, I believe the PS box is a tad wider, so that could prove to add some more clearance issues.

You can also see that since the Olds exhaust manifolds exit from the bottom (as opposed to out the end on an FE engine), there is a strong possibility of interference with the steering linkage. The steering here is cranked all the way to the left, and you can see the pitman arm is directly below the exhaust outlet. However, an immediate and sharp 90-degree bend would probably clear the steering OK.

FYI: A stock Olds exhaust system has the exhaust exiting the left side manifold, being transferred a crossover pipe which connects into the right-side manifold, after which it exits the rear of that manifold.

Fig. 7 & 8  -  The passenger-side manifold runs into clearance problems with the frame. There are several options here. You could either cap off the left outlet and use the right exit, but this would mean another very sharp bend, plus it would require the use of a remote oil filter, since the exhaust pipe would be right up against the oil filter...or you could simply notch the frame here and cap off the right exit.

One thing to keep in mind is that both of these manifolds are from a full-size car, so another option would be to use the right-side manifold from a late-60's A-bodied Cutlass/442 (bottom photo) which exits out the back and I believe would cure this problem. However, these are highly sought after by the performance crowd for running dual exhaust, and are therefore fairly expensive.

Fig. 9  -  When the engine is sitting about where it should be, the starter is immediately behind the crossmember, appearing to be almost impossible to remove without raising the engine a couple inches. I didn't actually try removing it, so it's possible there might be just enough room...or you could space the engine back just enough to facilitate it's future removal.

CONCLUSIONS: When I first came up with the idea of using an Olds 455, I did some quick visual comparisons and measurements and thought it might go in without too many problems and would definitely be an interesting project. However, upon further investigation, I've decided that the countless little details requiring attention to make it functional and dependable would be more than I want to mess with at this time. I have too many other things to have to worry about right now, enough to not want to add to the list. Therefore, I'm going ahead with my plans on doing a 390 buildup for use in the truck. I initially bought this 455 just for the cylinder heads to replace a damaged head on the 455 in my '67 442, and just thought it would be neat to use an Olds-powered truck to tow my 442 to the drag strip. Alas, it ain't gonna happen, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief now.