hey guys first post here, I like making copies of real engines. I’ve made quite a few accurate to: year, materials, compression, bore & stroke, HP & TQ, etc… One engine I’ve been trying to make however is giving me trouble, The Buick 455. This thing is a machine at 510lbs for a stock engine from the 70’s is pretty good especially since it was just for cruising around. Plus it was a thin wall cast block which means this bad boy weighed 100lbs less that a Chevy 454, Again impressive. Now weight aside does anyone think the can make a copy, Because I sure can’t.
Year: 1971
Power: 350hp@4600 510tq@2600
Bore: 4.31 in/109.5 mm
Stoke: 3.9 in/99.1 mm
Compression: 10.0/1
Iron head/ iron block
OHV/Pushrod
A single 4 barrel carburetor with standard filter
And a muffler,doesn’t matter what type
The rest is less important to me
that’s why I’m shooting for or as close as possible. If anyone wants to try and build such a thing and is successful please post back to this thread.
if anyone is interested in my copies please jus ask. I’ve made about 80 relatively accurate copies of many different engines, many being Toyota copies but that’s probably only about 20-25 engines out of the 80, I have many others and would be happy to share them.
Please get back to me if anyone has any results
I took a stab at it. Power and torque peak at the right RPMs but are slightly higher and lower than the actual values, respectively.
Buick 455Rev0.lua (36 KB)
Good effort, but you can’t really compare gross horsepower numbers with net horsepower. I usually take about 80-85% of gross to find the equivalent net ratings and build from there.
Well if you put on a race intake, removed the mufflers and added long tube headers that would give you a fairly close gross HP, just be sure to allow some octane leeway for when you add all the equipment back on.
this is great just what I was looking to do. thanks for giving it a try.
also if I ever post a list of copies I have I will credit you next to the 455
I just built to the number I was given. I don’t even know what cars this engine powered (and truthfully, I don’t really care - my interest in American cars is limited to Corvettes).
@ThatSupraGuy: If you ever manage a 7M-GTE in Group A trim I’d like to take a look at it.
[quote=“Sayonara”]
I just built to the number I was given. I don’t even know what cars this engine powered (and truthfully, I don’t really care - my interest in American cars is limited to Corvettes).
@ThatSupraGuy: If you ever manage a 7M-GTE in Group A trim I’d like to take a look at it.[/quote]
I have one but im not sure how completely accurate it is as I have no solid background specs for the group A engine, its good enough for me. I built it off of my 7M which I can tell you is quite accurate. tell me what you think. and im a jap fan too I think they put the 455 in skylarks and other big bodies (as if all American cars from that time aren’t) I was doing some reading the other night and came across it was more interested in its specs than what it powered haha. also if you have solid specs for group A 7Ms please share them.
never swapping to JZ,7M for life.
7M-GTE Turbo ARev0.lua (66.1 KB)
I won’t argue that - and you did a good job. I was mainly referring to the OP. The reason why it’s more difficult to build pre-1972 American engines to exact specs has a lot to do with the difference in ratings. Some of the horsepower/torque ratings were just outright lies. 
If it’s realism you’re after (and this goes for anyone), you have to take that into account.
[quote=“Slim Jim”]
I won’t argue that - and you did a good job. I was mainly referring to the OP. The reason why it’s more difficult to build pre-1972 American engines to exact specs has a lot to do with the difference in ratings. Some of the horsepower/torque ratings were just outright lies. If it’s realism you’re after (and this goes for anyone), you have to take that into account.[/quote]
agreed but the British were guilty as well from what I understand, and I just build to the lies even if it makes it tough, or slightly inaccurate. And I didn’t consider that when I posted this thread. Either way it seems its all worked out.
Here’s a recreation I made of the 71 Buick 455 according to the Net ratings of that engine I found on my favorite site for engine specs, automobile-catalog.com/
1971 Buick 455Rev0.lua (34.2 KB)If you wish to check my source, follow the link and put in “Buick” under Make, “Special-Skylark Mid-Size 3gen; 1968-1972” under Model and “GSX 2-Door Hardtop; 1970-1972” under Sub-model and press “S” on the first 1971 option. Now I can tell you wanted the 1970 version since you wanted 350 Hp but as others have already said, that was a SAE gross rating which isn’t the same kind of rating system used in Automation and unfortunately automobile-catalog doesn’t have net ratings for that year.
This is why I stick to Toyota for the most part. When did net become the standard? or isn’t it?
American manufacturers started using Net rating in '71 and it became the standard system in '72.
thanks and I checked that site out its very cool ill look at it more later
