If you havent seen a fuel car run, GO SEE THEM. Its an experience of a lifetime for a gearhead. I worked around jets for most of my adult life and a hemi on nitro is far louder and way more impressive... Well its on par with an F15 doing a full burner engine run but is completely different.
Olds has a small and big block, easily identified by the head casting code. For small blocks its a number (3-5-7), for big Olds its a letter (A,C,E,J) are the most numerous codes. The heads will physically bolt to big or small blocks, and its really a matter of deck height and main journal size.
Pontiac engines have no big or small block and while the displacement started at 265ci way back in 55, it grew to 455ci in 1970, and with aftermarket cranks you can get 498ci from 400 or 455 blocks. Damn near everything on them interchanges, as long as you know the year breaks when they changed things like valve inclination angle, and intake flange angles, then you have small journal 3" and big journal engines 3.25". That isnt a big nor small block thing, its the main journal size and 421,428, and 455 engines have the large journal, the rest have 3" all the way back to the late 50s. You can physically bolt any Pontiac head to any Pontiac block and with the right intake manifold it will all fit together. They all use the same size rod at 6.625", the same pushrods (except for Ram Air-IV which had thicker but not longer pushrods) and all of them had the ball stud rocker arms, because it was designed by a Pontiac engineer in his basement, which chevy and the rest copied. Its easier to say what doesnt interchange, which is pistons, cranks, and rings. The Pontiac used cylinder head changes to raise or lower the compression ratio rather than a dished piston. You can get as low as 7.7:1 on a 455 with one head and 12:1 on the same engine with another head, and both heads will have a 2.11 intake valve.
All of this is for the 50s, 60s and mid 70s engines, because in 77 they made the 301 and a smaller version that is hardly seen. Not much interchanges with the 301, but it looks quite a lot like the older engines. They are easily spotted by a dipstick poking out from behind the drivers side head. All the others had the dipstick tube on the passenger side between #2 and #4 cylinders. The nice thing about a 301 is that a 400 or 455 will bolt in where it is sitting real easy.
There is no big block Pontiac 400, chevy is the only one that made a small block 400. Anyone that tells you theyhave a big block 400 Pontiac doesnt know what they are talking about, or they are pulling your leg, usually the former. The really fun thing about a Pontiac is it can displace more than 500" and be dressed up to look like a 326 or even a 265. I used to tell people all the time that my 455 was a 350 or a 310, they had no way of knowing unless they know the very minor differences.
Olds has a small and big block, easily identified by the head casting code. For small blocks its a number (3-5-7), for big Olds its a letter (A,C,E,J) are the most numerous codes. The heads will physically bolt to big or small blocks, and its really a matter of deck height and main journal size.
Pontiac engines have no big or small block and while the displacement started at 265ci way back in 55, it grew to 455ci in 1970, and with aftermarket cranks you can get 498ci from 400 or 455 blocks. Damn near everything on them interchanges, as long as you know the year breaks when they changed things like valve inclination angle, and intake flange angles, then you have small journal 3" and big journal engines 3.25". That isnt a big nor small block thing, its the main journal size and 421,428, and 455 engines have the large journal, the rest have 3" all the way back to the late 50s. You can physically bolt any Pontiac head to any Pontiac block and with the right intake manifold it will all fit together. They all use the same size rod at 6.625", the same pushrods (except for Ram Air-IV which had thicker but not longer pushrods) and all of them had the ball stud rocker arms, because it was designed by a Pontiac engineer in his basement, which chevy and the rest copied. Its easier to say what doesnt interchange, which is pistons, cranks, and rings. The Pontiac used cylinder head changes to raise or lower the compression ratio rather than a dished piston. You can get as low as 7.7:1 on a 455 with one head and 12:1 on the same engine with another head, and both heads will have a 2.11 intake valve.
All of this is for the 50s, 60s and mid 70s engines, because in 77 they made the 301 and a smaller version that is hardly seen. Not much interchanges with the 301, but it looks quite a lot like the older engines. They are easily spotted by a dipstick poking out from behind the drivers side head. All the others had the dipstick tube on the passenger side between #2 and #4 cylinders. The nice thing about a 301 is that a 400 or 455 will bolt in where it is sitting real easy.
There is no big block Pontiac 400, chevy is the only one that made a small block 400. Anyone that tells you theyhave a big block 400 Pontiac doesnt know what they are talking about, or they are pulling your leg, usually the former. The really fun thing about a Pontiac is it can displace more than 500" and be dressed up to look like a 326 or even a 265. I used to tell people all the time that my 455 was a 350 or a 310, they had no way of knowing unless they know the very minor differences.
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