454 into 1973 LeMans Swap

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

RE: 454 into 1973 LeMans Swap

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

Good stuff Ray. I always recommend getting a rad recored over non-stock looking rads. That's just the way I am. I got mine recored ... even my heater core was recored.

unburt · Guru

Nice to see a good rad guy steer you in the right direction ,its not rocket science when it comes to cooling. The more cubes a bigger rad is needed and proper shrouding to pull the air through.
The best addition is the seven blade clutch fan ,a long time rad guy here says its the most effective bolt on you can do.
Thats a good price for all your stuff.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Best 360 bucks I ever spent on the car. The cooler operating tempurature can only add to the already high performance level of this engine. It was purring like a tiger last night. Anyone seen a B5 Blue Roadrunner?

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

73SC wrote:
Best 360 bucks I ever spent on the car. The cooler operating tempurature can only add to the already high performance level of this engine. It was purring like a tiger last night. Anyone seen a B5 Blue Roadrunner?

RAY! STOP IT! Your acting like a Hot Rodder! your supposed to set a good example biggrin

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Yes you are right.....but partly to blame for sourcing me this killer farm truck engine. I had the beast out to a local cruise in tonight and what a controversy. There were 20 guys at one point standing over the engine all tongues wagging and cameras snapping. Of course a lot of talk was how Pontiac never offered a 454 engine and that's when the schooling starts. Barrels of laughs tonight.

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

73SC wrote:
I had the beast out to a local cruise in tonight and what a controversy. There were 20 guys at one point standing over the engine all tongues wagging and cameras snapping. Of course a lot of talk was how Pontiac never offered a 454 engine and that's when the schooling starts. Barrels of laughs tonight.

Did you have your own cruise night lawyer, or did you act on your own behalf? biggrin

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Ten years as Controller for the Law Society of Upper Canada provides me with ample belligerence and truculence to represent myself.

MadMax · Veteran Member

The rad in my 77 Lemans was gone just like Ray's except a little bit worse. In Sudbury they wanted in the $300 to $400 range to re-core it. Sent off to Summit for a Rad. It is only single core aluminum but the one core is as wide as three on the old style. Part # PLI-433360 $129.00. Keeps the 305 at around 180-190 F. During my search for a solution a discovered that rad from 70's and 80's chev vans with a V8 is almost a perfect fit.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

That seems like a great value for your small block Max. The second you check 7.4 on the search box the prices jump to $369 as a low.

Another thing I needed to attend to was my upper rad hose. Earlier this summer the moulded upper split. There is a bit of a story to that, it involves a B5 blue Roadrunner and Toronto Police but I digress. I purchased a high quality universal to get me going but with Autofest coming up I wanted a proper looking moulded hose.

Problem is do I buy the SS454 Chevelle hose or the 455 GTO hose confuse . I know I'll buy both and see which one works. Chevelle hose is NAPA # 75-75, GTO hose is NAPA # 75-73.

As it turns out I used the 455 GTO hose and put it on backwards and trimmed 4 inches off of it. It looks pretty good I think, ready for the cruise night lawyers at Autofest.

-- Edited by 73SC on Friday 17th of August 2012 07:19:06 AM

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

MadMax wrote:
When I replaced my rad I wanted to do all the hoses too but could not get the upper anywhere. That 7575 hose looks exactly like the stock hose on my car......thanks for the tip Ray.

NAPA 7575 is for small block and big block Chevelle 1973 through 77.

I couldn't get the 7575 hose to work on my car, the fan shroud clearance was an issue on mine. The problem with our Canadian Pontiacs cars is that parts like this are not always available. Canadian Tire did have a lsiting for LeMans - orange 350 but the part is long discontinued. I still have that hose so if you can't get it let me know, I was going to return it however if you want it I can provide it on a cost recover basis, about $30, you pay shipping.

The other hose 7573 was listed for LeMans/GTO/Grand AM/ Can AM 1973 -77 - 350, 400, 455. all Pontiac engines. 7573 is also cross reference to Firebird and adds except the 301.

-- Edited by 73SC on Friday 17th of August 2012 04:30:41 PM

68 427 · Poncho Master!

73SC wrote:
There is a bit of a story to that, it involves a B5 blue Roadrunner and Toronto Police but I digress.

IS IT SOMETHING YOU CAN SHARE WITH US?

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

68 427 wrote:
73SC wrote:
There is a bit of a story to that, it involves a B5 blue Roadrunner and Toronto Police but I digress.
IS IT SOMETHING YOU CAN SHARE WITH US?

No arrests were made, warning was given and radiator hose burst.

MadMax · Veteran Member

When I replaced my rad I wanted to do all the hoses too but could not get the upper anywhere. That 7575 hose looks exactly like the stock hose on my car......thanks for the tip Ray.

MadMax · Veteran Member

On my car the hose was chafing on the shroud. I cut 1/2 " off it when I put in the new rad.

I was working for INCO when I wanted to do all the hoses but as I am back in NL now I will wait till it blows..lol

Thanks anyway....:)

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

73SC wrote:
a lot of talk was how Pontiac never offered a 454 engine and that's when the schooling starts. Barrels of laughs tonight.

maybe its very rare GMC Sprint 454 probably a COPO order for the Russian Mafia

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

I can't get this thing to heat up anymore, it's awesome. Looking forward to Autofest and a nice trip to Oshawa on Saturday and Sunday.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

73SC wrote:
I can't get this thing to heat up anymore, it's awesome. Looking forward to Autofest and a nice trip to Oshawa on Saturday and Sunday.

Car never got hot to Oshawa and back and these were blistering days, stop and go 401 traffic on Saturday too. I decided it would be a good time to check fuel consumption on this combined highway city run to Oshawa this weekend. Road test data from 1973 suggest that a 455 GTO was getting 7 mpg city & 12 mpg highway. The Oshawa trip is 34 miles from my door to Lakeview Park and I did it 4 times for 136 miles, mostly cruising at 65 mph on the 401 but shorts bursts up to 80 or 90 when passing slower vehicles. Driving at 65 on the 401 is pretty bad as you are getting run down so I stay right, but the second you go towards the middle you need to nail it to keep up. I used $70 or 11.2 gallons of fuel which gives me 12.1 mpg. Car runs at 2250 rpm doing 65 MPH.

67BBSD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

73SC wrote:
73SC wrote:
I can't get this thing to heat up anymore, it's awesome. Looking forward to Autofest and a nice trip to Oshawa on Saturday and Sunday.
Car never got hot to Oshawa and back and these were blistering days, stop and go 401 traffic on Saturday too. I decided it would be a good time to check fuel consumption on this combined highway city run to Oshawa this weekend. Road test data from 1973 suggest that a 455 GTO was getting 7 mpg city & 12 mpg highway. The Oshawa trip is 34 miles from my door to Lakeview Park and I did it 4 times for 136 miles, mostly cruising at 65 mph on the 401 but shorts bursts up to 80 or 90 when passing slower vehicles. Driving at 65 on the 401 is pretty bad as you are getting run down so I stay right, but the second you go towards the middle you need to nail it to keep up. I used $70 or 11.2 gallons of fuel which gives me 12.1 mpg. Car runs at 2250 rpm doing 65 MPH.

really - thats all ? do you have a big carb ?

I owned a 73 corvette roadster for nine years, 454 auto, I put a 280H cam in it-spread bore holley, 3.36 gears consistantly got 19 MPG it was a 3700lb car

The Lemans I filled before I left for Autofest $98 ultra - it still has some in it - there and back -I didn't work it out but I'm a lot further away

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Yup that's it, actually have a 600 cfm carb. The thing is the stop and go traffic in the city and 401. I spent two hours on the road each day, Saturday was idling on the 401 from Pickering to Oshawa, then once you start to head into Toronto the Don Valley Parkway hardly moves from the 401 to Lawrence. I actually dread heading east on the 401 due to the bad traffic on weekends. Going home Sunday I got off the 401 at Markham and snaked through Scarborough to downtown Toronto. Even my everyday driving in the DTS nets me about 14 mpg all week. You'd have to live here to understand the traffic. I was running on fumes by the time I got home. So if you figure my travel time was 4 hours for the two days that is just a bit less than you for the round trip to Welland and half of mine was crawling in bumper to bumper. I may have been better off on HWY #2.

67BBSD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

73SC wrote:
Yup that's it, actually have a 600 cfm carb. The thing is the stop and go traffic in the city and 401. I spent two hours on the road each day, Saturday was idling on the 401 from Pickering to Oshawa, then once you start to head into Toronto the Don Valley Parkway hardly moves from the 401 to Lawrence. I actually dread heading east on the 401 due to the bad traffic on weekends. Going home Sunday I got off the 401 at Markham and snaked through Scarborough to downtown Toronto. Even my everyday driving in the DTS nets me about 14 mpg all week. You'd have to live here to understand the traffic. I was running on fumes by the time I got home. So if you figure my travel time was 4 hours for the two days that is just a bit less than you for the round trip to Welland and half of mine was crawling in bumper to bumper. I may have been better off on HWY #2.

ya try to workit out on a straight run @ 55-60 I'm sure you'll do much better - high teens

dualquadpete · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I hope it's get better on a straight run!!! The 64 Catalina with 389 & dualquads does a little better than that, runs around 16.3 on the trips to West Virginia running at a steady 60 to 65 + MPH!!! Those little "bursts' you mentioned, likely weren't so "LITTLE" [4 bbl. "wide open" ?] When I do that with the 64 & now the 52 I can actually see the gas guage drop!!! BTW I have 400 miles on 52, consider it "broken in" & have now tried out the dualquads on that one!! AWESOME comes to mind, in sound & power, just get pinned in the seat, & a "squealling" noise comes from the back of car 1st thru 3rd. Tremec 5spd works great, drops from 2600 at 60 in 4th. to 1600 in 5th. Now all I have to remember is that when guage shows 1/8 of a tank, your OUT, found that one out the HARD WAY!!!!

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

My round trip to Woodward last year yielded 17 mpg with the L48 small block. Gas mileage isn't what the car gets for 10 miles on a smooth highway at 65 mph. I doesn't matter what the car gets for 20 minutes on a straight run, that's not real.

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

Ray! thats terrible mileage.. with only a few blasts to 80-90 mph...

Why don't you end the misery, and sell to me (cheap)

I never go anywhere, so gas mileage is not a issue...... biggrin biggrin biggrin

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

No A/C Carl...