454 Chevy Big Block!

Gramps tried a '74 chevy with the 454, 4 speed, 3/4 ton, absolutely NO GOOD IN SNOW, also the 454's built in Canada, "orange" in colour would NOT STAY TOGETHER!

Gramps traded it off for a '75 Jeep, AMC, 4x4 with the 400 Turbo Hydra Matic, Quad-Trac, on the move shifting into 4x4!

Gramps in 1979 went back to the Chevy Suburban with a "BLUE" 454, bolted up to the 400 Turbo- Hydra-Matic, this was a real "WORK-HORSE" and Gramps kept it on the road into the Millenium, a little battered and bruised, until the crank broke in the reman!

The people I work with had a 92 Chev 3/4 ton with a 454 automatic. When they hauled it off to Grab-N-Go it had gone through 330,000 miles of he?? and the engine still started dependably and ran. Didn't have the power it had in it's younger days but it didn't use much oil. The only work done on it was countless waterpumps and a few starters and a few rads thrown in there too. I didn't know an engine could be run hot that many times and still last that long. The tranny finally gave up the ghost at 330,000 and as I understand it wasn't known to be that great of a tranny. Jim

I had a friend who had the 454 with a four speed for a farm truck. He said it would pass anything on the road except a gas station.

Had a 454 in my first service truck, a '78 Chevy C30. Weighted or not it would fly but it loved gas stations. Even worse it wouldn't settle for anything but the high dollar premium stuff without knocking and rattling like it was going to die.

Still my all time favorite engine.

From my experience, they're like diesel farm tractors, you have to work them to keep them healthy.

I had several Chevy and GMC one ton duallies with the 454, and the one I worked hardest and ran the hardest was the healthiest.

As far as I know all 454 engines were built in the Tonawanda,N.Y.engine plant,whether they went to Canada or the states.

Orange was Chevys V8 engine color up till the very late 70's. They became blue along with all other GM engines about the time GM got sued for putting Chevy engines in Oldsmobile cars.
After that crap, GM painted them all that blue color and the paper work with a new car stated that "this GM Veichle has a GM engine made by various GM divisions".
By the time GM painted the 454's blue, the valve spring and valve seal problems were pretty well worked out and they were a reliable engine that used very little oil, but swilled gas at about 10 mpg. The price you pay for a 450 CI engine in a 6000 pound pickup.
Was that "no traction" pickup a 2 wd ?

With a 700+ pound 454 setting over non powered front wheels, they had little traction in mud or snow, especially a dual wheel rig.

i got a C65 dumptruck with a 454 thats strictly off road...its a old county truck...every since i took a 12# sledge to that quadrajunk and stuck a Edelbrock AFB carb on it,it runs great...better mileage than i'd think since its locked in low range...i can haul dirt for close to 5 days on a tank full.

I probably set a record of some sort. I once hauled a '67 Pontiac GTO from Lincoln, Nebraska to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I pulled my trailer with a 1980 Chevy crew cab dually with a 454.

Hauling that "Goat" to Minneapolis and pulling the empty trailer back I got 6.8 mpg. I admit, I had the hammer down with the A/C on. I was trying to make time, not gas mileage.

The one tons I had with the 454 would get about 11 mpg running around empty. Hook on a trailer, loaded or not, and you were down to about 8.

So what is the point of all your rambling?

Get up on the wrong side of the bed today?

What can I say, Gramps really LOVED his suburbans, he even has a set of twins!

Top photo, his expedition to the west coast, "THE LONG WAY" in the middle of winter!

The "TWINS" with 454's! One is still mostly orignial with only 80k on it!

The Family of Suburbans, plus a '79 one ton flat bed and they still ALL run!

Well, the Jeep Amc's were all built in Brampton, Ontario. That's north of the USA border.

So I am not sure of your point either.

...but I agree with B&D.

We could all ramble about all the machines we've run and the engines we've worked with. And watch the board bog down into an awkward death. If there's a point to it, different story.

You're like those guys complaining about the commercials on TV.
Only there your favorite program segways into the commercial.
Here you actually have to CLICK on the subject to read it before you can complain about the topic.
How much happier would you be if you didn't click.
Imagine...

I have used many engines in trucks over 40 years.
The big chevy started out as a Rat Porcupine, and has never been a superior engine. The 2 ton 454 is much tougher than the one ton. The pontiac 455 has good power in a small package. The Olds 455 is smooth and durable. The Buick 455 has tons of torque, and the best power per gallon. All the 350 engines are good. Ford and Dodge are just not as good. My favorite truck engine is the Buick 350. very economical. All will give 300-400k miles with good oil.
The turbo 400 trans is almost bulletproof.

This Murray guy seems to be to posting his gramps autobiography. Apparently gramps had the only the only horse in town but his "WORK-HORSE" was his Suburban. I feel like Vinny Barbarino, "I'm so confused"! Couldn't blame the horse for bucking him off!

Someone should tell Murray that shift on the go 4 wheel drive has been around long before 1975 but I bet the horse would still go more places and get better mileage. Dave.

I kept reading hoping there would be a point. Where is the crime in that?

I remember one of the neighbors having a Delta 88 with a chevy engine back when I was a kid. What was the reason for this, did they have an oldsmobile engine shortage or strike? My parents had a couple Delta 88's while I was growing up, all with oldsmobile engines and none of them had any engine problems and rode nicer than the cars now days.

The details are a bit foggy for me, but this quote from wikipedia.


"It was during the 1977 model year that demand exceeded production capacity for the Oldsmobile V8, and as a result Oldsmobile began equipping most full size Delta 88 models (those with Federal emissions specifications) with the Chevrolet 350 engine instead. Although it was widely debated whether there was a difference in quality or performance between the two engines, there was no question that the engines were different from one another. Many customers were loyal Oldsmobile buyers who specifically wanted the Rocket V8, and did not discover that their vehicle had the Chevrolet engine until they performed maintenance and discovered that purchased parts did not fit. This became a public relations nightmare for GM.[1][2]

Following this debacle, disclaimers stating that "Oldsmobiles are equipped with engines produced by various GM divisions" were tacked on to advertisements and sales literature; all other GM divisions followed suit. In addition, GM quickly stopped associating engines with particular divisions, and to this day all GM engines are produced by "GM Powertrain" (GMPT) and are called GM "Corporate" engines instead of GM "Division" engines. Although it was the popularity of the Oldsmobile division vehicles that prompted this change, declining sales of V8 engines would have made this change inevitable as all but the Chevrolet (and, later, Cadillac Northstar) versions were eventually dropped."

The details are a bit foggy for me, but this quote from wikipedia.


"It was during the 1977 model year that demand exceeded production capacity for the Oldsmobile V8, and as a result Oldsmobile began equipping most full size Delta 88 models (those with Federal emissions specifications) with the Chevrolet 350 engine instead. Although it was widely debated whether there was a difference in quality or performance between the two engines, there was no question that the engines were different from one another. Many customers were loyal Oldsmobile buyers who specifically wanted the Rocket V8, and did not discover that their vehicle had the Chevrolet engine until they performed maintenance and discovered that purchased parts did not fit. This became a public relations nightmare for GM.[1][2]

Following this debacle, disclaimers stating that "Oldsmobiles are equipped with engines produced by various GM divisions" were tacked on to advertisements and sales literature; all other GM divisions followed suit. In addition, GM quickly stopped associating engines with particular divisions, and to this day all GM engines are produced by "GM Powertrain" (GMPT) and are called GM "Corporate" engines instead of GM "Division" engines. Although it was the popularity of the Oldsmobile division vehicles that prompted this change, declining sales of V8 engines would have made this change inevitable as all but the Chevrolet (and, later, Cadillac Northstar) versions were eventually dropped."

Thanks for the information. I know the neighbor with the chevy engine had problems at around 50,000 using excessive oil, I think he traded it in a few years later for another olds. The ones my parents had were always bought with around 80,000 and never used oil. They usually ran to over 200,000 before the transmissions usually developed problems. Dad always beleived the olds engines were built for high miles and the chevy was a throw away engine. He might have been a little biased though.

Heard a guy with RV behind 454. Used quart of oil every 400 miles. GM said that is acceptable. Dave