350 TBI to 454 carb

[CBidzinski2010]

Hey all,

Blew a rod on my TBI 350 and one of the lifter journals is worn out from a shattered lifter along with the crank having a huge groove for the 1 and 2 rods so I'm scrapping the engine. I found a complete 454 with pws, alternator, water pump, from 750 Holley all the way down to the oil pan and even has a clutch on the flywheel all for 800 bucks. It's going on my sm465 and I know I can use the original mounts and apprently need shorty headers or manifold for the exhaust, but my question comes into play with what I should be running for a radiator, can I find one out of a certain truck? Should I be using m certain dimensions? Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm trying to get my rig back on the road without destroying my savings account so I'm not trying to spend more than 300 for a radiator. Also, does anyone know if these engines have the oil filter adapter on them for an oil cooler and if so should I be running an oil cooler for this thing? By the way this is all going into my 87 K20 custom deluxe

Thanks for everything,

Cody

 

[foamypirate]

You can run a big block replacement radiator, Spectra Premium CU730. You just need the bigger top plate, which you can get from LMC or the junkyard, along with the rubber pads top and bottom (they are bigger than the smaller 350 radiator pads).

The radiator is only about $110 at RockAuto, and you'll be in about $40-50 for the parts from LMC. I'm running mine with e-fans, but here is the radiator and top mount:

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[bucket]

The oil cooler situation depends on the year of the 454. The GenV blocks have built in oil cooler ports and you can't simply plug them off. Long tube headers fit fine too.

 

[CBidzinski2010]

thanks for the info guys, especially foamypirate for the part numbers. Got my 454 home on Saturday and got a good feel for what I actually need to do to it, it has a holley 750 double pumper and an edelbrock performer rpm intake on it, I also got the guys long tube stainless hooker headers for 50 bucks and the motor turns over very easily by hand so I think 850 was a pretty good deal for the motor and headers. The bad, the guy hit a telephone poll and flipped his truck 6 times wihch tweaked a couple things, the throttle linkage on the carb is all jacked up and the plate for the secondaries is a little off now. Do you guys know if the throttle linkage is specific to the truck, engine, or carb? I have new valve covers picked out with the edelbrock elite series II and I'm going to go with the radiator that foamy pirate recommended to me, I too want to run electric fans, any ideas on what I should be running there? are there kits that come with a temp sensor and controller or do I have to build my own? Also on summit I found a streetfire hei distributor that said it need nothing but a 12 volt source, does this sound correct? Ive got a lot going on here and any and all advice that you guys throw in will be greatly appreciated.

Cody