Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » 455 Expected Engine Life (Assuming proper care, how many miles?)
455 Expected Engine Life [message #360417] |
Mon, 30 November 2020 17:59  |
dsmithy
 Messages: 211 Registered: July 2012 Location: Lincoln Nebraska
Karma:
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"You guys that live in flat country have not a clue to the GMC's
requirements for climbing grades. You can cover 6 states in a day and not
break a sweat.
Try running the Tehachapi grade out of either California or
Arizona/Nevada, or the Grapevine coming North out of Los Angeles on
Interstate 5, or the Siskiyou summit a bit farther North. You will run out
of gears pretty darn quickly. I have a heavy 78 Royale with a 403 and 3:70
final drive, and it works really well. And I run it at 70 mph + most of the
time. 3400 rpm and that 403 is a happy camper. Over 130,000 miles on an
unmolested engine. Works for me.
Jim Hupy"
A question for you Mr. Hupy, et.al.
I bought my '73 in 1995 with 140K indicated miles. The PO had oversize tires on it so I think that's probably an underestimate. The engine, to my knowledge, has never been opened up. I have given it regular oil changes with Mobile 1, new water pump and timing chain, Thorley headers, new quadrajet from Paterson, new Pertronix, fuel and vacuum hoses, and a 4.70 final. I tend to drive her easy, cruising at 65 mostly, up to 80 only when I have to. Oil pressure settles a bit with warmup but the stock sender/guage are still quite lively, even at hot idle. I have not done a compression test. I'm guessing I've put around 2K miles annually on it since '95 which puts its current mileage around 200K. That's a guess for a lot of reasons, but probably about right.
I have not done a search to find out if this topic has been answered, but I think engine longevity may be somewhat a moving target with old hardware/modern fluids and newer opinions valuable. Is "drive it till it dies" a good idea? I was incredibly fortunate to be close to Larry Weidner for a transmission failure, I can't expect such luck going forward. Any wisdom?
Doug Smith
Douglas & Virginia Smith,
dsmithy18 at gmail,
Lincoln Nebraska,
’73 “Sequoia” since ‘95: "Wanabizo";
Quadrabag/6 wheel disks/3:70 final/Paterson QuadraJet/Thorley’s/Alloy wheels/Sundry other
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455 Expected Engine Life
By: dsmithy on Mon, 30 November 2020 17:59
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: roy1 on Tue, 01 December 2020 15:07
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: Larry on Tue, 01 December 2020 15:51
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: dsmithy on Tue, 01 December 2020 22:44
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: roy1 on Tue, 01 December 2020 23:05
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: Dennis S on Tue, 01 December 2020 15:51
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: JohnL455 on Wed, 02 December 2020 09:34
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
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Re: [GMCnet] 455 Expected Engine Life
By: Larry on Thu, 03 December 2020 20:31
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: Larry on Thu, 03 December 2020 20:27
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Re: 455 Expected Engine Life
By: Larry on Thu, 03 December 2020 20:41
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