Zak the machine shop that I have talked to here has quoted me prices that
appear to be reasonable. He charges for instance $80 to install stellite
valve seats in an olds head. About $240 to completely recondition a head.
I know I can build a 455 that will be servicable for a long time. Have done
it before with olds 350 blocks and olds diesels, but not a 455 yet. I am
looking for reliability above all else. Will get the chance soon I think.
Am really itching to start now! Tjhanks for the info.
>Tom,
>
>I agree that buying from Mondello virtually guarantees a good motor or
>parts. Peace of mind is worth quite a bit. Having an inferior engine
>fail, like some on this list have had, can end up costing more than just
>going for the good motor in the first place. You also may be getting
>some tricks/parts that would only be known by someone who had worked on
>these motors for so long.
>
>I also agree that the Mondello motor is a better way to go than the
>Caspro motor, but I think the Caspro motor is priced high for the same,
>maybe even unwarranted, reason. It is priced high because it is from a
>trusted GMC parts seller.
>
>We used our race engine builder/friend to rebuild our 455. He has been
>a friend and done our race motors for 15 years, so we had more peace of
>mind with him building the motor than we would have had ordering one
>from anybody (even Mondello). He made many calls to Mondello during the
>process and ended up buying a lot of parts from Mondello. He was very
>happy with Mondello at the beginning of the process, and very frustrated
>with him at the end. We were paying for all parts, so the price did not
>affect him at all, but he was actually agitated to the point that he
>said that he would not want to deal with Mondello again and was looking
>hard for anybody else that could supply him with 455 parts. Now that he
>knows the "trick" parts can be procured locally with the right part
>numbers, he probably won't have to. This was the first Olds motor he
>has rebuilt. We now have 14,000 miles on it with no problems.
>
>If your local engine builder charges fairly high prices (NASCAR
>indicates he might) or is the type that would end up buying all/most of
>the parts from Mondello without looking for better prices first, you
>probably should consider just buying a motor already done from Mondello.
>Mondello charges price for complete engines, but seems to charge price
>and a half on parts to encourage people to have him do the whole job.
>There is a good chance that it would end up being less just having
>Mondello do the whole thing.
>
>
>Now for some opinions about "tricks"
.
>
>These Olds motors last for well over 100,000 miles stock. How much of
>an improvement can anyone make? Our bottom end was PERFECT when we
>rebuilt our motor. We actually had more piston to wall clearance with
>the forged pistons we put it back together with then it had when we
>took it apart. These motors were built very well originally, and most
>of the "tricks" are for high RPMs that the GMC will never see. Many
>are also fixes for problems caused by other "improvements". IE: If
>you put in a high volume oil pump, you pump too much oil up to the top
>of the motor. Then you need oil restricters and passages to get the
>oil back to the bottom end of the motor so the pump can pump it back up
>there again. If the stock oil pump is good to ~5000 RPM, where do you
>gain? Our engine builder got sucked into this pump because he is used
>to race motors. Now we have high oil pressure all the time. Do we
>really need it? Is all the extra pumping and pressure costing us gas
>mileage and power? Is the engine going to be better than perfect the
>next time it comes apart?
>
>Most of Mondello's experience is with race engines, so those are the
>tricks he knows. Unfortunately most of these tricks deal with getting
>the 455 to rev higher. I'd be willing to bet that most of the people
>on this list have never even seen 4000 RPM in their GMCs. How about
>it everybody. What RPM do all of you take your GMCs up to? At RPMs
>this low, I really don't think that many of these fixes will make much
>of a difference.
>
>Did anyone notice that the GMCMM ad only claims 50 HP and 45 ft-lb
>torque improvement for the "Mondello worked, Edelbrock aluminum heads"
>on the GMC? These are even "Mondello worked" which means a much higher
>price than the $1399 stock price. He also has a 4-bolt main aluminum
>motor in the GMCMM ad. How much is that? That's what we want for the
>land speed record everybody!
>
>He still doesn't say in the ad what RPM the improvements occur at. Some
>quick calculations I did with a shareware program say that if the 50 HP
>improvement occurred at anything less than 5800 RPM then the torque
>improvement would have been greater than 45 ft-lb. 5800 RPM!!!! Can
>anybody else try to calculate this? Using the same calcs, the Signature
>Series steel heads would need 5900 RPM to pick up the 45 HP without
>picking up more than the claimed 40 ft-lbs of torque. I can't believe
>someone would advertise in a GMC mag a HP improvement rated at over 5800
>RPM so my calcs may be wrong. If someone could ask Mondello the RPM
>specs or try to figure this out with their own calcs I would really
>appreciate it. If these RPM's are found to be correct, I would really
>have to question their applicability to the GMC and wonder what other
>statistics are stretched to make them sound a lot better than they
>actually are in practice. It would explain the need for the high RPM
>tricks/modifications though.
>
>
>Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I am not trying to say any
>option is better than any other option. I am just trying to give some
>information to make sure that nobody on the list gets sucked in by hypes
>or sales-pitches and makes a decision without looking into all their
>options. I will again state that, by buying Mondello engines/parts, you
>are virtually guaranteeing that you will get engines/parts that will be
>well constructed and will last!
>
>I'm sending it now before I think of anything else!
>
>Zak
>
>
>
Tom & Marg Warner
Vernon Center NY
1976 palmbeach
appear to be reasonable. He charges for instance $80 to install stellite
valve seats in an olds head. About $240 to completely recondition a head.
I know I can build a 455 that will be servicable for a long time. Have done
it before with olds 350 blocks and olds diesels, but not a 455 yet. I am
looking for reliability above all else. Will get the chance soon I think.
Am really itching to start now! Tjhanks for the info.
>Tom,
>
>I agree that buying from Mondello virtually guarantees a good motor or
>parts. Peace of mind is worth quite a bit. Having an inferior engine
>fail, like some on this list have had, can end up costing more than just
>going for the good motor in the first place. You also may be getting
>some tricks/parts that would only be known by someone who had worked on
>these motors for so long.
>
>I also agree that the Mondello motor is a better way to go than the
>Caspro motor, but I think the Caspro motor is priced high for the same,
>maybe even unwarranted, reason. It is priced high because it is from a
>trusted GMC parts seller.
>
>We used our race engine builder/friend to rebuild our 455. He has been
>a friend and done our race motors for 15 years, so we had more peace of
>mind with him building the motor than we would have had ordering one
>from anybody (even Mondello). He made many calls to Mondello during the
>process and ended up buying a lot of parts from Mondello. He was very
>happy with Mondello at the beginning of the process, and very frustrated
>with him at the end. We were paying for all parts, so the price did not
>affect him at all, but he was actually agitated to the point that he
>said that he would not want to deal with Mondello again and was looking
>hard for anybody else that could supply him with 455 parts. Now that he
>knows the "trick" parts can be procured locally with the right part
>numbers, he probably won't have to. This was the first Olds motor he
>has rebuilt. We now have 14,000 miles on it with no problems.
>
>If your local engine builder charges fairly high prices (NASCAR
>indicates he might) or is the type that would end up buying all/most of
>the parts from Mondello without looking for better prices first, you
>probably should consider just buying a motor already done from Mondello.
>Mondello charges price for complete engines, but seems to charge price
>and a half on parts to encourage people to have him do the whole job.
>There is a good chance that it would end up being less just having
>Mondello do the whole thing.
>
>
>Now for some opinions about "tricks"
.>
>These Olds motors last for well over 100,000 miles stock. How much of
>an improvement can anyone make? Our bottom end was PERFECT when we
>rebuilt our motor. We actually had more piston to wall clearance with
>the forged pistons we put it back together with then it had when we
>took it apart. These motors were built very well originally, and most
>of the "tricks" are for high RPMs that the GMC will never see. Many
>are also fixes for problems caused by other "improvements". IE: If
>you put in a high volume oil pump, you pump too much oil up to the top
>of the motor. Then you need oil restricters and passages to get the
>oil back to the bottom end of the motor so the pump can pump it back up
>there again. If the stock oil pump is good to ~5000 RPM, where do you
>gain? Our engine builder got sucked into this pump because he is used
>to race motors. Now we have high oil pressure all the time. Do we
>really need it? Is all the extra pumping and pressure costing us gas
>mileage and power? Is the engine going to be better than perfect the
>next time it comes apart
?>
>Most of Mondello's experience is with race engines, so those are the
>tricks he knows. Unfortunately most of these tricks deal with getting
>the 455 to rev higher. I'd be willing to bet that most of the people
>on this list have never even seen 4000 RPM in their GMCs. How about
>it everybody. What RPM do all of you take your GMCs up to? At RPMs
>this low, I really don't think that many of these fixes will make much
>of a difference.
>
>Did anyone notice that the GMCMM ad only claims 50 HP and 45 ft-lb
>torque improvement for the "Mondello worked, Edelbrock aluminum heads"
>on the GMC? These are even "Mondello worked" which means a much higher
>price than the $1399 stock price. He also has a 4-bolt main aluminum
>motor in the GMCMM ad. How much is that? That's what we want for the
>land speed record everybody
! >
>He still doesn't say in the ad what RPM the improvements occur at. Some
>quick calculations I did with a shareware program say that if the 50 HP
>improvement occurred at anything less than 5800 RPM then the torque
>improvement would have been greater than 45 ft-lb. 5800 RPM!!!! Can
>anybody else try to calculate this? Using the same calcs, the Signature
>Series steel heads would need 5900 RPM to pick up the 45 HP without
>picking up more than the claimed 40 ft-lbs of torque. I can't believe
>someone would advertise in a GMC mag a HP improvement rated at over 5800
>RPM so my calcs may be wrong. If someone could ask Mondello the RPM
>specs or try to figure this out with their own calcs I would really
>appreciate it. If these RPM's are found to be correct, I would really
>have to question their applicability to the GMC and wonder what other
>statistics are stretched to make them sound a lot better than they
>actually are in practice. It would explain the need for the high RPM
>tricks/modifications though.
>
>
>Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I am not trying to say any
>option is better than any other option. I am just trying to give some
>information to make sure that nobody on the list gets sucked in by hypes
>or sales-pitches and makes a decision without looking into all their
>options. I will again state that, by buying Mondello engines/parts, you
>are virtually guaranteeing that you will get engines/parts that will be
>well constructed and will last!
>
>I'm sending it now before I think of anything else
!>
>Zak
>
>
>
Tom & Marg Warner
Vernon Center NY
1976 palmbeach
