I just bought a 1990 454ss, turbo 400, 14 bolt 3.73 and I wanna add some performance.

Anyone here modded a 454ss yet?

I have a 1990 with 53k miles, however I want more power. I still want to be able to take road trips, drive to work, have A/C etc, no 1/4 mile strip racer and needs to be naturally aspirated (sp)

I havent had this truck a week yet so Im not familiar with everything and what parts to use.

So Im gonna let you decide how to modify this engine and freshen it up internally.

what heads?
what TBI?
what cam/lifters/pushrods?
what intake?
what headers if any?
computer changes?
ignition/wires etc?
fuel pump?

I need part numbers and links to purchase please but again lets make this streetable, no fuel cells or wild stuff...basic garage bolt ons. Doesnt need to be the ultimate.

get your desktop dyno out and lets do this

Here she is...tell me what you think of my new project

 

Very clean truck man.. However the 454 motors in those trucks are choked down bad. A friend of mine had one and with all the bolt ons, headers, cold air, pulleys and even a 125 shot of nitrous was no match for my 05 ECSB 5.3. Buuut A good head and cam combo with that ebelbroke TBI throttle body and let those big cubes breath and it would be a beast!

 

great buy,how much was it bro

 

I bought it for $8000

from what I have read with the right heads, intake, cam, intake manf w/tbi and headers I can get what I want.....just nobody gives any specs on what exact parts to buy

 

Intake /lt headers / exhaust are your choice...as for heads and cam..I would go with one of those matched packages that include h/c/im/plus all the bolts/gaskets..TF and edelbrock come to mind..nice truck..good luck!

 

Nice truck man!

A TB spacer is a great addition to these trucks.

Also having flowmatched injectors helps along with an adjustable fuel PSI regulator.

Check out TBI Parts "DOT" Com For lots of info, and help with your project.


Your not going to make big power with a TBI setup.

But it can be made into a fun truck with basic mods.

Get a custom chip burnt, headers, exhaust, TB spacer and fuel pressure reg and it will run a lot better then it does now, but for that kind of money you can swap an LS engine in and be ahead of the game, its up to you.

 

781 or 049 heads are going to be your best bet for sticking with stock castings

your stock tbi will be ok as long as you dont get too radical, if you want more look into a mpfi setup though

cam/lifters/pushrods all depend on how radical you want to get, remember the computers in those trucks arent like the new trucks that are easy to tune

edelbrock 3764 (if i remember correctly) is a good intake manifold if you are sticking with the stock tbi

hooker supercomp headers are the best and biggest you can buy for those trucks, at least they were a year or two ago, 2" primaries and i think 3.5" collectors

computer changes is going to have to be done profesionally unless you get something like a bigstuff3 or similar

i always used mds wires, distributor, coil and a 6a box without any issues

either a walbro for an intank pump or an aeromotive a1000 if you are planning on making some power



if you are going to be driving the truck daily you will like it for about a year then you will get sick of getting 10mpg (at best), trust me, i daily drove mine for 2.5 years and didnt drive very much because of the gas mileage factor....that and the fact that big blocks require a lot of maintenance. if you are interested, i have a 496 sitting in a shop that i was building for my 454ss when i had it, sold the truck before the engine got finished. shoot me a PM if you want to know more about it......i will let it go VERY cheap (considering what i already have invested in it). good luck with it and enjoy driving your new toy

 

i would really look into doing a LS swap in it, hell even if its a 4.8, you'll still come out ahead.....

 

no ls swap, I wanna keep it original as possible. I have my 2008 to daily drive so gas mileage is no concern, I only live 5 miles from work anyway.

Thanks for the tips and PM me more info on that 496 please

 

Yeah, that is a nice truck. Im surprised you got it for $8k. I've seen some rags that a few jagoff salesmen were asking $10k+ for.

I read that a 2" bore TBI can handle 500 fwhp. I know that will require a shitload of tuning. Problem with that is, as posted above, its tough to find a GM OBDI tuner. There are some mailorder guys out there. I've read if you datalog your *** off for them, you can eventually get it dialed in.

The only things I would add to 454navyss's post is see if your block has provisions to convert to roller. Maybe he didn't say that b/c it already is. All my experience with TBI was from an sbc 350. Also, search out TBI mods. I know thirdgen.org has a detailed write up on them. Fullsizechevy is another good sbc site. Theres still a bunch of guys over there with the sbc > LSX arguement...