Ancient high 10's secrets for your Buick *455*

bob k. mando

Team Member
Moderator
since i gave you the Kenne-Bell write up on the 350, it's only far that i give you a little of the big brother. if anybody has old Popular Hot Rodding magazines laying around, it would be helpful if somebody could tell me February of what particular year they reviewed the Ram Air hood.





PERFORMANCE GAIN CHART FOR 455 GS

( using special KENNE-BELL equipment )

This chart was compiled to give our customers reasonably factual information on the performance gains to be expected from our products. The majority of equipment used in these tests was not "on the shelf" equipment. Many cam, piston, ring, manifold, carburation and transmission tests and modifications were performed before we finalized on the equipment that gave the results shown below.

All tests were run in our 3600 lb. 1970 GS 455 car.


Code:
[U]TEST       ET         MPH           CHANGE MADE[/U]

1        13.90        100.00        Stock Buick GS 455, 3.64 gears, TH-400
                                    trans.  Car was right off the showroom
                                    with no changes whatsoever.

2        13.60        100.00        Install slicks on KBDCR offset chrome rear
                                    wheels, KBDR2096-90/10 Shocks and KB147
                                    Airlifts

3        13.50        100.00        Install 4.78 gears and KB Street/Strip
                                    Transmission Kit and clearanced engine.

4        13.00        104.00        Install KB455 4 Tube Headers ( specially
                                    made ) and .073 primary jets

5        12.40        110.00        Install KBB70S 455 Cheater Cam ( legal
                                    NHRA ) with .030" shims and stock Buick
                                    valve gear.

6        12.00        113.00        Install KB455FP Super Lite Forged Pistons
                                    and KB130 Street/Strip Rings

7        11.85        114.50        Install Edelbrock manifold with .030"
                                    metering rods and .074 primary jets

8        11.60        117.00        Install 1000 cfm Thermo Quad ( specially
                                    jetted ) and KBFLA Fuel Line Adapters.

9        11.20        122.00        Install Stage 2 heads.

10       11.10        123.00        Install Ram Air Hood ( see Popular Hot
                                    Rodding - Feb ... year unknown
                                    at this time )

11       10.90        125.00        Install KB149-B Converter and Switch
                                    Pitch Kit

12       10.70        127.00        Install KB Mark IV Cam, KB100 Lifters and
                                    KB102 Pushrods
Test 3 also includes our KB128 and KB129 Bearings ( same as Buick ), blocked heat riser gaskets and pulleys and KB Advance Curve Kit. Note the 4.78 provided relatively little increase in performance. The stock exhaust system, low compression and "weak" factory cam could not take advantage of the lower gears.

Our headers, cam, pistons and rings were installed in tests 4, 5 and 6 for a total gain of 13 mph and 1.4 seconds.

The Edelbrock manifold picks up 1.5 mph and .15 seconds in test 7.

Test 8 proves the ThermoQuad to be the best bolt on value for the engine. It works equally as well on a stock manifold with the manifold primaries enlarged to 1 1/2".

This is not necessarily the final potential of the car. Further tuning, ram air and dual quads will further add to performance. In addition, we maintain a continous research program with our test cars and our customers in search of increased performance.
 
sorry, nope. that's just some scans of KB newsletters that i've picked up over the years. i don't actually have any of these.
 
sorry, nope. that's just some scans of KB newsletters that i've picked up over the years. i don't actually have any of these.

Wait - I got this!

KB%20BB%20Cams%201.jpg



KB%20BB%20cams%202.jpg
 
Hah! very nice, Steve.

sometimes info requests actually pan out.


i notice that's a cam list from sometime later than the test results i posted though. they're on their 7th gen solid lifter cam here where they were using the "6S" in the test.
 
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