soon2b2ltmp,
Does that mean we should lump people's choice in auto paint colors with Jimmy Carter and disco? Oh, well. People did SOME things right in the 70s; you can't expect them to bat .1000.
455Grandville,
Did you recently measure your engine at 7.6:1, or have you found literature that cites that degree of compression variance? I've always thought that most engines simply lost compression over time as the piston rings began to wear (among other wear factors, such as cam wear). Thus your compression may have originally been quite close to spec, and then gone down as the engine aged. I've never heard of OEM "new car" compression varying that widely, but then again there's a LOT of things I haven't heard!
You know how some new cars just seem to be lemons from day one? If what you are saying about compression varying that much is the case on new cars today, I wonder if compression testing would be a good "lemon spotter" test? A compression test is, after all, one of the great barometers of the health of an engine. Buy a new car, find low compression, take that sucker back before it peters out on you.
I also didn't realize that the 73 455 spec was 8.2:1; I'd read that it was 8.0:1. A LITTLE higher is better, so that's good.
Now, you're saying that dual exhaust was optional? Why on earth would anybody want a restricted exhaust system when they could have dual? Oh, shoot, probably the same kind of guy who'd want a "Tweety-bird yellow" car, vote for Jimmy Carter, and dance the night away!
So now you KNOW the first thing I'll be checking is for dual exhaust. That's become my number one favorite Grand Ville option.
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