once i saw H-O's oil galley plug set, i made it standard equip for all 455's. 1 had a small hole in it 2 squirt extra oil onto the cam & dist gears. i never lost 1 455 bracket racing--1000's of passes. didn't keep records of each motor, but i estimate i built 8-10 455's like this. raced em all, then either sold em or gave em away. the only 1 that failed was our last drag motor from '87. after retiring the bracket car, i let a dirt racer put the motor in his 2nd gen dirt car. if i remember correctly, he had a flat in his heat race, so had 2 start the feature from the rear. he passed everybody but the leader before the brgs got tired of runnin without oil & gave up. i was so dumb about dirt racin, i ran the stock oil pan--that won't work--will suck the pan dry. must have extra capacity & kickouts at the bottom 2 keep the pick-up submerged in oil at all times. i wasted a good 455 thru ignorance! i also ran H-O's oil filter bypass plug in all my motors. many think you should keep the bypass. another 1 of those back & forth debate topics. after 1 ballooned filter, i always used napa 1258 filter. i've read that a wix 51258 is the same filter & it is cheaper than the napa from many sources. i also used pipe cleaners in the pushrods 2 slighty restrict flow 2 the top end. i know this gags some of you guys--so if you got the $--buy restricted pushrods any way you want em. when i 1st read about the pipe cleaner trick, it made sense 2 me. it imediately reminded me of the metering rods in a q-jet. the bigger the tip--the smaller the passage--thus less flow. it worked great for me in lots of motors--never melted a spring or anything terrible like that. another word about oil--everybody has their favorite. most of the good stuff is 10-$15 a quart now--if you got the $, buy it. if not, you can use the diesel oil-- 15w-40--rotella t is higher--delo is cheaper--both have zinc. otherwise you'll have 2 buy a good oil additive with the zinc & stuff needed 2 keep flat tappets alive. ps: i am well aware that a motor will make more power using thin oil ,with the proper clearances & lower press. having said that, i'll remind all readers that what i am presenting here is what i did because i didn't have the big buck 2 do everything precisely correct.
