1970s 98 question posed by someone else

[MotiveLensPhoto]

I'm at a cruise night last night with my 73 Riv. A guy asked me what engine and I told him. He asked me if it was the same as the late 70's 455 and I didn't know. As the conversation evolved, turns out he manages a Tuffy repair shop and a customer brought in a late 70's Olds 98. The heads need to be replaced and he said that he has been searching for a year to find replacements with no luck. Just curious but does the late 70's 98 have a 455? Is it the same basic configuration as the early 70's Buick (with I imagine more pollution control)? Are the parts difficult to find?

 

I don't even know if anything this guy said was real but I thought I'd ask some people who should know more than I.

[joe_padavano]

I'd be skeptical of any repair shop owner who didn't know that Olds, Buick, and Pontiac 455s are completely different motors with no parts in common (except the distributor cap). More to the point, a Buick 455 has the distributor in the front, Olds in the back. That alone should be one's first clue. Olds 455 motors were only made 1968-1976. For 1977-79 it was replaced by the 403.

 

And before someone brings up the GM engine-swapping issue, the only non-Oldsmobile GM vehicle to get a factory-installed Olds 455 was the 1973-76 GMC motorhome because it used the Toronado drivetrain.

Edited June 1 by joe_padavano (see edit history)

[MotiveLensPhoto]

11 minutes ago, joe_padavano said:

I'd be skeptical of any repair shop owner who didn't know that Olds, Buick, and Pontiac 455s are completely different motors with no parts in common (except the distributor cap). More to the point, a Buick 455 has the distributor in the front, Olds in the back. That alone should be one's first clue. Olds 455 motors were only made 1968-1976. For 1977-79 it was replaced by the 403.

 

And before someone brings up the GM engine-swapping issue, the only non-Oldsmobile GM vehicle to get a factory-installed Olds 455 was the 1973-76 GMC motorhome because it used the Toronado drivetrain.

Yeah, not my car. Tuffy isn't known for working on older cars. Apparently, this thing was a bit of a Frankenstein. Just thought it odd that he didn't just dig up the vin off the existing and dig up the necessary replacement parts from that. I couldn't imagine that even if they get it back to running, it would be worth much more than scrap value based on his overall description of it, even after they got it running..

Edited June 1 by MotiveLensPhoto (see edit history)