Yeh, some 20+ years ago a neighbor friend had a black Skylark convertible with a 455 in it, I understood the block was much lighter than my Pontiac 455 in my Lemans/GTO convertible....never did take them to the scales....
:beer:
when I get back on this, I'll take pictures of the problem with Buick blocks.
I'll describe it here. On a SBC, the mains are full thickness from the bearing rest to the block walls. Buick knew grandma wasn't going to rev the 455 to the moon, so felt that too much material in those webs was wasted - not only that, but it added weight. So they removed the extra material. It would have been a pain to cast, but their point was the best car for the people they were building it for... by way of comparison. TA performance builds an all-new aluminum BBB, they fix the web problem, and the lifter valley problem (the lifters hang in space, thus with high-pressure springs the lifter bore can break). Remember, these blocks are aluminum, but they weigh more then the cast-iron stock block.
and to answer the burning question - why didn't I use the TA block... finances. I was really within spitting distance (especially after being screwed over by Jim Green Performance, now in Kent Washington) of the cost of an aluminum block. But if I went with an aluminum block, suddenly I'd need (while I'm at it) to add a $2500 billet crank to my already impressive build - and I'm not going for 2000 hp, I'm going for under 1000 hp (900) and I'm not racing it.... it's just a fun car to drive and get in trouble with.
of course, there's still brain-dead people like me who will spend 4x what it'd cost to build a BBC to build these motors - so TA performance builds the girdle I had installed... that, by itself, is half the 4x more cost to buy and get installed. But, to my knowledge, I'll honestly be the only 50 Buick sled powered by a twin turbo Buick 455
The Olds block doesn't have the same issue - and it's why you see them in so many 70s era jet boats.
