[mgarblik]

A few people on the forums know that I was able to acquire a 73 red SD-455 TA a little over a year ago. A dear friend was the second owner of the car and it was bought and lived here in Ohio it's entire life. Car has 49,000 miles on it. In the 1978-1979 time frame it was completely disassembled for a complete refresh and to put into what would have been considered show condition at that time. Prior to disassembly, it was treated like a used car, not abused in any way, but not a pampered trailer queen. It was street driven and even raced a couple times at the local drag strips. It is a numbers matching car with lots of documentation and receipts. The car has been apart for 44 years and parts and components have been moved in and out of multiple locations in Ohio and Kentucky during that time. The owner also compiled an impressive stash of mostly NOS parts to put it back together. Few reproduction parts were available 44 years ago so the NOS parts are a blessing.

I am extremely grateful to have a chance to put this car back on the road. I have a plan and will carry it out over the next year or so. The body and paint are good enough to not alter at this time. The endura front bumper may need to be refinished later. I will have a few experts look it over before making any decisions. The interior will need considerable work. The headliner has fallen down, carpet was previously replaced poorly, heater core leaking, some faded hard plastics. So the interior will be a priority.

The heart of the car, the SD-455 engine was rebuilt in 1979 and never reinstalled. I have the receipt from A-Hines Racing Engines in Lawrenceberg, IN. They were a very well respected shop and did top notch work in the 70's-90's before closing at some point. I have completely disassembled the engine for inspection and measurement and find the work they did was very impressive, down to the finest details. Example, I measured the bolt stretch on every rod bolt during disassembly and all fell between .006"-.0075" bolt stretch. Right to specs. The engine is bone stock. But now +.030 with a stock crankshaft balanced and it was ground 10-10.

Purpose for this thread is to highlight the features of the SD-455 engine, provide a bunch of pictures and specs. This engine is a very early build as the heads do not have any casting marks on the outer exhaust ports or any casting dates. Only the complete part number. I have 50 years in this hobby and this is the first real SD-455 I have personally been inside. My hope is we can all learn some things before it is buttoned back up.

Overall time frame is to have the engine back together and painted January/February time frame. Car back together and running June/July 2024. We will see how it goes. Here are a couple of pics to get started and I will add many more as time allows. Enjoy.