Help me with my 70 Electra rebuild!
 

Hello everyone,

I've had this project sitting for a couple years now and am starting to get around to rebuilding the engine since it was seized. This is my first time rebuilding an engine from the bottom up. A 4-door 1970 Electra 225 with the 455.
I have the engine out of the car now and almost fully taken apart. One of the rods has a pretty nasty bend to it and the corresponding bearing was nowhere to be seen, which is obviously why it was seized.
The main components of the engine seem alright and I plan on taking the block, heads, crank and rods + pistons to the machine shop to be redone.

It seems like there are a lot of decisions I have to make, and I am looking for a bit of guidance from some of you who are more experienced with these engines (I'm 22 so I didn't grow up with these cars, but am eager to learn).
My goal is to rebuild this engine and achieve factory horsepower and torque specs (or possibly a little bit more; A little performance upgrade won't hurt!).
I am not looking to do any sort of extreme performance build cause I probably cant afford it, and I don't plan on taking this thing to the drag strip.

-Looking for a cam recommendation and what components I would need to accommodate the cam (i.e. springs, lifters)

-As far as I know the 1970 heads and block are quite desirable. I plan to get the heads completely redone.
My question regarding that is should I have them converted to Stage 1 specs? Or are the 1970 heads good enough on their own? My casting numbers are 231786 for the heads.
Also regarding this, I read somewhere that the 1970 heads do not have hardened valve seats. Is this a huge issue?
(I plan to get some info on this from the machine shop as well, but I figured I will ask the pros here first)

-I will need a new set of rods (or at least 1 new one). I am not sure if the original pistons will be good to use, so am considering replacing them if anyone has any recommendations.

-Rocker shaft. Am I going to have any issues using the original rocker shaft and rockers? I know that the plastic nubs that hold the rockers in place
should be replaced, which I plan on doing.

-Oiling modifications. I see many places online show how to modify the oiling passages in 455 blocks. I have not found one that shows
which modifications should be done for a 1970 block. My research has shown that the 1970 blocks are unique in that they have smaller passages
than the 1971-1976 blocks. Any recommendations for this would be great.


If any of you guys have any tips or recommendations for me I would really appreciate it!
I am still not sure if I need to get the block bored over or not, but if I do It does not need much.
I have heard of TA performance, but I live in Canada so have not looked into prices for shipping.
Trying to do this on somewhat of a budget, I will spend money on quality parts where it is necessary.

Thanks a lot!
-Paul G