I have a wierd one! I have a 1983 chevy 454 in my 1983 1 ton dually. the wierd this is that when I took off the valve covers I noticed it was deep red on the head and was very clean and in fact felt like teflon. Upon removing the intake it was also the same under the manifold. now this is the HO 454 came from the factory with LS5 heads . It's rated at 365 HP.
does anyone know why this block is so strange?

 

I am not positive here and I am sure there are alot of guys who would know better than me ....but every Chevy Hi-Perf. or HO Big Block built after 1969 was in fact painted with a red-oxide Teflon based paint to aid in oil return ....at least every Hi-perf. Big block I have owned and thats a few were painted the same way...if thats the case and your's is that color on the interior oil return surfaces For the love of MIKE man treat that Hog Block right and hang on to her as they are getting as scarce as hen's teeth. (at least the one's that have not been bored or otherwise altered by now ) !!!! I am buying up every one I can get my grubby, dirty, oily little mits on around this neck of the woods cause, soon they will have all gone the way of the other Dinosaurs and become extinct!

I hope that helped you and just to make sure you might try asking G.M. direct they are pretty good at handing out that type of info.

Good Luck !
R.C.

 

I just took off the heads and sent them to a local machine shop and now have to have a bunch of work done to them. All eight exhaust valve seats were sunk and all the guides were shot. I changed to a 501/527 lift cam so now the shop is going to check to see if my springs are sufficient. now thats some cash just cause of a little smoking out the pipe. Also was strange is there were absolutely no valve guide seals at all on both heads. WHAT GIVES???