Get ready to do some CPR on your checkbook- - - - -go fast stuff for Olds engines is scarce and expensive. If you put enough cam into it to get an idle lope, you'll also need to increase the compression, use a torque converter with a higher stall speed, and probably run lower gears in the rear end. Low speed and midrange performance will suck like a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It's simpler and a lot less expensive to pull a couple of spark plug wires when you want the fenders to shake at a stoplight.
If you're determined to build a hotrod, and you don't mind spending some money, try this: Run a Speed-Pro CS198R camshaft (300/310 degree duration and .496/.520 lift) and the appropriate lifters and valve springs, and install flat top pistons instead of the dish-top original equipment ones. One way to do this without going to an expensive custom piston is to use a .030" oversize Pontiac 400 piston (Speed-Pro L2262F30), which has a flat top, and bore the Olds engine .025" oversize. The Pontiac piston has the same wrist pin size and is very close to the Olds piston in compression height and weight so no rebalancing of the rotating assembly should be required. You can build a pretty good-performing 455 Olds engine for somewhere in the $4K to $5K range.
Jerry
