What made the HO different from the regular 350 in '69... I have a convert. that now has a 455 and want to try and replicate the old motor... Stuff happens when you sell the car in the 80's and buy it back with the original replaced with this '70 ...

If the original engine is gone, you may want to just stick with the 455.

The 350 HO in simplistic terms bought you a 4bl intake/carb, and a bunch of fru-fru's. Mostly smoke and mirrors compared to a 400.

Cool that you were able to track down a sold-long-ago-car though. Did you know the Owner? Or how did you stumble across the same car? I'm sure the three fgf's I owned back in the early 80's have all been converted to fence posts by now...

I sold it to a kid in '86 who's folks had a store in the town I worked in... later he had spun a main bearing and had replaced the motor with this '70 455 with #15 heads,balanced, and set up for a Ski-Boat... In '88 ,I saw my old car with a "4sale" parked in front of the store...bought her back and had since...

I can put you a 350HO together and trade you straight across for the 455 but I'd bet you're going to be disappointed the first time you push down on the GO pedal.

Yes, I think you'll be much happier with the 455.

However, the 350 H.O. was no slouch! Aside from the 4-barrel carb and intake, you also received dual exhaust, and big valve heads, casting #48, also known as Ram Air III heads.

Nothing on the outside, the 350 H.O.'s received a flat hood and no special identification, but they were pretty rare cars.

I wouldn't discount the 69' 350 HO. They were the sleepers, usually steel rims with poverty caps, flat hoods, but came off the line better than the 400's.

The 455 with 15's is a nice pump gas set-up, the 350 HO motor in stock form has a high static CR for today.... Hence why the 455's are becoming ever more popular - low comp - high hp.

If all you are short from a numbers correct vert is the motor, I would do it, but you will likley want to put in some dished pistons for pump gas... You can port the heads to flow better with a roller cam and make up for some of the loss with the CR.

i had a original 69 350 ho 4 spd and rebuilt it. as far as i remember the heads are ra3's(16's) and the internals are beefed up with forgend crank and pistions.a 4 bbl carb. they had a more aggressive cam also. that thing would fly. miss it.