Tim, the 68/69 H/O's were delivered to Demmer Engineering (responsible for the conversions) with the 455 already in place. For several decades, within both Musclecar magazines and books, it was reported that Demmer Engineering transplanted 455's into 442's in order to bypass the GM mandate limiting A-body cars to 400 cubic inches. There were always rumors that these 442's, destined for the Hurst/Olds conversion, actually had 455's installed at the factory. Finally, a few years ago Jack "Doc" Watson confirmed this in an episode of "American Musclecar" when he looked at the camera and stated clearly that yes, the 442's were shipped to Demmer Engineering with the 455's already installed by Oldsmobile.
Dave H. can shed some more light on this too, as he was actually there when it happened.
Another long time myth that was finally blown apart was that the 1964 Car & Driver GTO, the one article that arguably launched the Musclecar Era, had a 389 Tri-Power. For 35 years, Jim Wangers stood by this story, so dozens of articles and books quoted him. However, in 1999, Wangers finally came clean in his "Glory Days" book and admitted that the 1964 Car & Driver GTO had a prepped 421 under the hood.
