Legendary Mark V Tunnel Port RA-V by TARCO
 

Almost every RAV engine I have seen, has this decal on the left valve cover.


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I think I have virtually every magazine article related to this engine, yet I have never found a single reference to this company. Does anyone have any insight as to who TARCO is and what role they played in developing the engine? I have heard one person speculate that it actually refers to TRACO (or TRA-CO) Racing Engines of Culver City, California. They were heavily involved in building engines for the SCCA Trans-Am series, which of course, the 303 tunnel port was specifically developed for. I could understand seeing that decal on a Trans Am race car if TRACO helped build the engine.

I have one of these decals, but I can't decide whether I should install it on my engine. I have a hard time believing that Pontiac would have installed it on a street RA-V had they actually made it to production. Why would they want to give credit to another company for their engine? Do we have anyone here who has unboxed a crated RAV engine that can state that Pontiac shipped engines with that decal installed?

I don't mean to disparage anyone who is displaying the decal - no doubt at this point we automatically expect to see it, and the whole concept of trying to create something that never happened is always a mixture of research and then making an educated guess.

I'd love to hear any stories from anyone who might be able to shed any light on the mystery of TARCO.

They were not on the crate engines. My father bought several.

First time I ever saw the decal was on Purely PMD's car.
Always assumed they made it but never understood why.

Would be kind of silly for a Pontiac to put a decal on a new engine that stated "legendary".

Thank you, very helpful.

Very good point.

IMO this decal is similar to the ubiquitous 400-4 decals we see on air cleaners. Highly unlikely this was ever a factory decal.

Agree with the tarco and “the legendary” comments.

And where did this “MARK V” reference come from? Have never seen any Pontiac literature mention MARK anything.

However, I do recall talking to an oldtimer about the tarco reference many years ago and he said tarco was involved in developing the valvetrain. I do not consider the source reliable.

I exchanged emails with Jim Jones at TRACO, and he says they were not involved.

Pontiac didn’t build an aluminum RAV,but I did. I had a Aluminum Ram Air V sticker for my 70 Trans Am made for the hood of my car just for the call out. I believe I put the sticker you are talking about on all of my RAV engines because I liked the sticker and really liked -Legendary- because it is. I get tired of every 69 and 70 GTO being a Judge. Thousands of fakes out there,even try to get by with a Judge on some 68s. At least get the year right. If you don’t like it,don’t put it on your engine. It’s that easy.

The point of the post is that I want to make the decision based on whether I think Pontiac would have built the car with the decal - not on whether I like it. Some people have gone to great lengths to build their cars as close as possible to "factory" using what limited information is available, and I see the decal on those cars. I'm just doing the research to determine if I'm going to install it on mine. I totally agree though, ultimately one should build any car project the way they want it.

If going after what we might try to consider a faithful execution -
i wouldn't use the after-product decal

Would also be interested to know why Tarco is on there.
Never really paid much attention to it

At minimum, i would trim some of the verbage off the decal { tarco / legendary }

Here is some of IslandBoys handywork on that moon-dust Alum Ram5

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1593702861
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1593702861

Pretty sure at this point I'm not going to use it in any form. Those are great pics - was not aware of that car.

I run them so no one asks me why I put a Ford in my pontiac again!Tom

:D The struggle is real! You want something to bring the uniqueness of the engine to the attention of those not knowledgeable about Pontiac engines.

Nobody wanted to pay the 10million for it, so the car and engine were separated and sold separately.
( i don't remember the real asking price - so i estimated )

I think the car was Racerboy's 70 TA Ram3 4spd car.
The moon-dust Block came from Tom S

I was surprised no one bought the car complete.
One of the coolest Ram5 cars anyone ever built.

If he could have went to the moon and brought back enough dust to make a pair of exhaust manifolds - it would have been the All-Time coolest of them all.
I would have done my best to go steal the car late one night.
Probably best that it didn't materialize :D

We're those crate engines black?Tom

I know one person who is adamant they were early SD455 non-metallic blue and not the expected ‘66-‘70 metallic blue.

I as told by more than one person they were black?Tom

It's funny, I had messaged BrianS this morning asking this same question since he said he saw several that his father had. It will be interesting to see what he remembers. I intend to paint mine '66-'70 metallic blue, because logically that's what color Pontiac would have painted them in a production setting.

Tom- I also heard they were black. Tom S has easily built or had built more RAV engines than anyone. I have had at least 4 or 5 with parts to build another 4 or 5. I also owned the 428 splayed RAV block and 2 of the 5 aluminum experimental aluminum SD/RAV blocks. The engine I had in the 70 Trans Am- the one pictured- is in Chicago and the 2nd one is the one AlumiChief has. As far as i know. Tom S is the man for RAV.

BVZ- Don’t always have to get carried away. If I remember right-I was in the low to middle $100s on the TA. Funny how someone that has the only one always asks too much money for something because the experts on here don’t think it’s worth it. That’s why only a few on here have had a RAV engines because the rest are too cheap to spend the money. Another reason that I quit restoring cars. Tired of all the dreamers and whiners. Good Luck with your RAV project on here. BVZ- go snort some of that moon dust and make the manifolds yourself

I guess I misunderstood. Tom appeared to be asking a question. I didn’t realize he was stating what color they were. No disrespect meant. I’m pretty much the new guy and still learning who the key players are although I‘m certainly aware of Tom’s expertise.

FYI there were more than 5 alu blocks.2 that I have owned were part of 6 that were removed from a trash bin at the factory.The one I built had casting flaws and some porosity leaks.Found out AFTER it was built and on a dyno.Not sure how many actually got out of the factory out the back door.The 2 early alu blocks for the hemi heads are the rarest I have seen,heard of or owned.Still working on getting them machined.Tom