Late 64 GTOs with 326 motors
 

Anyone ever hear of late 64 GTOs with factory 326HO motors instead of 389s?
Supposedly they ran out of 389 motors??

You have to stop and think this through, if none of the parts manuals (aftermarket, or factory) never had a notation about a GTO with a factory installed 326HO engine in them, it never happened. Also the many consumer agencies would have made it known that you didn't get what you paid for, when you bought your new 64 GTO. If they ran out of engines for the GTO, then the B body cars, that used the same engine as the GTO, would have also run out, they never got any 326 HOs in full size cars either.

Another thing that rings as a lie is they made substantially less numbers of 326 HO engines than they did 389s, where would the surplus have come from since 326 HO engines are about as scarce as hens teeth, and always have been a very low production option.

Pontiac did advertise a 389 engine in 1964, it's what made the GTO the first mass produced original musclecar. A homologation of parts from one car maker, that's what GTO stands for loosely translated. Take an engine intended for the full size car line, and put it in an intermediate chassis. Putting an intermediate engine in an in intermediate chassis is called a Tempest/Lemans.

I've never heard that rumor in all the years I've owned Pontiacs, raced Pontiacs, and made my living working on cars. I've always specialized in working on Pontiacs during the last 50 years and this is the first encounter with that rumor.`

I have run into GTOs with 326s installed after the owner kicked the rods out of the OEM 389 that came in the car, but those cars did originally have a 389.

I'd classify this as an unsubstantiated rumor, that has zero basis on truth.

It would be very hard to believe. But so many weird things happened back then. My '64 GTO was built with a Tempest hood. I would think that's one of one. There's a note at the bottom of the build sheet "*Use standard Tempest hood". I need to figure out where I put my PHS stuff.

Would make more sense to substitute 421s. We know of at least two that emerged that way. (Red car and blue one ?)

Sure - thousands of Lemans were delivered with 326s - the GTO badging was just added 10+ years later and the bull**** stories explaining how it could be a legitimate 'GTO' like this were born.

Late 64 GTOs with 326 motors
 

Info was posted on Facebook OHC group. It was attributed to a Fred Simmonds presentation on weird cars Pontiac built. Fred even commented on the post but didn’t correct it. I thought I might of missed something in the 40yrs I’ve been playing with Pontiacs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you could do more special ordering back then like this hood. If you can find it on the build sheet I would suspect it was factory.

Another thought may be that the 326 was dealer installed. seemed like dealers would do things like that back in the day, less issue with warranty coverage.

This^^^^. Same thing as the 'early '67 GTO's with 389's' or 'early '67 GTO's that still had tripower.

Been into these cars since the '70's. Others here since Day One. None of these stories are true. '64 GTO's had 389's in them from the factory, never 326's. Two had 421's that were dealer installed, but we know about them.

PHS would be needed to prove this but as one post shows, a flat hood could be special ordered so what if a 326HO was special ordered, it could happen. Certain dealers had more clout and may have ordered this to race in a certain class.

Sure it's possible but that's a lot different scenario than "The factory ran out of 389 engines".. that just plain sounds like one of those BS urban legend type tales.

Exactly

My uncle was a Pontiac Dealer for 67 years and he said he never had any problems getting
389 GTO engines in GTOs and 389 engines in full-sized vehicles.

So much BS out there today.

Tom V.

A racer told me one time why would I ever spend a penny more on a GTO for Racing when a Tempest was exactly the same chassis and would package the 400/428/455 engines in the same chassis.

Tom V.

Sounds like a story made up by a guy with a 326 in his GTO. "It was made that way from the factory, so that'll be $75,000!"

Or a guy who put GTO emblems on his 326 Lemans.

We have our ways to tell a real 64. Easiest from inside the trunk.

That's the first place a guy cloning addresses.

I’m not saying that the story is true but I went to college in 1965 with a fellow who’s father’s 1964 Catalina came from the factory with a 326 engine. I didn’t believe it until I saw the engine myself. The car was still under warranty so if it was replaced it would have been replaced with a 389.

Was the car a stick shift??

This is just stupid about the GTOs with 326, why would it only be a few at the end of 64 model run, why would there not also be some early 65s with them too.

During the gas crisis it was common to swap 326-350s into 389-400-421-428-455 engine compartments. You could also drill one hole in a Saginaw and bolt up a BW Overdrive.