Hot Tri Power set Up, BS or truth?
 

Years ago, I had a guy on my crew in Detroit that he claims to have taken a manifold with a tri power set up off a car at Royal Pontiac, so if you got a GTO with all replacement set up, he’s telling the truth. They stole it at night. How long would it take?

To steal it off the vehicle?

With two guys probably less than a hour.

Was he telling the truth? probably.

There has always been a lot of Pontiac Thieves in the Detroit/Royal Oak area.

One reason why I had a chain attached from my Hood to the front sway bar with a padlock in college.

TV

I knew a guy that in 1966 jumped a freight train hauling new Pontiacs through Erie PA, up into NY state. He found a new GTO with tri power, and proceeded to take it off the car, then dumped it off the train, had a friend that was following the train in his car that picked up the intake, then followed it until it slowed to go through a town, and they jumped off. It was about 40 miles from where he jumped on.

I have no idea how fast the train average speed was, but it took a few minutes to find the car with tri power. I would imagine the actual removal was about 30 minutes with one guy doing the work. He wasn't a novice, he knew his way around Pontiacs. I know i could pull a brand new unit off in 30 minutes with just hand tools.

I had forgotten about him, until I read the first post....:)

I would think30 minutes would be easy. I mean really how many tools do you need? I once got 78 cases of bud returnable bottles of a train in less than 20 minutes with two friends.

Back in the 80s, I used to do work for an old timer car dealer. At the time I was driving a 69 Grand Prix SJ. The car dealer told me a story about having a car like mine on his lot that someone stole the “center head” off of it one weekend. I had no idea what a center head was. Years later a neighbor of mine told me about a friend of his that had a 70 455 Grand Prix that was racing it and it backfired and blew out a section of the intake manifold. He said the guy went to this used car lot and stole the intake manifold and carburetor off a 69 or 70 Grand Prix and put it on his car right there in the parking lot. The car lot was located next to the Mall that was the cruising hot spot for the whole county on the weekends. Lo!!!

I thought a guy that worked at Royal could confirm the story, make a young kid that was a porter, lol
There’s prob some guy at at show telling people, NO, MY CAR CAME WITH THIS TRI-POWER SET UP FROM THE FACTORY. I DROVE THE CAR OFF THE LOT. lmao

Side note, I just noticed Sirrotica your from Catawba, ? Me and a girl years ago drinking Catawba wine, where would that have come from? Ever heard of it?

I'm from Erie PA, moved to Ohio in 2001 to Marysville, home of Honda USA. I then moved to South Charleston Ohio in 2006, home of Buckeye Wood Products, and finally in 2021 We moved to our new mini farm outside of Catawba Ohio:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=850503

Catawba Ohio, and Catawba/County/Island, both in Ohio 2 1/2 hours apart. Catawba County, and Island is about 20 minutes west of Norwalk. Catawba County/Island is of course on Lake Erie, many vineyards, and wine shops along the lake, because the shores of Lake Erie are prime ground for grape and fruit farms.

Catawba Ohio is about 12 miles to the east of Springfield Ohio, about 4 miles north of I-70. Catawba Ohio has one claim to fame, Sis's Restaurant. "Take the drive, you won't go away hungry". They're both in Ohio, other than that no resemblance. My mailing address is actually Mechanicsburg Ohio, about 15 miles away, I can see Catawba from my back porch, about 1/2 mile away. BTW Sis's Restaurant does have fine country style food...:)

I just updated the town on my location yesterday, we've been living here since August.

:focus:

Thanks, thinking more about the wine, we were on a boat, I saw when I searched it Put In Bay has a winery. Makes sense. I’ll have to do the wine tour down that way. The GF would love it. Thanks again for all the info.

I'm willing to bet you could pull an intake off in less than 15 minutes with about 3 tools. 9/16 wrench. pair of side cutters and something to pry off the manifold. 1 minute apiece for the intake bolts with the wrench. Cut the wires, throttle cable and hoses with the cutters and pry up the manifold. You can leave the small bolt in the front of the manifold in the manifold. Remember you're not putting it back on so you don't have to save anything.
I worked at a dealership some years ago. In the middle of the night with a guard on duty someone removed the left front fender and left door off a car in the front line. Nobody saw anything. One other time someone removed a 4 speed from a new TA in the side lot during the day with everyone going back and forth. He had it out on the ground and would have gotten away with it except someone felt sorry for him having to work outside and came inside and mentioned it to the service manager.