[screamingchief]

I'll give my thoughts on your questions:

1.Sounds like they used polylocks to make the valvetrain adjustable to work with the aftermarket cam.While an acceptable modification I generally prefer to convert to straight 7/16" BBC style studs over the 7/16"-3/8" "bottleneck" studs.This would be an easy thing to change at any point though.

2.I would be comfortable with making sure the engine is well primed before fireup as far as the bearings are concerned.Though I would probably pull down the valvetrain and make sure the friction points all have some lube on them(lubriplate or such).And pull the valley pan and see if the cam has any break-in lube on it,if not I'd make sure it did.And I would recommend the use of GM EOS upon the initial startup also.

3.As far as intakes,the stock one is a good choice.And if you prefer aluminum an edelbrock performer would be as good as the stock performance wise and a few pounds lighter to boot.I dont think this combo would gain any by using any other choices(performer RPM,torker I or II,etc.,etc.).You could probably find someone to trade the torker for a performer if you felt inclined.

4.This falls more into the area of personal preferance and what your comfortable working on.The Q-jet is an excellent street performance carb when properly tuned for an application.And other carbs can work very well also.As far as CFM I'd stick to around 750 CFM on this one myself.I would likely use a 3310 750 vacuum secondary holley with an electric choke and a few of my usual modifications here.The Q-jet would have an edge in a couple ways if set-up correctly though.

So hope that helps you some,good luck and welcome to the boards here.Most folks here will do what they can to help you with your questions or problems so your able to enjoy your pontiac.