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#21
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God this brings back memories, my friend Mike dad work at a Pontiac dealer, he ended up with 74 SD Firebird. I was really surprised after going for a ride and comparing it to the power my 68 400 GTO. Made.
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#22
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Very neat car!
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#23
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Good traffic on this thread. Before I posted it, I had a few back and forth PM's with B-man about how and where to post this thread. The street section gets allot of traffic so he thought this would be a good place for it. To answer some questions raised. The previous owner lives locally and is helping me with the many details of getting the car back together. He is super detail oriented so his help is appreciated. He does not have the space, tools and time to make it all happen. I am sure that was factored into the eventual transfer of ownership. The car was repainted in the 1980-1982 time frame in lacquer. The body was not separated from the subframe. This was typical of the way cars were "restored" 40+ years ago. I assume rotisseries were out there in the early 80's, but only very valuable "classic's" were treated to that level of restoration in those days. Although a SD-455 TA has always been collectible, they were still available at a reasonable price in the early 1980's. One of the impressive things about this car to me is although many parts have been replaced, 95% of them are NOS replacement parts. There are just a few nick nacks that are from the restoration parts suppliers. This means the parts actually fit and look as they did when the car was built. The car never had any meaningful rust from what I can tell but had some bumps and bruises from being used as transportation for 5 years or so. The decals on the car are NOS replacements in GM envelopes because he gave me numerous spares along with the car. The car does not have the bird hood.
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#24
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A dream project for many of us here on the forum. Congrats Mike I’m sure you’re loving sinking your teeth into this one!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
#25
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I've read here that when the engine was in early stages, that the initial cam choice was the 041? It was nixed in favor of the 068, for emissions purposes (I wonder if the 744 was considered?).
With such a low compression ratio, I'm sure the 068 worked out better. Have you thought about another cam choice, possibly the 041 with Rhoads lifters, just to allow the engine to b e built as "maybe" as it should have?
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1977 Black Trans Am 180 HP Auto, essentially base model T/A. I'm the original owner, purchased May 7, 1977. Shut it off Shut it off Buddy, I just shut your Prius down... |
#26
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The SD uses a special cam because of the gear for the distributor is different than normal Pontiacs.
They originally wanted a bigger cam specs like the RA IV but wouldn't pass emissions, etc. (plus only uses 1.5 rocker ratio) Do you have the PHS for the SD TA? What is color of interior?
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John Wallace - johnta1 Pontiac Power RULES !!! www.wallaceracing.com Winner of Top Class at Pontiac Nationals, 2004 Cordova Winner of Quick 16 At Ames 2004 Pontiac Tripower Nats KRE's MR-1 - 1st 5 second Pontiac block ever! "Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts." "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." – Socrates |
#27
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I thought that they did use a cam that had 744 lift and duration but with a different distributor gear?
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70 TA, 467 cid IAII, Edelbrock D-port heads, 9.94:1, Butler HR 236/242 @ .050, 520/540 lift, 112 LSA, Q-jet, TKX (2.87 1st/.81 OD), 3.31 rear https://youtube.com/shorts/gG15nb4FWeo?feature=share |
#28
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Actually the SD's ended up with the Pontiac "Y" camshaft. It was essentially the 744 cam with the smaller distributor gear. Not one of Pontiac's greatest efforts IMO, but a decent camshaft. Little lumpy idle. Could use some more lift, even with stock heads. Because of the car's value and probably limited use, I am probably going to just use that cam. I have an NOS one. SD cam cores are hard to find because of the small cam gear. I am sure my friend Tim Goolsby at Ultradyne/Bullet could grind a flat tappet cam that would be just as smooth and make 25-30 more HP. But I am leaning toward leaving this one very stock. It's a delicate trade-off when dealing with a more rare car/engine.
Johnta1: I do have the PHS. It is also in the SD TA registry. It has the standard black interior. It was sold in OH to a smaller northern dealership. Too many pages to post, but happy to supply specific info of interest. It's a Norwood car. Last edited by mgarblik; 09-28-2023 at 10:52 AM. |
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#29
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Factory TA decals for these types were one big piece with the letters printed on a big rectangle of clear background. So the background stayed , and was visible around the edges.
On a White car , the excess clear background would become discolored after a while and look crappy. I removed the 1piece decals from my White car , bought NOS replacements , then "die-cut" the letters out individually myself with good scissors. And installed them individually. That is what Ransom is asking about on your TA decals that are on the car. Do they have a big block of clear background or have they been individualized ? 1piece is Factory - separated is more attractive. Air dry lacquer paint is the most fragile automotive paint ever created. Just words of caution and a heads up. The GM factories baked their lacquer at around 300 degrees to make it more durable. |
#30
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Quote:
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#31
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Yay - definitely prefer the 73/74's without a bird. Particularly if they were ordered without one to begin with. Keep the pictures and details coming!
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Peter 1974 Trans Am, 400 4-speed, 3.42 rear. |
#32
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Quote:
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Peter 1974 Trans Am, 400 4-speed, 3.42 rear. |
#33
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1973 cam part # 480737 basically the 041. Listed in 1973 service manual.Although I've never seen one.
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#34
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Does not look right. All colors are slightly tinted yellow and gets worse over time. Single stage guy right here. This car is in the right hands and its going to be a pleasure following this. Best of luck. |
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#35
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The inspiration was a lighter duty version I saw in Street Rodder of the 26-27 T touring body fiberglass molds which looked like 2 engine stands with the bottoms joined in the middle. Within weeks, there were a couple companies offering them for sale in Hemmings, and one company had the balls to use the photos from the article. PZ had the Dobbs Publishing attorneys issue a "cease and desist" for copyright violation. Anyway, you've got quite a special car there. Thanks for sharing it with us. |
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#36
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That is interesting information. Seems I remember seeing "rotisserie restorations" for the first time in car ads in the early 90's. That makes sense. BTW, I looked at the stickers on the car and they are a rectangle on a clear back just like the white car pictured. They don't stand out as badly as the white car. Plans for the next week are to install torque plates on the block and measure the bores. I do not know if the block was plate honed in 1979-80. That was not typical procedure at the time, especially on a Pontiac stock rebuild. It was line honed and has a nice finish. I need to measure the housing bores as well to be sure. Here are some pics of the engine now. |
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#37
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Wow, engine looks superb!!!
__________________
1977 Black Trans Am 180 HP Auto, essentially base model T/A. I'm the original owner, purchased May 7, 1977. Shut it off Shut it off Buddy, I just shut your Prius down... |
#38
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No kidding. That is beautiful. Especially the lifter valley.
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70 TA, 467 cid IAII, Edelbrock D-port heads, 9.94:1, Butler HR 236/242 @ .050, 520/540 lift, 112 LSA, Q-jet, TKX (2.87 1st/.81 OD), 3.31 rear https://youtube.com/shorts/gG15nb4FWeo?feature=share |
#39
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Around 1976 after I accidentally found that SD block. I bought a 70 F body from local salesman. I wanted to scrap on the tar and road grim underneath but didnt want to lay on my back. So I dissembled the car and made 2 heavy duty T s to bolt to front and back of body. I had made 2 HD engine cranes,learning to weld,lifted body onto the Ts.It worked. It didnt rotate just held the body sideways.Just sat and scrapped. Now I've built a rotisserie. Probably never use it.
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#40
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On a fairly conservative dyno with Pypes 2.5” headpipes (4’ long) the initial pulls started at 390 hp @ 4800 rpm/477 lbft @ 3800 rpm. With jetting and timing tweaks the best numbers were 418 hp @ 5000 rpm/500 ft.lbs @ 3600 rpm, so gains of 28 hp & 23 lbft torque. We'll be interested to see what a completely factory stock SD455 does on the dyno...guessing 365 hp/465 lbft. Dennis |
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