[66sprint6]

Happy Christmas to me. As you may know, good Pontiac engines are hard to come by around here. And rebuilding? Forget it. Ridiculous pricing and lead times. So you can imagine my joy when a guy about three hours from me listed a 400 that he's selling as he's putting his original 455 back into his '72 GTO. Went up to see him and took the car out for a ride. Sweet motor. Pretty tame, just the slightest burble. Nice power. Going to pick it up in January. Fingers crossed. I can harly wait for spring. Going to get that squared away and then probably start selling off the other stuff.

[turbo69bird]

Sounds like a good engine for you. Should be a lot of fun .

[77 TRASHCAN]

Major congrats, man!!!

Tell us more!!! Pictures???

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by 66sprint6

Happy Christmas to me. As you may know, good Pontiac engines are hard to come by around here. And rebuilding? Forget it. Ridiculous pricing and lead times. So you can imagine my joy when a guy about three hours from me listed a 400 that he's selling as he's putting his original 455 back into his '72 GTO. Went up to see him and took the car out for a ride. Sweet motor. Pretty tame, just the slightest burble. Nice power. Going to pick it up in January. Fingers crossed. I can harly wait for spring. Going to get that squared away and then probably start selling off the other stuff.

That will change your timeline in a great direction.
Congratulations and Merry Christmas

Tom V.

[Shiny]

Congrats! That must be exciting.

[shaker455]

A nice to me from me!
Great scoop!

[66sprint6]

Thanks, guys. I'll update when I get it.

Merry Christmas.

[jhein]

That's pretty cool that you found it local and it was in a car and running! That is a Merry Christmas!

[geeteeohguy]

Congrats! In this day and age, finding a good running Pontiac engine anywhere is a task!!!

[66sprint6]

Well, we got the engine home. Froze our asses off doing it. Took the hard tonneau off of the truck, went to the guys’s place way out in the boonies. Everything is a pain when it’s freakin’ cold. Even had to fire up the LeMans and put it on the street. Still, I was excited to get some numbers and codes to see what engine I have. But today it’s really cold and damp and rainy. Went out anyway and of course froze my fingers. And didn’t get any numbers. I have to keep it covered up. I was kind of cheesed off. But now it’s a good time for you guys to run me through where the numbers and codes, etc. are again so that I can go out there with a clear head.

[Skidmark]

Glad the deal went through. Enjoy.

[redhawk44]

Found this site that seems to do a good job. Congrats!

https://wowmusclecars.com/pontiac-engine-codes-specs/

[66sprint6]

Looks fairly pedestrian. But we’ll take it. Can’t wait to get it in. Apparently it’s been breathed on. The previous owner stated that he had some porting, etc. But the main thing is that it ran like a sewing machine in the guy’s car. So I’m thinking that this is an engine that will have many of the characteristics of the original 326. Which would be great.

[kingbuzzo]

Congrats...took me months to find anything and ended up rolling the dice on a used one from cowtown and getting it shipped to manitobia

Sounds like you got a gooder...

[77 TRASHCAN]

No negative vibes from me.......but,

You DO know that is a thin casting 400?

Many here will warn you about the potential negative aspects of that block, not me However!!!

First thing to check is to see if all of the motor mount bosses are present and drilled. I don't know ALL the details of this, but making sure your motors will bolt up is first thing to check. Even if not, there's readily available adapters, (unlike round port exhaust manifolds!).

ALL stock 400's using that block (75 and up) will have a smooth idle, regardless of body style it was installed in. If those heads are stock. They will be 6X-8 heads with large chambers, rated at 7.6:1 compression ratio. Nothing wrong with that, 87 octane gas is all you will EVER need!!!
Your harmonic damper will either have just a hub with no ring, or the much known full damper with the rubber mounted outer ring.
Many here will not drive that engine an inch without the full size damper...I understand their thinking.

My 77 TA came with just the hub. My engine started developing a problem at 75,000 Mike's, but had nothing to do with the damper. The #7 exhaust lobe started going flat....

Just make sure there's no oil l eaks, and get it installed!!!

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Looks like possibly a 77 TA 4spd engine.
Really strange that it doesn't have an EUN stamped above the WA code.
See if it has a VIN stamped down low next to timing cover on passenger side - if you get a chance sometime.
Or perhaps an SR number.

You can look up into the exhaust ports with a light or cell phone camera and see if any massaging was actually done.

Might want to check timing chain for slop too.
Pull a valve cover and watch valve action while moving crank forward and reverse a few times.

[sdbob]

While out I'd replace chain and oil pump.ive always done this(not recently) seems to be good insurance. Congratulations. Couple of my fingers when cold take awhile to warm up.

[66sprint6]

Yes, I've heard about the 557 block. But I figure that this thing isn't powerful enough to hurt itself. What kind of horsepower do you think it would put out? The guy had it in a '71 GTO and he said that it moved it along pretty good. But the thing probably had, what, a couple hundered horsepower originally?

[25stevem]

Since your block is a 75 and up, the only year for the WA code was in 1977.

That motor came out of a manual trans Trans Am and was rated at 200 Hp as installed in that car.

That was the top HP 400 for that year.
That cam if still stick only has a meager .374” lift, not even the normal .406”.

Installing even a little hotter cam with .460” lift and new springs will wake that motor up a ton!

If it still has the original carb it should be a 17057263.

[sdbob]

Just thinking outloud. I've seen those weaker blocks up close in junkyard years ago. Maybe if you pull pan for pump look closely at block you'll see the difference. I have complete 76 400 out of GP in garage now.