[1971455HO]

Saw this while goofing on ebay tonight. Thought I would pitch it out here to anyone who might be interested. $8200.00 . Seems a like a lot. I know they have always been rare though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PONTIAC-1958...MmrKU0i5v5gSQA

[Stuart]

That's something you don't see every day. Those exhaust headers are going to need some work...

I'm not up on the current pricing for those early FI setups (and I've never seen an entire engine for sale) but my feeling is that's not a bad price. Of course, there's going to be a lot more money spent on the rebuild.

[Jack Gifford]

I'm surprised the seller didn't start at a much higher price.
i'd be curious to see whether the original owner un-siamesed the center exhaust ports before bolting 4-tube headers on.

[Todd553]

Any idea on the value of a 57, 347 tripower motor with the jetaway trans. I'm going to sell the motor and trans in my 57 Chieftain. Approximately 2000 miles on the rebuild. Factory tripower, air cleaner, dist etc. Thanks

[pfilean]

That's an interesting piece. Wonder what it looked like with the top half of the air cleaner on? And where would you find a cartridge for the fuel filter. But with those headers you have to wonder how hard it was rode before it was put away wet.

[1971455HO]

Originally Posted by Stuart

That's something you don't see every day. Those exhaust headers are going to need some work...

I'm not up on the current pricing for those early FI set-ups (and I've never seen an entire engine for sale) but my feeling is that's not a bad price. Of course, there's going to be a lot more money spent on the rebuild.

That was my think'n about the rebuild. Expensive...yes, especially the FI system, but if you need it, how often do you run up on this stuff? Almost never! Pontiac mechanical FI stuff was scarce back when it was new.

I thought there might be some of you guys trying to put a correct '57 - '58 FI motor back together for your original FI car, this appeared to be all there. I think of this as the equivalent of finding an old 61-62 Pontiac ambulance with a complete 421 2x4 bbl laying in the weeds some where. Ya-Hoo!

[1965gp]

Hmmm- my dad just bought a 58 Bonneville but it's an original Tri-Power car. Still.... very cool find

[Jack Gifford]

Anybody know if the nozzles were in the individual runners? Or was it done like a throttle body system?

[Teej]

I think the nozzles went into the runners. Check out the first picture and it looks like two hard lines running in there.

There was a guy here in FL that had a running version for sale a year or so back. It was a '58 F.I. unit on top of a 1960 389. I think he was asking like $9K for it.

I've seen the e-bay one on CL a few times. It would be super cool but it's out of the range of my wallet.

[BLG]

F I used plastic (Bakelite?) nozzle blocks at the lower ends of the runners. Unlike a lot of the Corvette/Chevrolet units which used a single eight leg spider with removable fuel lines held on to their respective nozzles by a threaded ferule, The 57 Pontiac unit used 2 four leg fuel line spiders with each individual nozzle brazed to its respective fuel line. I have never inspected the 58 Pontiac unit personally, but I believe it used threaded ferules to held the nozzles onto the fuel lines also.
I met with noted Pontiac fuel injection specialist Paul Sylvestri a few times back in the 70s and discovered that he was the one that had recovered the unit (from a 57 Bonneville destroyed by the 1964 Crescent City tidal wave) and rebuilt the unit I have. I remember him talking about spacing out the diffuser cone (to allow a unit mounted to a 421 to breathe in far more air than the stock 650 CFI rating) and fitting the theaded ferrule style 58 spiders to facilitate easy use of various larger Corvette nozzles to adjust for and maintain proper air/fuel ratio with the spaced out diffuser cone. If anyone is interested, I could post pictures of my unit (once I figure out how on this site).

[BLG]

A few more miscellaneous ramblings after studing the pics of the unit/engine for sale;
Unlike Corvette units which mounted the fuel pump on the opposite side of the doghouse from the air meter, requiring a long curved drive cable, the high pressure fuel pump is mounted under the doghouses on Pontiac units and requires only a short straight drive from the lower distributor housing. This short straight drive housing supposedly made it more reliable than the Chevrolet, and the one on mine never broke, but I did have the roll pin holding the distributor drive gear onto the shaft shear, stopping the engine.
Unit for sale is definitely a 58 unit (as stated in the listing) because of the cast aluminum doghouse.
The 57 units had handbuilt sheet metal doghouses made out of steel and look quite different. As a result of this, the 57 units reputedly could flow considerably more air than the cast 58 unit due to a larger intake runner cross section.
Unlike the exposed (unshrouded) doghouse on a Chevrolet (attributed to the request of ZAD), Pontiac injectors in the stock application did not require separate individual filters because they were vented to filtered intake air inside the shroud.
Buying a unit like this still mounted to an engine is a smart move because of all the unique parts required like the special distributor housing and the hardware to attach the manifold because the manifold ends are rather ingeniously clamped down rather than directly through bolted, and require various cast iron bearing blocks and levers unique to the fuel injected motors to bolt It down.
Anyone seriously contemplating using one of these units should seek out at the very least a set of replacement gaskets and the supplemental factory F I manual.

In the pictures of the eBay unit showing the top section of the shroud, the air intake banjo, ducting, and air cleaner are missing (perhaps removed for photo purposes).
This engine appears to have had headers fitted. Although standard exhaust manifolds can be fitted, the original manifolds, crossover, and headpipes were F I specific and carried different part numbers from the standard dual exhaust parts.

[Jack Gifford]

BLG- Thanks for all the injection information!
Any idea of differences in exhaust manifolds for F.I.?

[BLG]

Even though a friend of mine acquired two 57 Bonnevilles in the late 70s early 80s, I never thought to pay any particular attention to the exhaust manifolds.
When I fitted my injection to the freshly rebuilt 347 in my Safari, I simply reused the original manifolds (dual exhaust four barrel car)..
The original aluminized exhaust pipes were long gone, so I made a trip to the local Midas store and had an entire replacement exhaust system fitted. I didnt have them do a crossover pipe, but the way the engine ran, I don't believe it really missed it.
I also replaced the cam with the 292 Crane I pulled out of my 421.
The fuel filter was a standard AC Delco unit that was also used on Corvettes and used a replaceable element.
The F I generator bracket was missing so I fabricated a flat offset plate to fit the original four barrel bracket to the engine and allow the generator to be installed. Not ever fine tuning the bracket placement meant it had a penchant for tossing fan belts, but it only did it when using the Hydrostick (B & M) to wind the engine out.
More than a couple local hot shoes were a bit surprised when "that old station wagon" would bark the right rear tire and jump out a couple car lengths on them every time I bumped the lever up a notch and the Hydro shifted.

[Jack Gifford]

It's good to hear from another satisfied HydroStick user. I first ran a HydroMotive unblown-competition version in 1966 behind a Tri-Power 347 (bored to 381) in a couple of '57 Chevies. After drastically modifying it into a single-speed drive for tractor pulling, I wound up rebuilding it to use in the '59 GMC I finished a couple of years ago. I still love it! I always wanted a fully-gated shifter for it, so I designed and built a cable unit which bolts under the dash of the GMC (depressing the top button moves the righthand gate out of the way for going directly from N to R, etc.).

[Rocky 389]

So, did the F.I. really perform better than a dual quad setup? Or tri power? I know the book says it bumps HP to 315 in a 57 B'ville but I'd really love to see some dyno numbers.
I'e only seen the fuel injection in some 57 Bonnevilles at car shows. I never got to ride in one and the guys I know that have them generally drive at 40 mph. Anybody really take one out and beat on it? Put one in a 57-58 chieftain 2 door sedan? I'm aware the 58 chieftain sedans owned their stock class for many years and I believe they ran fuel injection.