[mscicluna007]

Purchashed a Rochester 800 CFM and has now been sent off to be restored. Excited about this purchase. Should be great on the car.

So Top End will be SD # 16 heads with Ram Air Manifolds with 2.5" outlet from Ram Air Restorations.

7043270 Carb correct to this car and hopefully a manifold to suit if I can find one not trashed from Racing.

Don't think the Unobtanium SD 455 block will be used at least not in the short term but dizzys were used for the year of 73.
I am assuming it would be a points distributor. Would a 72 Points distributor be the same as a 73 for a 455.

This is the Test Mules engine bay and this is what I am hoping to achieve as closely as possible.

Michael

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Awesome you scored some SD heads / Carb / Exhaust Mans for the car !

You will need the special RoundPort head-to-block bolts too.
Some are same as D-Port , and some are different. iirc

The distributor from the 72 is fine enough replacement.
Should be recurved/dialed-in for proper performance tho.

SD was points type, but the housing was larger where it slides into block.
Also had a larger stronger gear on end of distributor due to the high PSI oil pump.
The cam used a smaller mesh/gear pattern for conjuction with larger dist gear.
The block also had a larger hole for the distributor.

Ram IV / 041 cam will be decent choice.
Some of the best Pure Stock racer/builders have said the IV cam is not optimal for low compression roundport 455's. Something in between 744 and 041 grinds is said to have been needed. But PMD didn't make anything in between.

[LeighP]

Summit 2802 would be an "in between" cam choice.....but I'd run the 041 that everyone said was in the test car back then. I notice the test car didn't run the production SD's PCV system either.

[mscicluna007]

Thanks Baron.

The Heads got serviced at Jim Butler Performance and I actually asked purchased a new set of Head Bolts just in case their was an issue because we faced that problem with Dads 400 and the Edelbrock Heads . Thanks for the heads up glad I got them out of the way.

The carb is off at Cliff Ruggles for a restoration so it will come back better than factory I am sure.

I haven't purchased the Exhaust manifolds yet but they are definitely what I will be using. I think they are a great match for my build.

I believe the Ram Air IV cams sound dampens a little with the 455 Low Compression motors as opposed to the 400's that were running higher compression ratios so really not sure how it will turn out. The Hydraulic Roller setup should see some small gains and their is also a Custom Grind which Rocky mentioned to me which I am still thinking about but it can always be changed if I am not happy with it. I will still be using the 3.42 diff ratio and the PQ Turbo 400 so I am not planning on a race car just a nice performer on the street.

I believe the test car was running a non production emissions setup but it all had to be changed to get the tick from the Pontiac Brass.

[72TAMAN]

Hi Michael

In post # 121 the pictures of the motor/carb from the mag pic#1 and the pic#2 of the new carb that you bought ,the carbs do not look the same , I'm sure the one you bought is the right one for the SD but the look is not the same maybe is just a cosmetic thing . If you look at the gas inlets and the rod on the right side or different . look at the yellow circle in the pictures

[77 Canamman]

Those two parts are easily swapped. The long inlet nut for the GF471 Filter pictured is for 1975-up and the secondary rod came in two versions for 1973-74.

[mscicluna007]

good eye for detail and thanks. Cliff noticed the filter housing and will fix that up for me. As for the rod I will speak with him as he may have one to match up with. Its so hard to pick such small things that's why the forums great. Show the people that know first.

thanks again.

Michael

[77 Canamman]

This car was using the early EGR setup, pre March 15, 1973...

[mscicluna007]

I knew it was not the standard routing for the production Super Duty cars released mid 73 but I wasn't sure exactly how it was run. The late production routing is below , does anyone have the early routing of 73.

This article referred to the Intake manifold to be used on the SD 455 cars and spoke heavily of the test car.

"Initial plans for the SD-455 included a cast-aluminum intake manifold similar to that found on the R/A-IV and 455 H.O. engines. But, according to McCully and Hicks, it was ultimately rejected because of poor cold-weather operation and subsequent emissions output. The production SD intake was cast iron and featured larger runners that matched the taller cylinder head intake ports. A new Rochester Quadrajet carburetor with larger primaries for an increased flow capacity of 800 cfm was also used."

Read more: http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...#ixzz2HbiXsAE0

Does anyone know if the test car used anything other than an LS2 manifold or can you tell from the pictures. I realise the Intake runners were taller so the manifold had to match just want to make sure that is what the car was using as their isn't a lot of pictures of the engine bay floating around so its hard to see what was being used on this particular car.

I did see this video and would love to know if anyone can confirm if it is my car or not. If so its the only video I have seen of it actually being used. I am sure Pontiac would have made a lot of movie footage in that period as their is so much around of many other cars and its just been hard to find anything really.

It was under the title PONTIAC - The Glory Years! Part 4 of 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGAtBTNQOM

Regards

Michael

[SD73]

Hey mscicluna007, PM me your email addy and I'll send you a few articles regarding vacuum hose routing and emission related items for both the '73 systems.

[mscicluna007]

PM Sent thanks SD73

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Test Car used the cast iron style Intake.
Compare the mag pics of the choke housing on your carb , and the heat tubes that go to it from the integrated exhaust x-over
VS.
the pics on Charles Bledsoe thread of his and Steve's carb/choke areas that used the divorced choke stove mounted on the separate x-over.

73 was the first year for that design. iirc

There have been a number of the proposed SD aluminum intakes surface over the decades that came from over the counter sales. They are made basically the same as RamIV and 455HO intakes but have a different part number. I've never owned one to verify if the intake ports were a little taller than IV/HO.

What we have never seen is a dedicated x-over for a 73 with the heat tube provision for the choke (or EGR provision). 69-71 was one series, and 72 another series. This would mean either they initially planned NOT to use an x-over, with an electric choke on the new 73 style carb - OR they planned to carry over the 72 style x-over and 72 style carb with divorced choke thermostat like 72 HO.

Regardless of that particular debate, pretty safe to say the Test Car had the cast iron intake like the production cars.

[mscicluna007]

Thanks for concreting that in for me Baron.

Great info to put this one to rest.

Regards

Michael

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by mscicluna007

...
I did see this video and would love to know if anyone can confirm if it is my car or not. If so its the only video I have seen of it actually being used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGAtBTNQOM

Hope some others will view the video and give opinions too.
i don't have the top notch internet speed or latest greatest monitor screen.

But what i think i saw -

Video car = H.comb wheels with RWL tires , no rear bumper guards , no door edge guards. Has the Beltline moldings, but looks like hood molding is missing.
Has roofrail / driprail moldings.
Interior "appears" to be Black when it makes a hard left turn from camera.

Your car = Rally2 with Wht.Wall tires , bumper guards , door edge guards , beltline and roofrail moldings.
Saddle interior.

Wheel swap would be easy.
But don't think they would have swapped bumpers and removed door edge guards.
thats all i can contribute and its not exactly proof positive either way

Wish it were completely 100% identical to yours , or that some other footage will be found that mirrors yours.

Another thought is that this footage would have "probably" been filmed before or right at 73 model release. Which would have been months before your car was built.

[mscicluna007]

Baron I was just taking screeshots myself at the same time you posted.

The only thing I had noticed was the rear bumper guards were missing. Your eye is much better than mine that's for sure. I did not notice all them chrome pieces missing but they were mentioned in the Car and Driver test car so this video as you say is not my car.
I wonder where this car in the video ended up.

The other thing I noticed is the number plates are different not that that's a guarantee but if this was Pontiacs footage I would assume the plates would stay with the test cars until they were scrapped or sold which then Pontiac would retain.

Baron would Pontiac have taken any footage or where they left out of the loop on the SD project and is that why I can't find anything. Surely they must have taken footage some where on the test tracks.

[Rocky Rotella]

Michael, that's definitely not your car.

In June 1972, Pontiac held its long-lead press preview where Herb Adams introduced the SD-455 to the media. There were several SD-455 powered cars available there that day including the white '73 Grand Am and the infamous GTO that cars awarded its Car Of The Year award to.

Among the Trans Ams on hand was a Buccaneer Red engineering mule with a near-production (at least to June 1972 spec) SD-455. It was that very car shown in the video, which undoubtedly was filmed around June 1972. I'm sure this car, like many other cool engineering mules was scrapped.

You car wasn't produced until mid-Dec 1972 so the timeframe just doesn't work out.

[Brewster]

Love those old photos which show great little details like that egr decal. The letter "A" is on a red round decal and it appears almost hand drawn and not perfectly centered.

Originally Posted by 77 Canamman

This car was using the early EGR setup, pre March 15, 1973...

[mscicluna007]

Thanks for clearing that up Rocky.

[mscicluna007]

Dash arrived during the week so really happy. Bought it from a 72 car but the date codes have 73. Although that could have been used in later model years I am still really pleased to have a complete dash. I checked the parts assembly manual for 73 and the code they refer to is 488663. This dash is 488668 but it also tells you to refer to the parts list in the manual for colour variations so not sure if that could be the difference in the last digit or not.
HFR you were quite helpful previously with dating on dashes. It doesn't have the date ink stamp or inspector date though.

This dash will be recovered and coloured with the rest of the interior just glad it arrived safely.


Michael

[mscicluna007]

This was the only shot I could find where that decal was showing whilst the air cleaner base was still fitted to the WT block. Really just trying to establish what the air cleaner base belonged to weather it was the SD 455 setup or came from another motor.

I nearly missed this decal until I was going through sorting out some of the parts. Guess I would of found it one day.

PQ
6487735


Michael