[SD455DJ]

Well, another Pontiac to work on...This particular '80 TA has been garaged in the Lansing, MI area for the last 30+ years and was purchased in the early 80's from the original owner in Texas. The previous owner who bought the complete running car didn't like the performance of the 301 Turbo motor, so bought a 400 4-bbl from a '70 GP, rebuilt and started to install it, took the front clip off to have it repainted (stripped but never painted) and, fortunately, kept most of the original components he removed. He is still looking and finding more parts that belong to the car as he rummages through his garage. The original turbo motor & TH350 is in our possession along with the 400/4-speed conversion. The PO is looking for the paperwork that came with the car...hopefully he will find it. It has 80,000 Texas miles and is super solid, absolutely no rust, just Texas mud that's hard as concrete that broke off and revealed spotless frame rails and floor/trunk pans. The interior has minor worn and in need a good cleaning.

The plan is to go through the turbo motor with the Pure Stock Drags rulebook as a guideline to see what kind of horsepower we can extract out of the little 301. We've know of the 301 turbo rebuild article in Poncho Perfection a year ago and it made some serious torque (over 500 lbft!). We are curious to learn more about these orphaned and disrespected motors and how to make them run like they should. Half of the problem to decent performance is the 3.08 gears and the cars curb weight of 3900 lbs. The front fender and hood will be repainted and 'patina'd' to match the bodies original paint and not restore the car. It will be thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt stem to stern and only replace what needs to. It will get a new hood bird, however.

This project falls in line after the '68 428HO Catalina is done, so next year before any real progress is made, but wanted to share with the PY family the new project.

Dennis

[TAKerry]

WOW! Great score. In spite of its shortcomings, that car looks incredible. Int. looks about as perfect as can be.

[Skip Fix]

There used to be a couple of folks that raced them in NHRA stock also. My 81 has a mild 400 I put in it for the kids to drive to high school. Same deal a project a guy was going to put a 455 in after he tore the intake off. the 301.

[78w72]

nice car! glad to hear you will play with the 301, youd be surprised what kind of power they can make.

if you havent already, go to 301garage & post the car & your plans... guys there know everything there is to know about the 301 & these turbo cars. theres a couple members there that drag race these with great results, one member, autozracing, races NHRA stock class & is in the low 12's!

[threefidee]

Dennis,

Talk to Mark W. as I literally went to purchase one and was not as described but we did a lot of research on this car and with some great attention to detail he had it making a ton of power on his desktop dyno with little effort. Gas is critical.

Good luck with your project. As soon as I get it home, I have a new ride to tell you about

Jody

[77 TRASHCAN]

Jody,
Has Mark gotten any of his planned work done to the 72 GTO from Oklahoma?
Thanks
Jeff

[SD455DJ]

Thanks TAKerry! The interior looks better in the pics than it really is, but not terrible.

Skip Fix & 78w72 - Yeah, we've been following the NHRA stocker turbo cars. They are making some serious horsepower that I'm sure some of which can be used on the street with pump 93 gas.

Jody - Is that TA in your avatar what you are eluding too? Can't wait to hear about it!

Does anyone on PY have a good running street 301T Bird with actual times from the track?

Dennis

[77 Canamman]

Nice body

[Green Hornet]

Had one new (80 turbo).....and traded it in on an 84.... after 100k of trouble free miles on the engine.....

It was a SUPER car to drive......but sadly lacking in bottom end performance.

I think these 80-81 Turbo Trans ams deserve a lot more respect...than they've gotten...over the years...

Will be following this thread...for SURE...

[Skip Fix]

A few years back one of the Stockers I spoke with (I think from AZ) was even using a stock shortblock! Just cranked down the wastegate

The one that was in my 81 had head studs and supposedly an Ultradyne cam. They had alos put on a Holley 3310 instead of the Qjet. The biggest issue I see is the crazy intake ports! Siamesed for two cyllinders and a pretty narrow cross section .

I would think a TB EFI might be a good choice also.

[muscle_collector]

bought an 80 pace car new. within a few months the 301 turbo and 350 trans were sitting on the garage floor and a nicely built 400 / 400 was all nicely tucked in under the hood. car is still sitting in my garage and the engine / trans are still sitting on the floor.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

bought an 80 pace car new. within a few months the 301 turbo and 350 trans were sitting on the garage floor and a nicely built 400 / 400 was all nicely tucked in under the hood. car is still sitting in my garage and the engine / trans are still sitting on the floor.

MC - Cool! Did they all come with the oyster toned interior? Any pictures of your 80? We'd love to see them and may need some detail close-up pics of the 301T to see if we have all the gismo's put together correctly.

Dennis

[Rocco Testa]

If you want to find out more about your car go to the 301 Garage. This is a web site just for turbo cars. All thing you would never have known. The guy that runs his car in AZ in stock class goes on the forum all the time Rick is his name, he goes by this name on the forum as ATOZRACING. I also have a 80 Pace car and a 81 Daytona pace car .He is the link http://www.301garage.com

[Green Hornet]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

bought an 80 pace car new. within a few months the 301 turbo and 350 trans were sitting on the garage floor and a nicely built 400 / 400 was all nicely tucked in under the hood. car is still sitting in my garage and the engine / trans are still sitting on the floor.

That's too funny....In 1982...I had the same plans...for mine....I bought a 360hp 455...from a 70 Bonneville....and a short tail Turbo 400.....but before I did the transplant...I found a numbers matching 70 TA.....and that....was the end of idea #1......NOT the same...but different good....

[68ragtop]

I have an 80 TTA pace car with 52K miles on it. some minor repair work done to it over the decades, but an original survivor if you need refference info from it. I can tell you the vacuum line routing & leaks are critical to a good running tta & the pevr is one hard part to find, but it looks like I can see its there on the vacuum tree between the turbo light vacuum switches? diaphragm often fails in them though. I really like the 301T. It's not a torque monster, but still very fun to drive imo.

[The Boss]

In for the ride...looking forward to this one!

[78w72]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Thanks TAKerry! The interior looks better in the pics than it really is, but not terrible.

Skip Fix & 78w72 - Yeah, we've been following the NHRA stocker turbo cars. They are making some serious horsepower that I'm sure some of which can be used on the street with pump 93 gas.

Jody - Is that TA in your avatar what you are eluding too? Can't wait to hear about it!

Does anyone on PY have a good running street 301T Bird with actual times from the track?

Dennis

i have a low mile 81 pace car that is basically stock aside from a few emissions delete tricks & only running 10psi boost. its by no means a fast car but did pretty good when i took it to a test & tune, best time was 14.6 @ 98mph on hard street tires. its not a race car so i took it easy & had some detonation issues on the 91 gas so only did about 3/4 throttle from half track. when stock these cars ran upper 15 or low 16 sec so i was happy with the times i was able to get... a stock 78 400 t/a is in the upper 15's too so not to shabby for a little 301!

[SD455DJ]

That's a good running 81 TTA 78w72! Way back in 1985 at the first Supercar Showdown of Chuck Green's in Bowling Green, KY, a young (then, haha) drove his 80/81 TTA (not sure which year) to the race all the way from California and I recall it running mid to low 16's absolutely pure factory stock.

There seems to be a common trend to swap in 400/455 engines back in the day. We are going to reverse that and have fun with the turbo motor. We will be needing help I'm sure as we get deeper into the plumbing and wiring and appreciate the help from our PY family.

Dennis

[Green Hornet]

I'm sure I still have the roadtests...on the 80 Turbo's from back in the day....and mid to low 16's is what they did....IIRC.

It was embarrassing....when a Volkswagen Rabbit.....could beat you across an intersection...

If the technology was there...at the time....for an overdrive automatic....a 3:23 or 3:42 rear gear......would have made a big difference...

[78w72]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

That's a good running 81 TTA 78w72! Way back in 1985 at the first Supercar Showdown of Chuck Green's in Bowling Green, KY, a young (then, haha) drove his 80/81 TTA (not sure which year) to the race all the way from California and I recall it running mid to low 16's absolutely pure factory stock.

There seems to be a common trend to swap in 400/455 engines back in the day. We are going to reverse that and have fun with the turbo motor. We will be needing help I'm sure as we get deeper into the plumbing and wiring and appreciate the help from our PY family.

Dennis

thanks! yes it runs very good for being 99% stock, all i did was remove the EGR & gutted the smog pump, & ran 1 psi higher boost than the factory setting of 9psi. with better gas & a few more psi i know it could run flat 14's or even high 13's with basic things like bigger/better exhaust & better tires.

these cars got a bad rap when new due to many of them not being set at the correct boost, or drivers not understanding how to drive or launch a turbo car. after all, they were rated at about the same HP as the later W72 400's & even higher than some mid 70's 455's!

so its good you are going to play with the 301 & not just swap a 400/455 in it! you will get some help here im sure but if you haven't yet, you should really check out the 301 garage, great bunch of guys over there with more knowledge & resources on these cars/engines than anywhere else on the net!