[3tas4me]

Can someone with a Norwood built 1978 Trans Am with a build date of about the third week of February (02C) please let me know what their original intake manifold casting date and carb build date is? Thank you!

[3tas4me]

Nobody?

[dreamn69]

You may want to ask over on TAC.

[burd]

TAC, if they don't ban you in the process

[3tas4me]

Originally Posted by burd

TAC, if they don't ban you in the process

LOL, I did ask out there and don't have an answer there either.

[Skip Fix]

I can check my original carb, heads and block, but I have a later build date for the car maybe April/May. Tossed the original intake years ago by mistake.

I do have an X7 motor in storage Ican check intake date. Not sure if the partial VIN on it would help on it's date. On that motor he head dates are fairly different.

[3tas4me]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

I can check my original carb, heads and block, but I have a later build date for the car maybe April/May. Tossed the original intake years ago by mistake.

I do have an X7 motor in storage Ican check intake date. Not sure if the partial VIN on it would help on it's date. On that motor he head dates are fairly different.

That would be great! Just trying to pin down a correct date range for the intake and carb on my Y88.

[Skip Fix]

OK from what I can tell on build sheet Sched no date has a large number above then 05-20. The PHS sticker shows a 5-23-78 shipping date. So late May build date.

Heads H247,H257
Block H137
Carb 17028278 then 1028 CHN. The C is poorly stamped.

The X7 motor is in storage space so awhile before I get back over there-and it's cold here now until this weekend. I want to think it had almost a mnth between head codes.

[Skip Fix]

X7 motor numbers- Block casting is J197, Heads are F077 and A208. Not sure why the big difference in head dates as it looks virgin.

[3tas4me]

Both my cylinder heads were cast only two weeks before the car was built! If I remember right, the drivers side fender date code is only one week before the build date of my car. They must have been running really tight on parts inventory! It looks like the late January intake I picked up is about right. My carb is a bit early, but it will have to do.

[68ragtop]

Here are some more numbers to help with the averages.

These are from my 1978 X7 Y88 car.

Car build 04A 1st week of April (the work week was 04/03/78 through 04/07/78
Intake C078 March 7th 1978
Heads B138 February 13th 1978

so, my heads were made 50-54 days before the car was finished
The intake was 28-32 days before.

My carb is not original anymore. A bad decision was made with my buddy who owned the car on that fateful spring day in 1987

Out of winter storage & his Trans am was running like crap, he pulled the carb & gave it to the local auto parts store as a core
& bought a rebuilt off the shelf. At the time, I only thought he was crazy for spending nearly $200 on a rebuilt carb.
Little did I know how much I would regret that day. Didn't have a clue about numbers, nor did I have any idea the car would end up mine one day.
I regret it for an entirely different reason 25 years later. I remember it perfectly.......
He had the money to do it. I should have talked him into having it rebuilt, or doing it ourselves..

Funny thing is, even though the car ran great after the swap, we both thought the car lost a little zip. The burn outs where a couple feet shorter.
Had no idea why at the time , but now I do..... Pontiac knew what they were doing with the W72's

__

[3tas4me]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

Here are some more numbers to help with the averages.

These are from my 1978 X7 Y88 car.

Car build 04A 1st week of April (the work week was 04/03/78 through 04/07/78
Intake C078 March 7th 1978
Heads B138 February 13th 1978

so, my heads were made 50-54 days before the car was finished
The intake was 28-32 days before.

My carb is not original anymore. A bad decision was made with my buddy who owned the car on that fateful spring day in 1987

Out of winter storage & his Trans am was running like crap, he pulled the carb & gave it to the local auto parts store as a core
& bought a rebuilt off the shelf. At the time, I only thought he was crazy for spending nearly $200 on a rebuilt carb.
Little did I know how much I would regret that day. Didn't have a clue about numbers, nor did I have any idea the car would end up mine one day.
I regret it for an entirely different reason 25 years later. I remember it perfectly.......
He had the money to do it. I should have talked him into having it rebuilt, or doing it ourselves..

Funny thing is, even though the car ran great after the swap, we both thought the car lost a little zip. The burn outs where a couple feet shorter.
Had no idea why at the time , but now I do..... Pontiac knew what they were doing with the W72's

__

Thanks for the input!

[highway star]

Originally Posted by 3tas4me

Can someone with a Norwood built 1978 Trans Am with a build date of about the third week of February (02C) please let me know what their original intake manifold casting date and carb build date is? Thank you!

Are you looking to add correct date coded parts on your TA??

If so, it would be acceptable to have parts as far as 3 months + prior to the car's
build date. My '78 has some August '77 OEM dated parts, must have had a stockpile
back then?

[3tas4me]

Originally Posted by highway star

Are you looking to add correct date coded parts on your TA??

If so, it would be acceptable to have parts as far as 3 months + prior to the car's
build date. My '78 has some August '77 OEM dated parts, must have had a stockpile
back then?

Yes, since I was missing the original intake and carburetor, I am trying to find parts that are dated as close to what the originals would have likely been dated. The intake I already bought is dated about one month before the build date of my car. From what I am seeing, that appears to be about correct. The 266 carb I bought however, appears to be a bit early for the build date of my car.

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by highway star

Are you looking to add correct date coded parts on your TA??

If so, it would be acceptable to have parts as far as 3 months + prior to the car's
build date. My '78 has some August '77 OEM dated parts, must have had a stockpile
back then?

As I have understood it (and this rule applies to all but the '79 model year W72's);
1) Parts were casted in batches, at different times;
2) As batches ran low, more were ordered - sometimes there were months between batches of a given part (eg: heads/intakes)
3) To be numbers correct, you first want the correct part number, then you want the casted parts to be no less than about a week or two prior to the car's build date...

I believe you can see a large variance in casted date of engine parts for sequencially built cars, purely based on when the engine assemblies were made, how far prior to the engine assembly being made that parts were casted, and then how long it took for engine assemblies to get the the car assembly plant.
I have understood that on occasion, on a numbers correct/original vehicle, that you can even see head casting dates vary by a month or two.

There really is no rocket science to it

I hope this helped

[Skip Fix]

So mine has a May 78 build and engine had H(AUG) 77 for the block and heads but 10 days between heads and block.

The X7 motor has soem real variable dates on it.

[unruhjonny]

An August 1977 casted block, is one destined for hte 1978 model year;
another check, is the partial vin that is stamped (when looking at the front of the block) on the left side of the timing chain housing;
stamped vertically...
The last six digits are for the car which it originally came in - if the number is higher than your car, that means it came in a car built AFTER yours...

[Skip Fix]

The X7 is just a back up engine I picked up to have the option of making the car how I actually ordered it-missed the 220HP deadline by a month or so. They missed the WS6 but I've added all those over the years.

It is just a little strange to me the difference on the head dates on it and it looks liek a pretty virgin motor.

[3tas4me]

I haven't checked the casting date of my original block yet, but I would bet it is much earlier than my 6X heads that were only a few weeks before the build date of my car. By early 1978, Pontiac was building these things as fast as they could get parts, so it is no surprise that the cast date of my cylinder heads is so close to the build date of the car. My drivers side fender was stamped out only two weeks before the build date. Talk about close!

[68ragtop]

Did you ever figure out a time frame/separation for the carb date to car build date?