Pontiac Trans Am

[T/A Addict]

Nice Jon! I can't believe you managed to get it back. That's awesome!

[F-Body International]

Nice Jon! I can't believe you managed to get it back. That's awesome!

I debated on not doing it because I know that it will slow me down with progress on the ‘79. What happened was I bought a complete LS1 for my ‘79 T/A last week and the guy with the purple car ended up posting the engine/transmission for sale the same day. He was about to part the car out! I asked how much for the whole car and after a conversation, I ended up trading him the engine and some swap parts I just bought for the ‘79.

[T/A Addict]

You lucky guy..... That just kinda fell in place for you.

[andrewb70]

The interior looks great!

[F-Body International]

The interior looks great!

Thank you sir! Next will be dash replacement once I can find one. I was close to taking the one I saw on Sunday but it was messed up around the radio bezel. Going to another junkyard on Saturday so we shall see!

[F-Body International]

Hey guys,

Been a while since I've posted about the '79 on this thread...once again. So many stories since last year.


LS1 story..........
This year I purchased an LS1 to have an engine shop build and set the 4.8 aside in the garage. After going through some big purchasing, the owner of the shop I was trying to work with ended up making a big fit with me on the phone about deciding to get the heads ported and purchasing a camshaft. The moment that happened, I decided to stop the process and pulled the LS1 out of the shop. I didn't want to do business with the guy anymore. Absolute rip-off. Paid $5,000 for assembly, machining and dyno time. Once I decided to pull out, they decided to order pistons/rods and overcharge me labor time for work they did not do. If anyone lives in Illinois area, stay away from Speed Performance Engineering in Wauconda, IL. Absolute rip-off artist. I'm now returning or selling off all the parts that were intended for that build. Shame as it was hovering $10,000 between everything at that point. Losing thousands on this failure but I just have to take it on the chin and move on.


4.8 story........
After getting ripped off bad by that shop with the LS1 I was trying to build, I decided to clean up the 4.8 that I had sitting in the garage. Before when I had found glass inside the piston cylinders, I was fairly not motivated and that I was why I coughed up coin to build and aluminum block instead. After cleaning the engine up and posting on Facebook, a friend of mine said he'd buy it. The engine is going to be featured in coming episodes for his YouTube channel and Facebook page. Foy's Automotive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQG3AFJcXKY


Pontiac 400........
I never really voiced this on the forums but my 400 engine was actually used by some close people I know to pay off someone's theft debt. I won't go into details over forum but my engine got ripped off by some very close people. I always knew who had the engine but I was on bad terms with this person and basically stayed out of the sour subjects of others. That's why I started working on putting together an LS engine. After all this stuff happened with the LS engines, the guy who had my 400 engine started going through an ugly divorce. I personally never wanted to pay money towards the guy for problems that I was not involved and, thus, never expected to see this engine again but I really didn't want to see anything bad happen to it so I called and asked if I could buy it. Couldn't believe I was paying money for an engine that was pretty much stolen from me but I really wanted to keep the original engine with the car. Here I am with a restart, yet again, on the original 400...
400 rebirth begins by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Car Article Feature...........
This past month I was contacted by a writer named Tommy Parry from HotRodHotline about doing a feature on my car. I was a bit surprised because my car is currently not in the condition I was expecting to be asked for a feature but I reluctantly said yes. After sending him some information about myself, why I'm into the project and other questions, he developed a draft. I approved it but I also conveyed that I have a different direction I'm going with the car than what is currently posted online. With that discussion, he said he would be interested in doing another follow-up article in the future. Hopefully I can be ready fairly soon for that. I really have some neat ideas planned out for the car. For now though, please free to view the article here...
Jon's '79 Pontiac Trans Am
https://www.hotrodhotline.com/node/22112#.XY07yGZ7nIU


I hope this is a nice update for you guys!

More to come,

Jon

[ryeguy2006a]

Love the article! Sorry all that bad stuff happened around the LS motors. Sad that some shops make there money that way... I still think you should find a way to 24x swap the 400.

[F-Body International]

Alright, been a while since I've made any progress car but it's been a great year personally. Me and my wife just had a baby in January so I've been super busy with that among other things (OT at work, currently doing a mortgage refinance, etc.).

I bought another '81 Turbo 301 (computer control) distributor and am currently going about a rebuild on it. Doing it myself this time around. Ordered a bunch of parts from DUI (Davis Unified Ignition)...
-New magnetic pickup
-New coil harness
-New computer control harness
-New cap, rotor and performance coil (I had them send me a stock-appearing cover for a factory look)
-Gear shim kit (they're recommending .025"-.030" shaft end-play)

The start....
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr


Gear pin popped out to remove...
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

After gear is removed, the shaft comes out....
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Housing with shaft removed....
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Mockup of new harnesses and pickup....
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Next door neighborhood helped me out with his Harbor Freight blast cabinet (he used a light soda media). It didn't come out brand new but it cleaned up a good amount...
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr


Trying out Evapo-Rust for the first time so we'll see how well this stuff goes. Bought it at Harbor Freight...
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

[F-Body International]

Ok, 1 day later, this rust remover stuff from Harbor Freight actually worked. I still need to order/find a shaft seal but I think I'm pretty close to being ready to reassemble this thing.

Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

[ryeguy2006a]

Looking good! I may have to pick up some of that stuff. I've still got some rusty stuff I need to clean up and paint.

Can you explain more about what you are going to do with the distributor? Is it EFI related?

[F-Body International]

Looking good! I may have to pick up some of that stuff. I've still got some rusty stuff I need to clean up and paint.

Can you explain more about what you are going to do with the distributor? Is it EFI related?

Yes sir on the EFI....but a more old-school way!

This is an '81 Pontiac 301 distributor. '81 was the only year a Pontiac engine received a fully computer controlled distributor and these distributors can drop in any 350-455. These distributors utilized a 7-Pin module, unlike the traditional 4-Pin vacuum advance HEI's.


The Megasquirt manual probably explains it best...
Parts by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

[yellow1098Greg]

Love your 79 build and even tho I just found it....and you have been through quite a few changes and I have gotten alittle confused but which intake are you running with your efi setup?

[Josh@Ridetech]

That evapo-rust deal looks like it worked pretty well! I've got a few things I could use that on for sure. Keep up the good work!

[F-Body International]

Love your 79 build and even tho I just found it....and you have been through quite a few changes and I have gotten alittle confused but which intake are you running with your efi setup?

Yea, I’ve been left, right, up and down with this car on changes so it’s definitely a confusing read. I’ve thought making a new thread but I guess I’m just keeping it going since most builds change anyway.

The route I’m planning is using a Rochester TBI injection on my stock iron intake. I’m basically planning on doing a fuel injection conversion with various OEM GM equipment and probably an aftermarket computer (still debating on using a modified GM computer).

[yellow1098Greg]

Yea, I’ve been left, right, up and down with this car on changes so it’s definitely a confusing read. I’ve thought making a new thread but I guess I’m just keeping it going since most builds change anyway.

The route I’m planning is using a Rochester TBI injection on my stock iron intake. I’m basically planning on doing a fuel injection conversion with various OEM GM equipment and probably an aftermarket computer (still debating on using a modified GM computer).

that’s will be an interesting setup to see....I’m finishing my build on a new iron block 461 stroker on mine and thought I read earlier you were going with a MPFI setup....I am running a Holley sniper on my current mild 400 but I’ve been having trouble finding an intake that will work to go MP on a Pontiac motor that isn’t to high so I can still keep my shaker...I probably should start a thread in the fuel injection section but it’s alittle slow on the response over there...if you have an advice that would be awesome...was thinking about the terminator x

btw...love your car and color

[F-Body International]

that’s will be an interesting setup to see....I’m finishing my build on a new iron block 461 stroker on mine and thought I read earlier you were going with a MPFI setup....I am running a Holley sniper on my current mild 400 but I’ve been having trouble finding an intake that will work to go MP on a Pontiac motor that isn’t to high so I can still keep my shaker...I probably should start a thread in the fuel injection section but it’s alittle slow on the response over there...if you have an advice that would be awesome...was thinking about the terminator x

btw...love your car and color

Thanks, yes I can give you a few recommendations!

The Speedmaster EFI intake is a very affordable option for a Pontiac. It’s probably the shortest aftermarket intake because it’s basically a copy of the old Holley Street Dominator. See below...
https://www.jegs.com/i/Speedmaster/7....1038/10002/-1

The next and more expensive option is the Edelbrock EFI intake which is based off the Torker II design. This one should be slightly taller than the Speedmaster but should still fit under most stock hoods.
https://www.edelbrock.com/torker-ii-...old-50565.html

For current computer options, the Holley Terminator X seems to be a great option most people’s wallet. You can look into the Universal kit...
https://www.holley.com/products/fuel.../parts/550-936

For computer controlled timing, Holley and FAST make dual sync Pontiac distributors if you want to set the engine up for sequential injection. If you just want batch fire, any locked out 2-wire distributor will work. If you want to be cost effective, lock out your stock HEI, put in a 7-wire HEI module (like my post above) and it can plug into a computer. Either way you go, you have drop-in options here.
Holley...
https://www.holley.com/products/igni...ac/parts/23843
FAST...
https://www.fuelairspark.com/pontiac...stributor.html


If you want to check this out, I made a thread this past week for old-school Olds/Pontiac guys who are interested in going EFI on a budget. One Pontiac guy used the Speedmaster port injection intake, '81 301 computer distributor and used a custom-tuned computer from an early 90's Corvette.
http://transamcountry.com/community/...?topic=82253.0

[yellow1098Greg]

Awesome awesome info....thank you so much.....the only thought and issue I might have with the speedmaster or lowish intake like that is my power goals for my new motor...will it drop those power goals compared to what I was trying to get to is my question.....also how much real world difference would I see with the terminator vs a TBI

[F-Body International]

Awesome awesome info....thank you so much.....the only thought and issue I might have with the speedmaster or lowish intake like that is my power goals for my new motor...will it drop those power goals compared to what I was trying to get to is my question.....also how much real world difference would I see with the terminator vs a TBI

Those low profile intakes can be port matched to +300cfm aluminum heads. You won't miss much.

Also, I edited the above post to add some more links for you.

[F-Body International]

Got an '80-'81 NA 301 passenger side manifold in the mail today. The reason why I picked this up is because these exhaust manifolds have an o2 sensor bung built in from the factory. I have not done any test fitting but hopefully this should work for the EFI conversion. One part that's different from my engine is that there is an extra bolt hole between the D-ports and I will need to block it off. This won't be high-performance but it should be a fun piece to add to the car since it's a factory Pontiac part.

My next debate is what manifold to use on the driver side. I've been thinking a log manifold would be good to make it cheap but I've also been wondering if I could get a driver side Ram Air manifold and loop under the oil and to this manifold.

Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr


Came out a ton better after some wire wheel action. I guess all the baked-on mud/grease helped keep this thing clean.
Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr

[F-Body International]

Picked up a 2nd-hand new Innovate LC-2 wideband (with gauge) and just did a quick test fit on the manifold. I'm pretty excited to see how this works.

Untitled by Jonathon Randolph, on Flickr