1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

[79TA]

finally got around to posting what I drive



(Gold 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am . . . not the Carrera GT)








That should be enough proof for that car. Here are some shots of my other car, a 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera . . . no proof yet. Is that really necessary for my Olds?

[TransAm]

Unless the rules have changed, it doesnt matter what type of car it is...

Nice Trans Am though, a proper one. I had an orange plastic thing when I lived in the US, there are some pics of it in this part of the forum.

ETA: http://www.motorworld.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15121

Welcome to JW, I've not been around much this year so hello from me!

[yg60m]

Thanks for the pics mate, nice ride

[Zot09]

Nice rides dude! Was the first picture from Cars & Coffee?

[ARMAN]

It looks like its in a mint condition :shock: Any pics of interior? Any vids?

[dutchmasterflex]

Sweet ride. Looks great and must be a blast to drive.

[79TA]

Thanks for the compliments.

I'll start with a little background on the car. I bought this car from a dead guy (of course I actually dealt with the widow, but the official records indicate otherwise ). The local salvage yard had offered the little old lady 25 dollars for the car, so I offered 100, bought it, and took it home. 3000 dollars later, I had an operational car. I would keep upgrading and restoring from there.

The body -
Yes, it is in very good shape, but this wasn't always the case. The car was formerly covered in dings and scratches and dogs had chewed the polyurethane corners. The car was hit by a van in Sept '06 which prompted me to seriously address the bodywork, which otherwise, would have been the last thing on my to-do list. I hired a bodyman to splice in a new rear quarter panel and address some other issues. The following parts are in excellent shape: doors, quarters, roof, front fascia, and rear bumper. The front fenders are pretty good while the hood has a ripple and the rear trunk could have been sanded more evenly (my fault).

The engine -
My car is an automatic, so 6.6 litre in this instance stands for the 403 CI Oldsmobile which is essentially a Olds 350 small block bored over much more than it was ever really supposed to be. The engine is oversquare meaning it has more bore than stroke. Usually that kind of geometry would give great revving potential but the stock oiling system can't keep things on the top end up under high rpm. Of course, you want the numbers. Like any smog era engine, they're disappointing, however, like smog era engines, they're easy to modify to make big power.

Stock Olds 403 - 320 ft-lb’s of torque at 2200 rpm
- 185 bhp at 4800 rpm

The engine shows it has potential with its effortless low end torque but the torque curve pretty much falls on its face after 2500-3000 rpm. This is due to really low compression (7.9:1 static), a lame camshaft, and some of the least desirable cylinder heads of all time. At least the low end torque results in decent average horsepower which allows stock TA's to post fairly decent performance numbers. A common remedy is to bolt on a pair of heads from an earlier Olds 350 (with much smaller combustion chambers). A pair of 64 cc heads will bump the compression up to 91 octane-friendly 9.5:1. Accompanying more compression with a cam to let things get some air results in about 350 horsepower.

My engine -
The engine currently in my car is an Olds 403 with a little bit more cam than stock. The previous owner used it to pass smog with before dropping his (not smog-legal) Olds 455 back into his car. It was a great deal as I paid only 575 dollars for a solid running motor and TH350 transmission, both of which I use in my car today. I figure the engine makes about 200 peak horsepower as the car posts slightly better numbers than stock TA's of the period.

Also, I theorize that the automatic TA's were actually faster in the quarter than the manual ones tested in the magazines . . . everybody knows automatics rule drag racing.

I'll get more pics up in order to show what has become of the original Olds 403

[79TA]

Here are a couple pictures of my Olds 403 under construction. It's been bored 0.030 over so it now displaces 409 cubic inches. I've gone for a fairly conservative build (1 bhp per cubic inch, hopefully a little more) so the engine will be reliable and will last a long long time. It's one thing to make good power. It's another thing to make it in a way that doesn't reduce the life of the block . . . that's another reason V8's rule.







I still haven't put the intake manifold on:



I won't be assembling the valvetrain until right before I put the engine back in the car. Otherwise, all the oil would just drip into the oil pan.

This project has been on the backburner for quite a while because of the accident and body work. Hopefully, I'll have the original 403 (now 409) back in the TA before Christmas.

[79TA]

The old engine came out and the "new" original engine went in on Saturday.



Despite making good progress on Saturday, the whole operation will still take a while. I still need new intake manifold bolts (I was just going to use the ones from the other engine), different push rods (my machine shop bought ones that were too short! so much for having them "match parts"), and I still need decent valve covers (the ones on the original ones don't really seal well and the pair of edelbrocks are crusty and I don't like chrome.)

Anyway, this is just the beginning. Exhaust work and hopefully a new radiator will come soon after the swap.

Other slightly further off to-do's include repairing my Holley 3310 carburetor (to replace the rochester) and finding suitable headers.

Then next years project will be swapping in a 700R4 (it doesn't just drop right in) and some 3.42's in the rear. There's much much more to do after that, but that's the plan right now. Availability of money will affect the rate at which things are accomplished.

about to go in . . .



Here's the built original engine going into place with its lack of intake manifold, unfinished valve train (no pushrods or rockers), and (temporary) crusty valvle covers (they have rust on the inside, hence the excessive use of taped paper towels.)




and for kicks, here's a photo of me dropping in the lifters before I tried to set the valve lash and then realized that the pushrods were way too short . . .

[silentm]

yay for your new motor. but boo to the problems

i hope you can get this stuff sorted soon and have some fun with the TA

[pagani]

What are you planning suspension and brake wise?
I love your car.

[graywolf624]

Then next years project will be swapping in a 700R4

Just make sure its not a stock 700R4. Get a built one, as they break easy.

Otherwise good looking car.

[79TA]

Originally Posted by silentm yay for your new motor. but boo to the problems i hope you can get this stuff sorted soon and have some fun with the TA

thanks, I'll get back to work on it with some more parts and time after the Long Beach Grand Prix is over.

Originally Posted by graywolf624 Just make sure its not a stock 700R4. Get a built one, as they break easy. Otherwise good looking car.

Yea, thanks for the advice. I've been planning it for a long time and know how notorious some of the 27 spline units were in slightly built applications. I'll likely order a built unit from B&M. I reeeally want that extra ratio so I can run some decent gears without ruining freeway cruising (I'll be going with fairly modest 3.42's, not unlike a stock 4th gen)

Originally Posted by pagani What are you planning suspension and brake wise? I love your car.

I addressed the suspension (November 2005) and brakes (November 2004) a while ago.

The brakes aren't anything too special. Just Duralast discs and pads up front with new drums in the rear. Surprisingly, the car brakes really well. It doesn't have ABS, but it seems to grab better than my fox body (. . . . more on that car later when I have more pics ready. I just did the rear drums on that car 3 weeks ago).



I'd like fancier brakes, but I don't want anything that will force me to get rid of the stock 15" rally II wheels. My understanding is that high performance brakes make a bigger difference at higher speeds and on track days (much less fade.) So the current brakes will stay for quite a while.

I replaced the coil springs, leaf springs, and bushings back in November 2005. I've got Eibach coils upfront and Hotchkiss leaf springs in the rear. I love how the Eibachs settled but the Hotchkiss springs actually raised the car up despite being "lowering springs" (a result of the old springs being pretty well shot.) I realy love how the car rides but hate the fact that it has a slight rake. I'll get some lowering blocks to get things even again although some people have told me they liked the raked look.

before


after


stock vs Eibach


no more old rusty leaf

[79TA]

and you'll notice the car looks different. I explained that in one of the above posts, but here's a brief pictoral history of what happened. This was last summer's project.

Ominous picture I took of the rear quarter exactly 14 days before the accident:


the ouch:


the nitty gritty:


further along:


bare bones, but painted:


nowadays (pre-engine swap of course):


When I tell people that it was in an accident they often try to find ripples in the paint etc to guess where it was hit . . . the affected fender is never guessed. Instead they point out the hood ripple or actual body lines of the car . . .

[HeilSvenska]

Originally Posted by 79TA When I tell people that it was in an accident they often try to find ripples in the paint etc to guess where it was hit . . . the affected fender is never guessed. Instead they point out the hood ripple or actual body lines of the car . . .

Yup. That happens. People are amazingly simple minded sometimes.