Required Reading
 

Pontiac reference books every Pontiac enthusiast should have in their library:

Pontiac Musclecar Performance 1955 - 1979, by Pete Mc Carthy and John Angeles

Pontiac GTO Restoration Guide, by Paul Zazarine and Chuck Roberts

Pontiac High Performance Engine Design & Blueprint Assembly, by Craig Hendrickson and Kern Osterstock (HO Racing Specialties, Inc.)

Pontiac Heavy-Duty Parts & Specs, by Craig Hendrickson and Kern Osterstock (HO Racing Specialties, Inc.)

How to Build Max-Performance Pontiac V-8s, by Jim Hand

Build and Modify Rochester Quadrajet Carburetors, by Cliff Ruggles

HOW TO Rebuild PONTIAC V-8s, by Rocky Rotella

These books will help answer many of the questions asked here in this forum, even though a few of them may be somewhat outdated. More than likely all of them are available from the sponsor of this site, Performance Years.

Are there any other good Pontiac or automotive performance books out there that PY members may know of?

Acouple of more books that are good to have around:
The Standard Catalog of Pontiac. A good quick reference book with production numbers, available engines, etc.
The Pontiac Shop Manual for your specific car.

Original Pontiac GTO, by Thomas DeMauro is a nice, glossy hardback with lots of specs on each year. Most of it seems very accurate and the photos are nicely done. Not a book you want to drag around under the car with you, but a nice book to have on the shelf.

http://kurtspontiac.homestead.com/TimSimpson66GTO.html

Camaro Restoration Handbook by Tom Currao & Ron Sessions. (use for Firebirds).

Standard Guide to automobile restoration, Matt Joseph

Ponitac Muscle Cars Drivetrain and suspension 1964-1972, Miller

Firebird Body Trim and Glass interchangeable parts, Miller

Fisher Body manual (GM) for your year

Rochester Carburetors, Doug Roe

Illustrated Firebird Buyers Guide , Gunnell

Auto Math Handbook, John Lawlor

others...

Bringing this one back.

Read up on your Pontiac so you can make the right decisions.:cool:

There is another book by Pete McCarthy and John Angeles called Pontiac Racer's & High Performance Handbook. This, and Pete's other very good books can be found here:
http://www.petemccarthy.com/

Please excuse the cheesy MIDI version of the Beach Boys "409" that you will be subjected to when you go to his website.

These are'nt all pontiac specific,but still worth getting.

The turbo hydramatic 400 book,and the turbo hydra-matic 350 handbook by Ron Session's are both also worth having IMO too.

As well as the Holley 4150/4160 carburetor handbook by Mike Urich,there are also a few other good holley books to have to if you use those,maybe others will chime in with their favorites.

I also have Alex Warlody's super tuning holley carburetors,like said before,a bit dated but still a good read.

For the firebird owners,I recommend The fabulous firebird by Michael Lamm.

And agree the factory shop manuauls and body manuals can be very nice to have also!

And for anybody who plans to take their car to the drag strip,either a NHRA or an IHRA rulebook,or get both,just to cover all your bases.

HTH.

Just got the Coil Spring rear suspension setup guide from Dick Miller racing and I was able to understand it all easily and understand exacly what I need to do to get my rearend set up correctly. Can't recommend this book enough.

Never can study up to much.
Good thread recall....................

Well said b-man, great posts. :D

What about the Video that Pete MCarthey and dave Bischop did. I thought is was very good but I wish they went into more detail on the Edelbrocks!!!

Agree with all above, don´t forget the MPC for the year of your car, or any year.
I also like the Delco Parts&Service Carburetor Manual.
And the only GTO Parts Catalog that got the 1965 Tripower M/T end carb #´s right, Bob´s Auto Parts. Unfortunately no longer in buissness.....?

I haven't heard of this one yet. Do you know the title of the video, and where we can get it? Thanks in advance.

Pete McCarthy also had some excellent porting articles in the early HPP magazines. He did flow tests on the more common iron heads & then did a series of articles in HPP from the early 90's to about 97 titled 'Sciencing out the Pontiac Engine.' The porting articles had photos that were helpful when used in conjunction the video.
His comments on the so-called 'Pontiac's poor exhaust port', & more importantly his reasoning, is very enlightening. Also interesting is his comments & test results of single v dual pattern cams. These back issues were available as photo copies, that is how I got mine.

Here is the link. It also has his book.


http://www.petemccarthy.com/index.html

:bump2:

Educate yourself. :cool:

Back to the top for the newbies. :bump2:

Probably should be a 'sticky' kept at the top. How about it Mods? :confused:

Get some reference material. :burnout:

ANY repair manual, Chiltons, MOTORS, Haynes, GM, etc
just to give folks who are new at this stuff (and old at this stuff) a clue about basics.

An incredible number of questions in these forums show a complete lack of comprehension concerning very basic concepts. This leads to many burnt fingers. Just five minutes reading would answer so many questions or at least give people enough background to make their questions understandable.

for instance questions like:
"I changed my old sparkplugs and now I think the choke is all screwed up. Should I buy a new street demon carb?"
"I have a loud grinding noise from the valves. My friend who adjusted them says I need new edelbrock heads"
"Ive read a Pontiac needs a adjustable valve train or it will drop a valve. Summit has SmithBros adjustable pushrods for $179. Are those any good?"
"My wiring was all messed up so I bought a chrome 300amp one wire alt from ebay and after I put it in my battery exploded" Did I get took on this alt?"

We all started somewhere but a little homework research will make our questions clearer and help those more knowledgeable zero in on own questions.

Here is a thought : Several kids are graduating from high school very soon and will be tinkering witht heir first rebuilds and a very detailed book on a complete aspect of a Pontiac spefic rebuild would be a wonderful gift, nothing fancy just good solid advice with side bars to add modifications if desired and how to obtain such. Does anybody know of such a good book already available out there. I understand Mr. Hand's book for serious performance and the correct parts but what about a general build ? I would like to have a few on hand to offer as gifts.

Tim

Having purchased both Jim Hands book and Pete McCarthy's at our hosts trailer at AutoFair this past April in Charlotte has really gave me some more insight on factory parts versues aftermarket. I too would likke to knwo more about the single vs dual pattern cam testing also as I have run both but would like to know what Pete has to say about it.