I’ve been building Pontiacs my whole life and won’t stop now. Never looked for the easy way out. The struggle is part of the reward.
When my oldest son found a ‘98 Firebird for his first car I tried to talk him out of it. Hard to work on, Fn Chevy engine in a Firebird. But sometimes you have to let your kids learn the hard way. He bought it, drove it most of the summer and then the engine started knocking. He pulled the motor out and we took it apart. Just a rod bearing but since it’s apart let’s get a little serious. Sent the heads off to get ported, called Texas Speed and matched a bigger roller cam to the improved heads. Forged pistons with h-beam steel rods. Bigger throttle body and injectors, sent the computer off. New clutch, posi unit and gears. Headers, flowmasters, new torque arm.
Fired right up sounded good, ran pretty good until it broke a new valve wiping out the head, piston, and aluminum block after only a few thousand miles. Got a matched head, iron block, new piston, here we go again.
The best it ever ran was equal to my ported RA3 headed 400 with a hydraulic Lunati cam, torquer 1 intake and 780 Holley carb. I ran that in the late 80s, full interior ‘68 Firebird that I drove all over the country. Granted, I only got 10 mpg.
The LS broke a keeper and dropped a valve destroying the same crap again. He finally sold the car as is and now has a ‘68 bird of his own.
At the end of the day I know I gave the LS and honest shot and it underwhelmed me. Yea it was a smaller motor but had way better parts than my old 400 did.
So I’m with ponyakr 100%
SD
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