[cammerjeff]

Well here is a link to some pic's of my latest Odd Pontiac purchase.

http://www.gmsports.com/album.asp?ca...20Sunbird%20SW

I bought it for $860.00 it is a Buick 3.8 V-6 powered car, Auto (they think it has a 350 turbo but I have my doughts about that) A/C, tilt. pwr steering/brakes. Everything I can find says it has a 7.5 inch rear axle with either a 2.92 or 3.08 ratio with this drive train combo.
Does anyone out there have any experiance with these cars? I haven't seen one in years.

Jeff R

[cammerjeff]

Well here is a link to some pic's of my latest Odd Pontiac purchase.

http://www.gmsports.com/album.asp?ca...20Sunbird%20SW

I bought it for $860.00 it is a Buick 3.8 V-6 powered car, Auto (they think it has a 350 turbo but I have my doughts about that) A/C, tilt. pwr steering/brakes. Everything I can find says it has a 7.5 inch rear axle with either a 2.92 or 3.08 ratio with this drive train combo.
Does anyone out there have any experiance with these cars? I haven't seen one in years.

Jeff R

[68 Prix]

Neet little car. I have not seen one in years also. What are your plans for the car?

[mike nixon]

if it has a v-6 in it it'll have the th350 trans.

those are neat little cars. they share suspension with the monza, which means that dropping in a v-8 [ sb chevy] is pretty simple if you have the mounts,manifolds and pan.

i never tried to put a pontiac in one without major mods.

is the v-6 odd or even fire? if even fire there were a bunch of aftermarket parts made for them and those cars ran well with some tweaks.

from 78-up it was probably even,prior to that was odd. look at the distr cap, if the dead spaces in the wire retainer are evenly spaced all the way around it'll be even fire.

an 86-7 gn turbo engine/ trans swap would make that little car fly.

modded or stock it looks like a nice little ride.

mike

[cammerjeff]

As of now the plans are to drive it as a summer parts/dog hauer for a couple of years or untill I get the 4-speed 73 Safari back on the road.
After that I plan on making a street/strip bracket car for use in our local Royal Pontiac drag series, and for Norwalk of course.
I am glad to hear it does have a T-350 in it. Makes doing any small engine mods much more feasable!!! I plan on butting on a 4 bbl intake & carb, duel exaust & possible a cam this winter.
The books all say 77 and later 3,8's are even fire, but it looks like I need 79 or later heads as they have much improved ports, something like 25-35% more flow. It looks like the exaust manifolds are going to be the limiting factor for now, The stock manifolds are H-body specific, and very small & restrictive. And no one seems to make headers for the 3.8 or 4.2 Buicks for this chassis. SBC & 4.3 Chevy yes but not the Buicks.
I will no more of what I want to do after I actually get it home. Just learning about this chassis. I have a Vega Fanatic at work so I do have someone to knock ideas off of, and he says he knows were several complete 4.2 buicks are sitting in a yard near his house, so I may go that rought.
Still kicking it around.

Jeff R

[CraigGT37]

Jeff,
I had a hatchback sunbird while in H.S.,it had a 2.5 in it.i rebuilt a 231 per the buick power source book,It would walk away from vettes in street races.The only car that would keep up with it was a monza with a radical small block in it.
The factory 4.1 4bbl intake is a good intake to use and cheap to find(I have one if your interested).Hooker used to make headers for these,but i dont think they do anymore.The 79 up heads are defenatly better than the 78's,you will have to change exhaust manifolds also.
Something else to consider is building a 4.1L while driving it stock.
I'm building a 4.1 turbo for my sons 79 Turbo Sport Coupe to replace the 3.8.
Craig

[RandyW]

I mhad a '76 Olds Starfire hatchback that came with a 231/4spd. I put a well warmed over Pontiac 326 in it. What a blast that thing was. I used the BW 4spd with a bigger cluth, I even used the original clutch cable. I had to use one of those early Pinto flexable steering shafts (the wrapped wire kind not the one with u joints), to clear the exhaust.

[455guy]

I have standard shift parts for the 3.8 if interested..Killiansboy@hotmail.com..

[camerjeff]

I can't use the manual parts sorry, I have picked up a few parts for the car, I had a 85 231 donated to me from a freind that is putting a 455 in his GP, and I picked up a stock 4 bbl complete with carb & all the hooh ups from a local yard for $50.00 (the 4.1 had a rod hanging out of the block unfortunatlly.) and I got lucky before cristmas and picked up a set of NOS Hooker headers for cheep also. I also have a older holly 4-bbl intake and 390 econimizer carb I got off E-bay last year so now I just need to get the heads redone and decide what intake/carb set up to use.
Still looking for the 4.1 block & crank though. But I may end up building the spare 3.8 I have.
I took the car out to the track las Oct just to see what it would do stock with the 2 bbl & 2.79 gears, it suprized me, I wasn't expecting anything better tham mid 17's, and it ran 15.9 at 87 mph. faster than my old stock 79 formula 301 4bbl 4-speed.

Thanks for all the advice & offers guys.