[Gach]

God this brings back memories, my friend Mike dad work at a Pontiac dealer, he ended up with 74 SD Firebird. I was really surprised after going for a ride and comparing it to the power my 68 400 GTO. Made.

[KSZR]

Very neat car!

[mgarblik]

Good traffic on this thread. Before I posted it, I had a few back and forth PM's with B-man about how and where to post this thread. The street section gets allot of traffic so he thought this would be a good place for it. To answer some questions raised. The previous owner lives locally and is helping me with the many details of getting the car back together. He is super detail oriented so his help is appreciated. He does not have the space, tools and time to make it all happen. I am sure that was factored into the eventual transfer of ownership. The car was repainted in the 1980-1982 time frame in lacquer. The body was not separated from the subframe. This was typical of the way cars were "restored" 40+ years ago. I assume rotisseries were out there in the early 80's, but only very valuable "classic's" were treated to that level of restoration in those days. Although a SD-455 TA has always been collectible, they were still available at a reasonable price in the early 1980's. One of the impressive things about this car to me is although many parts have been replaced, 95% of them are NOS replacement parts. There are just a few nick nacks that are from the restoration parts suppliers. This means the parts actually fit and look as they did when the car was built. The car never had any meaningful rust from what I can tell but had some bumps and bruises from being used as transportation for 5 years or so. The decals on the car are NOS replacements in GM envelopes because he gave me numerous spares along with the car. The car does not have the bird hood.

[Vid]

A dream project for many of us here on the forum. Congrats Mike I’m sure you’re loving sinking your teeth into this one!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[77 TRASHCAN]

I've read here that when the engine was in early stages, that the initial cam choice was the 041? It was nixed in favor of the 068, for emissions purposes (I wonder if the 744 was considered?).

With such a low compression ratio, I'm sure the 068 worked out better.

Have you thought about another cam choice, possibly the 041 with Rhoads lifters, just to allow the engine to b e built as "maybe" as it should have?

[johnta1]

The SD uses a special cam because of the gear for the distributor is different than normal Pontiacs.
They originally wanted a bigger cam specs like the RA IV but wouldn't pass emissions, etc. (plus only uses 1.5 rocker ratio)


Do you have the PHS for the SD TA?


What is color of interior?

[jhein]

Originally Posted by 77 TRASHCAN

I've read here that when the engine was in early stages, that the initial cam choice was the 041? It was nixed in favor of the 068, for emissions purposes (I wonder if the 744 was considered?).

With such a low compression ratio, I'm sure the 068 worked out better.

Have you thought about another cam choice, possibly the 041 with Rhoads lifters, just to allow the engine to b e built as "maybe" as it should have?

I thought that they did use a cam that had 744 lift and duration but with a different distributor gear?

[mgarblik]

Actually the SD's ended up with the Pontiac "Y" camshaft. It was essentially the 744 cam with the smaller distributor gear. Not one of Pontiac's greatest efforts IMO, but a decent camshaft. Little lumpy idle. Could use some more lift, even with stock heads. Because of the car's value and probably limited use, I am probably going to just use that cam. I have an NOS one. SD cam cores are hard to find because of the small cam gear. I am sure my friend Tim Goolsby at Ultradyne/Bullet could grind a flat tappet cam that would be just as smooth and make 25-30 more HP. But I am leaning toward leaving this one very stock. It's a delicate trade-off when dealing with a more rare car/engine.

Johnta1: I do have the PHS. It is also in the SD TA registry. It has the standard black interior. It was sold in OH to a smaller northern dealership. Too many pages to post, but happy to supply specific info of interest. It's a Norwood car.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Factory TA decals for these types were one big piece with the letters printed on a big rectangle of clear background. So the background stayed , and was visible around the edges.

On a White car , the excess clear background would become discolored after a while and look crappy.
I removed the 1piece decals from my White car , bought NOS replacements , then "die-cut" the letters out individually myself with good scissors.
And installed them individually.

That is what Ransom is asking about on your TA decals that are on the car.
Do they have a big block of clear background or have they been individualized ?
1piece is Factory - separated is more attractive.

Air dry lacquer paint is the most fragile automotive paint ever created.
Just words of caution and a heads up.
The GM factories baked their lacquer at around 300 degrees to make it more durable.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

Factory TA decals for these types were one big piece with the letters printed on a big rectangle of clear background. So the background stayed , and was visible around the edges.

On a White car , the excess clear background would become discolored after a while and look crappy.
I removed the 1piece decals from my White car , bought NOS replacements , then "die-cut" the letters out individually myself with good scissors.
And installed them individually.

That is what Ransom is asking about on your TA decals that are on the car.
Do they have a big block of clear background or have they been individualized ?
1piece is Factory - separated is more attractive.

Air dry lacquer paint is the most fragile automotive paint ever created.
Just words of caution and a heads up.
The GM factories baked their lacquer at around 300 degrees to make it more durable.

Good points. I have owned a number of air dry lacquer painted cars. Brittle and delicate for sure. The front bumper on this car will need some attention to look really nice and it hasn't even been driven since painted! Rest of car looks pretty good. A little dull but can be buffed because lacquer is single stage. I will look at the decals. Little details I know nothing about. Makes sense though. On a white car, the clear turning yellow would not look good over time.

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

The car does not have the bird hood.

Yay - definitely prefer the 73/74's without a bird. Particularly if they were ordered without one to begin with. Keep the pictures and details coming!

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

Do they have a big block of clear background or have they been individualized ?
1piece is Factory - separated is more attractive.

Here's an example on a Cameo White car (stolen from the current 74SD auction on BaT);

[sdbob]

1973 cam part # 480737 basically the 041. Listed in 1973 service manual.Although I've never seen one.

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Good points. I have owned a number of air dry lacquer painted cars. Brittle and delicate for sure. The front bumper on this car will need some attention to look really nice and it hasn't even been driven since painted! Rest of car looks pretty good. A little dull but can be buffed because lacquer is single stage. I will look at the decals. Little details I know nothing about. Makes sense though. On a white car, the clear turning yellow would not look good over time.

I do not like base coat-clear coat modern paint on any old muscle car.
Does not look right. All colors are slightly tinted yellow and gets worse over time.
Single stage guy right here.
This car is in the right hands and its going to be a pleasure following this.
Best of luck.

[einstein]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I assume rotisseries were out there in the early 80's, but only very valuable "classic's" were treated to that level of restoration in those days.

I built what may have been the first rotisserie for our cars in 1987. It was published in Musclecar Review in the November issue that year, after Paul Zazarine had visited my home and saw it as a good tech article with simple plans to build.

The inspiration was a lighter duty version I saw in Street Rodder of the 26-27 T touring body fiberglass molds which looked like 2 engine stands with the bottoms joined in the middle.

Within weeks, there were a couple companies offering them for sale in Hemmings, and one company had the balls to use the photos from the article. PZ had the Dobbs Publishing attorneys issue a "cease and desist" for copyright violation.

Anyway, you've got quite a special car there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by einstein

I built what may have been the first rotisserie for our cars in 1987. It was published in Musclecar Review in the November issue that year, after Paul Zazarine had visited my home and saw it as a good tech article with simple plans to build.

The inspiration was a lighter duty version I saw in Street Rodder of the 26-27 T touring body fiberglass molds which looked like 2 engine stands with the bottoms joined in the middle.

Within weeks, there were a couple companies offering them for sale in Hemmings, and one company had the balls to use the photos from the article. PZ had the Dobbs Publishing attorneys issue a "cease and desist" for copyright violation.

Anyway, you've got quite a special car there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

That is interesting information. Seems I remember seeing "rotisserie restorations" for the first time in car ads in the early 90's. That makes sense. BTW, I looked at the stickers on the car and they are a rectangle on a clear back just like the white car pictured. They don't stand out as badly as the white car.

Plans for the next week are to install torque plates on the block and measure the bores. I do not know if the block was plate honed in 1979-80. That was not typical procedure at the time, especially on a Pontiac stock rebuild. It was line honed and has a nice finish. I need to measure the housing bores as well to be sure. Here are some pics of the engine now.

[77 TRASHCAN]

Wow, engine looks superb!!!

[jhein]

No kidding. That is beautiful. Especially the lifter valley.

[sdbob]

Around 1976 after I accidentally found that SD block. I bought a 70 F body from local salesman. I wanted to scrap on the tar and road grim underneath but didnt want to lay on my back. So I dissembled the car and made 2 heavy duty T s to bolt to front and back of body. I had made 2 HD engine cranes,learning to weld,lifted body onto the Ts.It worked. It didnt rotate just held the body sideways.Just sat and scrapped. Now I've built a rotisserie. Probably never use it.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Actually the SD's ended up with the Pontiac "Y" camshaft. It was essentially the 744 cam with the smaller distributor gear. Not one of Pontiac's greatest efforts IMO, but a decent camshaft. Little lumpy idle. Could use some more lift, even with stock heads. Because of the car's value and probably limited use, I am probably going to just use that cam. I have an NOS one. SD cam cores are hard to find because of the small cam gear. I am sure my friend Tim Goolsby at Ultradyne/Bullet could grind a flat tappet cam that would be just as smooth and make 25-30 more HP. But I am leaning toward leaving this one very stock. It's a delicate trade-off when dealing with a more rare car/engine.

Johnta1: I do have the PHS. It is also in the SD TA registry. It has the standard black interior. It was sold in OH to a smaller northern dealership. Too many pages to post, but happy to supply specific info of interest. It's a Norwood car.

Mike, congratulations on getting a great SD! Here’s our experiences with a ’73 SD455. Dan rebuilt my old ’73 SD455 in Dec. 2015 that was a fairly stock rebuild. The bottom end was enhanced with new forged Eagle H-beam rods and .040-over mini-dome Diamond pistons (to get the compression up to 9.4) with the std. ring pack (1/16, 1/16, 3/16), full floating pins, and zero decked with .040 quench. The oil pump was the original 80 lb.-er, so didn’t take advantage of less parasitic hp loss with a 60 lb. pump. The heads were cleaned up with a minimal cut and the chambers measured in at 108 cc’s, new Ferrara 1-pc SS valves and new springs with similar specs to the factory pressures. The original ‘Y’ cam (225/236/115 @ .407”/.407”) and factory lifters were in great shape (46k miles) and reused along the factory 1.5 rocker arms and pushrods. The original cracked factory RA exhaust manifolds were replaced with RARE 2.5 outlet manifolds. The original factory intake manifold and 7043273 Q-jet were reinstalled too.

On a fairly conservative dyno with Pypes 2.5” headpipes (4’ long) the initial pulls started at 390 hp @ 4800 rpm/477 lbft @ 3800 rpm. With jetting and timing tweaks the best numbers were 418 hp @ 5000 rpm/500 ft.lbs @ 3600 rpm, so gains of 28 hp & 23 lbft torque.

We'll be interested to see what a completely factory stock SD455 does on the dyno...guessing 365 hp/465 lbft.

Dennis