Topic: 73 Firebird Formula 400 - Ready for Spring!

[CBJoe]

For the tires....2 Tires have a 2018 Date code and 2 have a 2016 Date Code.  So we're good for the moment, but I'll need to remember that 2 are older.  I believe from records the PO only but about 1300 Miles on the car since 2016 when he purchased it.  Maybe less.

Its funny....less than 2 days from receipt of the car its already down for repair    I was taking a look at the Quadrajet Carb because the throttle plate for the secondarys was pretty gummed up.  Car drove "well" but I dont think the secondaries were opening well.  Carb is very dirty overall and you can see it’s been leaking for while.




Then I noticed that the Fuel Inlet was stripped out and someone had jammed it up with epoxy to try and fix it.  Looks like an old repair.  Well...it started leaking.  I also did some checking and its not the correct carb for the pontiac.  Its a Quadrajet from a 1970 Buick    Found a good deal on a rebuilt Rochester Quadrajet for my exact year pontiac 400 and ordered it. 

I ordered a lot of small trim parts and will be replacing all the door felts and gaskets and fixing little things here and there.  Hopefully we'll have the carb in the next week and get things moving again.  Not a big deal....to be honest we were waiting for that first surprise

Joe

[CBJoe]

So how do you like the 3:42 gearing Joe?

Only drove it the one day before finding the carb issue, but gearing felt pretty good, though most of our cruising was around 60-65. Without a functioning Tach, I'm not sure what RPM we were at.  I have read that 3.42 may not be too good for steady highway cruising, but we'll see.

[Stev-o]

With Classic Cars, you are bound to have issues sooner than later. No use in getting down, sounds like you have the right attitude Joe.
Would be a good time to clean and paint intake too?!

[Bankerdanny]

So....the first car i looked at didn't work out as it failed with too many red flags.  But checked out another one we've been watching for a while and it checked all the boxes and made a deal.   

Numbers Matching 1973 Formula 400 w/ ram air and TH400 Auto.  Its got a decent but not perfect respray of the original Navajo Orange color.  Straight as an arrow body and no filler as far as I could find.  Some rust indication on a few of the lower corner panels, but not rotted.  Since its a 10ft paint job anyway we'll probably just deal with it as time comes after we shake out all the  mechanics. 

Under-body and frame is in fantastic condition. interior is also in great shape with just a few things that are easily repaired.  But to be honest, we aren't planning on this being a show condition car...but a road trip fun driver.

Thanks stev-o for the advice.  I got to experience a cold start, and let it warm up and idle till good and hot then start/stop a few times.  Then took on a nice hot day drive through the gears and started and stopped randomly through process.  Engine purrs and no tranny slip experienced.....

Will provide more pics once it gets shipped back to Indiana and we do the requisite tune up and shake down.

I'm sure not everyone will like it....but its Roses car and shes freaking ecstatic about it.  So happy wife is all I could ask for....and as her mechanic I get to tweak it and drive it too 

Cheers, Joe

Well done. That is my absolute favorite F body car. It looks like a jet fighter, especially with the Ram Air hood.

[CBJoe]

Cool thing is along with the X-Pipe Exhaust System it has early Oversized Ram Air D-port manifolds Installed  https://www.ramairrestoration.com/rm-2-os-ram-air-style-factory-headers-oversized.html

I crawled around underneath and found the Part Numbers on them.  They look too new to be originals, so I assume they are the ones linked above.

[dave500]

yeah keep a qjet on it,i like em i have one on mine.

[CBJoe]

yeah keep a qjet on it,i like em i have one on mine.

Thats the plan dave....The rebuilt carb I ordered is the correct model for this year.  Hoping to have it in hand midweek...driving us crazy that we took it down 24 hours after bringing home 

[dave500]

yeah the spreadbore qjets are great,no gaskets below fuel level!once sorted you never have to touch them,a coupla back fires through a holley ruins the power valve diaphram,pulling the bowl ya gotta have a big rag to soak the fuel spew,i havent touched mine in years,its had a coupla little modifications,air bleeds,secondry opening rate etc,mines an early 68 pre smog with the sideways fuel inlet,adjustable idle screws etc,youll love it once set up correctly,stateside cliff ruggles is your man,ive bought parts for these from him and kits cheaper than i can get here,bit of a forgotten carb people "just put a holley on it"or its injected.

[Bailgang]

Just curious but what cyl heads does it have? There should be a casting number on top of the 2 center exhaust ports.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

I hope your Quadrajetted 400 gets better fuel mileage than my 67 GTO did - 6mpg, 2 rebuilds until I replaced it with a single pumper Holley 600cfm. 12mpg. The biggest problem I had was tires 

[CBJoe]

Just curious but what cyl heads does it have? There should be a casting number on top of the 2 center exhaust ports.

4x heads with 3H Secondary Stamp

[CBJoe]

yeah the spreadbore qjets are great,no gaskets below fuel level!once sorted you never have to touch them,a coupla back fires through a holley ruins the power valve diaphram,pulling the bowl ya gotta have a big rag to soak the fuel spew,i havent touched mine in years,its had a coupla little modifications,air bleeds,secondry opening rate etc,mines an early 68 pre smog with the sideways fuel inlet,adjustable idle screws etc,youll love it once set up correctly,stateside cliff ruggles is your man,ive bought parts for these from him and kits cheaper than i can get here,bit of a forgotten carb people "just put a holley on it"or its injected.

I'm still learning quadrajets...but where is your choke plate on the primaries?  Does your model work different?

[CBJoe]

I hope your Quadrajetted 400 gets better fuel mileage than my 67 GTO did - 6mpg, 2 rebuilds until I replaced it with a single pumper Holley 600cfm. 12mpg. The biggest problem I had was tires 

Stock its supposed to get around 11 or 12mpg.....we actually got 14-15mpg on our first road trip with the oddball buick carb in there.  But I dont think the secondaries were operating correctly.

Curious to see once we get the rebuilt one...its the correct model for the year.  1973 Pontiac Rochester Quadrajet 7043266 Carburetor

[Stev-o]

Fuel mileage can vary greatly depending on how you drive. Vintage sports cars are bought for economy!

[mrbreeze]

My old Chevelle got 10mpg. City or highway....didn't matter. That's a 375hp 396 with stock Q-jet. 11.5 to 1 compression. Had to have premium but hell....when I had that car premium was only 56 cents a gallon!

[my name is nobody]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=splitter+1970+trans+am+quarter+mile   


A little something extra
It aint an LS either,... Butler makes REAL Pontiacs that make REAL H.P.
the car featured is a road course/drag car.

[dave500]

mine has the choke plate and fast idle mechansim removed,one or two pumps when cold it starts right up,idles nice after couple of minutes.

[ofreen]

Personally, I've always been intrigued by the first gen SOHC 6 cylinder Firebirds.

My brother has a '68 Firebird Sprint.  He swapped out the six and automatic for a 400 and 4 speed he had on hand.  Ebay was his friend on that project.  He knows how rare the Sprint is, so he kept everything so the car can be changed back if that ever seems prudent.  Highly doubt that will ever happen.  He kept the Sprint badges on it and once in a while runs into someone who knows what it is.

[CBJoe]

Personally, I've always been intrigued by the first gen SOHC 6 cylinder Firebirds.

My brother has a '68 Firebird Sprint.  He swapped out the six and automatic for a 400 and 4 speed he had on hand.  Ebay was his friend on that project.  He knows how rare the Sprint is, so he kept everything so the car can be changed back if that ever seems prudent.  Highly doubt that will ever happen.  He kept the Sprint badges on it and once in a while runs into someone who knows what it is.

I was surprised to see how heavy of a following the esprit's have...I think its esprit...always struck me as a strange name

[scottly]

The Sprint was 1st gen with the SOHC 6 and the four barrel carb option, and the Esprit was a 2nd gen, although I have no idea what the option package was. I believe there may have also been a Lotus Esprit?? Also, there was a Ford Falcon Sprint that had a 260 V-8 in '63 1/2 that shared a lot with the '64 1/2 Mustang.

[Bailgang]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=splitter+1970+trans+am+quarter+mile   


A little something extra
It aint an LS either,... Butler makes REAL Pontiacs that make REAL H.P.
the car featured is a road course/drag car.

If you haven't already heard of him you no doubt will at some point as you dig deeper into Pontiacs. It's been so long since I played with Pontiacs that I'm not sure if he's around anymore but he was legend for his ability to squeeze the most out of factory components. I remember him being in the low 12's (in a station wagon no less) with a cast iron intake and Q-jet on top. http://www.pontiacstreetperformance.com/psp/rebuild455jh99.html

[my name is nobody]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=splitter+1970+trans+am+quarter+mile   


A little something extra
It aint an LS either,... Butler makes REAL Pontiacs that make REAL H.P.
the car featured is a road course/drag car.

If you haven't already heard of him you no doubt will at some point as you dig deeper into Pontiacs. It's been so long since I played with Pontiacs that I'm not sure if he's around anymore but he was legend for his ability to squeeze the most out of factory components. I remember him being in the low 12's (in a station wagon no less) with a cast iron intake and Q-jet on top. http://www.pontiacstreetperformance.com/psp/rebuild455jh99.html

I met him and saw his car in person at a car show in Kansas City. Very generous with information, must've talked for over an hour. Circa 1987. And you're correct, that wagon ran all pontiac parts. 041 cam and #96 heads off a 71 400, mated to a 455 block. High 11s when I talked to him iirc, Wagon came out of a salvage yard in Texas(?) he had pics of it when they found it. Super cool

[Bailgang]

I met him and saw his car in person at a car show in Kansas City. Very generous with information, must've talked for over an hour. Circa 1987. And you're correct, that wagon ran all pontiac parts. 041 cam and #96 heads off a 71 400, mated to a 455 block. High 11s when I talked to him iirc, Wagon came out of a salvage yard in Texas(?) he had pics of it when they found it. Super cool

I never met him face to face but corresponded via email with him a few times. He used to frustrate the pro engines builders on the Pontiac site I went to. They would always say to someone "you need this or that go-fast part" and Jim would say "no you don't".

[Don R]

 I'm doing full quarters and most other sheet metal. The RA long branch manifolds look like they will fit the new frame with the centered engine better than my headers. I'm doing the race car at the same time, garage is a mess.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/doiAgwT78bFL7bou5

[my name is nobody]

By the way joe, nice find. those of that year/era were beautiful. The curves make me wonder what was on the minds of the stylists .....absolutely gorgeous.