Sgt Wonderful;89750URL said:
What do you mean "a waste" I think it's a pretty good engine. Mine is anyway.
What he means by a waste of time hopping up a 301 Pontiac is that other than adding the stock 4bbl intake manifold and Carb, Change to the 4bbl cam, and make sure the ignition system is working well, there is not much you can do to the short deck 301 economicly. They shaved about 3/4 of an inch off the head deck of a standard Pontiac V-8, this makes the intake manifold Unique to 301's and the smaller 265 V-8's. Unfortunatly no aftermarket parts are available as it was a short run engine only made from 1977 to 1981, and was never considered to be a performance engine.
I did own a 79 Firebird Formula with a 301 4bbl and 4-speed trans, and I put over 140,000 miles on the engine/trans with only fuel and water pump changes, and normal maint. So they can be a very reliable engines if treated well, but if neglected they have been know to spin rod bearings before 80,000 miles.
The other things you could do to improve the performance of the car, is add a Shift Kit to the T-350 Trans to firm up the shifts, and let the engine rev a little higher before shifting. If that isn't enough you could look into a rear gear swap, this will greatly improve acceleration as you car probably has a 2.42 or 2.56 rear gear ratio. Swapping it out for a 3.08 or 3.23 will gratly improve acceleration, but cost you some MPG. And it is something that I would recommend be done by a Good Local Transmission shop. It will not be cheap as it will cost around $300 for Labor, and $300 to $400 for parts. But don't be surprised if it costs more. If you could fins an axle with those gears already installed you could swap it out yourself if you are handy at all, and save a lot of $$$.
Good Luck with it, I see we are on opposite sides of the same state, and I just bought a 78 Catalina Wagon this week, so we have simalure taste in cars as well.
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