looking to buy 79 trans am, but engine troubles

iowaboy

iowaboy

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Hey everyone, first time here.

I have been looking for a trans am for a while now and thought i have found a really good deal. its a clean 79 automatic but the owner claims that it does not have the olds 403 but really has the pontiac 400.

not stock. holly intake, holly 650 carb, headers, everything else he says is stock.

anyways idles great sounds like its got a nice big cam in it( owner doesnt know). but when you give it gas it seems to fall on its face and misfires around 2000rpm.

I was thinking timing right away, but maybe ignition system? has not been driving it, almost one year, could it simply be bad gas?

owner says carb rebuilt last year. also rebuilt one of the cylider heads because of low compression. why rebuild one i have no idea.

Would just like some input on what could be causing this. Im still considering the car knowing that i may need to replace or rebuild the engine.
 
Having old gas could be the whole issue. Beyond that it could be ignition it could be the carburetor wasnt correctly adjusted. Make sure you leave room in the negotiations that cover any repair work you may have to perform. You can readily tell the difference on an Olds vs. Pontiac. The Olds has a large oil filler tube on the front and the Pontiac fills through a cap on the valve cover. Good luck.
 
Thanks, what is the possibility that it has a mismatched cam or something in the valve train? im sure it has the pontiac engine.

I guess there is no real way to know what could be causing the troubles. I think im going to take the risk and buy it.

Reason i dont already own it is we could not get togeather on the price. I am going to let him sit on it for a few more days then i might break down and meet him in the middle.
 
Mismatched cam wouldnt cause misfire.
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Thanks for the input I'll let you know if I decide to get the car and post some pictures of it.

Hope to have it by the weekend.
 
Well i got it. and putting gas in fresh gas in it was a huge help. also had a buddy help me tweak the carb. It was way to rich and just flooding itself out. vacuumed leaves and other crud out of the secondarys ( no air filter yet.) sprayed some carb and choke clean down it and adjusted the timing... wow i could not believe that I own this beautiful car.

I will put a picture up soon
 
picture.php
 
Haha sorry I forgot to mention that it has the front clip of a '72 . Well I love! it I know it may be a Frankenstein and some people may not like that.
 
It looks great just wanted to make sure you knew something wasnt right
 
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