Pontiac's are known for torque. I wont sit here and try and tell you that 350 is the baddest thing around. I have one and I would'nt mind swapping it out but the damn thing runs too good and is too reliable to make it worth pulling. Up 'til recently it always seemed common logic to pull the Pontiac 350's in favor of building the bigger cube motors (and while if you can, that's still probably the best option), but within the last couple years people have been getting creative with these motors and pulling down respectable numbers. I would see if you can find the tech articles on High Performance Pontiac's website or maybe see about back issues of that magazine because they've done some extensive articles on the 350's lately. Like any motor, its all about the combination, so dont just randomly start ordering "cool" stuff, if you're on a budget you want to run something that someone else has worked all the bugs out of! Oh yeah, leaded gas....Im not sure in '73, I believe that was right on the borderline. If you're planning on rebuilding the motor or doing some head work anyway I would'nt really worry about it, its mainly just your valve guides your going to kill. If the motor was ever rebuilt (or had head work) it almost definately was upgraded to bronze valve guides though, that's if it was ever worked on. Im not positive mine was (I think it was though) but I dont run any additives in mine...Im not even sure you can find the additives anymore....I suppose you can, but IMO it would be a PITA to carry around one of those additive bottles with you everytime you put gas in the car.
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