Good from far, but far from good!

[RyanM326]

No I agree, with both paragraphs. I've heard little bad stuff about the pontiac 350 and what bad stuff i did hear were from chevy lovers(I like them too, just not as much). And of course cause everyone has one. My friends (5 of us being in our early 20's) all have muscle cars and 4 of them have late 70 T/A's. Mines behind on the power curve of being built cause I wear combat boots for a living. I'm the odd ball I guess but in the end I don't have to worry about the heckling. But I do have the smallest engine. If I heard right, correct me if I'm wrong, that the pontiac 350 is one of the better 350's made, almost compatible to the 400 besides bore size? And great lbs per ft for torque? I was thinking about upgrades to the cam (comp cam thumper maybe) but I read some where that the "poncho" 350 wasn't made to be upgraded like that. I already had a mechanic put on an edelbrock intake, holly 4 barrel, and of course new air filter mostly because it needed a new carb bad (needs a lot of new things bad). Oh...and one more thing, did the 70's take leaded fuel because i have to add substitute to mine, my father told me i would need to, so I'm thinking he changed up the valve's? I guess i shouldn't be worrying about the power plant yet, but i got my hands on an old summit mag. and i'm like a little kid with a jcpenny catalog at Christmas time with a pen and nothing but dreams. And of course it's my motivation while in the box. Someday I'll be able to get more hands on with it..and i can't wait.

[BlkBird]

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.

[RyanM326]

Oh I agree, like is said I like looking, and there was an article i noticed about someone who hit the magic 500hp with the 350(W/O nitrous). I'll have to see if I can find it again. I'm not to worried about dropping more CI under the hood yet. All I can do now is use my time home wisely and strip her down and work one piece at a time...I bet the frame is pretty rough now that i think about it. I've got 14 years until i can retire from the army so I'll probably get 4-6 months at a time with it. I have to tell my dad I'm taking over his garage then Judo chop him in the eyeball for messing up the body that bad the first time he did the work. I get motivated by peoples stories of their projects so It's going to get done, I just wish i didn't get sent over here as much.

[BlkBird]

It will get done in time. I know patients is sometimes hard to come by....boy do I know that one, lol. And yeah, I wish you guys did'nt get sent over there so often either. Im new here but there are tons of beautiful cars to draw inspiration from (sadly not mine yet, lol).

[70rs]

Hello and welcome to the site! I want to say thanks to you for your service too. Please be safe and come home soon.
I am also a second gen owner (but it's a Camaro) and there are a ton of great parts out there for our cars. Good luck with it!