Why is it you don't see that many Poncho V8s in cars as you do Chevys and Fords, especially when the trans choice offers th350/400's and Powerglides? The ones I have seen in drag cars and the like make good power and torque, so are they rare or expensive to tune or something.
Mine wasn't, swap meet buy, a can of paint, a couple new carbs, then I built a car around it! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Like Jalopy Joker said. Interchange can be a problem along with some design quirks that can cause problems such as overheating. Not insurmountable but a problem regardless. Not a Pontiac hater, 428 equipped O/T car at home.
Pontiac was always different. Back in the 40s they used a different frame. When they offered the V8s the cars price would go up with a V8. Chevy was the cheaper car for a long time but eventually made its way passed the price of a Pontiac. Chevy V8s were known for reliability so Pontiac did not sell them real well until the 80s. There are several factors but price was a big one.
Pontiacs are a great choice I have never owned anything else except for dd cars lately. You can get just as much power from a pontiac as any other make but it will cost you if you want to. Chevy parts are much cheaper and easier to get and most of the good pontiac stuff is in demand for the restoration guys that will pay big bucks for it. The aftermarket has stepped up and now you can get everything from blocks to heads if you want it
interchange issue would be intakes, bellhousing bolt patterns, water pumps, basic year brake down 55-60/ 61-64/ 64-? I like messing around with the early 59-60 389 stuff good engines that can make a ton of streetable power and still have the vintage appeal
Pontiacs interchange pretty well all the blocks and heads will interchange within year brackets 65-79. Is the easiest. All the blocks are the same external dimensions from 326-455. And any BOP trans will work
Any BOP trans will work from 64 (possibly) and up....not before that without starter issues (61-63) and complete adapter setups for 55-60.
Pontiac from '34 through '54 could be had with a six or an eight, both inline L-head engines. There actually was an early V8, descended fron Oakland and used in '32 only. 26-31 and 33 were sixes only.
Here in Canada....early Pontiacs had staggered bolt valve covers that fit Chev motors. I'm gunna run a set of them on my '55 Chev 265! Cheater!
Oh I forgot about the $800 adapter I had to buy to screw anything remotely reliable behind the '60 389 in my A, worth every penny! Justin B what do you know about cams for the 59 - 60 389? Mine still is building power when the valves float at 4200, then of course in takes a nose dive. thinking about a roller and new springs this winter!
Because of the constant media fawning over the ease of making a Chevy run faster/cheaper. The herd mentality of the said media (Super Chevy/Chevy Power) bombarding the market with how to articles coming out of the wazoo. I put 455 Olds and Buick BB in OT CHEVY trucks and made rippers out of them for $200.00 each! Ponchos make beautiful looking motors that run fine. There is a make over T-bucket on the HAMB that would look killer w/a 389 dropped between the rails.
most people do not how to make them run , they try to use a chevy thinking and slow them up or make them perform poorly , chevys heads are designed different , they use a as cast chamber were a Pontiac is 100% machined and has some weird quirks in them like undercuts for low speed valve flow to get rid of stagnant spots in the chambers ,different valve cut angles ( the biggest screw up when a person ports heads is to change them to chevy specs ) , and the 135* exhaust port for frame clearance ( which kind of hinders the exhaust flow but can be made to help it ) . as for cost , a little more than chevy . as for parts availability , more aftermarket stuff available now than 20 years ago . can get anything from blocks to cranks to manifolds . 20 years ago we were lucky to find a aftermarket crank ( Kelloge) that didn't cost $2-4000 and when you did you had to still cut it . I remember cutting Fe valves to fit a 400 because of a high lift cam and need the length ,now I call Manley or Ferrea and order them . and the mistake people do today is they try to make it run using chevy thinking and fail . Pontiacs are low RPM High torque, High port velocity motors .( we used to call them gasoline powered diesels because of the low speed torque ) . chevys you have to wind up to make the power . and most of its theroretical ( HP is a mathmatical equation of Watt "the rate of work done" , torque is real ) and I love the BS that a stock rod or crank will not go past 5200 rpms , when I raced super stock we were required to run stock cast rodsand factory cast cranks and often pulled 7200-7500 in the traps , you have to know how to prep them ( I ran out the back door during one race and clipped 8200 without hurting anything ) . most of the 400 Pontiacs in NHRA superstock pulled that Rpm for years before aftermarket rods were allowed . been playing and racing with the Chiefs motors since 1984 , and Pontiacs real death date was 1980 when they closed the foundry .
IIRc Pontiac v-8's engines stayed this side of the line for many years and those north of the Border got Chevys ( chassis and motors combinations ) instead of True Pontiac lowers . ( weren't they called Arcadians instead of Pontiac?? because of a legal issue with your Native peoples )
Not all use belly button engines ! 40 ponti coupe has a 63 super duty 389 and the 2/ 4 barrel engine is a 400 bored to 421 Gary
I had a 400 engine from a GTO in my 39 deluxe Ford years ago, and loved it. I always had GTO's and when building this coupe used an engine from one of them in the car. I had a ram air IV cam and nothing else done, excep a mild port and polish job on the heads, and matched the intake ports to the head. This was a total street driven can that would run a quarter mile in the low 14's on street tires. It got fairly good milage, and was super dependable
Until you've sat behind a well tuned Pontiac engine and had the opportunity to really stick your foot into it, you're not going to ever get "it" about Pontiac engines.
The Jalopy Journal
