Hi im a young kid and just getting into Trans Am i have a couple question one being what engine is in my car I know its a 305 4bbl carb.I have had many people tell me its not the orginal engine because they didnt make a 4bbl carb in 1987 which i found hard to believe considering the LG-4 was a 4 bbl. If anyone can help tell me if this is the orginal engine or not or how to go about finding out it would be appreciated so anyways heres a pic of it. Im in the process of redueing it. As of now nothing major all it has is a edelbrock air cleaner. Nex things to come are a 570 cfm and fixing all the vaccum hoses.

 

I don't think the LG4 was available in '87. I believe it was replaced with the L03 that year (TBI).
An easy way to find what engine your car originally had is to check the eighth digit in your VIN. Post it up and someone will tell you what engine your car originally had.

 

the lg4 was absolutely available in 87, it wasn't till 88 that the lo3 made it's debute.

 

jcon104, welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

I moved your post and the replies to its own thread, since it wasn't really on-topic where you posted it.

Yes, the Quadrajet 4bbl LG4 was available in 1987. As stated, it was the last year it was available.

Go ahead and fix the vacuum hoses, but changing the carb to something aftermarket is a very bad idea. Won't mount to a stock intake; you need to change the distributor; if automatic transmission you have to add adapters for the TV cable and provide some means for locking up the torque converter clutch. All for no gain and probably a loss of performance, worse gas mileage, and emissions-illegality (don't tell me you don't have emissions inspection or testing in your area/state, it's still illegal). If there is something wrong with your carb, either fix it or replace it with a professionally rebuild q-jet. That will be cheaper than putting an aftermarket carb on.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone so new plan is now to get the carb rebuilt and fix the vaccum hose

 

As for the eighth digit in my vin it is the letter H

 

H = LG4, IIRC.

 

As he stated i also found a website to decode my vin and it did say it orginally had the LG4 heres the website if anyone is interested http://www.fbodydomain.com/VIN/VIN.asp#1987 now my next question is where am i to look on the block of the engine to see if those numbers also tell me it is a LG4
once again thanks for everyones help

 

There should be a number cast in to the block behind the DS head. Also, you should have 416 heads (last three #'s of casting # on heads, remove the valve cover to see it)