One of my friends has a 1980 Firebird Formula turbo. The engine is a 301 and he is wanting to swap it for a carburated LT1. He is worried that his stock auto tranny and axle will not hold up so I wanted to see what you all thought. Also how hard should this swap be?

 

the first question is, what trans is he running?

The axles should be good as long as he doesn't run on the track every weekend and beat the car at every stop light.

As far as the difficulty of the swap: A carbureted LT1 will bolt in without any mods, except the A/C compressor will hit the engine cradle. A torch and a big hammer will fix that clearnce issue. You are still going to have a wiring dilemma to control the spark from the opti (distributor). Anybody with a wiring diagram and some time can figure this out though.

I personally don't see the benefit of using a carb on top of an LT1. If you already have the FI setup the only hard part is the wiring harness, which you will have to modify anyway.

 

Well the 301 is a piece of garbage and blew up. He doesnt want another engine of that same family. He is not really set on any engine he just wants it to have more power and be more reliable. The current engine in the car is carburated. I am not sure on the tranny, all I know its the stock auto. I am open to reccomendations. If it was up to me the car would be running a 351W.

 

He won't be able to run the auto that came in the car without an adapter plate, it will have a BOP bolt pattern.

Only drawback to not putting the 301 turbo back in, it kills the resale value of the car if he ever wanted to sell it in the future (if it was in really good shape) Buddy of mine has an '80 Turbo T/A with 64k miles and it books for 15k

However, this thread will get locked since it's not 3rd gen related.

 

Tell me if I am mistaken but I heard most pontiac V8's from that timeframe should bolt right up to that tranny. The car is in really good shape, 75,xxx miles, original paint. Paint is in exelent condition other than a couple rust bubbles and the interior I would give a 7 or 8 out of 10.

 

The LT1's are a chevy, the bolt pattern on the 350 turbo's used in the BOP cars are different.

 

A lot of the TH350's in that time period had dual BOP & Chevy bolt patterns.

 

No classic car with ANY rust bubbles can be an 8 on the point scale.

My family and I run a classic car dealership out here in Washington state, and the 301's that have come through here have been frame off restorations with full metal working.

I would never classify these cars as being worth it to keep number matching and stock, they just didn't have the drive train to necessitate keeping it stock. The one with the BBC in it sold for way more, as the 301 is...well...crap.

I say go for custom and keep it, you will not get book value for this thing, if thats a CPI guide its ing you. Classic cars have a street value, along with popularity, no book can ever truly measure that. Line up a 68 camaro and a 301 trans am with the same books and see which one sells.

Sorry for the rant, tell your friend to make his car his own and not worry about value.

 

Where in Washinton are you located, I used to live about 20 min outside of Bremerton. I know he is not really worried about resale value and if you had read my post it said I would rate the interior a 7 or 8 not the outside.

 

I just realized my error with that, and good! because redoing interiors can be right up there with paint and body work cost wise.

We are located in Port Townsend, Wa
I cruise to East Bremerton with my 3rd gen buddies a lot for the import meet, just to give it a little diversity.

 

I am actuall from Belfair but I have been living in Dayton Ohio because I am military. At the moment I am in Iraq.