Now a local f-body enthusiast (and buddy) of mine picked up a 1979 Aniversary TA. It is SWEET, and, I am jealous. But it's got a problem - THE THING IS A DOG. The rear end is sick.. 2.56's or something? And let's face it, 185 Horse outta' 403 cubic inches? C'mon man! It makes peak power at 3600rpM!

Yayyyyy GM!

So, we're gonna through some bolt-ons to it to pep it up to a respectable 300(+?) ponies. Since the 403 is original, and of a decent size (muahahaha) we're gonna play with it.

First off, does anyone know the order of major bottlenecks in this puppy, besides everything?.

I was thinking of going with older 350 cylinder heads (if I can find a set) to bump compression (sits at 8.1 - 1 now, i think), a decent 1300-5200 range camshaft from comp.cams, a perormer intake (RPM will not house the shaker), headers, true duals.

Now I know this is alot of $$$, but this car is a keeper, and I know he will spend alot of time on it and have fun with it.

But our first order of business, new gears. We were thinking a 3.23 rear end would complement the t350 tranny and sic amount of low-end pull this thing will [eventually] produce.

Suggestions welcome.
ps: no we're not yanking a 20,000KM 403 for a new 350. =)

Hype
1983 Pontiac TA

 

Since it's an Olds engine, you need to go to the ultimate Olds website. Go to their FAQ page for starters: http://www.inil.com/users/dlbrown/oldsfaq.htm

Here's a page dedicated to the Olds 403. Lots of good tech tips and advice.
http://www.inil.com/users/dlbrown/ofe403.htm#E403 403CIDEngineDetail

Back in 1979, Car Craft took one of those 403 powered T/As and built a killer 403 just to show that it could be done with off-the-shelf performance parts. The 403 WILL respond!

 

Excellent resources... thanks.