Hi everyone,
I am 14 years old and have had my drivers permit for almost 6 months(August 27th I can get my liscense). And of course (why else would I be here LOL), since Saturday I am now the Proud owner of a 1989 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350. 104,000 miles. It has a bad tranny and a worn out motor with a bad MAF sensor. Motor will run, but pretty rough.

I bought this car for $250. Ya you heard me right, $250.

I was looking on craigslist for a Camaro/Firebird and I came upon this car. He had all of these performance parts for the motor to make it a "383 Stroker" for sale along with the car. He also had some "Vinyl Racing Seats" and some "American Racing" rims. He said in the ad that the motor and tranny need to be Rebuilt/Replaced. He wanted $3500.

So of course I get all excited and send him an email asking him if he would sell just the car without all of the performance parts, etc. He said he would, for $700. I was going to buy it, but I got in trouble for "Picking" on my little brother so I couldn’t, I just stopped emailing him.

So about a week later, I checked my email and I got a reply back from him. You will never guess what it said.

Exact words.

You can have it for $250.

Thats all.

HOLY COW!!!!! I went nuts lol.

So now of course for $250 we can not turn this down lol, so I told him I would take it.

We picked it up last Saturday.

I drove it into the shop two days ago (it will go forward, sometimes it will go backwards LOL) to see if it had an electric speedometer and to measure the driveshaft (for the manual transmission swap). When I was all done, and ready to move it out, it was stuck in park. It would not shift no matter what I did. So I jacked it back up and pulled the tranny oil pan off. It was full of needle bearing rollers and fine steel grindings. Yay. So I dug out the Chiltons manual and started removing bolts to get the tranny out. It is all ready to be pulled out now, just have to remove the Bellhousing to engine bolts (I already loosened them) and lower the tranny.

My dad has an old 1974 Chevy ¾ ton 4WD sprayer pickup with a good 350 engine and a bad TH-350 tranny. So I am planning on using that complete engine in the firebird. I will probably use the old Quadrajet carburetor that is on it.

Since I am going to be using a carb instead of TPI, I am going to need lower PSI fuel pump. The motor that is in it now has a plate on the block covering the place where the mechanical fuel pump would go, but the oil cooler lines are in the way.
Can I just remove the oil cooler altogether so I will have room for the fuel pump, or will it overheat, etc.?

I will keep updating this as I work on the car.
　
Thanks,
Ryan

 

Hello and welcome to TGO. You sure got lucky on that price. If you haven't yet check the floor pans for rust, check them. Bad floor pans will cause big problems if they're not fixed promptly. You'll also want to get subframe connectors, especially with a 350.
You should be able to keep your stock fuel pump, you'll just need to get a regulator from a carb car or an adjustable regulator. If you have oil cooler lines then keep them, they're there for a reason.
Goodluck
Alex

 

Ya while I was creepin' around under the car I noticed there is quite a bit of rust-through on the drivers floor pan, thats all. There is also a little bit of rust behind the left rear wheel. I will get both of them fixed.

Thanks for the reply,
Ryan

 

I will also get some pictures of it on here.

 

I'm sorry to say but any rust through is really quite bad on these cars. In order to fix it properly you'll need a full length LH floor pan (about $250) and then you'll have to have someone weld it in. Expect about $600 total. You'll also need to find out why water is getting in there, look at the condition of your door and cowl seals.
Good luck
Alex

 

Well I got the tranny out a few days ago. Hopefully my dad and I will take it apart today. Instead of buying a complete floor pan, I just used a Sawzall and cut out all of the rusty areas, then made a template out of cardboard, then traced it onto some steel (a little bit thicker than the original), and cut it out with a torch. I painted it, and will get it installed today.

Oh ya and on the car both side mirrors are busted, and so are both center window switches, so If anyone has a some contact me.

Thanks,
Ryan

Oh and one more thing. When you push the electric lock button, the doors do not lock. The motor will go (clunk) or whatever sound that is lol, but they do not lock. Is this a common problem?

 

Since you aren't going with a full patch you REALLY need subframe connectors. If not on hard acceleration or a sharp turn the body will actually twist.

For the mirror's and window switches go to thirdgenranch.com and they should have the parts. For the locks, try spraying the latches with a grease of some sort. Things could be gummed up or your actuator is getting weak. In which case you'd have to replace it.
Alex

 

I found my Trim sheet yesterday, it was in underneath the rear carpet in the big "hole" far back in the car. I attatched a scan of it.

 

yes its a common problem in any vehicle with automatic locks. either a linkage piece is worn broken or not connected or the motor gear that connects to the linkage is stripped. you have to remove the door panel to get to em.

 

Ya I got both of them fixed, the doors were bent/warped so the actuator for the locks pushed up at an angle, not engaging the lock all the way. I just bent the doors back lol, they work great.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Sounds like a great project, now lets see some pictures! Also, why not stay fuel injected?

 

Here are the pictures the previous owner took of it when he was selling it, the only difference is it no longer has NOS and it has the original pontiac rims.

http://s652.photobucket.com/albums/uu243/thunder-lips/

I am not going to stay fuel injected because it has a bad MAF sensor and It will be cheaper and simpler to go with a carb.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Nice car, if I were you I'd stay FI. You can get a MAF for $50. I'd think carb and intake would be more than that.
Good Luck
Alex

PS: Just re-read your OP. If your car has 104k on it then that l98 still has plenty of life in it unless the PO really beat the sh*t out of it. I'd seriously just replace the MAF, you'll be spending way less and still have 240hp to throw around. You lucky SOB.

 

BTW, you'll probably lose HP on that 75 350, those mid 70's motors really sucked.

 

Yeah, stay fuel injected. Better gas mileage too. Looks like you got a killer deal bro.

Formula's are the way to go. I have a Formula 350 myself!

 

Haven't had an update for a while, so here it goes.

Here are my final plans.

I am going to for sure use the engine/carb setup from the '74 pickup because I dont want to mess with fuel injection having problems in the future. I also have bought a complete T5 swap kit from an 84 Trans am for the Firebird. I am in need of an 85-92 5 speed shift plate(if anyone has one PM me!)

For now I will not be getting sub frame connectors either, I will might get them later if I think they are nescesary.

We never did dissasemble the auto tranny, we just bought the T5 instead.

We also got both window switches and the mirror part.

The previous owner did really beat on it, (thats why the tranny went out, it did have NOS lol) the motor is pretty much worn out. I started it up the other day (just to hear the roar lol) and it smelled terrible (burning oil). My dad also said he could smell it when he was following us with the pickup when we drove it home.

We are finally done with harvest, so Last weekend I unbolted/removed all of the brackets, bolts etc. to get the motor from the 74 chevy pickup ready to pull out. We pulled it out today. My dad said we are probably going to rebuild it.

Are the oil pans different between the 4wd pickup and my Firebird (other than the 1 pc/2 pc RMS)?

The floor was rusted through because my T-tops leak(grrrr!).

Attached is a picture of me and my motor (it was quite sunny!).



Thanks,
Ryan

 

I Agree with keeping it fuel injected. Its not really all the complicated and there are enough guys on this forum who know everything there is to know about tpi. also that l98 with the tpi is one tourqy motor You would really enjoy it.

If I where You I would pull the l98 rebuild it put some headers, for sure some sfcs. and call it a day.

but what ever your choice is good luck and have fun

 

i don't mean to sound like a redundant jerk...... but you really really really really REALLY need subframe connectors if you had floor pan hole, it has t-tops and your putting a hipo motor in. you'll get stress cracks in the sail panel which will have to be drilled and welded and you'll twist the unibody and have to get the subframe straightened (NOT cheap). sfc's are only 150-200, fixing the damage is 1k easy.

on the motor, i had a 74 nova with the best 350 you could get in 74 - 165hp. it sucked, and i believe the older truck motors had less hp more torque. if you use it change the heads, bore it, and jack up the compression. i'd still really reccomend using the l98, tpi isn't really complicated, and can easily be modded. i'm planning on switching my 305tbi to tpi and putting an underhood supercharger on it (one thing you can't get with carb)

whatever you do, have fun!