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301- small cubic inch, low compression, bad heads, etc... It wasn't built to make alot of HP. The 400 is a pontiac engine. The 400 pontiac is a sweet engine as far as performance goes. 220 HP is not even close to it's potential. 1979 is a smog 400. The 403 is an oldsmobile engine that was never designed for high HP. It can be built to make some decent power, and is a strong engine however.


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82 camaro--original steering wheel, brake/gas pedals, seats--everything else modified
82camaro

 

The 403 has a weak bottom end. A lot of material was removed fromt he main journal webs to save weight. It can only make good power, and still be reliable, if the bottom end is braced substantially. Neither engine made good power because of low compression (about 7.8:1 for the 403) and very poor flow.

 

301 was built for economy and low weight (meaning thin wall casting, two counterweights on crankshaft, and smaller rods). There really isn't much in the aftermarket department to beef it up (that I am aware of). The bottom end is fairly weak, and the top end is restrictive...even with the turbo.

My opinion


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1989 GTA Trans Am
Gunmetal Metallic, T-Tops
L98, 700R4, 3.27

Mustangs are just jealous...and mopars had nothing on the LS6 Chevelles.

 

Totally smog controlled. Factory came out with these as inefficient as humanly possible. A few basic mods/tweaking will realize impressive gains.

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--Steve S--
1984 Trans Am 305 LG4, 5 speed
Daily Driver, Flowmaster 80 Series
Holley 600 cfm & vacuum advance

 

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If you're referring to the turbo 301, that was a nightmare because the carb couldn't provide a stable enough fuel mixture to deal with the turbo. So they made little power realistically, and went boom. There were 2 400's - the ones with the 6x heads went on the trans ams and had a slightly larger cam, while the regular 400 was also used in the grand prix, etc and was an even more inefficient smog motor. Im not sure what heads were on those - they might have been 4x or 6x heads as well. Either way it was the same as everything else from the era (read:ERROR) They had relatively small cams, and as much restrictions as they needed to pass the smog and CAFE laws.
But GOD those cars were gorgeous

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1980 Camaro, '88 Police 350 engine, Headers, full exhaust, completely redone, my baby!
1988 Iroc-Z L98, MSD 6a, Accel coil, K+N's, Airfoil, Coolant Bypass, Flowmaster, Gears, Late model Bose, I like the 80 better