Hi, I bought my daughter a 1982 Trans Am “project” (5.0 liter – carbureted) car and this part was in the front seat. It looks to me like it’s some sort of air intake part but I don’t see anything obviously missing from the air intake system under the hood soooo… Can somebody tell me if this is a part off of my daughter’s Trans Am? Thanks

 

Looks to me thats its a ford truck or van air cleaner(well part of it).

 

It does not look like a Firebird or Camaro part to me.

Here is my rule of thumb.
If the car starts fine, drives fine and seems to pretty much oddity free, and you have some spare parts left over from the previous owner, then I would just set them asside incase a problem presents themself.

The other option is to call the previous owner and ask.
Sometimes they may have left something in the car by mistake.

 

That is defintely an air intake from some newer vehicle. Not an '82 Trans Am part.

 

looks like a intake and mass are sensor. prob. got replaced by a cold air kit and got thrown in the TA. Not a TA part.

 

They are right, that's not for your '82 car.

Does it run ok so far?

 

Does it run ok? Well, it might - I hope it does but I bought the car for $100 (that's right $100!) the lady I bought it from knew nothing about the car or it's history really just that she wanted it gone. A quick check under the hood showed a missing radiator and negative battery cable (no battery either). I talked to a guy that knew a little more about it after I bought it and he told me it needed a transmission.

I did mention it was a project right?

After all I bought the car for my teenage daughter - yes, everybody thinks I'm crazy buying a red Trans Am for a teenager. Anyway, I do think after getting her hands all greasy and banging her knuckles up and getting tranny fluid in her hair she will be much less likely to take her car for granted and I'd much rather have her in a good solid f-body than one of those new front wheel drive jelly bean cars.

So, back to the extra, not Trans Am, part - I asked because we're having the car towed to a shop where I'm going to have them first compression test the engine, to make sure it's even worth working on, then do all the little nit picky things like rebuild the carburetor, replace all hoses and belts, hook up vacuum lines, make sure the wiring is hooked up right and so on. But I wanted to make sure that I wasn't tossing out some vital piece when I throw that thing out before the tow truck loads the car up.

Thanks for the responses.

 

I agree 100%!!!!!

Wish we were closer to each other, I have a complete '82 running gear (including a rebuilt tranny w/40k miles on it) available. I picked up the car in Martinez, but it's in Colorado now.