Well the guy who lives down the street from has smokey and the bandit looking Trans am and every time I drive by him he is always revving his engine at me. So the other day I noticed him wrenching on it and I saw my friend over there with him so I decided to stop and say hey. After talking with him for a little bit he started asking me what my car runs and I said I dont know but I have smoked a few Lt1 4th gens. and other misc. cars and hes says IS THAT ALL YOU GOT! and starts talking about how he can smoke anything and all of this stuff and he has a big block and all of this crap. Well anyway he wouldnt tell me what he has done to the motor but its an olds 403 and I can tell he at least has headers and aftermarket duals. So what do these cars run stock and do you think I have a chance. My mods are in my sig. Oh and this is going down in about two weeks after I get my 3.73 gears. Thanks.

 

Oh and another thing I noticed is that the motor looks completely stock. Its painted chevy red and still has the stock valve covers. Hes running a holley carb but on a stock looking cast iron intake. Which leads me to believe the motor is stock internally but after almost 30yrs who knows if a bigger cam has beens slipped in or maybe a port job to the heads. I think I have this one in the bag though. I just want to know how confident I should be and maybe if I should put a small wager on it.

 

Dont get confused with the CUBES.... 6.6s in the late 70s werent great.. They made 200-225 hp and like 310lb of tq. If hes stock you should take him. Becareful tho They run maybe mid 15s to mid 16s stock

 

yeah 6.6 TA's are kinda slow cuz they are from 76 and up. think its called the 400 still from 75 and prior. friend has a 76 400 and it is mildly rebuilt and it runs nice. still not all that fast tho.

be careful tho. just cuz it looks stock doesnt mean it cant run.... i know of a few guys that are running old looking 427's with paint chipped off, stock valve covers and plain looking intake and are pushing some impressive numbers.

tell him to fire it up and listen to it..... you can usually tell how big of a cam he has got, and if it is kinda rough, he got a big stick in there and can probly run decent.

 

427=425hp to 465hp stock

pontiac 400 = 200 to 230 stock

the thing about those engines is that there not super fast but can be made super fast easy.

 

if it is a 79 trans am, it pulls 180 HP, the olds machine isn't that powerful at all.

only the turbo made more hp from 80-81, but was also rated only at 218 hp.

you should take him. his car weighs approximately 3800 lbs

have fun

matt

 

Ive heard it run and it just sounds like he has the exhaust but with a big block and decent compression you can hide a decent sized cam. Or at least one better than stock. One thing I noticed is that its like a 78 and I dont think that the 403 was in the 78,but he swears thats what it is and that his buddy ran the casting numbers before he bought so I guess he is right. I really dont think he is hiding anything because he really just sounds like one of the guys that just thinks that all old muscle cars are fast and that Ls6 Chevelles run 10's because they have big blocks. You know what I mean? He just thinks that becuase his motor has a few extra cubes that his crap dont stink. It is a really nice car though. I think after I think I will run him now for fun and then when I get my gears try to throw $50 on a race. Thanks for the input guys.

 

Yeah if hes anything close to stock you'll murder him.

but like someone said previously, get him to fire it up, and listen to the idle.

 

Stock olds motors are usualy painted blue so He has either had a stock rebuild or he may have some goodies inside.I used to own a 79 with the 403,it was ok but my lb9 auto would have taken it.My 84 l69 did, so...Be careful.

 

WELL I RAN HIM TODAY!!!
Alright well it was raining hard earlier today and I was bummed because my T-tops leak so I parked my camaro. Well by noon today it was all of the sudden hot as hell and the streets were dry. So I went for a little 20 minute cruise down one of the farm roads down in the old Katy area. And I notice when I am pulling out of my nieghboorhood that this black T/A is behind me and coming up hard. So of course its him and he is jumping back and forth at me so I tell him not on these busy streets and to follow me. So I drive down to one of the back roads where there is basically nothing but acres of land with a hose every mile or so. And we run into a four way stop. Now this road is only two lanes but is wide enough to be four. And we sit at this stop sign and talk a little bit about if we will go from a stop or roll yada yada yada. And a Dakota RT pulls up and acts like hes going around us, but instead pulls right up and says "You guys want run those POS's" and I said sure we are going from a dead stop and if my friend doesnt mind Ill give you the move and he says "Ok I was gonna let you have it cuz your gonna need it". Well we line up and as soon as the dakota jumps I jump to and so does the T/A I immediatly move 2 cars ahead of both of them because they are fish tailing. I thought they were going to run into one another. Well the dakota hooks and tries to play catch up but I am long gone and the T/A never really hooks at all. By the time I shut down at 100 I was at least 10 cars ahead of the Dakota. So then we pull into this dairy queen about 10 minutes away from wear we are and talk. Dave(the guy in the T/A) says he just couldnt hook so he stopped after about 60ft and the dakota dude swears if he could hook he would have beat me. he claims to have 350hp because of his ram air, chip, and catback. I was like yeah and i have 450hp then cause I killed you. Anyway it really wasnt any contest and I think dave intentially peeled out so he wouldnt look bad when I beat him. I went back to wear we raced and I would have had to try pretty damn hard to lay down as much rubber as he did it was an easy100ft maybe more I am not good at judging distance.

 

sounds like he needs some new tires and those cost more than 50.00 so maybe he does have internals done sounds like a stroker as that would give him more trq and less hp but thats just a guess.

 

Well I was talking to my friend that knows him aswell today and he says the guy has 4.10 gears. I dont know if thats true but I know he has stock suspension and 4.10's + stock suspension =

 

Nice race regardless man!!

 

I think the Olds engine was 185 hp and 325 ft lbs. I had a '78 in high school with the Pontiac 400 & TH350 - it ran 15.40 @ 90 mph with only headers and sidepipes (it was the early 80's ). Not fast, but enough to get you in trouble - and faster than all my friends.

Those engines don't need big gears, with all of their torque - his 4.10's are probably hurting more than they are helping

Good Kill

 

The Dakota R/T's aren't a joke. I will vouch that they fishtail like nothing though. If he launched right, he'd have kept up decently. I got one, and I know it'll smoke my firebird anyday, but I only have a stock LG4.

245 horses stock, 3.92's with posi rear. But yeah, 350 horses with a chip and exhaust is bull.

 

Back in HS, I had two buddies with late 70's 2nd gen TA's. One was a Pontiac 400, 4spd and the other was a Olds 403, auto. The Pontiac powered TA would rape the Olds powered TA by atleast 10 cars in a 1/4 mile race. That Olds 403 TA was one of the slowest V8 cars I've ever driven. If I had to guess what it would have run in the 1/4, I'd say high 16's- low 17's. Adding 4.10's to a car like that is good for one thing, burnout contests.
As for the Dakota R/T, one of the regulars at my track runs 13.90's-14.0's with very little mods.

 

My buddy that knows the T/A guy used to have a dakota R/T and stock it ran a 15.1 and that was the best we could do after letting three of us drive it and use different launching and shifting stradegies. We spent the hole night at the track because we refused to believe that this thing wouldnt break into the 14's. About a week later I saw that Road and track or one of those car testing magazines ran a 15.5 with one. So ever since then I havent taken them seriously. I also know a guy who runs 13.8's with one but he has done every bolt on imaginable.

 

Yes they are, or at least the owners are. By far, the worst of the auto enthusiast crowd. I'll take some punk 16 year old Honda boy before a Dakota guy any day. Their trucks run low 15s at best, and they prowl the streets all high and mighty. And the new Hemi truck crowd is just a step behind...

 

The bad thing about the 403 trans am is that they come with such bad gearing, They come with 2:41 and 2:73.

You can make them run pretty decent with better gears, up the compression, change th cam and better exhaust. With that you should have a 13 sec ride. This web site shows what you can do

http://www.texastransams.com/article...03_article.htm

 

I agree with this statement 100%. Thats exactly how this guys attitude was. He thought that the damn thing had 350hp just because of a few bolt ons. I dont know what it is that makes them think there trucks are so bad ***. I bet the only thing they are afraid of is the new hemi trucks, LOL.

 

Well, I own a Dakota R/T and most of the guys I've talked to online have been pretty nice. They didn't seem to be all high and mighty. But again, that was online. Up here in Mass, the only ones we have thinking their all high and mighty are Mustang drivers and high end cars, like BMW's and Lexus's. And of course, the ***** crowd is like that everywhere.

I can say though, my truck doesn't feel as fast as I thought it would. Esp on the top end. 55-80 takes forever.

 

Its really just ignorant people in general. You give an idiot a semi-fast car and he thinks his $hit dont stink. Sometimes they drive mustangs, sometimes they drive Dakotas, and alot of times they drive Ls1's, etc. Its all over, but I have just noticed that most dakota drivers are like that around me especially my friend whos truck ran low 15's he still swears to this day that b/c his truck ran low 15's that my car must run 16's. We live in a world full of ingorance.

 

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. But ignorance is bliss right? ;-)