index

---NEW SET UP---
1983 Pontiac Trans Am
1973 Pontiac 455 bored .060 over
1968 #62 casting heads
TRW forged pistons
850 Holley carb
ported Edlebrock performer RPM
P-18 296/304 Ultradyne cam
1.6 roller rockers
TH-350 (broken right now)
ATI street fighter tq converter
STOCK 7.5 GM open rearend 3.73
Soon to be a BMR tq ARM (if it will clear exhaust)
3" dual Exhaust w/ twister mufflers
90/10 lakewood front shocks 50/50 backs
Best 1/8 mile N/A
Best 1/4 mile N/A

Heres the story:

About 1996 I started working as a helper at Dock's Paint and Body. A dirty little shop in Smithfield TX. I helped Rodney (Dock's son) clean up around the shop. Rodney really couldn't pay me any cash, but he said he would help be build a street car. Of couse since I loved street racing and had a old 77 chevy pick up, and wanted another car to go racing with this was perfect.

I had met Rodney through friends of mine I raced with. He had been street racing and building street cars for years. I myself at the time had no idea there really was a diffrence in GM makes besides the bodys since 90% of everything I had seen or worked on had a chevy engine in it. Rodney clued me in real quick about Pontiacs, Dock clued me in about Olds engines.

First car I bought to slap the 455 in was a beat up old 74 camaro. never happened.

then sometime I bought a 83 trans am stock with a 305. I just drove the crap out if and thought it would be a good idea someday to put the 455 in there. but kept from doing that since it would be around 11.5:1 compression. So I decided I could build a cheap little sbc and a have fun for now. so I build a .060 327 because I wanted to race my friend Mark's 89 tuneport camaro. so I built the 327 over a weekend with a comp nitrous cam, a Weiand dual plane intake, and set swap meet headers and some other parts I picked up cheap. I had spent some time porting a set of 305 heads to put on the 327. I ended up

painting everything black from the intake to the oil pan. I put the stock air cleaner on everything. I had told mark and my friend Buddy that it was the stock 305 with headers and a holley, or some stupid shit like that. hidden under the carb and through wire loom and everything else was the 150hp Nitrous Express system. Mark didn't seem like he wanted to play. but my friend Buddy has a Chevy II that had a SBC 400 in it that ran pretty good for a nothing engine. I ran him from a roll and beat his car. After the run I told them the truth about the engine. he was relived I would say.

One day racing a new friends T-type in 100+ Texas heat on pump gas, I melted the top of the ring land and the piston hit the head. The 327 had seen it's last race from me. I was sick of it anyway, it never was quick enough for me. I wanted the 455 in the car so I jerked the 327 out and traded it to Rodney for another 455 he had that droped a valve and had sunktop pistons. I went to work, started porting the heads. I got the block sleaved ect.

While getting everything ready I had been driving a 85 carmaro. It had a stock rebuild 305 and it ran ok I guess for a POS. Anyway some jackass ran into the car while it was parked and killed the side of it. Rodneys brother Johnny had a 85 Trans am I could have if I pulled the engine out and put it in his wrecker. So I did. Not a bad car. So while pulling the 305 out of the camaro I had the bright idea that I should put on the ported 305 heads I had and swap in the nitrous cam. The camaro was a 5-speed and I went ahead and swaped in all the 5-speed stuff into the 85 TA since it was 3.08 gear.

Well for what I had in the car it ran damn good. Still didn't run that great because it had a nitrous cam. I think at the 1/8th mile it ran something like a 10.08 on engine and with a 100 shot it ran a 8.25. Fun car, but my 83 still just sat there. I really wanted to do something with it. I just wanted to drive the car. Anyway I ended up racing a LS1 trans am with the little red 305 car and boooooooom the clutch decided it wanted to exit stage left. It came up though the hood, shattered the bell housing, screwed up the hood and the firewall.

So it was time to do something. I was still gathering parts for the the 455 and getting the tranny build, and getting the heads finished up. I went and put the MIGHTY305 now so named and a th350 I got from out of my uncles Nova into the 83. Still running the stock 3.23 gears and a small 2600 stall I had from running the 327 I got the car togeather over a weekend. taged it inspected and and went racing. I wanted to run my friends T-type again. He had been down for awhile, and it never seemed that we were running at the same time. Anyway I ran my friends s-10 blazer with a 400 in it so did the T-type. We both beat him about the same. I told him lets run damnit!! we lined up the guy flaged up off and he sat there. He claimed he was still "spooling the turbo" after the race. I'm backing up and trying to get the tranny in low and the guy flags us off again so I look like I was sleeping for a week before I took off. Anyway I said Screw it I the tranny was getting weak anyway and I have everything to build the 455 now. It WAS TIME.

I finished buying what I needed while I was doing the build, the last few odds and ends. I test fit the 9.5:1 455 in to the car about 12 times. I set it in on 78 301 lemans engine mounts. I made sure the engine was level, and square and back as far as it would go. Me and Rodney worked on getting the engien in the car for about 12 hours. We stabbed it tranny and all. After the engine was in palce I tacked the mounts to the frame. and pulled the engine once more. I then drilled the holes and broke the tack welds and bolted them in. Next we worked on headers. Rodney had like 6 sets to choose from that fit every kinda Pontiac body you could think of. The last set we tried to fit was my $5 swap meet hooker headers for a 70-81 Firebird. they seemed to fit if we massage the fire wall some. so after beating the piss out of the firewall they fit. The next problem I had was the oil filter adapter was right in the way of the A-arm. so we trimed it down and plated it in. It clears with a angled adapter and a small 401 Olds oil filter.

So with the engine in I cranked it up with no pipes on it, took it on the back of the wrecker to Texas Raceway and blew a 7.82 right out of the box. So pumped I had the 455 in the car I never relized that it wasn't hitting 3rd gear it was holding in 2nd and just reving in 3rd. I made a few more passes all the same 7.82, 7.82 like it was governed. After I figured out it was hitting 6000 rpm in the 1/8th at the traps with 3.23 gears and 26" tall tires I thought something is wrong here.

I got it back to the shop pulled the tranny and gave it to my friend John Hodges. He and his dad pulled it apart and told me that my uncles tranny guy had screwed me. I didn't doubt that since the guy said "Pontiacs can't run".
They told me he hadn't put a shift kit in it, the clutches were screwed and that he had never even pulled the valve body. Well they did there stuff to it and I got the ATI converter out of Davids (John's dad) TA. I put the rebuilt Th350 in and went to the track again. This time I'm not sure what happened. I ended up breaking a piston. I'm not sure if it was detonation or what, but it was the one new piston in the block, and the cylinder I had the sleave put in. Not sure if the machine shop didn't bore it for forged pistons or if the new piston had the top cut out to much. Anyway it was time to build the flat top 455, I didn't care if it was 11.5:1 or what I wanted to race.

So I build the first "OLD COMBO". All the times you see on this site are the old combo. After a while the 744 cam went flat, lost the back lobe. I had a race I was going to run with a late 70's early 80's Malibu. A put up or shut up kinda race. I had raced him with the old combo, in a real quick race. Ran from a stop. Honk the horn kinda thing, I was running on Drag Radials, had gotten beat by a friends fast ass late modle firebird that night because I couldn't hook. I heated the tires and we took off. He jumped a little let off and then got back into. His car was quick but since he backed off at the begining I stayed right in front. SO we need to run. We were going to run the next weekend or something like that. I swaped to a set of 28" tall tires since the last ones got burned up to the nylon (the reason I was on Drag radials the one night). I took it to the track and slowed down to 7.8's from the 7.5's I had been running. Another thing it was poping I didn't figure that out till later. I guessed the slow down was because the 3.23's and 28" tires. I swaped in a 3.73 rearend a friend had given me. I started to test some on the street next to the shop and the popping became worse and then it started to miss. I pulled the valve covers and the vlave was not moving but a tiny amount. Ahha the damn cam is flat!

So I swap in the Ultradyne in the "NEW COMBO". Now I'm ready to run the Bu. I had put the race off because of the flat cam. I head out to the race spot, not knowing if he would show up since he thought I was down. I end up not seeing him and run a few cars for giggles a nice 73 formula and a late model TA, beat them both. It was time to head out and I hit the gas leaving and the tranny goes from 1st to nothing to 3rd. I had to let out to get it 3rd.

The car has been sitting that way for a while now. I have drove it to work a few times and such. But it really sucks to drive that way. The last time I drove it, a late model chevy truck wants to run, Me being dumb and can't hold back told him to go. I smashed the gas the tranny pulled down into 2nd and the tires held. I flew past him like he was sitting still. Then I hear clang clang boom. I have no idea what this was till the morning. The plastic fins on the alt I was running exploded. Now I have a nice dent in my hood. So I guess its time to start working on it. I think I will be glassing the front end since I need new fenders and hood anyway. The plan is to get the spag replaced in the tranny again and put the blue clutches in this time instead of the reds, and go with Kolene steels too.

I have also Had a Baby since I last raced it. So the budget has became tight. I'll just keep pluging away till it's done. The same way I have since 96.