What to do¿

Ive just got a 1970 pontiac catalina 400 car complete with 30,000 miles on the motor.Since it was rebuilt ive been the only person who has messed with anything major.I reworked it a few years ago for a lady friend and frequent customer,who more than likely ran it pretty hard.Its recently been totalled out in the side and back. So she got herself a brand new car and has given the catalina to me for 100 bucks.

Heres the deal.I think i want the engine thats in the Catalina,put into my Firebird.A few of my friends think im off,but i want to take my Chevelle motor out of this Firebird,put this 400/400 Pontiac setup in it,and take this SBC and put it in a Monte,where the numbers will match,and restore a classic value.I love my SBC,and im looking at buying and restoring a ratted out 72 monte for my 350 thats in the t/a, wich has always been the original plan.If i can corner this up just right i could have a diamond in the rough 72 monte with a matching numbers motor,and a 80's firebird with a pontiac 400 motor(wich you dont see every day).Why is everybody telling me its a lame idea?Am i missing somthing,cause it seems to me this is like a dream come true.All the guys at the shop dont think i should do it.

I dont know what to do now.Im stuck i just dont know.Its not like i have some amazing amount of options,but still im unsure what my next move will be.My 350SBC is faster and punchier than the 400 big block.But my 350 is all cammed up with a 4 barrel.The 400 pontiac only has a 2 barrel,and the rpm range of the cam is below 5k in the 400.And the 400 is in a 70 catalina body,wich looks to have a few pounds on the t/a.I would hate to slow myself down,wich realistically is what i would be doing,but if i make the change,What kind of superiority would a flowed out pontiac 400 have on a flowed out 350?what to do¿

I think the pontiac motor(if it was cammed up more)has my 350 beat,but im not sure.if i could confirm its superiority,i would make the changes over night.

hey hot rod , check out some of my threads, my 82 TA, the Heartbreaker has a pontiac has a 75 pontiac 400, 6x heads, 292 lanati cam edlebrock preformer intake, youll need an oil relocation kit,
and the mounts, on the crossmember youll have to
just cut it a little, the driveshaft will be just a lil shorter than your used to, the starter will be on the opposite side, youll have to change those wires, oil sensor wire will have to made longer, itll
fit like it fits better than the 305s &350s, like i say just check out my threads, or go to cardomain
and check out thumprkils HEARTBREAKER 82 TA

www.cardomain.com/memberpage/731856
82 TA THE HEARTBREAKER 400 pontiac

Dude, screw what everyone else says, and go with your gut. I kept tellin everyone my plans for my bird, and they all looked at me like I was nuts (I didn't have my good friends at AF to fall back on at the time). Well, everyone of them has had to admit I was right, cuz I churned out a damn nice ride. So, cliche as it sounds, do what YOU wanna do.

I say go for it if you have a place to work on em and all the tools necessary. :grinyes:

The 400 has monster torque...if its flowed out I think it would at least be able to keep up with the sbc motor. I have a gut feeling that the 400 would pull away from the midrange on though. If it were me and i had the time and equipment, I would definitely go with the swap.

besides what better to put in a pontiac, than a pontiac engine

you know that voice in your head.. "do it.. do it... do it.." that voice isnt stupid.. he knows how badass it would be too. I'd do it in a heartbeat..

beside my car hotrod, I havent heard of anyone else doing this,I like the Idea cause it seperates our cars from everyone elses,I think 400s run as good or better than 350

hotrod i pulled up one of my old threads ,you should see it on the firebird main page, besides you responded to one of them

hey thumpr is that car pretty quick wit the 400 in it?how did it fit can i get away with the stock manifolds for a bit,cause its busting my budget just getting a seal kit and custom drive shaft and stuff for it.I already know my new hood is going to have to be cut cause i cant avoid it sticking up higher than the hood line.As you can read ive already said screw what everybody thinks.

Another issue,some of my peers think the 400PO is going to tear up my car cause it has no frame.They are telling me if i cam it up and mill the heads its going to like twist my car in half or somthing lol.Is this a myth or somthing cause i know its holding up pretty well with a halfway decent 350,and with me beating on it with railroad tracks and taking it four wheelin.

Pretty Neet Cars

if i remember right,i can actually get it lined back up at the crossmember..Where is this going to put my torque arm mount.....
i designed my torque arm mount.Its slotted with exactly enough room for the suspension to go all the way up and down but no more,so when i put this 400 trans in it i have to make a whole different one because its going to change the location where the torque arm mount attaches to the transmission,relative to where the bolt holes run through the mount and attach it to the torque arm.

a friend of mine tried to get me to hinge the torque arm off the body under the car when i converted it for 350/350 setup but i told him hell no,cause i thought that my cars belly wasnt strong enough in applicable locations to mount the torque arm too.i figured its first launch off the ground the torque arm would simply break off the body,come through the floor and stab me upon landing again.Maybe not tho,cause when i broke the original torque arm mount the torque arm actually drug the ground ,as well as hit the cars underside.

oh by the way I changed the pontiac(my son) tail shaft out with the orginal style chevy,yes I put the pontiac tranny (tailshaft) off the transmission and the 82 style chevy style tailshaft on the pontiac tranny so the driveshaft would fit, the diveshaft fits up in there just enough, and the speedo gears more correct

when you chage the tails shafts out the toqure bar will go on fine

bracket n all

yep the only other concern is the lightweight fan and its height

this is all good to hear thumprkils.this may take a few months to complete but i plan on doing a basic play by play of the whole project complete with mispelled text,and poor quality photography via the internet to hopefully raise a few eyebrows.I know for a fact that the catalina motor has more than 400 foot pounds of torque at like 3200rpm(lol).The pontiacs lost a lot of balls after 73,but since its a 1970* i may luck out and have a halfway decent set of heads.This might be kinda neat by the time its all said and done.

what about the fan?can i run a high volume electric fan?i already know its going to take fire and a sledgehammer to fit the radiator in it but whatever ya know,all in the name of HP

Im not using a stock torque arm mount tho.I made mine i have a picture of it im my gallery.the four bolts that hold the tailshaft on,are same that bolt on the torque arm mount,instead of having two bolts holding the mount to the tailhousing,my torque arm mount bolts to the actual tranny case,using the four tail housing bolts..

hey i just noticed somthing.Both of my engines are from 1970.Could this catalina have the same engine casting codes as a 70 judge?

well look on the side of the heads, there will be a # like 7j2, or 4x, or 6x, then go back to some of my old threads to find out a lil more, I have 4 full 400s
the first of which I owned I added and edlebrock preformer ,a quadra jet 700,it had 7j2s,and nothing((81 formula) on the road ever gave me any worries, my heartbreaker which i havent finished(heartvalve slow me down)(but tomorrows ram air will certianlly bring my passion back up)yet, has another edlebrock preformer, Qjet,292 lanati cam, 6x, along with the posi low ratio rear end, well you know,thats all you need, the stock intakes are very heavy, so go to the preformer n q jet, it should rock a buncha peoples egos

everybody will keep talking bout flow, follow the reply above, put stock exhausts on and forget it
any more power than what itll put out is really
getting well beyond what needs to be runnig the streets anyway

oops its a 1972 model...

the heads on the catalina say 7j2 on them.It was rated at 200hp.Thats a lot weaker than i had in mind.i found that none of the v-8 pontiacs ever got past 400 hp,except

1962 389SD 385,405HP(62) 540306,544127 2.02/1.76 67

and the strongest they ever put in production it would seem is the

1963 421SD 390,405,410HP 544127,9771980 2.02/1.76 64

whats with that?not even the SD455 had 400hp?

1973 455 290HP(455SD) 16,X(rd port) 2.11/1.77 111cc

is this some sort of a joke?here is my catalina motor

1972 400 200HP 7j2 1.96/1.66 8.4cc 96cc

somthin aint right at all.That catalina will straight up smoke a stock 350 i dont care what the charts are saying.How can such fast cars be so underpowered?