78TransAm

Hey first post... My dream car has always been a Trans Am Gold Edition (Y88). My one buddy has a 2002 collector edition and has really gotten me back into the Trans Am trend.

Now only a little over 1000 of these bad boys were made in the 4 speed standard transmission, so getting a hold of one wont be very easy... not without a little drive. The engine in the 78 Trans Am is a 6.6 liter (400 CID) W72 engine, which I believe puts out 220hp. Im told these engines have very high torque. I have done some research and I seem to have two options.. thats where i need some opinions from you guys.

Option 1: Buy one that hasnt been driven very much with low mileage. (I have seen one with around 20,000 miles sell for about 25k) so I can spend between 20 and 25k and get one that hasnt been beaten on too badly. Or...

Option 2: Buy one that has very high mileage (200,000+) and spend a lot less money (about $5,000).. but spend more money restoring it. Im talkin new engine... the works.


My opinion: What I was thinking of doing and will be more fun was... buying one where the engine is worthless for about 5k than dropping a new engine into it. I was thinking an LS1 or maybe an LS2.... either way im going to build this machine for racing so I am planning on doing a lot of engine work on it.

It just seems to me that i would be getting more for the money by buying a high mileage one and spending the 15-20k I saved on a new engine plus upgrades/mods. The only thing that is keeping my mind set on the low mileage one is the high ammount of torque im told the 6.6 puts out.

Enough talking on my part, and your prolly tired of reading at this point so tell me what u think i should do... and a rough estimate of how much $$ were talkin here.



Thanks
~78

Blackhawk777

IMO I'd find a beater and do a swap. If you go the LSX route, you'll need a new K member, the engine and tranny, and a computer harness unless you convert to a carb setup. I'd say on top of the price of the car itself, add about $9-$12k on engine and driveline parts, and the mods needed to make it all work.

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

There was a thread in here a few months ago about a similar swap, but it was into a Bandit car. I searched and searched, but couldn't find it. The owner of the car was showing a step-by-step of the car being picked up after a restoration, and then the beginning stages of the LSx swap. Hopefully the original thread starter will see this and respond.

joelvette

iTrader: (11)

you do not need a new subframe (not k-member) theres plenty of people putting ls type engines in 2nd gen f-bodies. you will find a whole lot more info by just moving these questions up to the conversions and hybrids section. i'm putting a 6.0L in a 73 formula. if youy're really serious about this i can give you more websites that have additional info, but ls1tech here has some of the best and most info available. joel

FH212

iTrader: (4)

What kind of racing are you planning to do? These cars are too rare to butcher up! But then again I might be to partial.Heres mine:

rocketrider93

you can get a booring old tired second gen trans am anywhere for $2000. the 6.6 after about 72 started to dye off in horse power. yeah the later models only had about 225-250 horses and had a lot of torque. if you are not restricted by smog laws you could strip all the restrictive stuff off of there. the basic block is similar to the older ones so you could make it more powerful. i have a 1970 bird with a 400 and the only reason i am keeping the 400 in it is because it is already rebuilt and set up for the car. as soon as that thing blows up i am going with an ls1 and t56. the 400 is nice but gets 12-15 miles per gallon on the best day and when it is modifed it is somewhat competitive with a stock ls1. check out what 76ls1bird did. i believe the guy referenced earlier with the bandit car is ls1bandit. do a search for their names and you will find their posts. you don't have to go that extreme though a simple engine swap keeping your own frame and other stuff is cool too. if you couldn't tell already if i were you i would just find a good clean body for a couple grand and start over and build it how you want to. then you have the car you want. it will mean more to you and you will get to know your car inside and out. do the ls1 swap better gas mileage (almost double) much better reliability, save some weight up front and with some kits it will transfer weight more rearward and give you better balance. even when i get my car done with the 400 i would probably never trust it to drive it more than a few hundred miles on a trip. if you put an ls1 in it you would have the reliability to know you could go wherever you wanted in it. and if you wanted to mod the engine the ls1 has so much more available for it than the old pontiacs do.

Dan

iTrader: (1)

Nice car, I know someone that has the same car, He bought it new, lucky dog..

EchoMirage

iTrader: (3)

I have a 78 Trans Am, solar gold, just like in the pic above. However, it's not a gold edition, and not WS6. If you want the looks of it, and plan on gutting the hell out of it, then by all means do NOT buy a well kept or restored gold edition. They made around 100k trans ams in 78. Buy a beater, strip/modify however you want, and paint it gold. Put the pinstrips on it if you want. I do strongly dissagree with rocketrider93, however. There is NOTHING wrong with a good, strong 70s vintage pure Pontiac V8. Stock, the W72 was 220hp. But if you're going to turn it into a racecar, it doesn't matter. You will find there are just as many, if not more, go fast parts for a carbed V8 as there are a LSx. If it will be a racecar, as you said, then mileage doesn't matter. And any 400 can be built to run circles around a stock or mildely worked LSx. As far as reliability goes.....again, racecar doesn't matter. But don't forget that while you might not get 200k+ miles as a daily driver out of a 70s vintage TA, these motors are in essence very simple and easy to work/maintain. Parts are available at any parts store in the country, and nearly everything is easy enough to do yourself. A spark plug/wire swap in the 400 might take you all of 10 mintues. The LSx, you're looking at an hour plus, provided you can get to the rear passenger side at all without a lift. True, a new motor in a vintage car is different, but there's just something about driving an old fashioned, loud, 4 barreled beast around.

timberman00

iTrader: (1)

Wow! Nice... I had a black '78. I miss that car.

TA Dave

I couldn't agree more!

I have a 77 TA, with a pump gas 455 at full weight, full int, ect that runs 10.90's NA and into the 9's on the bottle.

It runs on 93 all day, and never overheats. I can pull and replace all the spark plugs in less than 5 minutes, even with double checking the gap.

I like the idea of an LS1- 6 speed conversion, but there is no reason to do it just for performance only.

30thanniv

iTrader: (2)

TA Dave tell me about your pump gas 455 that goes 10.90's.
Cam,compression, heads etc

Captainofiron

iTrader: (1)

Yea, I have to agree with TA Dave, stick with the Poncho 400, its alot easier to make more power with the Poncho, Now I know I am going to get hammered for saying that on here, but its true, you can get more reliability and more hi tech stuff with the LSx, but there is no substitution for the sound and torque of a Pontiac V-8

TA Dave

30th, at the risk of going off topic...

Its a .060 over 455, 254/262 .630 solid cam, 87 cc E-heads from Butler, 850 carb, 2" hooker headers, 3" exhaust with an X pipe and oval mufflers and tailpipes.

It's got 3.42 gears in the 10 bolt, turbo 350 with an off the shelf TCI super street figher converter. Full int, stereo, sub's, ect.

It's gone 10.90's in the heat at Bradenton NA, exactly the same way I drive it on the street. With 3.73 - 3.90's and a better converter I think it would run 10.50's. Right now the converter is too loose on the big end, going thru the traps with 16% slippage.

30thanniv

iTrader: (2)

Yeah wouldn't want to go off-topic...but hey it may help the original poster with his build up.
My 2nd gen runs a 455 30 over with 87 cc heads that are ported out. I run a torker 2 and a holley 830. I run hooker super comp headers and 3 inch exhaust.
I run a comp cams xr288hr. So far with the 342's out back best I can do is 12.07 at 113 mph on pump gas.
My short times are terrible, 1.7-1.9. My suspension is set up more for handling then anything else and I run BFG DR's.
I have a buddy who has gone 11.50's with same combo and slicks.

Speedy

At this point I wouldn't want to cut up a perfectly good original car. You can buy a nice car, remove the original engine and install a race engine. That way when it comes time to sell you can just drop the original engine back in. BTW, you can make a 78 400 kick *** if you mill the heads .03, and the rest of the usual mods. But certainly an LS2 would be the best choice.

rocketrider93

i never meant to say that the 400 was a lousy motor. it has been a great motor for me so far. i love how easy it is to work on and i can have the thing torn apart within an hour. my car has a lot of ***** and was my daily driver for years but i never had to drive more than 50 miles per day. for some reason mine loved to eat timing chains. i am not saying that the 400 can't be built to match an ls1 as far as power at all. you have to agree that pontiac stuff is way more expensive than chevy v 8 stuff. there are a lot of benefits to an ls1 swap though. weight, fuel mileage, reliability, just to name a few. in the end it is a matter of preferance. yes i love the sound of a big loapy v 8 but even more i hate to be able to watch my gas guage move toward "e"

toecutter_tx

Another option is an olds 455.

69TA

iTrader: (263)

Hey 78,

I have a 77 DKM Macho TA for sale. It's originally from AZ or NM now in NY. White with the gold accent, hardtop 4 speed car. I am keeping my RA IV motor and trans so selling as a roller. Started going Protouring with the car so there is a lot more than meets the eye.

LMK, if you are interested and we can talk more and I can take some pics.

Thanks,
Kevin