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I am the new lucky owner of a completely worn out Trans am. I say lucky because I have looked on Statewidelist nearly every night for the last two years to find a complete original S.E. in my price range. After negotiating for two months, the guy brings me the car to my home, in South Georgia, from North Carolina. Its a non-running 403. In fact, someone had robbed the alternator,starter, belts, and distributor from the car. The front left fender looks like someone beat it with a bat. The interior had the deluxe vinyl. No cruise, electric locks, or defogger. Someone just drove it until it quit. It is a very low optioned car for a y84. But I am a fan of roll-up glass. I am anxious to find out if the engine is buildable. I will post pictures soon.
I am going to start pulling the engine this weekend. For some reason I am having some second thoughts on rebuilding the original engine. I have always considered the factory 403 as being very durable but I am considering building a 400 horse motor using my Pontiac engine. Does anyone have any opinions on my options. I will probably never sale this car.
Good to see another 79 being saved, especially an SE. I have 3 79 TA's myself, all 403 cars. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get that 403 going. One of my 403's was very rusty looking, but I cleaned the top end up and got it running. I made one mistake though. I didn't want to pull the engine from the car, so I didn't pull the oil pan. I ran several oil changes through it before driving it and figured that would clean it out. And it ran fine for a while but after a couple months, something in the pan clogged the oil pump screen and I lost oil pressure running 70 mph on the interstate, so it's got to be torn down now. So, my recommendation is to pull the pan and make sure it's cleaned out and the oil pump and screen are good if you try to run it as it is. Made any progress yet?