Hey Guys I'm Brett, I am new to this forum, I just bought a 1981 trans am with the 301 turbo, 4 w heel disc brakes, posi rear end, I bought it and it has a blown motor, it through a rod through the oil pan. If I were to change the engine, what all can i change to wi thout major mods? also is it hard to adapt over to a 350 chev small block?? any ideas?? Please help so i'm new to the pontiac scene  

Chexk out this site you can email these guys any questiona nd they will respond to you. They have lots of motors they build. Heres the URL http://www.jbp-pontiac.com/index.html  

Hey Brett, though I hope you won't do it, the Chevy swap is easy enough, just look at any 70-81 Camaro to see what you need. The mounts, brackets, accessories and wiring need to be swapped to make it work, remember the Chevy has all of it's stuff reversed( starter, alternator etc.) and the trans mission bell housing pattern is different too, although your trans may have both bolt patterns, some did. Now if you want to stay with Pontiac power (and who wouldn't?) it will be way easier, any 70 and up 350/400/455 Pontiac will bolt-in using the same mounts, accessories and wiring as your 301,(69 & earlier blocks require adapters for the side brackets), your trans and diff (if in good shape) will work with all of these, but as HP and torque go up I would recommend a th400 trans, just depends on how hard you will drive it. I would seriously consider the Pontiac motors because of the greater torque, your car likely has either 2.56:1 or 3.08:1 rear gears and it will be much more fun to drive with more torque, unless you want to change gears as well. Have fun with your TA, these late 2nd gen cars were the best handlers and many had great options, making for an amazing cruiser.  

Since it's a Turbo *** I'd want to keep as much of the stock stuff you can, because of what the car is.

I'd suggest you try and score a Pontiac 350 to substitute for your 301, that way you can keep the turbo stuff, but have a better motor to take advantage of the turbo. A Poncho 350 with Edelbrock aluminum heads will have your car screaming.  

So will a pontiac 350 bolt right into my car's 301 place, and the turbo will still hook up to the 350?? How so? Whichs cars do i find the pontiac 350 in, or where all can i look to find these motors. let me know, also, I want this to be a quick car, but i am not a hot roder, i'm lookin to get in between 300-425 hp, and good amount of torque so let me know fellas, just lookin to get a nice car out of this whole deal. Thanks. also what motors will be a direct replacement of the 301 so i don't have to modify motor mounts and stuff? where can i get a turbo 400 to bolt right in? I am lookin for somethin as easy as possible HA! thanks  

Brett, a Pontiac 350/400/455 will bolt in on the stock mounts just like your 301, if you use the th350 trans. I don't know about using the 301's turbo on a 350, I suppose it could work, but taking into account the slightly taller deck height of the 350/400, you may have trouble with hood clearance and the exhaust crossover and turbo down pipe may have to be lengthened for the larger motor. To find a 350, look at 70-77 lemans, firebird and GP's, same for 400's and 455's, except you can include full-size Pontiacs in your search. I say 70 and up because these will bolt in using your 301 brackets and frame mounts. If you want to go with a th400 trans, you will need to relocate the trans crossmember farther back and either shorten your driveshaft and change the input yoke or find a shaft and yoke from a firebird that had a th400. For a mild street motor the th350 will work fine. Swapping different sizes of Pontiac V8's is probably the easiest of GM's family, externally they are all nearly identical- try swapping a 454 in place of a 350 Chevy and you will spend a pile of time and money looking for alternator and PS brackets and manifolds that fit, Pontiac made it easy!  

in my 1981 turbo trans am i have a pontiac 1971 non smog 350 pontiac but the wiring is messed up and i have no idea how to wire it all up correctly so if you put one in make sure you do the wiring all right  

I never thought about until now, but your 81 Turbo Ta probably has Computer Command Control. Here in Canada they didn't have it and were the same as the 1980's. The main hookups at the starter and alternator should stay the same and the main power and tach leads at the distributor should be the same. There may be extra plugs for the CCC Q-jet and the distributor, but they can be left unhooked. You will likely have a wire for an O2 sensor that you can hook up or leave off, it won't work any way. Basically make sure anything that was hooked up goes back to the same location on the new motor. You may still have a check engine light on, but just pull the bulb as the computer is bypassed. The only other thing I can think of is cruise control if you have it, may not work, I'm not familiar with whether it was tied to the ECM or not.  

Hi Brett
Barney's right, keep it Pontiac!
Someone suggested a Pontiac 350 (or any other engine, for that matter...) and keep the turbocharger. Its design is unique to the 301's single plane manifold, and its next to impossible to adapt to any other engine, since its not  a "Blowthrough" system
Unless you bought this turbo T/A because of its styling, and you'de like to keep it that way there are many high performance parts available for it now.
I personally like to keep it simple, and naturally aspirated is the way, I'd throw in a 400, a hood and shaker.  

Because of the different heads on the 301 and the lower deck height on the 301 the intake manifold is a different size than the other pontiac V/8's. It has been a while since i've been into pontiacs but Nunzi use to have an intake identical to the 301 only the correct size to be able to bolt on any pontiac V/8. All of the same items bolt right on, Turbo, carb, carb spacer plate, knock sensor, egr, boost sensors, etc.. Nunzi tested his intake on a 400 and i remember he got over 400 rearwheel hp. If i remember correctly it pushed the turbo t/a thru the 1/4 at around a high 13 second to a low 14 second time. I don't remember where i read the story at because this was back in the 80's. Maybe with some web searching you can get some more info on the manifold that he use to make. I just sold my 1980 turbo pontiac formula and it was all original including the paint. The only thing that i did to it to make it perform better is remove the cat, install a jet stage 2 quadrajet put a spring on the turbo waste gate for 12 lbs of boost and wow did that ever wake up the car this car ran 14.7 at desoto drag strip. Wish I still owned the car but i sold it 2 years ago. Well hope i was of some help and remember that if you do decide to rebuild the 301 turbo and keep it stock that it will hold it's value alot more in the long run. Oh yea the turbos tend to want new plug wires every couple of years i guess due to the extra heat under the hood, you will know when they need to be replaced because the car will really start to break up and perform poorly. P.S. I currently own a 1976 black t/a with 36,000 original miles on it. But is in bad shape due to being left outside most of it's life.  

Back in 88 I did the swap from a turbo 301 to a 455 in an 81 *** Very simple and straight forward swap. Same transmission, mounts, 4 core rad and shroud. Gutted the computer (harness just unplugs from the vehicle). Cut the exhaust off ahead of factory mufflers and made new lead pipes to attach to mid 70's Firebird Pontiac headers. The cruise is independent(no computer needed). For the accessory brackets, if memory serves correct, it was a combination of 81 301 and 76/77 400 brackets. I added "idiot light sensors" and tied those in to use the old turbo boost lights as warning lamps (catch the eye quicker on the hood). The transmission handled it so well that I sold the car 10 years after the swap with the original still in it. Likewise for the diff.