Howdy from Kansas!

My name is Terry Williams, my friends call me T-bone or just "T".  I'm 43 years old, a new dad, and an admitted motorhead.  Mostly, I'm into vintage Motorcycles, but I always have a hot rod car or truck project as well.  Most of my life, I've been a hardcore Chevy fan, but I've had a few Fords too.  I still have my '49 Ford F-1.  The flathead finally went South on me, so I'm gonna do a small block conversion on it.

Anyway, I recently picked up a 1968 Pontiac Firebird hardtop.  The first gen Camaros and Firebirds have always been one of my all-time favorites, so I'm stoked!  The car is complete, very solid, runs and drives but is tired, just needs a new interior, mechanicals gone through and a re-paint, at least for my needs.  I live out in the country on 16 acre horse ranch with a lot of gravel roads, so I build them as drivers because you can't own a beauty queen out here.

So, it was originally a 350/auto but now it has a bone stock '74 400 with a TH400.  I'm not concerned about originality.  In addition, I have an Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake for a 400 and a pair of '69 GTO 62 heads completely reconditioned from a 400.  

Since the arrival of my son, my budget is pretty tight.  My last car was a '57 Chevy 350/350 with World iron heads, a pretty aggressive cam (don't know the figures but layed it down from about 3,000 to 6,000 rpm), a 3000 stall converter with a stock 370 posi-rear end.  I didn't build that car but I would guess it would run low 14's or high 13's based upon some races I had with some C5 and C6 Corvettes out here on the country roads.  I'm looking for at least that kind of performance out of the firebird.

My biggest question is, I've heard from a couple of sources in my hot rod circle here that I can run those 62 heads on the 400 with 93 Octane with the Edelbrock intake and a carefully selected cam.  A couple of guys say that's exactly what they are running right now and swear by it.  Yet, I've read on the internet that I'll have to get dished pistons?  Again, I have a super tight budget and am looking forward to the challenge of building a nice hot street poncho on the cheap.  I'd really like to use what I already have.  I was hoping to get by with just a cam purchase for now, but if the block needs to be bored, then I can change pistons if need be to compensate for C.R.  I have a Holly 750 carb on the shelf and do plan on running a 2500 to 3000 stall.

Oh, and when my Dad and Mom first married, my Dad went out and bought a '66 GTO brand new.  I was one year old.  He talks so fondly of that old Pontiac (389?).  His best friend, my Godfather, bought a '67 with the 400 and they both had 4 speeds and used to race the living **** out of them down at the old drag strip by the river.  My dad said the '67 would get out of the hole ahead by a fender and they would stay that way. He could never run it down.

Glad to finally be a part of the Pontiac community.

T

Sorry so winded.  

Well I accidentally deleted my account and had to re-sign up!  Damn computers!  I clicked on the wrong link.  Anyway, this is my new account, notice no dash in Tbone.

Looking forward to any opinions, suggestions, etc.  I just mainly want to know if anyone is running 62 or like heads on a 400 with flattop pistons and pump gas, and if so, how they are doing it.  If not, then I'll go a different route.

T  

Flat tops with #62 heads will give you a 10:1 cr that is  to much for a pump gas pontiac engine.you should never exceed 9.5:1cr on  pontiac engines being ran on pump gas and using iron heads.