Turbo Build?

I have a turbo 301 motor in the garage with the harness and comp. When I bought my 80 Formula it was sitting in the back seat minus heads intake and exhaust manifolds. The research I did on the 301 is that its lighter 452lbs as opposed to the 640-675lbs of the bigger 350-455 engines. It also has a slightly bigger bore then a 350 (4 inch instead of 3.875), and a short stroke of only 3 inches as opposed to the 3.75 of the 350 and 400. Turbo blocks also got forged pistons, extra nickle content, and thicker mains. To me me it sounds like the 301 would have the potential to be a high reving, light weight power plant. So in short, I was thinking rebuild it, with 8 or 9 to 1 forged pistons, not sure which rods to use, arp hardware, balance and blue print it, high volume oil pump, double roller timing chain, Edelbrock aluminum heads, Edelbrock dual plane intake, roller rockers, and then do a blow through setup using the original turbo q jet rejetted, and get the Garret TB 305 rebuilt and run between 9-12 psi. There are only couple things I cant figure out. I cant find turbo Pontiac headers, am I stuck with 301 manifolds? Is a carb hat the best way to do it? Can I retain the computer and distributor? Considering exhaust flow characteristics do I need to run a y pipe that way there is as much resistance on the side without the turbo? Im not sure on how much power it will put out, but Desktop Dyno was saying around 350 or 400Hp. The way I see it a 301 with aluminum parts would be light as hell and with a good turbo it should make some nice power. Has anyone tried this before and how did it work out? Is it worth making it spin like crazy to make up for the lack of brutal torque?  

Sounds good on paper however none of the Edelbrock aluminum heads and intakes made for pontiacs will fit on your 301. The 301 has a much shorter deck height. Check out the related posts on this site and you will see other problems bas well. If you can find a set of the original 301 stock turbo heads and turbo 301 intake its probably your only option to get it running.  

301 pontiac engines will not live long at all at high RPm's with some good machine work and hard ware it should be good to 5000RPM max.  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

From what I was told the heads would bolt up, but the problem was the intake wouldn't be wide enough. So I was thinking metal spacers for the runners similar to the ones used to put big block Ford intakes on Cadillac 500s here's a link
http://www.pricemotorsport.com/html/body_ap-23__intake_adapter_kit.html

The crank now is the only internal that has me worried, I am going to do more research, and speak to my machinist. I'm thinking cut down a 350 or 400 crank, but then finding rods will be difficult. The 301 is a derivative of the 303 experimental race engine, so I will see what I can find on that too.

By the way I built a 72 Pontiac 350 and put it in the car a few years ago. I had some extra cash and wanted to try and build something no one has ever built before.  

If you have a set of 350-455 heads then yes they will bolt in place but still will not work because the water jackets will not match up either and then theres a problem of getting a intake to work onit the 301 intake wont work because the ports are different and the 350-455 intake wont work because it is to wide.  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

You have to remember that the 301 only shared basic dimensions with the 303, the entire engine was redesigned to be as light as possible with weak main webs and a dinky crank with nearly no counterweights. It was designed for fuel economy, which it was not great at either. Despite the bore and stroke numbers that would make it look like Pontiac's answer to the 302 Chevy Z28 or 5.0L Ford, the siamesed ports and tiny runners have no rpm potential and traditional heads/intakes don't fit.
The 301 manifold is too narrow and has siamesed intake ports which won't line up with any of the traditional heads even with adapter plates.
There was an article a while back about a gen 4 TA with a 301 based engine, but it was so far from the original 301 that it was basically a one-off pro built number with a welded sheet metal manifold and a monstrous amount of money spent. Unless you are willing to do the same, accept the 301 for what it was intended to be: a grocery getter, even the turbo was a desperate grab for power that wasn't there.
Steve  
A little help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

The idea was to use traditional heads, and then use a traditional intake and create an adapter to go between the intake and head to fill the gap caused by the shorter deck height. Plus mine is a turbo block which received higher nickle content so the mains shouldn't be as weak.  

Ok when you say traditional heads and intake I asume you are talking about the 350-455 heads and intake if so then you will not have a gap because the intake is much wider and there is still the problem of the water jacket holes lining up.  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

Thats exactly what i was thinking, Up until now I thought the water jackets were the same. Thats kind of killed the whole idea of the build.  

Yep the water jackets aren't even close.
The best thing you can do for the 301 is install a comp cams .425 lift cam kit and a new timing set and a set of roller rockers from harland sharp.  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

HELLO,  yes the pontiac 301turbo was a one of kind. I have 1 in a 81 turbo *** mine is just a cruser, I had a 76 TA with a 455 built to SD specs and 4speed..that car was a a torque monster..but over reved it and busted cam in half. Back to the point you cant make a 3 leg dog run, with the 400cid's . well..my 76 formula had aa 400 but only 7.6 compression..and and 6x heads. to me it was a dog. also had a 78 firebird with 305 chevy motor wasnt fast but you could kill it. I suppose if you want torque and power i'd go with bigger motor since the 301 is the bastard step child..lol. even with tubro..good luck amigo just tosing my 2 cents in peace Dmann  

After re-reading my earlier post, I realize that I mis-worded the line about the intake manifold. What I meant was, if you could install traditional heads, the traditional intake manifolds will be too wide to fit between the heads and the siamesed ports on the 301 manifold wont line up with the traditional heads.
As the deck height is lowered, as in a 301 compared to a 350/400/455, the distance between the heads gets smaller. Just like a 302 Ford and a 351 Windsor, the 351 has a taller deck height on the same engine design and therefore the intake is wider and won't interchange, even though the heads can be swapped.
I know what you are referring to when you talk of adapter plates, Big Block Chevy builders have used plates to make commonly available aluminum manifolds fit on tall-deck truck block (427 from dump trucks, 5-tons etc.) for years. The tall deck block allows use of big stroker cranks and hi-po heads bolt right on. Ford builders also use them on 351 Windsor blocks that have been modified to use 351 Cleveland heads (known as a Cle-vor motor), plates allowed use of Windsor manifolds until recently when a proper manifold became available.
The problem for 301 motors is that you can't use plates to make a wide traditional manifold fit because the manifold is already too wide.
Afew years back I read an article online about a guy who literally spent thousands of dollars on a 301 turbo TA to get it into the 13's. He had a custom ground roller cam, roller rockers, extrude honed heads/intake/exhaust manifolds, Holley carb, big exhaust, different turbo, different torque converter and rear gears. For half the *** he could have been in the 12's with a 400. What did he gain? His 301 car was as far from stock as possible and it still wasn't quick enough to be respectable for what he spent. A 301 turbo should be accepted for what it was intended to be, a step up from a 301 4bbl when Pontiac had nothing better to offer. If it had been viable, why did Pontiac drop it in favor of a 305 4bbl SBC in the 3rd gen cars?
Steve  
A little help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

Pontiac did not drop the 301 for the chevy 305. In 1982 pontiacs new 301 design did well over 200 horses, does not seem like much but the 82 corvette wasn't even 200 horses and the corvette being the untouchable car with its rep couldn't be undermined by the firebird. GM knew this couldn't happen a motor within smog regulations? and outran the vette NO WAY. With no other motor design for back up, thats when they called the ball. Sales were at there lowest for pontiac and the next turbo motor wasn't going to make it under the hood. GM thought they were taking a step in the right direction. Bad economy and gas crisis in the late 70's earlier 80's no car manufacturer could make a descent motor for the paying customer, they all had to make drastic cuts. In 80-81 people were not ready for a turbo v8 firebird, that sounded like a sin back in the day. In 81 the 301 had more horses and torque then the 305 and better mpg. Do people really think pontiac had a choice to drop its 400 for the 301 and then to be insulted with a 305 chevy motor. I want every one who reads this to go investigate this, there is some sort of weird politics that happened back in the day with pontiac,chevy and GM. Everyone always looked to pontiac for power and no one liked the 301 but there was nothing else. this was just a good excuse to drop pontiac powerplants. Someone please name a car manufacturer in 80 and 81 that had a high performance motor? I'm sick of people doggin the 301 this is all they had to work with for v8 powerplant and the 305 wasn't any better. Now if pontiac could have stayed on the same track with there own motors, turbos, ram air systems there could have been a better pontiac today or should I say pontiac at all.  

I believe you are correct, the switch from true Pontiac V8 power to corporate power was driven by politics, emissions and financial reasons. The 400 was cut from California in 77 because it couldn't make the smog cut, that's why the 403 was offered. Buick experience the same prejudice when they turbo'd the GN and the Vette couldn't keep up...bye bye black sedan. Look where all this has gotten GM.
Steve  
A little help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

It was and still is determined by the almighty dollar,or as the bean counters say the bottom line(profit margins)We all are for various reasons are turning wrenches on our own cars be it for performance or maintinence(bottom line)It is what it is.