headers and carb.-80 bird 301 nonturbo

Hello all you pontiac fans!Some questions about my newly bought '80 formula.
  It has the original 301ci. non turbo with well under 100,000 miles on it.This is documented with repair records.I do need to do some minor repairs ,though. The carb needs a rebuild and the exhaust manifold needs help. It has the "A.I.R." system on it and I would like to remove it and put regular headers in place.Is this feasible? I'm not looking for a power-house car,but I do like the sound!For the time(until there's more milage on the car)I would like to dress it up a bit.I also wanted to change the quadrajet over from the "hot-air" choke to either electric or manuel.Once again, not looking to get high-output from this kiddie-car engine,just want to put it into some nice clothes and drive it on weekends.
   
     Any advice is much appreciated.  

you can get a set of Hooker headers $500 for the 301 and Edelbrock makes a nice carb ( I think it is model 1404) for $250.

The question is do you want to put the money into arguably the worst motor Pontiac made.  You could just enjoy the car as is and save your cash for cursing - but its your car.  

You may have a hard time finding headers specifically for a 301 and ones designed for 350/400/455 may hang too low due to the lower deck height of the 301 unless you can find a "shorty" design. True duals with the stock manifolds will give you a nice sound too without the hassles. Why would you want to change the choke setup? When they are setup properly the "hot air" choke works as well or better than the later electric ones because it operates directly in relation to the engine temp. You can remove the hot air coil housing from your carb and install the housing and coil from an electric choke carb, they interchange pretty easily. Manual chokes are for old farm trucks and look "bush league" on a nice car. A good degrease and pressure wash will do wonders for an old engine as well as cleaning wires and hoses with laquer thinner. Of course a fresh coat of Pontiac light blue engine paint and some chrome valve covers and air cleaner can help too, the same covers on a 400 will fit a 301 too.
Steve  
Trying to help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

If you use chrome valve covers be sure and paint the oil cap blue, the car won't run unless it's blue.  

firechicken80:
Hello all you pontiac fans!Some questions about my newly bought '80 formula.
  It has the original 301ci. non turbo with well under 100,000 miles on it.This is documented with repair records.I do need to do some minor repairs ,though. The carb needs a rebuild and the exhaust manifold needs help. It has the "A.I.R." system on it and I would like to remove it and put regular headers in place.Is this feasible? I'm not looking for a power-house car,but I do like the sound!For the time(until there's more milage on the car)I would like to dress it up a bit.I also wanted to change the quadrajet over from the "hot-air" choke to either electric or manuel.Once again, not looking to get high-output from this kiddie-car engine,just want to put it into some nice clothes and drive it on weekends.
   
     Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks people for the advice.That was really quick responce.
 I'm a little baffled.What would "removing the hot air coil housing and replacing it with a housing and coil from an electric choke" do? The engine "stumbles" and wants to stall-out on easy acceleration untill I let off the gas, then I can
passively go through the intersetion!As I said earlier, I think it needs some help.(possibly the accelerator pump?)I also would like to get rid of the "snorkle" air breather for a nice, shiny, sparkley chrome breather, like the "show boys" have!I just figgered I had to do away with the hot air choke.
  Thanks a million!  

Please excuse our rather condesending replys on your post, they are legitimate questions and should be treated as such. I think we have all had experiences with Pontiac 301's and except for a guru or two who knows how to build them up, they are basically useless engines. The first thing I would do is remove it and put in a 400.
The '80 and '81 301's are all supervised by a computer master. It was the first year that Pontiac started using computers and sensors - and they did not have it worked out yet.
Headers will do nothing for your car, and there is no reason to mess with a working choke. I don't even have one on any of my Trans Am's ('78 through '81). In Houston there is a law that that any 25 year old car or older does not have to have emmission testing, so anything having to do with the EGR system is long gone - especially that A.I.R. system that drags the little bit of horse power down even further.

If you want Shiney stuff on the engine, every piece of chrome will say "HI! my name is oil." No offense, but the chrome stuff is only useful for show.  

Joe:  You mentioned a computer for the 80 Trans AM 301. I just put a 400 in mine and if it has a computer, I cannot find it. Did they all have them or was it introduced during the model year?  

Beats the hell out of me. There is a computer plugin test hole approxamatly (sp)above your left knee, and the computer is directly under the radio where there was originally a slot for....things.  Other than that, the 400 doesn't have anything to do with the computer. If the computer cancer is not hiding there in front of the shifter, then I may be totally wrong about the '80 having a computer. Actually it may be that the computers were only in the turbo Trans Am's, don't know really. All I remember is cutting all the wires off of it, holding it in the air and proclaiming "I have removed the evil brain."

Either way, it has nothing to do with your 400.  

Guys, as far as I have seen, it was a turbo 301 deal and only on American cars, the Canadian turbo cars didn't have the computer (at least in 1980) that I've seen. Same with later 3rd gen carburated cars, from what I've read the US cars with LG4 305's had Computer Command Control (CCC) but I've never seen one on a Canadian f-body. It's easy to tell if the original engine has it, look for wires and solenoids to the q-jet and no vacuum advance on the distributor.
Steve  
Trying to help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

ditto.  

Thanks for the info on "the Evil Brain"  I was pretty sure the car didn't have one and I knew I didn't need it for the 400.  I just wanted to make sure it wasn't lurking under the dash somewhere.  

The durn thing would even play a little beep tune just to annoy me. It looked like a radio under the radio.  

Hello folks.
      Something that might clear this up (or maybe not).I have the options list in front of me,and it mentions an "L37 4.9 liter (301)4BBL v-8 engine   no charge" then on the next line"w72 4.9 liter E/C (301)4bbl v-8 engine"    211.85.  I'm assuming this was a paid option for the "electronic-control" engine.Would this have been to do with the ignition?For some reason, the h/p is listed a little above (very little) over the L37 engine.Other than E/C= electronic control, I can,t find anything about it.Not that this is a big to-do,I'll probably be opting for the 400 engine anyway.                                  
           
      thanks.
    Karl  

Karl, the W72 is the turbo motor, L37 is the naturally aspirated 301 4bbl. E/C was a computer controlled HEI distributor and Q-jet carb.
Steve  
Trying to help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

I've been trying to remember if my other '81 TA had the computer, it was a 4 speed with a 305 engine. I only had it for a short time before it was stolen, but I seem to recall being able to adjust things without any computer involved. Maybe it was just a turbo thing. Anyway it was a major headache that evidently had to have some "E-Prom Chip" to make it run better.