I had a good friend in high school who had a '63 Tempest, burgundy over black interior, with the "326" CID engine and an auto trans. That was a peppy little car and we cruised around the fast food joints and dances in it for a couple of years. Good times and memories.
I bought a used 1963 Tempest from a neighbor in 1970 with only 19,000 miles in it. It had a two-speed automatic, and I loved it. It got great mileage on the road. I averaged 20 mpg on a trip to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. I had it for six years and traded it in on a new Toyota Corolla. I wish that I still had it!
My grandfather had a 1967 Firebird 326 H.O. (high output) convertible with a floor mounted 3 speed manual transmission. We had a lot of fun with that car.
As I own a 1969 Camaro with essentially the same set up as your GPappy'2 Firebird, these particular cars I felt were best suited for a small block engine. Now with Pontiac it didn't matter because it was the same block bored differently. Great car.
Pontiac along with Oldsmobile and Pontiac and Buick all gave us some iconic engines. They all excelled in producing some great running small and big blocks. Pontiac always had such beautiful and upscale interiors and designs versus their competitors in the GM family.
I have a 1966 Pontiac Lemans with a 326ci and m20 4 speed, have to say that I enjoy this setup very much. Congrats for all of your videos, very interesting and informative.
She has a 3.23 posi which makes it no rocket but a nice cruiser with enough humf to be fun. My 326 ci has a mild cam, a Quadrajet and a dual exhaust all of which give it a little more punch and a nice rumble. Overall, she has a pleasant personality.
I’ve got one of these 63 tempest lemans with the 336. It was my mom’s first car. It’s not currently running. Definitely a unique car. Unibody with rear transmission and 4 wheel independent suspension. My dad also had has his first car a 64 Catalina with the 389
I had a '66 Tempest Custom 2Dr HT and the 326 mill. I loved that car, gorgeous coke bottle design with the buttress-style rool line. It ran well, excellent pickup. I wish that I had that car today.
The best thing about the Pontiac V8 is that it had the largest cooling system in the GM line. The largest was 26 quarts in a 70s 350. V8s by other makers were as small as 12 quarts. Prevented overheating under heavy loads. This made it great for towing heavy loads and for idling in heavy summer/desert traffic while running the A/C. But the large cooling capacity make it take too long to warm, which is why it was discontinued, because one factor in emissions is pollution (caused by cold engines) on startup.
My 66 GTO had a 428 H.O. installed with a 4 speed & 4:10:1 rear. All manual including 12"x2" police drum brakes-finned drums. No problems. No power accessories. Best car I ever owned. Rock solid, not rattles, squeaks, and it didn't fall apart like a lot of other cars did. Could get the front end up in any gear-wheely. And it handled the corners. The 326 engine was a good runner. It wasn't a high performance engine but it did fabulous in a 23 T Bucket. P.S. Rover V8s were installed in some MGBs. Great cars.
Adam, I had a 1963 Tempest Custom Sports Coupe with a V-326 and manual 3-speed during my senior year (1965) of high school. Fantastic little car except for a failed driveshaft (the infamous "rope" drive) and later a destroyed transmission due to a show-off teenager's missed 1>2 shift. Traded that beautiful Cordovan Brown coupe in for a Reef Turquoise 1966 Tempest Custom 2-door hardtop with the Sprint OHC-6 and 4-speed. Another great Pontiac!
so true about the timing chains,my dad bought a new 1967 executive from Hastings motors in Sallisaw OK,,a cousin of ours, Marion Hastings,and he replaced every plastic timing chain set off every new car with a steel set, till they got rid of the plastic ones...
One thing that always impressed me with the Pontiac design; they dropped in 1955 and didn't bother with a clean-sheet design for the entire run. Sure the displacements changed and so did the head designs here and there, but it's just one huge family. Not like other makes which had 3 or more families over the same time period. Pontiac really knocked it out of the park from the start.
when the chevy small block engine was on the drawing board, a lot of of that technology came from pontiac( rocker arms, oil pump/ distributor placement ect.. the chevy engine was a pontiac knockoff, I would imagine, that is why they ran so good.
@@gregoryclemen1870Having owned V8 engines from every division of General Motors, I would never say the Chevys were good... I'll take big block Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles & Buicks over the Chevy, and the small Oldsmobile and the "All-Block" Pontiacs over the SBC.
@@dmandman9 I read the Pontiac V8 existed and was being road tested well before 55, very long development process which is part of why they turned out so good. It also means there was more time for other divisions to peak in the kitchen as it were.
It wasn't a turbo, but in 1990 I dropped a 301 out of an early 80s Firebird into my 84 Chev pickup to replace the notoriously lousy cammed 305 that it came with. That 301 ran trouble free for a decade. When the truck rusted out, I sold it to a buddy who put it in a Camaro and drove it for another 5-6 yrs. Just a great little engine.
@@darrellsaunders4267They sure are. I rebuilt the 305 with a better cam intending on putting it back in my pickup, but that 301 ran so good I didn't bother switching it out.
@steveferguson6809 LOL. You're correct. Don't know if I spelled it that way or if my phone did it... but I definitely didn't proofread before I hit send. And I'm pretty sure everyone figured out what I meant.😄
Pontiac v8 rarity would include the Ram Air V... Can't wait for that piece of automotive historical documentary revelation from your excellently investigated, thorough, perfectly articulated presentations.
Had a '69 Firebird 400 with a 360 horse motor from a '68 GTO. Put a Crane Fireball cam in it-equivalent to RA-IV cam, headers, M-21, 3.55 posi. That motor was a beast. I could run with pretty much anything I came up against on the street with it.
My brother-in-law bought a new ‘64 Tempest with the “326” and you are quite correct… it would scoot. Keep in mind my mother was driving a ‘61 Tempest with the Trophy 4, so to a 10-year old kid that was quite a difference! 😉
GM had a 330 cid restriction on intermediate cars introduced in 1964 so that Pontiac reduced the bore from 3.78 to 3.72 to reduce the displacement to an actual 326 cid. The limit was later raised to 400 cid to allow cars like the Olds 442 and Pontiac GTO and Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 to exist and was eliminated in 1970 to allow 454 and 455 engines to be put into GM intermediate cars.
@@jimsix9929 No they weren't. A 396 was a 396. The 402 was a .030 bored 396. Back in the 70's rumor was that defect blem blocks cleaned up with a .030 over bore and were used in the final year 70. But there are a couple other stories around too. The only year you could get a 402 was 70 and at that time the ban was lifted and the 454 was the top dog.
I hear you on the timing chain....it went out on my 68 Firebird 400 with 64K in 1972. Also another issue I had was water pumps...had to replace them on my 75 Firebird 350 and 79 Formula 301.
Long Live Pontiac!! Well done!! Its funny to me to think that the 455 cars only first appeared in 1970. That means they were only around for a short period of time.. I am happy to own one.....SD 455 T/A bored to 462 cubes.
the nylon cam sprocket was not limited to just pontiac engines, it was in the entire "G.M." family of engines( except trucks), even the" SOFT CAM" issues
The 1971 Chevrolet C/10 p/u with a 350/350 trans. had a nylon timing gear sprocket for the timing chain. I had to replace mine, & I installed a dual timing chain with a metal sprocket.
Adam, from my memory alone, a group in Michigan bought that 215ci V-8 and related tooling from the British and mounted it in the Chevy Vega for around 4K in the late 70's/80s. It was the perfect engine for that foundation. I forget the rest, going to do some research.
Rover bought the rites and tooling from Buick which is a different motor than the Oldsmobile evan thought it has the same bore and stroke. Rover used the motor with minor changes from 66 until 95 that's when they went to coils instead of a distributor and went to a serpentine belt and changed the rear seal. Rover used this version until Land Rover was bought out in the early 2000's by BMW I think and the motor was dropped. The company putting the 215's into Vegas I think was D&D. D&D sold 215 performance and conversion parts for decades. They had a complete conversion kit for the MG B's. Many small British companies used the 215 also, plus it was a favorite motor over there and has been put into about everything that you can imagine. Back in the day I called it the small Chevy of England.
@@andyZ3500s Rover completely revised the engine several times by increasing displacements from 3.5L up to 4.6L and strengthening the bottom end with 4 bolt main bearings and developing several generations of fuel injection up to the final 'Bosch-Thor' system. One of the most storied engines of all time. D&D is still around today and can build you a nice lightweight aluminum powerhouse - it all depends on how much you want to spend..
Great cars,I had a built RA/IV,built M40,and 4.88 Chevelle posi in mine.Ran 11’s,all stock parts.Well,high volume Milodon oil pump and pickup not stock.
These as well as all Pontiac engines were notorious for timing chains I changed more chains and gears on these cars than any others from those years. However those engines had their own personalities with really great horsepower potential. I miss those Pontiac engines man. Lol
Heard a cool story years ago that in the late 60's Pontiac wanted to design a Hemi head style engine and Chrystler was glad to help so they actually sen't over a few engineers to GM to help design a all aluminum 425cid hemi engine but never got off the ground with it.
New subscriber here. Really enjoying your videos. Brief, to the point, not overproduced, no drama, no jibber-jabber, well scripted and narrated. Good job!
I’ll never forget finding small chunks of nylon gear in the drain pan every time I changed the oil in my 1978 301ci Grand Prix. After grenading that engine from unrecoverable overheating I dropped in a slightly warmed over SB Chevy 350 and TH350. Problem solved.
Adam... Can't resist passing along this bit of Pontiac engine trivia. When the 326 was upsized for the '68 model year midsized Pontiacs, the bore was increased to 3.875 inches, and was advertised as such. However, do the math yourself and you will find that the displacement total is 353.8 cu.in. Apparently, there was something special about that dimension (same tooling as the Chevy 307 engine?) and something equally important about four GM divisions ALL advertizing the same 350 cu.in. displacement. Seems that accurate math was not a priority!
There was a lot of that 'round up or round down' kinda stuff in the 50s and 60s. Just looking at Chrysler alone, the 413 was really a 414, The 273 was really a 273.5 and the original poly 318 was really a 317. The 299 was called the 301 in Plymouths. Even the 440 was really a 441. Of course we're splitting hairs here. But it got confusing in the Ford camp just looking at shere numbers. A 361 in a truck or 390 in anything was a big block, but a 400M in a car was a small block. Anyhow, the fact that Pontiac always used the same block for all of its V8 displacement engines has always been novel to me.
Yes, there are other convenient "rounding errors" out there, but they are relatively rare and usually fractions of a cubic inch. The criteria for calling an engine family "small block", "big block", or something in between is relative, not absolute. I think it is fair to say that the criteria SHOULD be a combination of bore spacing and deck height, not simply the displacement achieved. Chevrolet's first "big block" was a 348. Fifty years later they were building an LS small block displacing 428 cu.in... the LS7 "427" was another roundiing for markieting purposes.@@adamtrombino106
The '58 GMC 336 was a small bore 370 Pontiac with a shorter stroke than the 389, it had the same bore as a Pontiac 350(354ci) 3.875", the the '59 GMC 336 which was a the same as the '63 Pontiac 326(336), all with the 3.75" stroke shared with 389 and 400 Pontiacs.
I had what I now understand was a true 326 in my 67 Firebird. I went bananas when I got that car. My first car was a beat up old Ford Galaxie 4 door and then I went to the Firebird for my second car. Life was great back then!!
Pontiac made some of the best engines that ever came out of GM. Would love to drive one of their Ram Air V motors from 1969. Ever think of doing a video on the Oldsmobile Quad 4 motor from the late 80’s - early 90’s?
Your presentations are beautifully articulated!!! Deeply Investigated!!! and they reach a Deep Core within Me!!! Thank You!!! The second car I owned was a 1968 Pontiac Catalina with the V8 400 cid and a 2 barrel carburetor!!! and I went to the auto parts store and order a brand new MSD unit!!! with the blaster coil, this unit set me back 350.00 dollar, but Wow!!! would it ever get it on!!! it's acceleration, was greatly increased, and it's top end speed increased too, by some 20 miles!!! it could maybe make 126 mph!!! and too fast for the brakes of the car!!! One More Time For Good Measure!!! Your presentations are beautifully articulated!!! Deeply Investigated!!! and reach a Deep Core within Me!!! Thank You!!! Kelly
Thank you Adam. It is always interesting how you share these facts like this engine. GM loves that economies of scale and parts sharing indeed. It also likes keeping its brands in check as we have seen. This situation was not the first or last time. As we know Pontiac and GMC were under the same brand umbrella over time. I liked seeing the photo of the 1981 Pontiac Bonneville. I liked that 1980-1981 Pontiac Bonneville/Parisienne models especially in Brougham trim.
I had a ‘63 Le Mans convertible with the 326 V8 and the floor shift automatic. The 326 was very reliable, its only drawback was hard starting in cold weather. It idled so smoothly you could not tell it was running, except for a slight transaxle whine. If the idle was just right, you could hear the rope drive shaft slap inside the torque tube. It had tons of torque and great throttle response. Plenty of room under the hood, fun to work on. Top down and cruising, couldn’t be beat. Great times.
We had a 80 Bonneville growing up, with a 301 that ate its cam, what a shade tree mechanic told us. But maybe it jumped time! It lost power and spit through the carb! I was going to swap in a ,69 olds 455 , but had no help. Not enough tools! The way it moved thst huge olds, in that little Pontiac i was really wanting it in there!!
I never knew that about the '63 326 engine. Actually 336 ci. I love Pontiac's. I owned a '67 GTO for 42 years. Extremely strong and reliable. It never let me down.
Great info, Adam! I didn't know about the '63 326 being a 336. I had an actual 326 in my 66 Tempest (my first car). Loved that car. I later had a Pontiac 350 in my 76 Firebird (first NEW car), and not as powerful, by any stretch. My dad had a 389 in his '60 Ventura, and he loved it. Then got the 400 in his '68 Bonneville. Both excellent power engines. Everything changed in '71. They were all anemic starting in '71.
Adam, you mentioned the 301 in turbo Firebirds in the early ‘80s. I had a 301 4bbl (150hp) with a 4-speed in my ‘79 T/A. The TA 6.6s were pretty rare in ’79 as ‘78 was the last year they were produced and dealers charged extra for them in ‘79. The 301 actually received a credit off the standard 403 Olds which only came with an automatic. The 400 2bbl in my 68 Catalina also needed a timing gear replacement as well as a hi-torque starter because the hot exhaust manifold cooked the standard starter. They wouldn’t start if you turned them off and restarted them within a few minutes. They needed to cool for at least 15 minutes.
Buick and Olds alloy V8s were two different engines. Similar maybe but not the same. Decades ago I worked on a 63 64 326 Pontiac engine in a full size convertible. An import. Unaware they were rare. Did intake and rocker cover gaskets as it was externally lubricated. Got the gaskets from my local GM main parts dealer,, here in Australia. This mid 70s. Not long after the few locally assembled Ponchos came with SBC. And right at the end they came with 308 Holdens.
With the exception of the heads just about every part is the same on the 215s. Cranks, rods, oil pan, timing cover, exhaust manifolds even the gaskets had the same part number.
While this one wasn't a one-year-only engine, Pontiac's 303ci V8 is possibly even rarer - because it was never sold as a factory-installed engine. The reason Pontiac even offered the engine to begin with was so that the Firebird could compete in SCCA's Trans Am series. The displacement limit in the Trans Am series was 305 cuibic inches, and other than the standard inline 6 none of the factory engines in the Firebird were within that limit. While Chevrolet did offer a 302 as factory equipment in the Camaro Z/28, Pontiac only offered their 303 over the parts counter. It was still legal for Trans Am because under their rules whatever parts went on the car had to be available from a dealership service center (sort of like those Porsche brakes Roger Penske sold to and then bought back from an AMC dealership so he could install them on a Javelin - but that's another story).
My Pops had a "68 Bonneville with a 428, and that thing was a torque monster. Lots of folks forget about the Pontiac 428, being kinda lost in that 389 421 455 melting pot...
Great information. I think the 389 was the best engine ever. Mainly because I have one and have had nothing else from the era. But it really is a great engine.
Dad bought a brand new '63 Tempest Safari station wagon with the 326. Would love to have it today. One of my drag racing heroes was Arnie Beswick who campaigned a Tempest wagon.
You mentioned the early Tempests also using the literally "one bank of a 389 V8" 194 'slant 4' 4-cylinder engine. Because of the shakes and vibrations from being such a large 4-cylinder, engine, that was the reason these transaxle equipped early Tempests used the so-called "rope driveshaft" (actually a flexible steel cable) to absorb the shakes and vibrations from the engine. Pontiac had great engineers and was really thinking outside the box in those days! It's a pity that GM eventually lost it's way and in its final years Pontiac ended up being little more than a badge engineered 'generic' GM car. To my mind that was what led to the demise of both the Pontiac brand and eventually to the GM bankruptcy and eventual government bailout. Sadly it doesn't appear that much has changed at GM.😥
Sorry but there was No Such Thing as a rope or flex cable driveshaft used on 61-63 Tempests. The driveshaft was a solid steel shaft around 1" diameter (think torque tube) that was routed below the floor and rode on bearings to hold an arc making less of a front to rear hump in the floor.Delorean's idea.
My first car was a pretty well spent 65 Tempest with a 326 and 2 bbl. It had two cylinders low on compression and got horrible mileage, but that car still ran and drove better than anything I had considered as a replacement. I had made the decision to repair the engine and keep the car, but a moron in a Road Runner without insurance rear ended it and that was the unpleasant end of the Tempest.
Pontiac sold 326 V8 for several year. A friend of mine had a hard running 1967 Pontiac Firebird. BTW Pontiac small blocks usually outpowered their GM brethren.
I've been running L25 292 L6s in my '68 C/10 Stepside pickup since 1973. On my 3rd build with 400 thousand on the chassis. Torque monsters. One of Chevy's best-kept secrets. Not a Pontiac, but they were produced in some GMCs in the late '60s.
After the 421 came the 428 in the 1967 Model year, now highly sought after. I personally prefer my 4 bolt main 1964 389 & 1969 400. Soon to be still with 4.150” bore & a 4.150” stroke Billet crank making it a 450. We have 2 1963 326,s(336). One is original from my 1964 model year Tempest Custom & the other a 280+hp HO 326 with under 35,000 original miles on it in our 1964 model year Lemans. I noticed my Pontiacs like good timing sets, better cam and improved oiling, especially a good oil pump. My current 406 is an Absolute Monster. It Roars like scalded Lion at half throttle. I’m sure you are aware of folks like Kauffman Racing, Butler Performance, Spots & McArty Racing then I take it? I have been able to be awakened to many of Pontiacs true performance potential from several of them. Including Lynn’s personal performance crankshaft man Dave in Michigan. He told me when prepared right, an original Nodular Iron Pontiac Crankshaft can withstand 1000+hp!! I do fully agree with him because I know he’s done it! I don’t need that much however I did have my builder employ several of his techniques to my 1969 Nodular Iron 400 Crankshaft after they talked and set up a plan for my build. What an impressive improvement!! It’s not stock. It came with a 3yr 36,000mile warranty to withstand 7500RPM. It’s now 7yrs into its rebuild with never one problem, past 7300RPM 3 times so far. 200-4r with full throttle use lock up to 900Lb Ft of Tq & Eaton Carbon locker with Richmond 3.36 gears. Currently it weighs 3212Lbs. Soon, around 2800Lbs. I’m trying to say it’s difficult to explain how impressive my Pontiac Tempest is in words with what is invested into it. It out performs newer Porsches & Many Corvette’s and the like. Since 1993 I have been a huge Pontiac only guy and love to learn. Thanks, we would love to put a well sorted 389-455 in a decent 1967-72 GMC someday. I always loved the Pontiac Powered GMC,s
This big 326 was available in the transaxle Tempest. It may have only had a 2 speed auto but it was not slow. (I just checked and you could get a 3 speed manual, but the 4 speed was not strong enough.)
I had a 1964 Lemans with a 326 4 sp car that I quickly found it's short comings being needing screw in rocker studs, better valve springs, better lifters and larger camshaft. Withthe addition of headers , a little carving on the intake and exhaust ports produced a remarkable improvement in HP and RPM's , Easily running away from GTO's, , Chevrolet 350's on a very consistent basis.
It was always a story at work that we got caught with the 336 when some tech inspector at a drag strip did the bore and stroke calculations and figured out the real displacement.
The V8 engines from this time period.......... some of them were ahead of their time and really were the best source of power for intermediate vehicles. I had always believed that the 327 V8 from Chevrolet was the best and kind of the only version of that engine in general motors fleet. Other than flaws that were mentioned in your video many of these smaller v8s were very robust. I had inherited a 1976 Olds Cutlass supreme with the 260 V8 engine in it. I would have much preferred to have a 327 V8 engine in that car because the 260 V8 did not really produce enough power for that size vehicle. Thank you!!!!
When I was a kid a friend of my father's worked as a dealer service rep for Pontiac division. I remember him telling me that the Pontiac "326" was really a 336, but I thought it was all years, not just the '63. I'm sure he knew that but I just remembered it wrong.
Ordered a ‘65 Goat, midnight blue, 389 tri power, M21 4 spd, 3:91 gears. It was OK fast but sold it and got a L78 396 Nova M21 4 speed. Now that puppy was and still is a fast ride.
That 2 speed is known as a supper turbine 300 transmission. Power glides are Chevrolet specific. The 300s only came in Pontiac Buick and Oldsmobile and some have a variable pitch Torque converter.
I am a Pontiac guy and knew that the 326 was bigger than a 326 but did not know that it was an "existing" 336 (I had heard a whole different story on that). I also did not know that they ended up correcting that in 1964. Ironic that the same year they made that correction, they slid the 389 in as on option (not a new model) to get the GTO going. Thanks for telling me something Pontiac that I did not know.
One thing that was not metioned was that the 326 was also the standard V-8 for the mid year 1967 Firebird which didnt apper in Pontiac showrooms until February of that year and there was a 250 hp verison and the HO 326 which I belive was around 285hp Above that was the 400 which was either 325 or 335 hp but that's an even deeper story!!!!!.
Ah yes I remember a few of those Pontiac's and their engines. My cousin was a senior in high school and my uncle would let her drive his 1964 Tempest to school. It had the 326 in it. I fell in love with that car and was saving up to buy it from him when she totaled it in an accident. Luckily she was OK. I was so pissed and disappointed. I ended up with a 350cid silver with black top 2dr 1969 Le'Mans I purchased for $550. It had Mickey Thompson tires in back with chrome slotted rims. Later on I got a 1968 GTO with a 400cid then a 1965 Bonneville with the 389cid. Yep those plastic cam timing gears were known to leave you stranded. I like this channel for the history and background on these cars and engines, good work thank you.
You always present an informative and well documented topic. I learned a lot viewing this. As you research and present various scenarios regarding American cars, would you consider discussing and reviewing one of my favorite Pontiac power plants, the OHC inline six cylinder that was introduced in 1966. Our neighbors had a 1967 Firebird with that engine and I loved the sound it made! Was it a Pontiac design or was it actually a Chevrolet engine that was modified?
I saw this, & I was curious as to what you guys were talking about. A one year only 326 ci ? How could this be? I had a 1967 Le Mans with a 326 ci 2 barrel. 2 speed Power-Glide. Thank you for educating me on this 1 year only 336; I never knew. I also at one time had a Bonneville with a 389 4 barrel; Both were great power plants. I still find it hard to believe that Pontiac is no longer with us in current production.
1964, I was a jr. in high school, neighbor was mid 20's , couple kids, bought a new blue Tempest hardtop, w/a 326/4speed. He got the car early in the model year and was bitter because the GTO option came out second half of the years run. The car was exactly like a GTO w/the smaller engine, less the hood scallops.
My dad was a Pontiac man and at times raced. My first car was a slightly used 1966 Tempest with the 326 2 bbl and 2 speed powerglide tranny. It didn't have a lot of pizzazz, but got me where I wanted to go. Made the mistake of running single weight W30 Kendall oil in it on a cold winter day. Hell to get it started, but it did. My brother wrecked it. Sigh.
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I had a good friend in high school who had a '63 Tempest, burgundy over black interior, with the "326" CID engine and an auto trans. That
was a peppy little car and we cruised around the fast food joints and dances in it for a couple of years. Good times and memories.
You described my granpas 67' to a tee then realized I read right over the 63' part
I bought a used 1963 Tempest from a neighbor in 1970 with only 19,000 miles in it. It had a two-speed automatic, and I loved it. It got great mileage on the road. I averaged 20 mpg on a trip to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. I had it for six years and traded it in on a new Toyota Corolla. I wish that I still had it!
My grandfather had a 1967 Firebird 326 H.O. (high output) convertible with a floor mounted 3 speed manual transmission. We had a lot of fun with that car.
As I own a 1969 Camaro with essentially the same set up as your GPappy'2 Firebird, these particular cars I felt were best suited for a small block engine. Now with Pontiac it didn't matter because it was the same block bored differently. Great car.
Pontiac along with Oldsmobile and Pontiac and Buick all gave us some iconic engines. They all excelled in producing some great running small and big blocks. Pontiac always had such beautiful and upscale interiors and designs versus their competitors in the GM family.
I have a 1966 Pontiac Lemans with a 326ci and m20 4 speed, have to say that I enjoy this setup very much. Congrats for all of your videos, very interesting and informative.
Which rear gear ratio to you run? Mine has an M20 as well as a 3.36 posi final drive and seems like a good compromise for me. Cool cars!
She has a 3.23 posi which makes it no rocket but a nice cruiser with enough humf to be fun. My 326 ci has a mild cam, a Quadrajet and a dual exhaust all of which give it a little more punch and a nice rumble. Overall, she has a pleasant personality.
@@christianbergeron Thanks for your response. Mine has a fairly stock 350 Chevy.
Wow Christian, I run the exact same setup, but with a stock cam. Cool.
I had a 66 Lemans 326 3 speed manual
“Pontiac some of the best engines in automotive history “ , well you’re the expert ! Makes me feel good !
They are great
Always like the metalic blue Pontiac engine paint. Amazing they went from 265 to 455 with one engine family. Saved a ton of money doing it that way.
I had a 63 Tempest LeMans with the 326, such a unique car with the transaxle and 4 wheel independent suspension. I wish I would have kept that car
And don't forget the unique and short lived "rope drive" flexible driveshaft!
I’ve got one of these 63 tempest lemans with the 336. It was my mom’s first car. It’s not currently running. Definitely a unique car. Unibody with rear transmission and 4 wheel independent suspension. My dad also had has his first car a 64 Catalina with the 389
@@billyjoejimbob56 Porsche used that rope drive on some models
@@tombob671I was notaware of that. When and which models?
@@billyjoejimbob56 928 I think
I had a '66 Tempest Custom 2Dr HT and the 326 mill. I loved that car, gorgeous coke bottle design with the buttress-style rool line. It ran well, excellent pickup. I wish that I had that car today.
The best thing about the Pontiac V8 is that it had the largest cooling system in the GM line. The largest was 26 quarts in a 70s 350. V8s by other makers were as small as 12 quarts.
Prevented overheating under heavy loads. This made it great for towing heavy loads and for idling in heavy summer/desert traffic while running the A/C.
But the large cooling capacity make it take too long to warm, which is why it was discontinued, because one factor in emissions is pollution (caused by cold engines) on startup.
So that's why I never had a Pontiac overheat.
If the thermostat circuit is designed and functioning properly, there's no reason why a larger cooling capacity would be a problem.
My 66 GTO had a 428 H.O. installed with a 4 speed & 4:10:1 rear. All manual including 12"x2" police drum brakes-finned drums. No problems. No power accessories. Best car I ever owned. Rock solid, not rattles, squeaks, and it didn't fall apart like a lot of other cars did. Could get the front end up in any gear-wheely. And it handled the corners. The 326 engine was a good runner. It wasn't a high performance engine but it did fabulous in a 23 T Bucket. P.S. Rover V8s were installed in some MGBs. Great cars.
Adam,
I had a 1963 Tempest Custom Sports Coupe with a V-326 and manual 3-speed during my senior year (1965) of high school. Fantastic little car except for a failed driveshaft (the infamous "rope" drive) and later a destroyed transmission due to a show-off teenager's missed 1>2 shift.
Traded that beautiful Cordovan Brown coupe in for a Reef Turquoise 1966 Tempest Custom 2-door hardtop with the Sprint OHC-6 and 4-speed. Another great Pontiac!
My parents had a LeMans in 1966 with the 326. Thanks for the fascinating information!
so true about the timing chains,my dad bought a new 1967 executive from Hastings motors in Sallisaw OK,,a cousin of ours, Marion Hastings,and he replaced every plastic timing chain set off every new car with a steel set, till they got rid of the plastic ones...
One thing that always impressed me with the Pontiac design; they dropped in 1955 and didn't bother with a clean-sheet design for the entire run. Sure the displacements changed and so did the head designs here and there, but it's just one huge family. Not like other makes which had 3 or more families over the same time period. Pontiac really knocked it out of the park from the start.
I remember ALL Pontiac v8s looked the same.
when the chevy small block engine was on the drawing board, a lot of of that technology came from pontiac( rocker arms, oil pump/ distributor placement ect.. the chevy engine was a pontiac knockoff, I would imagine, that is why they ran so good.
@@gregoryclemen1870Having owned V8 engines from every division of General Motors, I would never say the Chevys were good... I'll take big block Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles & Buicks over the Chevy, and the small Oldsmobile and the "All-Block" Pontiacs over the SBC.
@@gregoryclemen1870 Just curious. Didn’t they come out the same year? (1955).
@@dmandman9 I read the Pontiac V8 existed and was being road tested well before 55, very long development process which is part of why they turned out so good. It also means there was more time for other divisions to peak in the kitchen as it were.
It wasn't a turbo, but in 1990 I dropped a 301 out of an early 80s Firebird into my 84 Chev pickup to replace the notoriously lousy cammed 305 that it came with. That 301 ran trouble free for a decade. When the truck rusted out, I sold it to a buddy who put it in a Camaro and drove it for another 5-6 yrs. Just a great little engine.
301 was a great engine....had one in a 79 Formula I bought new....no vibration whatsoever. Smooth as silk.
@@darrellsaunders4267They sure are. I rebuilt the 305 with a better cam intending on putting it back in my pickup, but that 301 ran so good I didn't bother switching it out.
It's Camaro not Camero
@steveferguson6809 LOL. You're correct. Don't know if I spelled it that way or if my phone did it... but I definitely didn't proofread before I hit send. And I'm pretty sure everyone figured out what I meant.😄
301 Pontiac engine was fine as long as it left stock and maintained properly. They don't last long with cam change.
Great video. I drove a 1955 GMC pickup with a 288 ci Pontiac V8 engine and 4 spd hydromatic.
Pontiac v8 rarity would include the Ram Air V... Can't wait for that piece of automotive historical documentary revelation from your excellently investigated, thorough, perfectly articulated presentations.
I had a '64 LeMans with the 326 4sp. This was in 72. All the older guys call it a Lemans GTO…I’m 71 now, and I still miss it.🙁
I worked at Pontiac Motor Division in 1964 in the engine department. We made a 326 389 and 421 at that time
Had a '69 Firebird 400 with a 360 horse motor from a '68 GTO. Put a Crane Fireball cam in it-equivalent to RA-IV cam, headers, M-21, 3.55 posi. That motor was a beast. I could run with pretty much anything I came up against on the street with it.
My brother-in-law bought a new ‘64 Tempest with the “326” and you are quite correct… it would scoot. Keep in mind my mother was driving a ‘61 Tempest with the Trophy 4, so to a 10-year old kid that was quite a difference! 😉
Parents had a 63 Tempest convertible with a 326 and 3 speed manual. Black with a red interior. Would love to have that car today.
GM had a 330 cid restriction on intermediate cars introduced in 1964 so that Pontiac reduced the bore from 3.78 to 3.72 to reduce the displacement to an actual 326 cid. The limit was later raised to 400 cid to allow cars like the Olds 442 and Pontiac GTO and Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 to exist and was eliminated in 1970 to allow 454 and 455 engines to be put into GM intermediate cars.
thank you for sharing that, it answers a lot of things I always wondered about, like the 396 was really 402 CID, I guess they got away with it
The restriction was actually before the 1964 model year. That's the reason Pontiac called the 336 engine a "326" engine for 1963.
@@jimsix9929
No they weren't. A 396 was a 396. The 402 was a .030 bored 396.
Back in the 70's rumor was that defect blem blocks cleaned up with a .030 over bore and were used in the final year 70. But there are a couple other stories around too.
The only year you could get a 402 was 70 and at that time the ban was lifted and the 454 was the top dog.
Once again, you teach your legion of fans something new! Thank you.
I always found it interesting that Pontiac never really had a Big Block so to speak .... they used an All Block configuration for their engines !! 🤔👍🏻
Adam, It sounds like you have answered the question you posed in your Mercury 410 V8 video. 😁
Perhaps!
No. This 326 (336) was actually around for many years. It was just in this particular model for one year.
@@hughjass1044 if you listen to the video, I say that.
I know. I was telling (reminding) the original guy that.@@RareClassicCars
I hear you on the timing chain....it went out on my 68 Firebird 400 with 64K in 1972. Also another issue I had was water pumps...had to replace them on my 75 Firebird 350 and 79 Formula 301.
Long Live Pontiac!! Well done!! Its funny to me to think that the 455 cars only first appeared in 1970. That means they were only around for a short period of time.. I am happy to own one.....SD 455 T/A bored to 462 cubes.
the nylon cam sprocket was not limited to just pontiac engines, it was in the entire "G.M." family of engines( except trucks), even the" SOFT CAM" issues
The 1971 Chevrolet C/10 p/u with a 350/350 trans. had a nylon timing gear sprocket for the timing chain. I had to replace mine, & I installed a dual timing chain with a metal sprocket.
@@ACF6180T when you got into the C 30 and larger trucks, or the G 30 vans those came from the factory with steel cam sprockets.
Adam, from my memory alone, a group in Michigan bought that 215ci V-8 and related tooling from the British and mounted it in the Chevy Vega for around 4K in the late 70's/80s. It was the perfect engine for that foundation. I forget the rest, going to do some research.
The British kept building that engine
Yes. And that's where I'm fuzzy on the deal in terms of rights. But it was a great idea.@@jamesengland7461
Rover bought the rites and tooling from Buick which is a different motor than the Oldsmobile evan thought it has the same bore and stroke. Rover used the motor with minor changes from 66 until 95 that's when they went to coils instead of a distributor and went to a serpentine belt and changed the rear seal. Rover used this version until Land Rover was bought out in the early 2000's by BMW I think and the motor was dropped.
The company putting the 215's into Vegas I think was D&D. D&D sold 215 performance and conversion parts for decades. They had a complete conversion kit for the MG B's.
Many small British companies used the 215 also, plus it was a favorite motor over there and has been put into about everything that you can imagine. Back in the day I called it the small Chevy of England.
@@andyZ3500s Rover completely revised the engine several times by increasing displacements from 3.5L up to 4.6L and strengthening the bottom end with 4 bolt main bearings and developing several generations of fuel injection up to the final 'Bosch-Thor' system. One of the most storied engines of all time.
D&D is still around today and can build you a nice lightweight aluminum powerhouse - it all depends on how much you want to spend..
@@davem8790 It is good to hear that that D&D is still around today.
My 1964 Pontiac Tempest had a 326, 4speed with positraction rear end.
Great cars,I had a built RA/IV,built M40,and 4.88 Chevelle posi in mine.Ran 11’s,all stock parts.Well,high volume Milodon oil pump and pickup not stock.
These as well as all Pontiac engines were notorious for timing chains I changed more chains and gears on these cars than any others from those years. However those engines had their own personalities with really great horsepower potential. I miss those Pontiac engines man. Lol
Heard a cool story years ago that in the late 60's Pontiac wanted to design a Hemi head style engine and Chrystler was glad to help so they actually sen't over a few engineers to GM to help design a all aluminum 425cid hemi engine but never got off the ground with it.
It would be interesting to hear about the Pontiac 6 cylinder in the Firebird
Overhead cam "Sprint" engine?
New subscriber here. Really enjoying your videos. Brief, to the point, not overproduced, no drama, no jibber-jabber, well scripted and narrated. Good job!
Thank you for the calefaction, I never knew that secret. 🚗
I’ll never forget finding small chunks of nylon gear in the drain pan every time I changed the oil in my 1978 301ci Grand Prix. After grenading that engine from unrecoverable overheating I dropped in a slightly warmed over SB Chevy 350 and TH350. Problem solved.
Adam... Can't resist passing along this bit of Pontiac engine trivia. When the 326 was upsized for the '68 model year midsized Pontiacs, the bore was increased to 3.875 inches, and was advertised as such. However, do the math yourself and you will find that the displacement total is 353.8 cu.in. Apparently, there was something special about that dimension (same tooling as the Chevy 307 engine?) and something equally important about four GM divisions ALL advertizing the same 350 cu.in. displacement. Seems that accurate math was not a priority!
There was a lot of that 'round up or round down' kinda stuff in the 50s and 60s. Just looking at Chrysler alone, the 413 was really a 414, The 273 was really a 273.5 and the original poly 318 was really a 317. The 299 was called the 301 in Plymouths. Even the 440 was really a 441. Of course we're splitting hairs here. But it got confusing in the Ford camp just looking at shere numbers. A 361 in a truck or 390 in anything was a big block, but a 400M in a car was a small block. Anyhow, the fact that Pontiac always used the same block for all of its V8 displacement engines has always been novel to me.
Yes, there are other convenient "rounding errors" out there, but they are relatively rare and usually fractions of a cubic inch. The criteria for calling an engine family "small block", "big block", or something in between is relative, not absolute. I think it is fair to say that the criteria SHOULD be a combination of bore spacing and deck height, not simply the displacement achieved. Chevrolet's first "big block" was a 348. Fifty years later they were building an LS small block displacing 428 cu.in... the LS7 "427" was another roundiing for markieting purposes.@@adamtrombino106
The '58 GMC 336 was a small bore 370 Pontiac with a shorter stroke than the 389, it had the same bore as a Pontiac 350(354ci) 3.875", the the '59 GMC 336 which was a the same as the '63 Pontiac 326(336), all with the 3.75" stroke shared with 389 and 400 Pontiacs.
An under-bored 389 (aka, "326") must have been one heavy beast in such a small car.
it's like 40 lbs. more then a SBC
It was not simply an under-bored 389. It was a '326' specific casting with an appropriate amount of material removed.
I had what I now understand was a true 326 in my 67 Firebird. I went bananas when I got that car. My first car was a beat up old Ford Galaxie 4 door and then I went to the Firebird for my second car. Life was great back then!!
Pontiac made some of the best engines that ever came out of GM. Would love to drive one of their Ram Air V motors from 1969. Ever think of doing a video on the Oldsmobile Quad 4 motor from the late 80’s - early 90’s?
i think their 283 was one of the best v8 engines in my 64 strato chief.
Your presentations are beautifully articulated!!! Deeply Investigated!!! and they reach a Deep Core within Me!!! Thank You!!! The second car I owned was a 1968 Pontiac Catalina with the V8 400 cid and a 2 barrel carburetor!!! and I went to the auto parts store and order a brand new MSD unit!!! with the blaster coil, this unit set me back 350.00 dollar, but Wow!!! would it ever get it on!!! it's acceleration, was greatly increased, and it's top end speed increased too, by some 20 miles!!! it could maybe make 126 mph!!! and too fast for the brakes of the car!!! One More Time For Good Measure!!! Your presentations are beautifully articulated!!! Deeply Investigated!!! and reach a Deep Core within Me!!! Thank You!!! Kelly
Thank you Adam. It is always interesting how you share these facts like this engine. GM loves that economies of scale and parts sharing indeed. It also likes keeping its brands in check as we have seen. This situation was not the first or last time. As we know Pontiac and GMC were under the same brand umbrella over time. I liked seeing the photo of the 1981 Pontiac Bonneville. I liked that 1980-1981 Pontiac Bonneville/Parisienne models especially in Brougham trim.
I miss Pontiac. The old Pontiac. Not what ever it tried to be in the 2000s
I had a ‘63 Le Mans convertible with the 326 V8 and the floor shift automatic. The 326 was very reliable, its only drawback was hard starting in cold weather. It idled so smoothly you could not tell it was running, except for a slight transaxle whine. If the idle was just right, you could hear the rope drive shaft slap inside the torque tube. It had tons of torque and great throttle response. Plenty of room under the hood, fun to work on. Top down and cruising, couldn’t be beat. Great times.
We had a 80 Bonneville growing up, with a 301 that ate its cam, what a shade tree mechanic told us. But maybe it jumped time! It lost power and spit through the carb! I was going to swap in a ,69 olds 455 , but had no help. Not enough tools! The way it moved thst huge olds, in that little Pontiac i was really wanting it in there!!
I never knew that about the '63 326 engine. Actually 336 ci. I love Pontiac's. I owned a '67 GTO for 42 years. Extremely strong and reliable. It never let me down.
Had a 63 Catalina. Wish I still had it.
I have read that Pontiac had a V8 for 1 year in 1935 or 1936. That, to me, should be the rarest V8 Pontiac has had!
Very interesting. Thank you.
Great info, Adam! I didn't know about the '63 326 being a 336. I had an actual 326 in my 66 Tempest (my first car). Loved that car. I later had a Pontiac 350 in my 76 Firebird (first NEW car), and not as powerful, by any stretch. My dad had a 389 in his '60 Ventura, and he loved it. Then got the 400 in his '68 Bonneville. Both excellent power engines. Everything changed in '71. They were all anemic starting in '71.
i had a 1964 pontiac strato chief with a 283 v8 , didn't know there was a 326 v8 , learn something new everyday.
That would have been a Canadian car.🇨🇦👍👍
Adam, you mentioned the 301 in turbo Firebirds in the early ‘80s. I had a 301 4bbl (150hp) with a 4-speed in my ‘79 T/A. The TA 6.6s were pretty rare in ’79 as ‘78 was the last year they were produced and dealers charged extra for them in ‘79. The 301 actually received a credit off the standard 403 Olds which only came with an automatic. The 400 2bbl in my 68 Catalina also needed a timing gear replacement as well as a hi-torque starter because the hot exhaust manifold cooked the standard starter. They wouldn’t start if you turned them off and restarted them within a few minutes. They needed to cool for at least 15 minutes.
My first car in high school was a '64 Pontiac LeMans. 326ci with a 3 speed. Great fun!
Never knew that about those Poncho engines. Thanks!
Buick and Olds alloy V8s were two different engines. Similar maybe but not the same.
Decades ago I worked on a 63 64 326 Pontiac engine in a full size convertible. An import. Unaware they were rare. Did intake and rocker cover gaskets as it was externally lubricated. Got the gaskets from my local GM main parts dealer,, here in Australia. This mid 70s.
Not long after the few locally assembled Ponchos came with SBC. And right at the end they came with 308 Holdens.
With the exception of the heads just about every part is the same on the 215s. Cranks, rods, oil pan, timing cover, exhaust manifolds even the gaskets had the same part number.
While this one wasn't a one-year-only engine, Pontiac's 303ci V8 is possibly even rarer - because it was never sold as a factory-installed engine. The reason Pontiac even offered the engine to begin with was so that the Firebird could compete in SCCA's Trans Am series. The displacement limit in the Trans Am series was 305 cuibic inches, and other than the standard inline 6 none of the factory engines in the Firebird were within that limit. While Chevrolet did offer a 302 as factory equipment in the Camaro Z/28, Pontiac only offered their 303 over the parts counter. It was still legal for Trans Am because under their rules whatever parts went on the car had to be available from a dealership service center (sort of like those Porsche brakes Roger Penske sold to and then bought back from an AMC dealership so he could install them on a Javelin - but that's another story).
I owned a Tempest with the 326 CID back in '68, when I was in high school, it was a good running little car.
My Pops had a "68 Bonneville with a 428, and that thing was a torque monster. Lots of folks forget about the Pontiac 428, being kinda lost in that 389 421 455 melting pot...
Thought they were talking about 326?
@@cliffordbowman6777 Yeah they were, but I thought I’d highlight another somewhat overlooked Pontiac engine. Why you pissy about it?
You forgot the 428 ci. That's what I had in my '69 Grand Prix SJ.
GM: “Small car engines can’t exceed 330 ci”
John DeLorean: “…hold my beer”.
Great information. I think the 389 was the best engine ever. Mainly because I have one and have had nothing else from the era. But it really is a great engine.
Yes, with three-two-barrel carbs!
Top end is *Unlimited!*
My dad had a 1962 Tempest with the 1/2 389. Fun car to drive to high school in the 80's.
I knew a guy that had a '66 Firebird with the 326, so it HAD to be made more then one year. It was totally gutless.
Listen to the video. The 326 was really a 336 for one year only. Then it became a true 326
Dad bought a brand new '63 Tempest Safari station wagon with the 326. Would love to have it today. One of my drag racing heroes was Arnie Beswick who campaigned a Tempest wagon.
I had 1960 and 1965 Pontiac Catalinas. Both had the high compression 389, and both of those cars could scoot! Wish I had either or both today.
You mentioned the early Tempests also using the literally "one bank of a 389 V8" 194 'slant 4' 4-cylinder engine. Because of the shakes and vibrations from being such a large 4-cylinder, engine, that was the reason these transaxle equipped early Tempests used the so-called "rope driveshaft" (actually a flexible steel cable) to absorb the shakes and vibrations from the engine. Pontiac had great engineers and was really thinking outside the box in those days! It's a pity that GM eventually lost it's way and in its final years Pontiac ended up being little more than a badge engineered 'generic' GM car. To my mind that was what led to the demise of both the Pontiac brand and eventually to the GM bankruptcy and eventual government bailout. Sadly it doesn't appear that much has changed at GM.😥
Sorry but there was No Such Thing as a rope or flex cable driveshaft used on 61-63 Tempests. The driveshaft was a solid steel shaft around 1" diameter (think torque tube) that was routed below the floor and rode on bearings to hold an arc making less of a front to rear hump in the floor.Delorean's idea.
@@1208bug And where do you get this *wrong* information". Please show a source.
⁹Dad had a 1965 Pontiac LeMans convertible with the 326 engine. It was a truly excellent machine.
Had 66 Tempest. The 326 ran good. Put a 650 Holly. Good work car 👍
My first car was a pretty well spent 65 Tempest with a 326 and 2 bbl. It had two cylinders low on compression and got horrible mileage, but that car still ran and drove better than anything I had considered as a replacement. I had made the decision to repair the engine and keep the car, but a moron in a Road Runner without insurance rear ended it and that was the unpleasant end of the Tempest.
Got my 1st car when I was 15 in 1981, paid $1200 for a blue/blue '67 Firebird with the 285hp 4bbl 326 HO ✌💖☮
Pontiac sold 326 V8 for several year. A friend of mine had a hard running 1967 Pontiac Firebird. BTW Pontiac small blocks usually outpowered their GM brethren.
interesting info thanks!
I had a 63 Tempest with the 326. Very nice car.
Thanks for the story
I've been running L25 292 L6s in my '68 C/10 Stepside pickup since 1973. On my 3rd build with 400 thousand on the chassis. Torque monsters. One of Chevy's best-kept secrets.
Not a Pontiac, but they were produced in some GMCs in the late '60s.
My 1967 Lemans had a 326 with a 2 speed automatic.
The best thing about a car that came with a 326 or 336 or 350 is that it's an easy swap to a 389/400/428/455.
I had a 1965 LeMans with the 326.
My dad had a 1966 Pontiac Tempest with a 326 c.i. V8 engine.
You didn’t watch the video.
After the 421 came the 428 in the 1967 Model year, now highly sought after. I personally prefer my 4 bolt main 1964 389 & 1969 400. Soon to be still with 4.150” bore & a 4.150” stroke Billet crank making it a 450. We have 2 1963 326,s(336). One is original from my 1964 model year Tempest Custom & the other a 280+hp HO 326 with under 35,000 original miles on it in our 1964 model year Lemans. I noticed my Pontiacs like good timing sets, better cam and improved oiling, especially a good oil pump. My current 406 is an Absolute Monster. It Roars like scalded Lion at half throttle. I’m sure you are aware of folks like Kauffman Racing, Butler Performance, Spots & McArty Racing then I take it? I have been able to be awakened to many of Pontiacs true performance potential from several of them. Including Lynn’s personal performance crankshaft man Dave in Michigan. He told me when prepared right, an original Nodular Iron Pontiac Crankshaft can withstand 1000+hp!! I do fully agree with him because I know he’s done it! I don’t need that much however I did have my builder employ several of his techniques to my 1969 Nodular Iron 400 Crankshaft after they talked and set up a plan for my build. What an impressive improvement!! It’s not stock. It came with a 3yr 36,000mile warranty to withstand 7500RPM. It’s now 7yrs into its rebuild with never one problem, past 7300RPM 3 times so far. 200-4r with full throttle use lock up to 900Lb Ft of Tq & Eaton Carbon locker with Richmond 3.36 gears. Currently it weighs 3212Lbs. Soon, around 2800Lbs. I’m trying to say it’s difficult to explain how impressive my Pontiac Tempest is in words with what is invested into it. It out performs newer Porsches & Many Corvette’s and the like. Since 1993 I have been a huge Pontiac only guy and love to learn. Thanks, we would love to put a well sorted 389-455 in a decent 1967-72 GMC someday. I always loved the Pontiac Powered GMC,s
This big 326 was available in the transaxle Tempest. It may have only had a 2 speed auto but it was not slow. (I just checked and you could get a 3 speed manual, but the 4 speed was not strong enough.)
I had a 1964 Lemans with a 326 4 sp car that I quickly found it's short comings being needing screw in rocker studs, better valve springs, better lifters and larger camshaft. Withthe addition of headers , a little carving on the intake and exhaust ports produced a remarkable improvement in HP and RPM's , Easily running away from GTO's, , Chevrolet 350's on a very consistent basis.
It was always a story at work that we got caught with the 336 when some tech inspector at a drag strip did the bore and stroke calculations and figured out the real displacement.
The V8 engines from this time period.......... some of them were ahead of their time and really were the best source of power for intermediate vehicles.
I had always believed that the 327 V8 from Chevrolet was the best and kind of the only version of that engine in general motors fleet.
Other than flaws that were mentioned in your video many of these smaller v8s were very robust.
I had inherited a 1976 Olds Cutlass supreme with the 260 V8 engine in it. I would have much preferred to have a 327 V8 engine in that car because the 260 V8 did not really produce enough power for that size vehicle.
Thank you!!!!
When I was a kid a friend of my father's worked as a dealer service rep for Pontiac division. I remember him telling me that the Pontiac "326" was really a 336, but I thought it was all years, not just the '63. I'm sure he knew that but I just remembered it wrong.
Ordered a ‘65 Goat, midnight blue, 389 tri power, M21 4 spd, 3:91 gears. It was OK fast but sold it and got a L78 396 Nova M21 4 speed. Now that puppy was and still is a fast ride.
My first car was a 1967 Lemans, and was equipped with that venerable 326! The only downside was the PowerGlide transmission.
That 2 speed is known as a supper turbine 300 transmission. Power glides are Chevrolet specific. The 300s only came in Pontiac Buick and Oldsmobile and some have a variable pitch Torque converter.
I am a Pontiac guy and knew that the 326 was bigger than a 326 but did not know that it was an "existing" 336 (I had heard a whole different story on that). I also did not know that they ended up correcting that in 1964. Ironic that the same year they made that correction, they slid the 389 in as on option (not a new model) to get the GTO going. Thanks for telling me something Pontiac that I did not know.
One thing that was not metioned was that the 326 was also the standard V-8 for the mid year 1967 Firebird which didnt apper in Pontiac showrooms until February of that year and there was a 250 hp verison and the HO 326 which I belive was around 285hp Above that was the 400 which was either 325 or 335 hp but that's an even deeper story!!!!!.
Ah yes I remember a few of those Pontiac's and their engines. My cousin was a senior in high school and my uncle would let her drive his 1964 Tempest to school. It had the 326 in it. I fell in love with that car and was saving up to buy it from him when she totaled it in an accident. Luckily she was OK. I was so pissed and disappointed. I ended up with a 350cid silver with black top 2dr 1969 Le'Mans I purchased for $550. It had Mickey Thompson tires in back with chrome slotted rims. Later on I got a 1968 GTO with a 400cid then a 1965 Bonneville with the 389cid. Yep those plastic cam timing gears were known to leave you stranded. I like this channel for the history and background on these cars and engines, good work thank you.
I remember those days. "Give me tune up parts for my Pontiac."
Parts counter man: "Want a timing chain with that?"
You always present an informative and well documented topic. I learned a lot viewing this.
As you research and present various scenarios regarding American cars, would you consider discussing and reviewing one of my favorite Pontiac power plants, the OHC inline six cylinder that was introduced in 1966. Our neighbors had a 1967 Firebird with that engine and I loved the sound it made! Was it a Pontiac design or was it actually a Chevrolet engine that was modified?
I saw this, & I was curious as to what you guys were talking about. A one year only 326 ci ? How could this be? I had a 1967 Le Mans with a 326 ci 2 barrel. 2 speed Power-Glide. Thank you for educating me on this 1 year only 336; I never knew. I also at one time had a Bonneville with a 389 4 barrel; Both were great power plants. I still find it hard to believe that Pontiac is no longer with us in current production.
The transmission you had was not a powerglide. It was actually a super turbine 300. ST300. Totally different transmission.
I have a connection - I once owned a Pontiac powered '58 GMC and took my driver training in high school on a 64 Tempest 326.
1964, I was a jr. in high school, neighbor was mid 20's , couple kids, bought a new blue Tempest hardtop, w/a 326/4speed. He got the car early in the model year and was bitter because the GTO option came out second half of the years run. The car was exactly like a GTO w/the smaller engine, less the hood scallops.
According to Chilton's, the 1963 Tempest V-8 had a 3.72 and 3.75 bore and stroke for 326.06 cubic inches.
My dad was a Pontiac man and at times raced. My first car was a slightly used 1966 Tempest with the 326 2 bbl and 2 speed powerglide tranny. It didn't have a lot of pizzazz, but got me where I wanted to go. Made the mistake of running single weight W30 Kendall oil in it on a cold winter day. Hell to get it started, but it did. My brother wrecked it. Sigh.
I had a 1973 Lemans 4 door with a 400 Cid with a 2 barrel carb and it was a sceamer