Hi all,
I have alot to learn about this car I just bought. It's a 1980 Firebird, supposed to have a 400 Big Block, does have an Edlebroch 4barrel carb. No headers but nice exhaust system, I think, sounds nice anyways. The car has a Hurst shifter.
I picked it up last fall and towed it home as I didn't even know whether it even ran or not. Got it cheap enough and plan to restore and do some customizing over time. At least that what the plan is. Body is pretty decent, not all rusted out, not even rusted inside the trunk and wheelwells and is good and straight. Except for the doors, they need to be re-adjusted.
About a month ago I thought, I wonder if it runs, so gave it a try and after a few pumps on the pedal it fired right up. Damn, I thought, this is not too bad, no smoke, runs reasonably well. Warmed it up, tried to move it and after figuring out how the shifter worked, got it into reverse. Tried to move it forward, worked just fine. Shut it down, restarted it and shut it down again. Checked the belts, replaced the steering belt, changed the air cleaner filter, changed the oil/filter, checked the trans and then added the plates. I wanted to run this around locally here to see what it all needed.
Needs shocks, needs brakes, needs a wheel alignment. But holy cow, this thing moves! Have to dig deep in the pockets though, for fuel money!
The thing that puzzles me though is this. How do I know for sure it's a
400 Big Block and not a 350? One thing that I did notice was the distributor shaft, it sits at a bit of an angle and not straight up and down like a 350 would.Thanks
Allan