Just joined. Love 389's got a few and bunch of parts. Check out my posts if you like. Raced Dragboats for years too. Got love that picture. Anyway I can help you guys let me know. I did not read the whole thread.
Build some oil pressure and fire it. Old Pontiacs are like horny old lady's ...they love to fired up again! You would be amazed on how long I have seen one sit and fire right up ...,
I just bought a 57 tri power Chiefton, good clean car from Ca. originally. I purchased it from Nevada. The engine has been apart for many years, the tri-power was in the trunk! It will get a complete rebuild eventually. I will be following along with this thread! Bill
I haven't had much time lately to mess with the 389, but I did pick up an interesting piece of the puzzle today. A 1959 Tri-Power cast iron thermostat housing. What makes this part unusual is the engine lifting loop built into it. On the '59 2 barrel and 4-barrel intakes the loop is integrated into the intake manifold casting, but for the Tri-Power they were only able to find room for the loop on the thermostat housing. Here it is shown next to an aluminum repro of a '65 Tri-Power housing for comparison. The '59 unit is pretty big and heavy, I put it on a shipping scale and it weighs 2.85 pounds compared to the '65 aluminum repro at a scant .55 pounds. Here you can see how the lifting loop configuration of the thermostat housing was copied in .150" to .175" thick stamped steel for later engines, attaching to one of the studs that mount the timing cover.
Here are my freshly restored 1959 Tri-Power carbs along with the correct linkage and fuel lines, sitting on the builder's workbench ready for shipment. The carbs, linkage and fuel lines are shown here mocked up on a 1960 intake. Pretty unusual fuel line routing compared to what I'm used to seeing on the more common '64 -'66 setups. New toys.
A gentleman who I know from a Pontiac forum that I moderate, Dick Boneske. He reproduces some Tri-Power components and is also an expert at restoring Tri-Power carbs and parts. I'm pretty sure he fabricated the fuel lines on both of these setups shown here, he does the hot air choke tubes as well. None of the carb parts are painted, they're all plated or dyed using the proper processes. Here's a '64 setup he did for me about 5 years ago. They ran perfect right out of the box after sitting for most of that time waiting for me to slide an engine under them, a fresh '64 421 HO.
Not yet, I have a major home improvement project in the works so I have no time and no good place to do any engine work at the moment. However there may be a chance that it will end up in a vintage Pikes Peak car driven by a member of a famous racing family. A friend came by inquiring about stick shift parts for a Pontiac and the conversation led to possibly letting go of my '59 389 for the Pikes Peak car. The '59 389 would have been the correct engine used in this car, however this race car is not a '59 Pontiac. Even if it doesn't happen, I'm hoping to get pics of the car and then ask him if I can do a feature here on the HAMB.
The Jalopy Journal
