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1981 Turbo TA - Just Purchased - Questions!?

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81TurboGhost

1981 Trans Am Turbo Silver/Silver (California Car)

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Alright, so last night about an hour before work I saw a posting for a 1981 Turbo TA for 3400 dollars on Craigslist. I called and received the VIN#, and then proceeded to carfax. After doing so, I found out that the 1981 Turbo TA this guy had was only driven 12,000 miles since 1991 (based on Smog records). So it is believed by myself that this car has 65,000 original miles. I then quickly proceeded to run to my bank and pull out 2,800 for an offer, all or nothing. The guy deliberated for a bit and then decided to sell. He said he knew little about the car, it had just been sitting for a couple of years and wanted to get rid of it.

My first question: What is this car worth, I know little of the desire for this Year, Make, Model, and Engine Type?

Second question: The timing seems to be a little off because it diesels after shutting off sometimes. Any ideas what the timing is supposed to be set at on a 4.9L Turbo?

Any help would be good help. Thank you!
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Nice T/A. Others will chime in concerning the value. If I were to take a uneducated guess... maybe closer the 8-9k with the right buyer.

I never driven the turbo powered 301 but I'll tell ya that 4.9 301 that was in my buddies old 1979 Gold Pontiac Lemans (4 door) ripped. My first impression was wow.. it revs faster and seemed to make the same or more power than the 305.
 
Gang over on TransAmcountry.com will be a big help on any 2nd questions. Cool car looks like a turbo version of the TATA (tenth anniversary trans am).
 
81TurboGhost said:
1981 Trans Am Turbo Silver/Silver (California Car)
Second question: The timing seems to be a little off because it diesels after shutting off sometimes. Any ideas what the timing is supposed to be set at on a 4.9L Turbo?


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If I recall, this being an 81 is the very early version of GM's C3 closed loop computer control, especially being a California car, since federal cars were always a year or more behind the pollution curve.

And if I'm right, it only controls some of the primitive functions of the ignition and timing function. So, probably the timing is not under your control. But if it were me, I'd look at what the hot idle in park RPM's were and be sure those were low enough that it wasn't dieseling because of a high idle.That you have control of the Quadrajet.

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Very nice indeed, I like their look. I had an '81 TTA as well, my god those things are slow. They have such a great appearance though, that it almost makes up for it :)
 
I've read a little on these and really for the era in which they were produced they were awesome and cutting edge. At the time Pontiac had to try to get the best power and mileage out of it they could, one reason for the poor acceleration is the gearing in these cars, you can pick up a bunch by switching out the rear end for something better suited to its power.

Also at the time the gas that was available was not of a very good quality so the car was constantly cutting power to not detonate. Internally its built for strength, the turbo is also undersized for the application.

Really the 301 has similar issues to what our cars do, too small a turbo, poor engine management, problems with getting spark advance due to fuel.

Turbo swap, alky, new rear end, freshen up the tranny, maybe some porting on the intake manifold and headwork, I know nothing of carbs but there might be something better out there that bolts up from a later car, perhaps a hot air GN or something like that. I don't believe these cars are intercooled either? Big area for improvement there if so.

Regardless of what anyone tells you there is build potential with that car. However if your intention is to keep it 100% original don't expect much from it other than being a nice cruiser because it just wasn't designed with performance in mind.

some good background info
http://www.2gta.com/1980ta.html
 
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Thanks for all of the insight. I am trying to button everything up and see what I can do with the car. It is undoubtedly SLOW! A V8 with a hair dryer on top of the motor producing 200 HP seems like an unusual joke to me. Oh well, guess I'll just see what I can do with it. Thanks again!
 
Well at the time anything over 200 was like 400 in todays world, even many corvettes of that era had less than 200hp, most 4 cylinders couldnt even produce more than 100
 
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