Hey all, im in a bit of a pickle, as im sure most of you know finding parts for a 301 is pretty hard. I’m in the process of doing a resto on a 1979 Catalina with a 301, it has the factory 2 barrel intake and carb on there right now, my question is do any of you know where or which websites have 4 barrel intakes to beef it up some, and if there is any other vehicles that are interchangeable with a 301. Thank you all for the help!!

Hi 79’Catalina. Welcome to FP!

The bad news is the aftermarket has stayed well away from the underwhelming Pontiac 301 and 265. It is one inch shorter deck height vs the rest of the 326-455 V8 family, weight/mass had been taken out of the crank and block webbing. It was made to meet smog emissions and mpg requirements, not performance. By most measures, it is not a performance engine. Growing up we had a 301 in my folks ‘78 LeSabre.

That said TTA Performance in Wisconsin has made a living out of making modest performance gains out of the 301 and turbo 301. You might want to check them out. Their website is: ttaperformance.com

My question is this….are you restoring the Catalina back to original condition? Or are you looking for a performance / sleeper?

If it is the latter, then you are better off getting a 400 or 455 Pontiac engine. It should bolt right in. There are lots of performance goodies for these motors.

As some famous but dead gearhead philosopher once said, "There is no replacement for displacement". As advised above, yank that engine out, turn it into a coffee table for your Man Cave and put in something bigger. If this is a G-bodied vehicle, there are plenty of people doing LS engine swaps. Or, stick with an older Pontiac engine.

Its all up to you.

Rick

For the time being I was wanting to beef up the original 301, and yes I had already knew the 301 and 265 was an inch shorter, and that was going to be temporary until I have all of my ducks in a row for an LS swap as it is a g body, so and LS swap will be done for sure, as for keeping the factory 301 and beefing that up, I will check that website out and see what they have. Thank you all for the help and insight!!

Um, quick note. The Catalina is a B-body, not a G-body. The Pontiac G-body would have been the Grand Prix in 1979. LS swaps in either platform is cool though.

to each there own on the body style, also the website that you had provided was of no use, it was strictly for the 301 turbo, not the N/A 301

The issues with putting a 350-400-455 Pontiac into a 301 powered car are mostly mounting the engine accessory, as the 301 brackets will not bolt onto the larger blocks due to the block height difference, so you need to source the brackets with the engine. Also the stock Metric 200 transmission will not last long even behind a mild 350.

And there is still the clearance issue for a dual exhaust system to overcome. If it were my car I would concentrate my $$$ and time on the LS swap you are planning to do. Yes the 301 can be made to perform better, but unless you plan on keeping it in the car long term, it is a big expense for a modest gain IMO.

Unless you can source a stock 301 4bbl intake and carb. I would not bother. No one made an after market intake for the 301, but some have mounted 350/400 heads to the 301 block and machined the intake to fit. This allows the 301 to breathe better. But again I think it would be more cost-effective to find even a Pontiac 350 V8.

TTA performance does good work, but they are mostly geared towards the 301 Turbo cars. Not much available for the non turbo versions.

I have a 78 Catalina Wagon with a 400 4bbl, and even it is no race car, but it does get out of its own way. Remember most suspension parts made for the 73-77 A-Bodies bolt on the 77-95 B-Body chassis.

Good luck with your Catalina, and do let us know what you decide to do.

thank you jeff, as i stated previously it was just something for the time being until im able to scrape up some cushion cash to build a motor, my end plan is to LS swap it, i only inquired to see if anyone else had known, which i had figured out early on into the search but didn't hurt to ask around.

12 hours ago, 79 catalina said:

to each there own on the body style, also the website that you had provided was of no use, it was strictly for the 301 turbo, not the N/A 301

Hmmmm….while I know they specialize in turbo 301s, I was lead to believe that they had tips and tricks for NA 301s too.

not that i had seen, but i appreciate the help.

It looks like they are working on a non turbo Aluminum 301 intake manifold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBoYHlBKvwk

This thread has led me down a small rabbit hole, I have no intentions of ever running a 301, but I found the TTA video's point out some things I was not aware of. 10+ years ago I was pitted next to a guy that was running a 301 4bbl in a Pontiac T-1000. He was running high 12's at the time, he said he had bolted late 60's 350 heads to the block, modified an aluminum Edlebrock intake to fit, and it all went together with only the stock head gaskets to work with the coolant passages.

He had been given the low mileage 301, and the T-1000 for free, so he figured why not try it. He said the stock 301 ran low 14's, but he wanted to do better, and he did. But after watching a couple of TTA's video's the heads should not have been a direct swap. But possibly the fact that he only ran it a 1/4 mile at a time allowed the head gaskets to live. I don't think they would work for a street driven car.

It looks like the after market Kaufman or Edlebrock heads would be a better choice for the 301. Interesting. But they would have to be small valve versions to work with the small bore of the 301.

Sorry for the diversion, back to the topic.