1969 pontiac firebird headers3/8/2024 To compete with Chevy, Pontiac decided to develop an overhead valve V8 engine themselves. Up until then, Pontiac was still using a straight-8 engine design which had been around since 1933. Chevy released their famed overhead valve small block design in 1955 which was extremely popular for its reliability and unparalleled power production. Pontiac 400 V8 Engine Historyīy the mid-1950s, Pontiac was beginning to fall behind the times as far as engine technology was concerned. Check out our Pontiac 389 Engine Guide for more Poncho V8 content. This guide will cover the Pontiac 400 V8 engine’s history, specs, common problems, and performance upgrades. Over the 400 V8’s run, it was used in some of the most iconic Pontiac models, and by extension some of the most iconic American muscle cars ever built. Over the years, the Pontiac V8’s bore kept increasing and so did displacement, ultimately giving us the Pontiac 400. Ultimately, the Pontiac V8 recipe stayed the same since their switch to their first overhead valve V8 design in 1955. Prior to the introduction of the Pontiac 400 CID V8, the Pontiac 389 CID was the top dog, preceded by the 370 CID before that. In 1967, the Detroit brand had the GTO and the Firebird, both offering ridiculous performance from their massive Pontiac 400 engines. Pontiac had some serious competitors in their lineup. Luckily for us, that meant that the cars kept getting better and better. Before the oil crisis interfered in 1974, all of America’s car giants were hard at work trying to work harder than each other. The late 1960s represented the peak of the American muscle car era.
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