Hello everyone. New member here as I just picked up a '79 T/A with a 403. I bought it from the second owner, who went to high school with the original owner. Supposedly, the original owner bought the car in '79, and started doing performance mods (which I have a lot of receipts for). Then he parked it in '82, and it sat until 2015 when the second owner bought it, painted it, and "pulled the engine apart, checked it, and put it back together." So basically, this car sits the same way it was set up in the early 80's, aside from a fresh paint job. The engine is numbers matching to the car.

Well, I'm completely new to Olds engines as I'm a Chevy guy. But it only took looking at a few other 403 T/A photos to notice that my accessory drive is set up way different. I was hoping someone here would know what vehicle these parts are from, and maybe even *why* it was set up this way.

For reference, it's a '79 4B 403 with 7A heads and a Holley Street Dominator intake manifold. Not sure on the carb yet as I just bought the car and haven't looked yet. It looks like there is an aftermarket harmonic balancer and crank pulley on it too.

Let me know what you guys think, any insight is much appreciated. Thanks!












And here, of course, is what it *should* look like:

 

As you can see, it packages much nicer. I believe it is similar to the FBody sbc accessory setup, which is why it is different. As long as the alternator clears properly, use what you have. You would need every bracket, the right length water and matching pulleys for the F body 403. Unless you can find it at junkyard or on this site. Also consider running another belt around the crank and power steering since you have the two groove power steering pulley. It will give better power steering, charging and cooling with better belt wrap. What fan are you using? A factory 4 blade fixed fan? They cool quite good but rob power. Don't use a flex fan, especially on a 403.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm planning on fixing some odds and ends and selling the car, so I'm hoping to get the few changed things back to original and get it running smoothly again. I guess the main thing I'm wondering here is... why? lol!

I'll consider the 2nd belt. The fan appears to be a factory style mechanical fan with clutch

 

I think they all came with the fan clutch, that fan spacer looked scary, there a ton of washers on there
I know some of the biggest TA parters if you want to hunt for the OG stuff, love the handwork on the air cleaner, Lol.
I know a guy who just pulled an orig 403 motor, buy that, you got it all. He’s in Florida.

 

Not to question your advice, but why especially a 403?

 

Go read the answer I wrote to your same question on Hotrodders.com. I'll bet this is not the original engine and whoever dropped this in retained the Oldsmobile accessory brackets instead of using the correct F-body ones. The F-body brackets put the accessories in the same place as on the Pontiac motor. This 403 was apparently from an A/C car originally, as evidenced by the Olds brackets and the fuel pump with a blocked off fuel return.

 

I saw same post on ***** yankers forum as well. (Py)

 

It's always weird to me at the number of guys that write the check, then when the car is home, they start questioning the questionable.

 

The main reason is they run hotter than a 260, 307 or 350 and flex fans are junk that don't work very well. My main issue was the air flow through my 88 Cutlass and 403 definitely ran the hottest. The pic is blurry, why is a spacer used for a clutch fan? That is a new one.

 

Is this whole thing spam, it’s posted on how many forums.

 

Yeah the fan setup was definitely one of the first things we noticed. This car is just going to sit for a little bit while I get the engine back in my Camaro and gather the right parts for the 403.

I'm going to respond to you over there.

I got the car at a price that reflected it's need for engine work, so it was expected. I'm new to classic Pontiac/Olds so these were just a few surprises lol.

It's not! Being that it's a Pontiac, but an Olds engine, I wasn't sure where to post and if it'd get deleted. As with any question, you'll get several different answers, so I wanted to see what the general consensus was.

 

Crowdsourcing answers to technical questions is never a good idea. My admittedly unscientific poll shows that about 80% of the responses to technical questions on the interwebs are incorrect.

 

well, if anything, it introduced me to the right people to talk to.