63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
A friend of mine had a blue one back in the late sixties. Ended up putting a regular 215 in it because he had some issues with the engine. Probably wouldnt be an issue today getting it repaired, turbocharged engines are more common now. The problem was the turbocharger failed and it took forever to get one, so after it failed the second time it got an engine swap.
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
Heres a couple of shots of these engines, maybe that is a 215 with turbo removed and an intake etc from a regular aspirated 215 installed and maybe aftermarket valve covers?
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
Lots of comments there now about the turbo, here is one.
Great project car. However, this car may have started out as a Jetfire but I don't see the turbo or piping or sidedraft carb or the Turbo-Rocket air cleaner. What you may have is one of the many Jetfire's that were converted to a conventional carburetor because the turbo set up was finicky. Also, the engine was made by Oldsmobile. Buick also had an aluminum 215 V8 but there were many differences between the two.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
Seems like a plausible scenario. I imagine getting a proper turbo setup for that car in this day and age would be near impossible. So it will probably end up with a big block and 4-speed...
Funny to think that somebody may have bought that car to get the turbocharger technology, just to be forced to convert it to normally aspirated later on.
It's alot like the Fuel Injection setup Chrysler offered in the late 1960's. Most of those got swapped over to carbs. I bet it wasn't a cheap option too. Same for the "Air Ride" system GM offered.
It's alot like the Fuel Injection setup Chrysler offered in the late 1960's. Most of those got swapped over to carbs. I bet it wasn't a cheap option too. Same for the "Air Ride" system GM offered.
GM had FI in the vette about 57-65 and full size Chevies 57-59, not sure what years in Cdn Pontiac- a lot of hem got traded for a carb because of a lack of mechanics understanding how to adjust them, same for tripower carbs getting switched to single carbs. GM had air ride in 58 Cdn Pontiac and Chevy, it had many problems and was eliminated after 1 year. This Olds turbo/meth setup would have been really oddball back in the day so not many mechanics would have figured it out.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
A friend of mine, Warren, has a '62 F85 Cutlass with a high compression Olds 215 V8. He replaced the dubious Slim Jim trans with a Warner 5-speed manual. The car was originally sold new to Mrs. Seagram in Waterloo, of the distillery fame. They had money & didn't balk at paying the import duty.
Warren told me that the Oldsmobile has more head bolts than the Buick, which ran a traditional nail valve head on the same block. The turbocharged version started with the high compression engine and then turbocharged it. To stave off the inevitable detonation, Oldsmobile incorporated vapour injection, which Oldsmobile sold as Turbo Jetfire Fluid (I think was ethyl alcohol & water) was misted into the intake charge. There was a low fluid light for when the bottle was low. Ignoring it and letting it run dry could destroy an engine. Probably quite a few turbos were removed as a result of the fears of the public, and that is what we may be seeing on this '63.
An interesting tidbit about these GM Senior Compacts is that between the Pontiac Tempest, Oldsmobile F85 & Buick Special, they all share the same doors as per body style, and that means door skins. They still managed to make all the different Divisional offerings looks quite different from each other (and drive-trains were radically different too!)
