The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[njsteve]

And another vote for the 1B11 date code on survivor car SD455 starters. This one is from the 11,000 mile, red, four speed that was at MCACN a year or two ago. It was the one with the flames painted on it in the for sale area. (The current owner successfully hand-sanded off the flames and brought it back the its orignal paint.

[napa68]

"The current owner successfully hand-sanded off the flames and brought it back the its orignal paint."

That must have been an exercise in patience and restraint!

[njsteve]

and $$$ in labor costs. He had a professional do it.

Here's the before and after

[njsteve]

After more research and going directly to the source (Enrico) who remembered exactly what battery was in the car when it was delivered (would you expect anything less from him? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] ).

This is what I am now searching for. It would probably be easier to find that '65 Z16 convertible before I find one of these old batteries, but here goes:

I am looking for an original (NOS, used, dead or alive) Delco X Energizer Maintenance Free battery. These were the optional maintenance free battery that were offered in Pontiacs from 1971 to 1975. In 1976 they were replaced by the red, white, and blue Delco Freedom Battery.

No one reproduces this battery as it is just too obscure. Here's a couple photos combined from a 1971 and a 1975 brochure:

[mockingbird812]

Great detective work on the starter build date!

[njsteve]

Thanks. It has really opened up quite a few eyes in the Performance Years SD455 subsection. The guys had no idea this anomolay existed and now they are discovering more and more of these starters on known survivor cars.

The interesting thing is that the SD455 engines were cast and assembled in late 1972 and sat in storage until being installed in June 1973. Looks like the starters they used were sitting around even longer than the engines, or that they at least made a whole bunch of the high torque 1108436 starters that week and just kept them for the upcoming SD455 project.

[njsteve]

Look what I just got! An early Christmas present from fellow member 69JL8 who collects old Delco stuff. My wife bought it for me for Christmas, (though she doesn't know it yet). It's an original Delco Freedom II display model (no internal plates).

While it is not year correct for the SD it would be for Gramma's '75. I have seen some of the factory stock appearing racers remove the bottoms and install a motorcycle-sized AGM battery inside and run them as a &quot;decoy&quot; battery.

[napa68]

sweeeeet!

[njsteve]

The other interesting thing about the (formerly) flame painted car (VIN 142XXX) is that it was built a few days away from mine (141XXX) and the VINs are within several hundred units of each other having been shipped in mid July 1973.

When my Formula was being examined at MCACN the judges indicated that the exhaust was very odd as there were no resonators and no embossed markings/ribbing/part numbers on the mufflers, like the 1,700 mile car (VIN 144XXX) which shipped two weeks after the flamed car and my car left the factory. There was a lot of head-scratching with that since the exhaust did not appear to have ever seen a bolt turned on it, but also did not resemble the traditional exhaust and resonator/muffler system that was supposed to be on the car.

Well, it turns out that the flame car has the exact same no-resonator exhaust and generic looking muffler on its 11,000 mile factory installed system as my car. So it appears that there were different suppliers and batches of exhaust systems for these cars installed whenever they arrived at the assembly line.

Flame car's exhaust:

[9999]

Those judges really don't seem to know as much as they should, starters, exhaust. You owners are the ones in the know! Great attention to detail and wonderful cars!