I have just removed my 2bbl inlet and carb from my 326 67 Firebird covertible and replaced it with a second hand duel plane Edelbrock intake and 4bbl carb I got for a very resonable price on Ebay in the UK.

I have an air pump on my car so I presume it's a California model. I have removed the pump but I didn't have anything to block the hole in the end of the heads so for now I left the two pipes on there and block the top pipe where the two pipes join and it was sucking a vacuum through there. I fitted a shorter V belt to go from the fan pully to the altenator I have another belt in front that goes from the fan pully to the power steering.

What do I need to block the holes?
Will a freeze plug set like this have the right size plugs?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRO-66560/

The holes are a standard small freeze plug for US cars. It's tough to tell if that kit supplies the correct size. It might be easier to get them from a Pontiac specialty engine builder like Butler, Spotts or BOP Engineering, or a Pontiac parts house like Ames.

Thanks for the reply, I had a look at Ames and found they do a freeze plug set just for Pontiac heads will this do?

FN765B Cylinder Head Freeze Plug Set, All Pont V8(RP) 6.00/set

You probably will want to call them to double check. Their customer service is very good.

PS, I checked the Ames catalog and there was no better info to see for sure if their kit had the right sized freeze plugs

Thanks for the help guys, now I know that freeze plugs go in there I took the air pump mount off and measured the hole. It's .685" so I need an 11/16" freeze plug.

So I did a search with Google and came up with a place in Wales in the UK that does Imperial freeze plugs and ordered a set of 11/16" dia cup core plugs they comes in packs of three!

We call them core plugs over here.

Now that takes care of the air pump side. The power steering side looks a bit more complicated as the altenator mounts through the aliuminium bracket on that side. Any sugeestions for that side would be appriciated.

Great. I was hoping you could find a place over there that would sell you single plugs.

No problem on the PS side. Just plug the head with a freeze plug and keep using the same bracket without the air pump piping. Thats what I did.

If you want a completely clean look, just put a "wanted' thread here for a PS bracket from a non-smog car.

Sounds good then I can get rid of that ugly pipework
Thanks Andy

I got my 11/16" dia freeze plugs and finished the job. I did as you said with the PS side and plugged the hole and put the bracket back as the PS pump and the Altenator bolt to it.




Anyone who is running one of these air pump systems needs to check for exhaust leaks as the air bracket is only stopped from leaking by a paper gasket and mine just fell to pieces after being in there 42 years. There is lots of eveidence of an exhaust leaks on both sides as you can see in the pictures. And we all know how much an exhaust leak hurts performance!