Royal GTOs and Pontiacs

Text and photos by Michael Sledge

I bought my ‘71 GTO in New York state almost 20 years ago. It was pretty much an all-original car that came from Arizona, and it was the right color Lucerne Blue with the honeycomb wheels. The only thing that would have been better is if it were a four-speed car. I have only in the last year really driven the car much. Before that just short trips around DC and it sat in the garage for years when I lived in England.

Covid was a good excuse to sort things out. My ‘71 GTO is a 400/300 hp automatic car with well over 100 thousand miles on it. I was told it was rebuilt sometime in the past but hard to say. It ran good but kind of lazy or am I just used to modern fuel injected cars and modern automatic transmissions? I spent most of the lockdown repairing everything (fuel pump, gas tank, timing chain, fluids, hoses, plugs, rebuilt carb with new bushings in base plate etc.) Big improvement with the drivability but I was still not satisfied; it ran well but I felt there was more to be had. So, after some research I purchased a Mr. Gasket mechanical advance curve kit for my HEI distributor.

The HEI distributor is the only non-stock item on the car. The kit came with springs, new weights, and nylon bushings. I made sure to take photos, so I did not forget anything. The Gold- heavy were just like the stock springs so I installed the Silver-medium springs taking care to install the new weights and bushings and lightly grease the shaft. A quick test drive was disappointing as it was no real difference. A few weeks later I installed the black light springs which made huge improvement. They claim the advance is all in by 3000rpm. I now have the initial timing set at 12 and the distributor has 23 for a total of 35 degrees which should be good.
I am planning to go back to the stock distributor in the New Year and upgrade it with an electronic conversion kit for a more stock appearance. Plan to just run it with the points initially to see how it runs more for my own curiosity than anything thing else before installing the conversion upgrade.

I plan to fix a gas tank neck leak in the new tank (they sent three and this was the best one as the other two were damaged.) New springs in the driver’s seat and just basic maintenance. I still must get the tires balanced better. The honeycomb wheels are almost impossible to get balanced properly. A radio would be nice as well.