# tripower or not?



## 29iceman (Nov 11, 2008)

hi guys, can anybody tell me if theres a way to find out if my gto was a factory tripower option car without using the PHS site? I bought a 66 gto in 1987 for $900. the guy had put a chevy engine in it, so the original 389 was gone. but at the time he asked me if I wanted the tripower intake and carbs from the engine (that's all he saved, so he says). so I ended up trading an old Yamaha dirt bike for the intake and carbs. I purchased a 1966 389 out of a catalina, and planned on rebuilding for the car. So does anyone know how I can decipher the vin. or tag numbers to find out if the car WAS a original tripower? thanks for any info.


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Unfortunately not, going to have to order PHS if you don't have an clean intact original build sheet on the car. PHS uses a copy of the original invoice. One thing to mention, in the 80's, many longtime early GTO guys had original tripower units (or an assemblage of) in their garages & sheds. Many of those units were never rebuilt & seldom made it onto one of these guys early GTO's. Most of these owners picked up these tripowers during the '70's & early '80's. Know I was offered many '63-66 tripower set-ups, bare tripower intakes, big car air cleaners, back in the mid 80's when I first started heavily collecting & working swappers. Sometimes, would buy or trade for one, other times would pass. 

One thing you could do is ck the casting date on the '66 intake. If your '66 GTO was built just a month or two after the casting date of the intake, good chance, it's original to your car. From my exp, '66 units were always more $$$ to come up with than '64's & '65's, & not many regular guys back then had multiple '66 setups, or when picking up tripower setups were real concerned about the casting date of the intake, as the date was often obscured once the 2G's, lines, & linkage were bolted on.


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Yes, you _can_ tell if it was a tripower car_ without_ the PHS docs, if you have the Protect-O -Plate. The Protect-O-Plate is the warranty book that came with the car when new. The P-O-P has the VIN and the EUN (Engine Unit Number) stamp on the back cover. If you have the P-O-P booklet, you are good to go. The downside is, that with the EUN on hand, buying a tripower coded engine (WS for manual trans) will still not fly as the _original_ engine, because the EUN won't match what's on the block. Pinionhead is dead on with his analysis of the past.....I was and am one of those guys. I bought my '65 in 1982 for $1200 with a 428 in it and a story that the original engine blew up at Baylands raceway. The car did come with the P-O-P,,though, with a WS coded EUN, and it's original Tripower, installed on the 428. I had two other '66 GTO's at the time, one with a tripower I picked up in 1979 for $100 or so. '66 unit with Ansen linkage. I got a repop fiberglass ram air tub for $40 and ran it until selling the car in '90. I kept the tripower, and ALMOST traded it for a Suzuki RM370 dirt bike, but didn't. Ran it on my '67 GTO ragtop for awhile in the early '90's, and it's sitting on my bench today, filthy, ansen linkage, cobbled together, but not for sale. It works perfectly. If you _don't _have the P-O-P, you'll need to order the PHS docs. Money well spent!!


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## 29iceman (Nov 11, 2008)

thanks for all the great info, really helpful. I don't have the p-o-p, so PHS will be the way to go.


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