It was a great car for a 16 y/o. I literally drove the wheels off it for three years. Finally in 1970, with 125K+ miles on it, it threw a timing chain 100 miles from home. I limped home without the engine totally blowing, but it didn’t do the valves any good to be that out of time.
My dad decided it wasn’t worth the cost of fixing it so he bought a new car and I got his 1964 Rambler American. What a come down. An in line six, three on the tree rolling piece of crap. The only saving grace was it had full reclining front seats which came in handy at times as my late wife would attest to if she was still here to offer her opinion.
Yeah, the Pontiac V8’s of that era were known for having the cam timing chain stretch enough to jump a link when the mileage got up there. Happened to my GTO, suddenly would hardly run at all — coughing and sputtering. I dicked around with the spark timing and finally got it to run enough to drive. Then my mechanic buddy told me it needed a new timing chain.