That wasn’t standard was it? I thought they typically had the 400cc 6.6L
I believe Pontiac ran into too many problems with their 400 once they added all the pollution controls onto it. They switched to the Olds 403 which didn’t have the same issues.
IN the late 70’s—GM was putting all kinds of engines into everything they could sell.
In 1978, Pontiac stockpiled the last 10,000 Pontiac 400 CID blocks to be used on the 1979 model year... Of those, 4,317 were 4-speed cars, the remainder went into the 10th anniversary Trans Ams with automatics. It wasn’t that there was a problem with the Pontiac 400 - it was that GM was mandating the “Corporate” engine be used. The Pontiac put out 40 more horsepower. I had two of the 4 speed cars.