Just bought an 85 camaro for my first project car!

I just picked up an 85 camaro at a small mom and pop auto sales shop for 800 bucks. the body is in very good shape and the engine runs very strong. it did have alot of suspension and front end problems. I have already replaced all the things that were wrong with the cars suspension. (inner and outer tie rod ends, center link, tires, brakes shocks ect.) I have a buddy of mine thats gonna do some body work and fresh paint job. the owner prior to me dropped a 350ci 2 bolt main with a corvette intake and quadra jet carb and it has a shift kit....what i need to know is where i should start with the engine. I plan on putting approx. $5000 total in the car over the next 2 years but i know very little when it comes to performance enhancements. I was thinking new headers and complete perfomance exhaust, cam, intake, carb, bored 30 over?!?! 100 shot nos kit? put it this way. if you had 5 grand to add horspower to this car what would you do and where would you start? Also i just ordered a set of 4 mickey tompson classic II rims and a set of 295 55's for the rear end.

thanks in advance
jason

sounds to me like your plan is spot on. my primary suggestion for engine mods, is an xtream energy cam from comp cams, and a set of vortec heads with the matching cam. then look at your drivetrain. chanses are you have a open rear. buy a torsen (posi) from a fourth gen camaro with 3.23 or 3.42 gears. it bolts right into the third gen 10 bolt rear end. much better traction. those on top of what you already have planned would show substancial gains.

You know i never even thought about changing the drive train......thanks for the info.....should i pick one up new or u think i could possibly pull one from a junk yard? what years are the 4th gen? there is a 99 and a 2001 sitting at a j.y right down the road from me. maybe i can grab a few parts off one of those. Also should i have it bored first or should i go with maybe the headers and exaust....ill have 600 bucks to play with in 2 weeks.

What kind of trans do you have? Is it in good condition? All that work would be for naught if the trans is shot...

Also, why don't you get one of those aluminum radiators - they're great for the summertime (the one's with the trans cooler built in are nice)

Any year, 93-02, factory 10 bolt rearend should work just fine. I'd go pull the one from the 99 at the junkyard, assuming it's still there...

I'm not sure what trans it has yet...I've only had the car 2 weeks so there is still alot of things i need to check out....Ive been working 12 hours a day 7 days a week so i havent had alot of time yet. ill chack on that 99 again when i have a day off or atleast dont have to work a 12. Thanks for the help so far and ill keep you all posted on my progress.

I think when he was asking about the transmission, he was asking whether it was a manual or an automatic...

oops....its automatic

700R4 :) i highly reccomend what i did to mine. B&M transkit from autozone. - 416.oo
2600-2800rpm stall converter with kevlar jockup clutch (EBAY) - 135.oo
Corvette 1st - 2nd Servo (EBAY) - 16.oo
and a B&M ratchet shifter is next. she should be pretty bullet proof for the street, and bite hard. i would say, if you are just getting started, start easy. go with the headers and exhaust for now. should be a bit over 600 bucks.

Man, let me loose with 5 grand. Get your vortec heads, have them cut and fitted with 2.02intake/1.6exhaust valves, cleaned, springed and set for around 600 bucks plus the cost of the heads. Find out the casting date of the block, get retro fit hydraulic roller lifters if it's not a lifter motor and go for a hydraulic roller cam. Get the specks off of the best cam you can find, or the one that gives you a hard on and write em down and e-mail those specks to [email protected] they'll grind you a cam to your specks for 180bucks. With good springs and those heads I'd go with something like a .600 lift cam at 230something degree duration. It'll have a real radicle idle and if you retard your timing just right you'll pull 7500rpm with great power. Take that spread bore carb and chrome it and put it on the mantel it's worthless to you. Take the motor apart and replace all of your bearings with clevitt77 race bearings. Check the crank for the slightest imperfections as they could cause balance problems at high rpms, if it's in good shape check the manufacturer, if it's a quality part keep it. If not, get an eagle crank. If it's got some inperfections and it's a qual.crank get it turned and get .10 over bearings. Get some good conecting rods, look for some that have been shot peaned and magnafluxed, and some good pistons..federal mogul or keith black. Personaly I'd go with 11.5:1's and wth those heads you'll get like 10.5:1 unless you get them decked really good then you'll have close to 11:1 and those heads will eat it up..:D Victor JR intake and a holley 4150 dominator 750cfm maybe 850cfm due to the valves and intake, copper freeze plugs, long tube headers with collector mufflers. 3500-4000 stall converter with all that tranny work iroc talked about and an msd 7AL box with millet distributor. If you do it right you'll still have some cash left over and you'll have a 500+hp motor. Because I always forget something, I'm sure someone will let me know about it. oh oh oh oh oh..do all that I just told you but bore the block .030 over get the .030 over pistons skerted for 6" rods and a set of 6" rods...oh man do I have to tell you?? wow..but thats what I'd do with 5grand.

wow man, thats one hell of a detailed post....That is exactly the kind of post i was hoping to get. Although 75% of what you said is chineeses to me i printed everyons suggestions and will give that to my buddy who will be doing all the work for me. One last thing.... I would love to put a 100-140 shot single stage nos system on it.....Above and beyond what has been posted in this thread so far, is there anything else i would need to do to the engine to handle the nos system?
I must say...this forum kicks a$$ im glad i found it and it looks like ill be comeing here often
Once again thanks for all your help

jason

well, the Nos (thank you god for not calling it noss) should be perfectly happy with the engine as is, so long as you set it up right. and dont use it on a daily basis all day long, at every opportunity. plenty of third gens have been set up with superchargers and a low nos shot on stock short blocks and survived just fine. just make sure its done right, and you keep it in shape. but i will say, with nitrous you want an aftermarket ignition that cuts spark to the engine at the rev limit, instead of fuel. nitrous without fuel being ignited in the engine leads to holes in the pistons and bent valves.

oh and with the vortecs, be careful what you pay for. there are two seperate castings, look at the casting number in the rocker vally of the head. its like.... ten digits long i think. the last three numbers are the ones to worry about. you want castings ending with 062, not 906. the 906 heads were used on heavy duty trucks like box trucks and express vans, they have a pressed in valve seal that cannot be over cut, and they flow less air on the exhaust side. they are not very good for performance, but if you have a truck for towing, they are excelent. the 062 heads are on 96-99 tahoe, suburban, yukon, and silverado/sierra trucks. they are the ones you can play with. and make serious power. also i would reccomend geting heads as new as possible, as little changes are made every year, and the newer ones to my knowledge are the best. those are the ones i have waiting to go on the IROC.

Yeah, but make sure you spend the extra cash to have them cut for 2.02/1.6 valves, if your going for all out performance you'll need them, plus with nitrous it'll help keep fuel in the chamber. You can pump as much NOS as you want so long as you have good fuel pressure.

will this work for my rear end.....will i need anything else to go with it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2455582362&category=33731

I just read somewhere that the new camaro's have a 28 spline and mine has a 26 spline so if i replace the rear end with a posi rear from a newer camaro i would have to replace the axles too. I am a complete noob when it comes to rear ends so any help here is much apreciated....

yeah everything before 1989 had 26 spline, 1989 and later has the 28 spline. im not sure but so long as you get the axles from the same application (ie drums to drums or disks to disks) you shouldnt have a problem, stick to the axles out of a 1989 to 1992 and the carrier out of a fourth gen, i would say the newer the better, but i got mine out of a 1996 firebird. with those parts, you should be able to just bolt it all together.

it might be smarter to put an entire posi third member on ur car. they have instructions and advice on that swap all over. i plan on doin that at least, not to mention i've heard it give your car an aggressive stance because the posi third member is 2 inches wider (or was it 2in per side, i don't remember).

??? to my knowledge, the rear end housing is the same. the difference is inside, in the carrier. i have an open rear in my RS, and a posi carrer will bolt right in, far easier in my opinion to put in a carrier, rather than replace the whole rear end assembly.

or are you talking about a 12 bolt vs a 10 bolt??? a 12 bolt is larger, but 10 bolts are the same in all camaros. no difference between posi and open from the outside. just a differnt carrier.

Ok, i just found a 10 bolt posi 26 spline on e-bay.....that would be much easier and cheaper than then replacing the axles too not to mention having to find another camaro to pull parts from. also ive been looking a gears too....what would be the advantage and/or dissadvantage of putting 4.10 gears in it?

so its just a posi carrier?? not the outter housing, axles, brakes and everything. then yes, i would say that would be the easiest way to go. and cheaper. also look at the ring gear size. the one in your camaro should be 7.5 or 7.625 in in size, make sure that the posi you are looking at is not a 8.5in ring gear. the smaller one was used in camaros and passenger cars, the 8.5 is used in the buick GN's and light duty trucks. the internals are not interchangeable. as far as the 4.10 gears, advantage, hellacious acceleration, just plain fast. digs in and goes. down side, youll have to wear ear plugs, and have one helluva cooling system to run it as a daily driver, cruising speed will be like 3000-4000rpm i would estamate. gas mileage will suck, i wuold reccomend going no higher than 3.73, preferably 3.42 or 3.23. if you have no overdrive the 3.23 is best, 3.42 is optional, 3.73 is pushing it. with the overdrive, i would say you could pull the 3.42 very comferateably, and 3.73's would be doable. but for a daily driver, i would never recomend the4.10, although im sure someone on here is gonna say im a wuss for saying so. :)

i do have overdrive and i already get terrible gas milage anyway...lol but the 3.42 or 3.73 might be more to what i need cuz this will be driven every day!!

yeah, when it comes to a daily driver, less is more. i would highly reccomend the 3.42 gears.

I know this a old post but I was blown away by the guy that was talking about grinding a cam with a .600 lift. So let me get this straight, you would do all of that, let him put it in his engine, then walk away? How about telling the guy that when you get into high lift cams you change the geomitry of the valve train, and that he will have to change rocker ratio and get shorter pushrods. If you know how to grind cams you need to give up more detail than here is what I can get you and it will do this and that and on and on. These is a lot more to this than just shoving a cam into an engine. For 5000 dollars this guy could get a LT1 with a harness stroke it to a 383 with a hot cam,and put a nos system in it and have beer money when he is done. the LT1 is a roller engine so thats done. Come on we can all rattle off parts all day long but the trick is to do it right. I am not saying that this guy doesnt know what he is talking about but he left out a LOT of info.