First El Camino

Ok so I'm new to this world, hell this happens to be my first car thats truly mine, so I'm looking for ideas what i should put into a 1978 El Camino. Its got most of orignal stock parts and I'm looking to turn it in to a hot rod with good get up and go power any thoughts on what i should put into it?????

Which motor does the car have in it? You could go with a nice cam and stall in the car if you want some good get up and go, But of course with a higher stall and a larger cam your fuel econmony will go down slightly depending how big you go. You can also do alot with changing the heads/and gaskets to change the compression a bit.

I may be biased but I'd say put a 5.3L in it. They can be had from junk yards for about $600-$700. power and fuel economy would go up if you did that. the new LS, and LQ engines are great motors.

If you wanna keep it old school, I'd just drop in a 350 and keep it mild. gas ant cheap anymore, so a 4 speed transmission is almost a given now-a-days.

in any case good luck with it, they are nice cars.

my old 305 got about 12 MPG, unknown mods, possible cam. with the new ls1 in it i got 23 mpg on a 1000 mile trip.