Vintage Camaro - Needs Work

[cannibalrights]

Only 3rd gen that I would conside to be vintage right now is 82's and 83's. My car is vintage. But still I like the 3rd gens. There good solid cars and I was looking at getting one of them untill I found mine.

If all the lights and shit work then theres nothing wrong with the battery. My advice is cross your fingers and change the starter and fuel pump. If that takes care of the problem while your at it you should change the spark plugs and wires, oil+oil filter and transmission fluid. Then take it somewhere and make sure everything is alright. You dont want to be driving something thats not safe, trust me my friends streeing colum droped out while he was on the busyest street in the city and it wasnt pretty But if the starter and fuel pump dont work....My cousin's 89 Firebird had the same problem and his engine took a shit and died.

[Phylum]

Originally Posted by 89IROC&RS

yeah man, thats not too bad, i cant make it out this weeknd, but if you want to get something going for next sunday, get the address where the car is parked, and email it to me, and i can try to come over then. weekdays im too tired (im a mechanic ) and i work most of saturday. but PM me the info and ill see what i can do.

Well no, not this weekend! That would have certainly come as a surprise to me if you did. In any event, I replaced the distributor cap today and p00f started up like a charm.

THANK GOD!!!!

The previous owner took the liberty in removing the tags which resulted in the car getting 160$ worth of tickets overnight. *sigh* Since it worked, I moved it to my 'second family's' house as they have a driveway and nothing will happen to the car.

I'll call my insurance company to get a quote and I hope to take a trip to the DMV by this weekend to register the car and at least get a temporary tag. Before the guy gave me the car, he warned me that it probably wouldn't pass emissions so I need to investigate that - maybe the DMV will let the car go for 30 days to fix the problem.

The car sounds pretty good (not that I know what to listen for), has decent acceleration but the steering feels wierd. The wheel turns with ease however it feels as though the wheels themselves are loose. It's hard to explain, ya gotta drive it to understand.

89IROC&RS - I can come meet you at your place, or your shop even, if you still want(ed) to take a look at it.

[Phylum]

Originally Posted by cannibalrights

Only 3rd gen that I would conside to be vintage right now is 82's and 83's. My car is vintage. But still I like the 3rd gens. There good solid cars and I was looking at getting one of them untill I found mine.

That's a schweeeeet car!

[cannibalrights]

Why thank you very much

[Phylum]

I've seen these vortec heads on hundreds of threads but I didn't see one regarding them on a V6 2.8 Camaro. I suppose it's because it's not possible or rather impractical (or just plain stupid) to do so. Is this true? Whats another alternative other than getting a v8 and a blower?(figured I'd save Genopsyde the trouble of saying it) Next comes the thermostat - what temperature should I get: 160? 170? 180? Based on what I have read on sites, everyone says something different. Of course in general they apply to camaros of other years however I'm sure someone on here has had experience with this or has a good...mathematical or logistical way of explaining the differences, pros and cons. I don't know what has been done to this car so I'm going to assume that nothing has been changed - at least nothing drastic. Pursuant to some other posts, Hooker and Edelbrock exhaust systems are recommended for this vehicle, are fairly easy to install and don't require a second mortgage on the house. If what is said is true, I'd prefer the edelbrock system as it's not as loud. I love the way my car sounds now however I'd just like to improve it a bit - make it happier. Out with the bad air, in with the good air. I don't need a 500+hp monster but I'd like something around 300-400 or so with a lot of torque. Is that reasonable? (Probably not with my existing configuration but with a 5.0 or 5.7 V8 [or custom], good set of cams and headers, intake and exhaust; I'm sure I could reach that goal). A lot of the things I've seen (like SLP intake runners and cold-air induction, BBK twin 58MM throttle body) are all geared toward the V8 which is again, a little depressing! So I suppose my question(s) is(are) the following...
Realistically, whats the most amount of hp/torque I can get out of my baby w/o causing any harm?
In addition to that, whats the most that I can do to w/o wasting money and having to redo a ton if I decide to get a bigger better engine (be it 5.0, 5.7 or some other engine say from Camaro Industries).

Whats my cost? *shrugg* I don't mind spending say 5-10k to restore it and make it a monster but I can't *poof* drop that all at once. Don't get me wrong - I don't have deep pockets! See, I love the car so cost isn't an issue per-se, I'll pay what I need to pay in order to get what I want (and or need based on personal experience or otherwise) done.

Any and all suggestions, comments etc are welcome. If you need more information regarding the car let me know and I'll find out. I also plan on posting pictures somewhere so you can take a look at it.

[89IROC&RS]

yeah the first thing about the vortec heads, is they are a V8 head, so they will not fit a sixer, there is a vortec head for the 4.3L V6, that has the same ports, valves, and chambers that the V8 head has, but i have no idea if they will bolt up to the smaller six. i would say not, but im not sure. for the thermostat, i would say a 180 degree is fine. the reason a car runs hotter, say 210 as a factory spec is to get the car up to operating temp faster, better for emmissions, but with that hot coolant flowing through the intake, bad for performance, thats why the lower temp thrermostats are popular, but they can hurt emissions. headers are always a good performance value mod, and yes, for emissions vehicles, i do recomend them. also the small primary tube diameter of 1.5in will help with low to mid range tourqe, which is what youll be looking for from the six. as far as realistic power from the 2.8L, i dunno man, not really up to speed on them. dont know the aftermarket for them or anything like that. to be honest, dont even know the stock power rating lol. but id aim more for 200hp. i think 300 is asking a bit much of the little engine that could. for comparison, the supercharged 3.8L engine makes 255. as far as the rest, how much you are gonna spend and whatnot, no idea man, i just dont konw enough about the sixers.

[1992RS]

I think you can get a reasonable 200hp out of that sixer with out pawning your mom's jewerly. But that motor was not built for power. It was built for a little bit of low and mid range torque so it could still be justified to be put in a camaro. LOL Anyway..I know it was in other things to guys. If you want more power I would suggest a new engine. You would probably spend less with a rebuilt V8 than you would trying to get more power out of what you have. Infact, you can probably go to a junk yard and find a third gen with a V8 and rob it of it's intire engine compartment and computer for about 500 bucks. That's what it runs here. but good luck bro.

[Phylum]

Originally Posted by 1992RS

Infact, you can probably go to a junk yard and find a third gen with a V8 and rob it of it's intire engine compartment and computer for about 500 bucks. That's what it runs here. but good luck bro.

Yea - thats the plan this weekend. My friend knows some great junk yards and we're going to take a trip up there to see what they have and what we can get. I need a few replacement parts for this car (rear fender and driver side door, trunk lid) as they're dented up pretty bad or simply don't work as they're supposed to.

[cannibalrights]

Yeah seriously, buying a V8 is spending about the same amount or less for more power than trying to beef up a V6.

[Genopsyde]

I've seen these vortec heads on hundreds of threads but I didn't see one regarding them on a V6 2.8 Camaro. I suppose it's because it's not possible or rather impractical (or just plain stupid) to do so. Is this true? Whats another alternative other than getting a v8 and a blower?(figured I'd save Genopsyde the trouble of saying it)

I see i've become a bit predictable here.

[Phylum]

First off I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read my newb posts. I'm sure I'm asking pretty routine, boring simple questions and I appreciate your patience and understanding.

This morning the car had a hard time getting going. After revving the engine around 2500 for a while I let go, it dropped to about 500 and struggled to get back up to 1000-1500. I put the car in reverse (which brings me to another thing*) gave it a little gas and it died. So I started it up again and tried to be quick about switching from P to R and it worked just not as well as I had planned due to the delay. Eventually I got it going in reverse and I heard this 'dragging' type sound. It doesn't always happen when in reverse - it also happens when going forward (coasting). It sounds like two pieces of metal slowly rubbing against each other - or a snow plow truck dragging its plow over a road that doesn't have too much snow.

*Here that other thing I wanted to touch on. One thing I have noticed is that when switching from park to reverse or reverse to drive or park to drive it takes maybe 2-3 seconds to actually shift gears. The car jolts a bit once switched and you can hear a difference in the engine noise. What controls that switching process or the timing? What could be causing that delay (not that I expect it to me immediate but it's slower than other automatic's I've driven (Civic, Escort etc)

This weekends plan is to try and find an IROC-Z coupe and check to see if the 8th digit of the vin is 8 which should be the 350-cid engine [right?]. If they have the whole vehicle I may as well go for it since I currently have an automagic and lots of changes will need to be made based on other posts here and on other forums/web sites. Is there something on the engine itself that I could check out which is a foolproof way of identifying it as a 350? I only ask incase someone took the engine out and put something else in it's place OR if they just have an area full of engines that aren't necessarily labeled as V6's, V8's etc

I found this on thirdgen.org:

"Q: Is there anything I can do to improve my 6 cylinder engine?

A: Yes, just about anything you can do with the 8 cylinder, can be done with the 6. Parts my be a little harder to find, but ads in the back of any Chevy magazine is best place to start. The most basic things are upgrading the intake and exhaust. A K&N air filter as well as freer flowing intake tubing can do alot. On the later models, you might want to try drilling holes in the water shields under the air filters (about five 1/4 inch holes). This will allow much more air into the motor. As for the exhaust, Edelbrock and Dynomax make some excellent free flowing systems for the V6s. And Products for Performance makes a freer flowing replacement catalytic converter.

For the spark, try the Crane HI-2000 ignition discharge unit and the Crane PS91 coil. Also use 8mm helicoil plug wires from MSD and Bosch platinum spark plugs.

You can even swap the cam. Competition Cams makes the CompuCam 2000 which is "computer freindly". Try something with .432 intake and exhaust lifts. In combination with that, use Competition Cams 1.6 roller rockers. All this allows for better breathing, so you might want to have the intake manifold ported. Also port and polish the heads.

Finally, you can go with forged pistons, chrome moly rings, Federal Mogul bearings, a remanufactured crank. This will be plenty strong to handle a nice nitrous set up from NOS."

That look good to you all? That FAQ is pretty good - I'm going to try some of the technical stuff I've seen on there (like the rattling I hear when idle and going in reverse, getting aluminum shaft, not being able to shift into overdrive at wide open throttle etc).

[drvngstorm05]

the delay in shifting is normal with your kind of transmission (i believe u have a 700r4) my 92 305 tbi does the exact same thing, the transmission is pretty much a slush box so it shifts slow. the jerking is normal too, u put it in gear therefore there is now power going to the rear wheels and it will push u forward slightly (same deal w/ reverse). the reason u didn't feel it in the civic or escort is because your car has torque (at least a respectable amount compared to the 4-bangers). the difference in engine noise is also normal. when you put your tranny into drive you make a connection between your engine and the rest of your driveline, but, your car isn't goin anywhere if you have your foot on the brake; so your engine will drop some rpms. finally, your car is slower because the 3rd gens are beasts, even with a v6 they are still about 3400-3500lbs, and thats a heavy sob. the civic and escort i would guess are about 1000lbs lighter than the maro, so its understandable that your car is slower.

p.s. remember you can always fix the slower problem by slapping 2 more cylinders on the girl

[89IROC&RS]

the lag may be normal, the metal draggin noise isnt, but hey, ill listen for it tomorrow. see if we can figure it out.

[Genopsyde]

sounds like rusty rotors. mine does it when it's sat for a while.

[Phylum]

IROC: Thanks again for checking the car out. I'll try to get some of the things that we discussed fixed.

I took a bunch of pictures for you all to see. I took waaaay to many to post in my opinion so check them out here http://www.phylum.net/camaro.php (I whipped it up real quick like).