some basic questions ??
03-16-2011, 11:41 PM
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some basic questions ??
hey everyone im new to the forum and i found this one to be the most helpful so far. iv done some searching but had a few questions of myself. iv spent about an hr searching and looking at the faq page. my father gave me his 87 camaro iroc-z 305 carb. he said i could do mare with it than he could now. so i decided i wanted to turn it into a project car and threw around some ideas and decided getting a 350 (crate?) or rebuild would be the best idea for me. i havent done any swaps except stock swaps on motors nothing like this. now i see a ton of 305 to 350 swaps but they are mostly TBI, and i was wondering if im mistaken when i see that the 86 carb motors are slightly different than the 87 crab motors?? and words of wisdom from the knowledgeable people on here?? (hopefully not to much criticism 
) thank you all in advance. and the trans is an manual 5 (dont know the technical name) sorry for the lack of knowledge on this specific car.
) thank you all in advance. and the trans is an manual 5 (dont know the technical name) sorry for the lack of knowledge on this specific car. 
03-17-2011, 12:00 PM
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Car: 1992 RS
Engine: Carbed 350
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: 3.42 posi
Re: some basic questions ??
Welcome to TGO!
Here's a few basics I know:
1) Your tranny is called a T5 (5 speed). There were 2 kinds, One slightly stronger than the other (I think it's a World Class) - but neither very capable of standing up to more power than a 305 has. There's many folks here with 350's and even 400's in front of the T5 tranny, but they baby them (no clutch dumps, no sticky tires). GM never offered the 350 with the T5 because GM knew it would stand up. Many folks here with higher output motors swap in the T56 tranny - the 6 speed from the 4th gen (1993 - 2002) cars.
2) You can swap in just about any motor imaginable - just takes a big hammer, a hot welder, time, and CASH! Seriously, most folks do 350's as they are cheap & easy. Keep in mind the best thing about SBC - it's all the same, and 99% of it is all interchangeable! The blocks are all the same on 283, 302, 305, 307, 327, 350. So, any motor from 1955 to today is very do-able. Then you get into LT1, and LSx - both still very do-able swaps, but slightly more expensive/involved.
3) Your 1987 carbed car will have an intank "helper" electric fuel pump as well as the mechanical pump on the block - keep this in mind - you cannot draw fuel through a non-working in-tank electric pump for long - so if you ever swap to an external electric pump or decide to not use the intank pump, you'll have to drop the tank and remove the "helper pump".
4) Since your car is carbed, you are golden! It's not legal for the FI folks to swap to carbs (although we do anyway). And, there is no better carb setup than your factory computer controlled carb - that Quadrajet will easily feed almost anything you'd want for motor, and do it the most efficiently (a REAL consideration given today's gas prices).
5) Also, the factory carbed computers are much easier to add mods to without needing any custom chip tuning. You can get away with alomost anything and your computer controlled carb will accept it without issue. FI cars can do a few mods but when they "cross the fine line" they need custom chip tuning (not always easy to get).
6) Just about everything imaginable has already been done to these cars, and someone has posted what they did, how they did it, and what they used here at TGO. And the search feature works great as you've seen. So we highly recommend you try a search first - saves you time waiting for answers that are most likely already here.
7) We are all here because we love the cars, and we love tinkering with them, and we love helping others keep the 3rd gen alive. Do the search first - but never hesitate to ask - the only dumb question is the one not asked.
Good luck! And again, welcome to TGO!
Here's a few basics I know:
1) Your tranny is called a T5 (5 speed). There were 2 kinds, One slightly stronger than the other (I think it's a World Class) - but neither very capable of standing up to more power than a 305 has. There's many folks here with 350's and even 400's in front of the T5 tranny, but they baby them (no clutch dumps, no sticky tires). GM never offered the 350 with the T5 because GM knew it would stand up. Many folks here with higher output motors swap in the T56 tranny - the 6 speed from the 4th gen (1993 - 2002) cars.
2) You can swap in just about any motor imaginable - just takes a big hammer, a hot welder, time, and CASH! Seriously, most folks do 350's as they are cheap & easy. Keep in mind the best thing about SBC - it's all the same, and 99% of it is all interchangeable! The blocks are all the same on 283, 302, 305, 307, 327, 350. So, any motor from 1955 to today is very do-able. Then you get into LT1, and LSx - both still very do-able swaps, but slightly more expensive/involved.
3) Your 1987 carbed car will have an intank "helper" electric fuel pump as well as the mechanical pump on the block - keep this in mind - you cannot draw fuel through a non-working in-tank electric pump for long - so if you ever swap to an external electric pump or decide to not use the intank pump, you'll have to drop the tank and remove the "helper pump".
4) Since your car is carbed, you are golden! It's not legal for the FI folks to swap to carbs (although we do anyway). And, there is no better carb setup than your factory computer controlled carb - that Quadrajet will easily feed almost anything you'd want for motor, and do it the most efficiently (a REAL consideration given today's gas prices).
5) Also, the factory carbed computers are much easier to add mods to without needing any custom chip tuning. You can get away with alomost anything and your computer controlled carb will accept it without issue. FI cars can do a few mods but when they "cross the fine line" they need custom chip tuning (not always easy to get).
6) Just about everything imaginable has already been done to these cars, and someone has posted what they did, how they did it, and what they used here at TGO. And the search feature works great as you've seen. So we highly recommend you try a search first - saves you time waiting for answers that are most likely already here.
7) We are all here because we love the cars, and we love tinkering with them, and we love helping others keep the 3rd gen alive. Do the search first - but never hesitate to ask - the only dumb question is the one not asked.
Good luck! And again, welcome to TGO!
03-21-2011, 02:25 PM
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Re: some basic questions ??
wow that helps a ton! thank you so much! sorry it took so long to reply work has been hectic. that helped me a ton on alot about my car, my dad didnt take great care of it but enough to have it run 200k + miles. now what is the main difference in my iroc z and the rs models? andthing i have to consider doing different in this car than most others? you also stated that my motor is interchangeable with most others, now when people talk about working on their 85 carb 305 and 350's can i just apply this same logic to my 87 carb?? again thank you very much.
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