I want to tow my Camaro to a road racing event that is about 4 hours away if you go about 75mph.

But my tow vehicle is a 2.2L Corsica! Has anyone else towed with their 4-banger? What happened?

I was thinking of using a tow-bar to reduce the tongue weight.

Thanks.

 

you're going to put that 4 banger through hell going that fast with a 3800 pound car behind it..
the rpms are going to stay very high 5000/6000 and your tranny is going to get very hot. considering the engine holds up at 5000 rpm for four hours...
I wouldn't do it...

 

What about adding an external tranny fluid cooler?

Any suggestions to help ease the abuse?

 

buy a beater truck

 

Quite the contrary. Getting the 3rd gen to move is going to be the problem. One it gets rolling it'll be fine.

Haven't you ever pushed a car? It's the same thing. You just about drop a nut getting the thing to move, but once you do, you can walk behind it to keep it going for 1/2 hour, or longer. At least I have.

Regardless, there's an easy way to find out. Get behind the Camaro and push it down the road. See how much strain it puts on the 4 banger to get the car moving. I know pushing is a little easier than pulling, but it'll give you a general idea how the motor is going to act.

If it doesn't work out there's alway Enterprise Rental Cars.

 

Another important factor is STOPPING. You have the weight of the camaro to add to the equation. I've used a Toyota 4wd, 5spd 4cyl. pickup in the past to tow mid size and full size GM vehicles. However, I don't know the weight of your Corsica. I used tow bars and tow dollies. It was easy to get them rolling, it was more difficult to control when turning and stopping. If not careful, it's easy to get the tow vehicle out of shape, causing a dangerous situation for yourself. I would use a tow vehicle that was heavier than the vehicle towed. As suggested borrow or rent a full sized truck. If the camaro is automatic, I would also remove the drive shaft, if towed with bar or dollie, for that kind of drive. In a pinch some duct tape and an aerosol cap can be used to seal off the tranny's tail shaft.

Since now older and wiser... there's no way I would do 75mph with a tow bar or dollie. I wouldn't go that fast with my crew cab dually and my electric braked trailer. Just too many idiots out there, who might wander into your lane.

 

The tranny cooler will help keep the automatic alive.
I used a 2.2 in an s10 (which I think is the same accept some mounts on the head as your corsica) to haul 4,000+ cars a few times. After the first time yes stopping was the biggest problem. Mainly the front rotors were warpped and breaks were fading after my first 70 mph to 0 stop on an off ramp.
That truck had 4.10 gears and a 5 speed manual so the pickup was acceptable.
As far as handeling more weight being towed than the vehicle doing the towing it can be done if you drive with care and a load balancing hitch can help with keeping it under controll.

 

rent or borrow a ford f250 or a van 2500. I have a club wagon I use to tow stuff it works good real stable when you're stopping and taking off v10 ownz j00

 

I have pulled many cars before and what you are talking about doing is insanely stupid. I use a trailer that is about 1200 lbs empty. If I put a 3000 pound car on that trailer I can feel it trying to push me around a little, but not bad. My towing vehicle is a 7200 pound :hail: Powerstroke Ford which is about 3 of your Corsica's put together. If I get up around 5000 pounds behind it then I need trailer brakes. What I am trying to get to is that you could cause a horrible accident. If you had to get on the brakes hard the Camaro is going to pass you.

This is hauling an old junker Bird that I got for parts. With the right equipment hauling cars is kinda fun.

 

d00d i donno but we used to have a heavy duty van pulling out 24ft boat. The van's back would swerve so much d00d i'm surprised the axles didn't snap. Doing that prolly is the exact same thing d00d. We're ok now cause we got a huge dodge(with a V10) todo the pulling now.

 

umm.... no.

a friend rented a tow dolly and pulled a monte carlo (88 ss) back to ohio from new jersey. 95 s10 with a 4 cyl and 3.73 gears. it was pretty slow going i'm told.

i have an 88 s10 that i wouldn't even want to attempt to tow something with. it's got 131k miles, and is just beat to hell. it'd be my luck that i'd snap the frame first time i tried to tow something.

at the very least, buy, beg or borrow a 1/2 ton full size pickup and suitable trailer.

i myself am considering buying an astro van later this year for towing. i still haul friends around, and i can't find a nice full size truck locally for an inexpensive price. so looks like i'm going for a van.

rodney, what kind of fuel mileage do you get from your 96 with that powerstroke?

 

I can get about 18 - 20 out on the highway running around 75 mph empty. Run it hard with a heavy trailer and it drops to about 12 mpg, but it will run up 6% grades loaded down at 65 - 70 mph. All of my mpg are kinda guesses since I don't fuel up at regular pumps. I have a 115 gallon tank in the bed and that pump doesn't have a meter.

 

very nice.

oh yeah, do you still have the brown bomber? or did you send it to the heap?

 

Last time I seen, it was on top of a 3 car pile at the scrappers.

 

Cant you lock the steering strait and put the back wheels on the tow bar? It sounds like a PTA to take out the drive shaft!!!

 

Taking out a drive shaft if rediculously easy....Take off the u joint clamps at the back....use a pry bar to slide the drive shaft forward a mm or 2 and then the back u joints will drop out and the front slides out. Be careful to mark it when you take it off though because you want to put it back in the same spot....dont want an unbalanced driveshaft!!!

 

yeah that too and i think stering lock is way too easy to break when your towing the car. Its like hooking a truck onto the car door lovcked and ging forwayd. you'll pull the door stait off man but it was locked, didn't do anything though. Especially when going down the highway.

oh yeah and also have you noticed how low the front of the car is to the ground. You'd scape the front bumper cover d00d.

 

d00d i wouldn't recomend the astro or safai for towing at all man. They may say that they can handle certain loades but we have a 25ft boat we towed with ours and when going down hill it has tried to go in front of us before, no joke. Our new Dodge Ram 2500 with a V10 does the job excellently. Oh yeah and that van i remember my step-dad saying it got way lower when towing the boat, i think it was near half of normal, donno though.

 

Don't forget that all of your tranny fluid will come running out the back of the transmission too. I have never marked a driveline, I don't see how it makes a differance which way you put it back on.

 

In retrospect it probably doesnt matter....I just recently had to pull the drive shaft and i marked it just for saftey's sake but i dont think i put it back in the exact same and ive had no problems....hes right it really shouldnt matter.....just make sure you keep the front in the front and the back in the back!!! now that could be a problem