c.johnson8907

Hi guys ive been reading this forum for a few months and just activated my membership. ive learned so much from everyone here already and i want to thank you.

So i bought a 84 z28 for $800 from a good friend of mine that had it sitting in a pile of leaves for 2 years. ive put in some wrench time and gave it some much needed tlc. and its a confident daily driver now.

I have a few more repairs that i know of to make the car perfectly solid again maybe another 200 dollars. after that i want to start building onto it and getting some more power. while i have a camaro and i love that fact alone it gets beat by just about anything that pulls up to me. and i just cant have that anymore.

my first thoughts are cam. i have no clue what to look for in a cam or what and of the numbers (lift etc etc) mean or how to match one for what i want out of my car. Ive already got a edelbrock hirise performer intake (craiglist super deal even if i never use it im happy). but im waiting to get a few other parts so i don have to continuesly tear my motor apart.


as it sits ive got a lg4 with the quadrajet 4bbl hooked to a 700r4 and the rear end is stock (can anyone tell me what rear end that is?). only performance part is some flowmaster 40s. i think its all new piping up to the headers though idk about the cats...

vetteoz

iTrader: (13)

Why have you posted the same basic question 3 times?
Just edit or add to your original post

c.johnson8907

sorry this site wasnt loading so when i hit post a few times and the page showed an error i assumed it didnt go through.

c.johnson8907

anyone have some ideas/suggestions for me?

c.johnson8907

im kinda upset noones replying... ive been reading over this forum for months. its helped me through many problems with my car... i just want to know how to make my camaro feel like a camaro... not just look like one

Confuzed1

iTrader: (4)

Are you still running on the computer?...makes a huge difference in the responses you'll get...

c.johnson8907

im not sure what you mean

Confuzed1

iTrader: (4)

I mean, in '84 all the Camaros are computer controlled. CCC= Computer control command system.

If you pick the wrong, carb, cam and intake and just slap them on there, you'll get a "check engine" light because you're timing won't advance...along with other codes. Do you have a plug on top of the Q-jet carb? Does it have a vacuum advance can on the side of the distributor?

Or has the computer been ditched by the PO? More info.....

c.johnson8907

oh im not sure.... would a picture help?

c.johnson8907

could the computer be causing lag or issuse causeing my car to be underpowered? soory if these are very noob questions i can turn a wrench but i dont know as much as i wish i did about the motors. and details. i can tell you what each essential part does why and how but i couldent pull apart a motor and rebuild or swap it...

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

Personally I think you shouldn't bother spending money on the 305. Go big or go home. The mightiest, cammed, nasty 305 (and yours will always be crippled with low compression) can at best expect to turn out 300-350hp, and that can make for a VERY fast car, but you will need to dump a TON of money into the engine AND the rest of the car to use that amount power efficiently enough to really be one of those cars that can beat a new Tiburon on Honda minivan since they're all running 13's these days. A fast car is, in my opinion, cracking into the 12's at least for quarter mile times. Doing that with a 305 is possible, but not cheap or practical.

If you like your car, put a Gen II or Gen III/IV engine in it, do it right once, go to some modern technology, and you get all the daily drivability and practicality you have now without having to chop it apart to put a carburetor and some lumpy cam and get a terrible power curve after it's all said and done blah blah etc etc.

I had the crappy 305 and went to a carb'd Vortec 350 with all the trimmings and I love my car and I have a great engine that is reasonably quick, quicker than any factory third gen aside from the TTA's and Firehawks, and it's still painfully slow compared to anything modern, and that hurts with all the money and work I've put into it to get it to this point. It's even worse when you're trying to do that to a 305 because you cant afford to give up as much low end torque as a 350 can to make horsepower.

If you spend $3-$5k, you can put an Gen III/IV drivetrain in it and you have what is essentially a MODERN car with a MODERN engine. It will drive like a dream, do 12 second quarter miles (it will probably do that completely stock), get 25-30mpg on the highway, and just the gas mileage alone will make it pay for itself the way gas prices are headed in the future. Do it right one time so you dont have to keep bothering with it, and the wealth of knowledge about those swaps on this board are nearly endless.

If you dont want to spend that much, get an LT1, put an LT4 hotcam into it, bolt it right in place of your 305 and the only real work you'll have to do is getting the TV cable hooked up and getting the fuel injection to work. You could probably get that done for $1000-$2000.