First of all, sadly i do not have the camaro yet.
I can not get it till this summer.
its an 86 2.8 and what i plan to do with it is be my daily driver... plus im going to drift it.
right now im driving an 02 cavalier. when im allowed buy the camaro, im going to sell the cavalier for 2500, and buy the camaro for 1250. now i have a budget on what im doing, so as of right now i have 800 in my pocket..... when i buy the camaro, then i will have around 2k give or take a hundred.
since im drifting, its required to have a roll cage. i found a decent one and a guy to install it, total price of all that being 350.
now that leaves me with around 1650.
everyone that i ask, they tell me to supercharge it(and i will never turbo it). i really dont want to but if its my best option i will SC it.
besides supercharging it, or swaping it, because i wont do that either...
i know there are a lot of threads out there about performance and all of that, but most of it is revolved around horsepower. and im more looking for the torque side of things.
and there has only been one (that i have found) other thread that has someone that wanted to drift his camaro, and you guys never really answered my questions with that thread.
so what should i do to it, within my budget???

 

So, you want a v6 drifter with a cage as a daily driver......
Wow.

Drifting is hard on a car. The guy on TGO that was heavy into drifting always had a beat looking car. And honestly, a v8's torque makes for a much easier drifter. Or boost. But, for some reason you don't want the "easy" way, so you'll have to track down a rare supercharger ($$$) or fab one to fit ($$$).
And you can't build torque without horsepower. They're the same thing.

Since you don't like the turbo route, I'd go high compression hybrid. It can be done with the budget you have, but it takes a lot of research.

 

I've never heard of a good roll cage that could be done for $350 first of all. At least not in a car...
A SC, if you could even find one that could be directly bolted on, would eat up that whole budget by itself. A turbo wouldn't be much cheaper and would take a lot of work, with tuning, bigger injectors, etc.
And as said above, you can't make more torque without more HP. To make the car competitive I'd start with a 3.4 block and build it out of the car, then drop it in, or do that with a 3.1 AT LEAST! The 3.1 made only 5 more horses, but 25 more ft/lbs!

If your serious about competing with this car it probably won't be a daily driver. You'll want to weight reduce the s*** out of it, which means taking out comfort things like the back/passenger seat, spare tire, jack, AC. And if you're drifting it, expect to break things! Don't rely on a car that gets beat on at night to get you to work in the morning...

 

You do plan on a manual right?

 

I agree with all these posts and would add that these third gen cars are heavy, one huge item being the rear glass hatch. To drift, you need a high power to weight ratio and v6 third gens are known for low power to weight ratio. some years back you could get a plexiglass rear glass/hatch for IROC racing, which would reduce a lot of weight, but I feel you're chosing an unrealistic goal for the car with the weight and a 2.8

 

Well i talked to another guy about drifting, and the only american car he has seen drift was a TB supercoupe.
but he has seen STOCK cars drift. not necessarily a camaro, but the chinky Nissans.
but he said the thing i would want to do first, is to increase the compression ratio, get some new headers and new intake (little stuff) and see if it does drift, then throw in a roll cage if it can, and if i really want to do that.
it is a 5 speed manual, and i plan on doing an AC delete, fiberglass hood and trunk, and he said something about a different kind of glass i could get, but it was only legal for the rear glass.

 

Ok first off, increasing tq without hp being impossible is not QUITE true, invariably increasing one GENERALLY increases the other, but things such as header length, runner length, ITBs, exhaust cut outs, throttle body diameter, boost, cam, and redline, can all bias the balance.

On my next note, I hate to break it to you, but what you want is not possible, idk for sure,but I am assuming by you needing to be "allowed" to sell your current dd that you are still in school whether its college or HS, and unless you have a good paying steady job, fully supported etc. with some money to spare, you're setting yourself up for disaster, the money you have is probably not enough to make what you want happen, and idk what shape this car is in, but most likely you will need money for repairs sooner than later, unless its actually been maintained which is rare for 3rd gens, let alone v6 ones, and a daily driven drift car won't happen on that budget, decent tires alone will kill you, you will need a 2nd set of rims, you will have to gut the car as much as possible like someone else said, and you will need at least roughly 300 hp/tq to drift easily enough, not only that, you will need a tight suspension, ie. all new bushings, new sway bar endlinks etc. probably aftermarket components as well, you will deffinitely need SFCs, hate to say it, but you want the impossible unless you have a consistent cash flow to work with in addition to your current amount saved up, could you get a 3rd gen and drive it as a dd, most certainly....daily driven drift car with an N/A 2.8.....get out the checkbook..and tool chest.....

 

Project 3.4 is right on in advice. These cars are still using the gen 1 heads, and they just won't flow enough to get to 300 hp no matter how much compression you try. Even GM came out with better heads when they came out with gen2 and gen 3 heads on later engines. but if you must try drifting with this kind of car, good luck!

 

Would that be Crazy Hawaiian?! His green car was pretty hammered, but he also had a 'nice' Camaro that he didn't abuse.

 

I never got the point of drifting. I mean drag racing and autocross are one thing, but seeing how far you can go with your rear tires broken loose, what's the point. But I digress...
Your getting alot of negative feedback (from myself included) for basically 3 reasons... 1, you've ruled out a turbo, which is probably the only way yo make this make decent power for any competition. 2, you seem to have little to no mechanical experience. Always saying what some guy told you you should do shows that you don't know much about building up a car, and neither does he it seems like... And 3, you seem to be young and on a tight budget, like me...

What I'm gonna tell you to do is buy this car and have fun with it. These engines are very simple and great to learn stuff on. With whatever spare money I have I fix or modify my Firebird and have fun doing it. Take it to the strip, burnout at traffic lights and just have fun with it.

 

Don't mislead him now! You can drift if you want even if you don't have the power, that's what the e-brake is for! That's how the ricers do it... Having gobs of torq in a rwd car makes drifting much easier. You can rev the snot out of it and dump the clutch around a turn to break the tires but you're going to kill the clutch. Forced induction, v8 or e-brake is what you need. You need to do suspension work like modifying the turning radius first though. Study what crazyhawiian did.

 

Thanks for all the tips... and...warnings i guess you could call it...?
but yahh, im probobly going to work everything out over the summer.
i dont think im going change my mind about this one.
i have plenty of time to do tons of research.

 

If that was the only American car he's ever seen drift... then well, he has never watched a FormulaD event. Corvette, Mustang, Charger, Solstice, Sky, and GTO. Grassroots in my area there is a Mustang Cobra that does it regularly.

Anyway, don't drift your DD. A normal event around here involves 3-4 wrecks (lots of times enough that we need to drag the car off the track) and a couple cars breaking.

 

Well where i would drift it would be an open place. No walls.
So i dont think ill wreck.
anyways, im still considering drifting.
and id like to do it before im old as dirt.
this summer is perfect.
because after that, i am either enlisting and staying in for 20 years, or going to college, and then the service for 15+ years.

 

Ok, you can catch the dirt and flip the car, or break something on the car. Drift cars take insane amounts of beating. I wanted to buy a 70's Datsun 280Z, but as soon as I heard it was drifted, I stayed away.

 

Why do you think if you are in the service you can't drift?

All you are going to do is end up with a crappy drift car that you break. The V6 won't have a posi rear and you can't drift with an open diff. The T-5 will explode as soon as you try to initiate a drift with a clutch kick, and you have a bad maximum steering angle that takes a lot of money and work to fix.

You want to have fun, buy a V-6 and AutoX it. You can do it bone stock and the chances of you being left with a broken car are MUCH less.

 

That's what I was trying to say! AutoX, now there's a REAL sport. Plus a car built for autoX will make a much better and more fun daily driver.

 

Well i did not know jack squat about autocross.
did a little research. and DAAAAAAMN.
...now im torn between what iv always loved, and what i should really do...
-.-

 

You normally get much better results when you let your mind make decisions like this instead of your heart. Doing some AutoX does not stop you from every doing drifting, but it might be a good place to have a ton of fun until you have the money to actually go drifting.

One suggestion for you... volunteer at the local drift event before you ever go drifting. You will learn a ton, get to meet the people and you'll learn a lot of the cars. Same goes for AutoX, volunteer at an event first before you go. Will probably save you $$ in both the short and long run.

 

yahh that sounds good.
thanks man.

 

Or if money allowed you could get an f-body, make it into a fun dd autox car, and if you still feel the need to drift, you could try and find a cheap 240sx or something like that. Pretty much drifting your one and only daily driven car just isn't a good idea, I would not consider something like that unless I had a second, hell I probably won't even autox my maro until I manage to get another vehicle.

 

Yahh the only thing is that if i get a 240, ill just be like every other ***** out there...
no offence to anyone...
but if i do get the cash to drift, ill probobly buy a 92 RS and drift the 86. But ill figure that out down the road.

but i have another question i figured you guys would know what to do....

when i get my camaro, after getting a full tune up and other necessaries, i want to increase compression.
sooo...
Milling the heads is what has been recommended.
is there anything else that i COULD do while im getting that done?
like boring the cylinder...?
replace valves...?
im trying to increase compression so anything i could do would help.

 

bump...?
so i dont have to make another useless thread.

 

Why do you want to increase the compression?

 

it doesnt necessarily increase the performance, but the mods that you put on the car are a lot more responsive...
...am i just lost with misleading threads and a half brain noobie...???

 

..... you put it a little more harsh then I would.

Read this thread:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/5...ost-power.html

And all the other stickies at the top of the V6 section.

 

haha yahh.
but i mean, i know im going to get the usual, intake, headers, and some form of upgraded exhaust.
but after that, gears, suspension and compressions SHOULD be the name of the game.... riiight???

 

No, not really. Not even on the intake side.

Headers and exhaust, for (some) power, yes. Suspension, yes.

Intake, sort of a grey area, gears, maybe, depends on what you have, but barely worth it. Compression, not worth it at all.

Seriously, go read that thread and all the other stickies. Read them 3 or 4 times.

 

alright
thanks for the help man.

 

Since when are gears barely worth it?

 

Well they can definitely help improve acceleration, but for the purposes of a drift car I don't see it helping much since thats more about having enough power to break the rear loose during a turn, gears can't really help with that so I can see his point there.

 

Depends on your goals. The only time I feel gears are really worth it when on a tiny budget if when you have 2.73s or 3.08s. He should have 3.42s, so an upgrade to 3.73s really isn't that much of a difference and 4.11s are pretty high for a daily driver.

 

Also im probably not going to drift it, or it would be in a few years.
and im deff not going to drag it.

 

??? Gears are torq multipliers. Like having a longer bar to pry on something. Breaking traction is easier with gearing. '85 cars got 3.42's and I do believe they went to 3.23's in '86.

 

4:10's on a 2.8 car really make a difference and u will pick up gas milage in town but u will lose 1-2 mpg on the highway

on a 3.1 car i wouldnt go oer 3:73's i belive 3.1 cars came with 3:23's
2.8 auto cars all came with 3:42's

 

I think just the '85's got 3.42's.

 

no my 89 came with 3:42's stock

iirc any 2.8 auto got 3:42's
any 3.1 autos got 3:23's and 5 speed cars got 3:42's
there is a spec sheet on thirdgens front page that lists what each car got for each year been a while since i looked though

 

yahh i check the chart that you mentioned, and it has 3.42.
oh and its a straight drive.