I have a question for all of you that have WAY more knowledge than I do. I recently bought a 68 Z-28 with the original motor (302) and transmission (4 speed Muncie). The shifting is sloppy and I would love to get a little more out of the motor. If I upgrade the tranny and modify the motor, am I ruining the value and collectibility of the car overall? Obviously, I would keep all the original components. Thoughts please?
Thank you. Mike

 

What do you mean by upgrades, a different motor and tranny or doing mods to the original?
As long as you don't do anything that can't be un-done and keep that original DZ302 and Muncie it shouldn't hurt the value as a collector car since it can be put back original.
They built over 235,000 Camaros in 1968,only 7199 of them were Z28's so it would be a shame to ruin an original numbers matching car.
They only made the DZ302 for 3 years '67-'69 and only in Z28 Camaros,'67's are extremely rare only about 200 made so most are '68 or '69 with the most built in '69 over 19000 so what you have is pretty rare.
I've spent a fair amount of time behind the wheel of a 302 powered Z28,they make pretty good power on the high end but lack low end torque IMHO. I'd find a 4 bolt main 350 and get a good set of heads for it like Trickflow or if you can get your hands on a set of 202 valve GM heads and build that, way more grunt on the low end and more power across the board and you won't ruin that original DZ302. There's still lots of those 1960's and '70's 4 bolt 350's out there pretty cheap, they came in pickup trucks besides the high performance cars so they made a lot of them and many even have the forged steel cranks.

 

Thank you for the information. I really appreciate it. I love old cars, but I know nothing about them. I have a buddy with a shop that is doing some work on my car so I will pass on your comments. I don't want to replace the motor or tranny. I just wish I could get more out of them. The transmission isn't as tight as I would like. I know that this comes with the territory when you own/drive a 49 year old car, but if I could make some improvements, that would be great. My buddy has to do some work on the clutch and tranny anyway, so if anyone has some ideas to improve it while he is in there.....I'm all ears.

 

Welcome, Mike, and congrats on the buy - correct year
Shifting a 49 year old system isn't going to match today's systems.
The best you could do is replace the plastic bushings, if stil in palce, with a set of aftermarket bronze bushings in the shift rods. Hurst used to sell them.
As suggested, you can swap a larger CID, maybe a crater engine, for more torque.
Save the original engine for later and for resale. Yes, you would be downgrading the value with a larger CID engine, but having the original will help in maintaining the pricing.
You could even install a 350 rotating assembly into the original block, but keep the original items.
Or, since by design, the 302 has no low-end torque, learn to rev the engine as the power comes on above 4K rpm.
Good luck.

 

Well as Everett said you can refurbish the shifter on that Muncie and it will be somewhat better, once you get the hang of it you can bang off gears pretty quick with them it just takes practice to build some skills assuming the trans and shifter are in good working order. The easiest way to get more bang of of your car with the original engine and trans will be some lower (higher numerically) rear end gears. Z28's had road race gears, drop in a set of 4:11's and you'll get a real seat of the pants difference in power off the line and through the gears,302's like to rev high anyway so you'll still have plenty of speed. Highway fuel mileage may suffer some but that's not what you bought the car for anyway right?