I found a 1976 camaro with a 350ci engine and automatic tranny for 1500 bucks on Craigslist. It's been sitting for 2 years but it looks like its in semi decent condition. I had 2 questions. 1) What price range do you guys think a car like this should get and 2) how much money will it take to get it to run the 1/4 in around 14 seconds? Only requirement is that it's gotta stay road legal, but any other mod is fair game.

 

Turboed charged or sprayed LS motor.. With a th350 or th400, some lower gears, that's what I'm planning on doing to mine anyway lol

 

Not hard at all. Be sure the motor is good, with that I would have it pulled and gone through. Might just need a cleaning and a set of rod and main bearings and a set of rings. If stock the pistons will be dished 8-1 compression with junk heads. If you have a stock converter and gears then I would just get a Comp. EX-268 cam and a set of VORTEC heads that have smaller 64cc chambers. Use a shim head gasket .015 thick to help compression and you should be easly into the 14. I would also get a set of headers for you combination. If the trans is a th350 I would also add a manual shift kit to hold the RPMs up longer. With that combination you could then go to a better converter and a steeper set of gears and dipp lower et easly. To help thing along on the cheap you could also use the shortes set of tires you have to help the stock gearing along. Tall tires take gear out, short tires put more gear in.

 

Any idea how much that would cost me?

 

I'd sure like a little more info on the drivetrain before guessing at what it needs, and what it might take. Assuming the engine is solid, and the TH350 is too, then you could get in the 14 sec. 1/4 mile with less than $1500 easily.
I'd make sure it's got a decent gear ratio, and posi first. About 3.55-3.73 gears. Then I'd pull the heads and the cam and either rework the heads if they're worth doing, or get a decent pair of heads. Drop a good cam in, intake/carb, headers, and hit the track with some decent tires. Of course you'll need to know the condition of the engine/trans, and what heads you have before deciding what changes to make. A shift kit for the trans will also be high on my list.
Most good stock 76 Camaro 350's in decent shape will be in the 17 sec. range for the 1/4, and lower if the gear ratio is not too high. Wont take much to do 14's with a few changes. But doing changes on a budget will require you to do the work yourself, as paying for it will easily double your expenses.

 

14's are about as easy as it gets. Its a totally achievable goal on 1500 bucks. Like everyone has said. Its basically intake, carb, and headers. If it doesnt have a 2 1/5" exhaust it will need one at some point. After all that then the heads is were I would go. I bet a really nice top end could be put together for 1500. But you need to know where your at for gears and the transmissions condition. The exhaust isnt madatory but headers are.