After parking the Camaro at my dad's on April 12, 2009, on his promise to get some work done on it for me, I've finally had it brought back to me.

And nothing's been done as near as I can tell. He said it was 2 days of work.

So, since he couldn't handle that much in over a year (434 days, but who's counting?) I have the following to take care of.

O-ring seals in the engine. When I start it, I get a small amount of blue smoke out the exhaust. I know this's a big job and requires taking the top half of the engine off.

Shocks in the back.

Heater core (he said it's been done, but I can't tell if I'm getting any heat, and my old, cracked dashpad is still in place, rather than the new one I had bought)

And he mentioned awhile ago that there is a faint rattle when you start it cold that is a bearing in the bottom of the engine, although I am not sure if that is actually the case.



But, she's back. I'd have new pictures but it's too dark out now, despite only being 10:45 pm. I'm gonna see if I can do at least some of the work myself, I think I can handle the shocks at least, 'cause I really can't afford to pay someone to do it right now.

 

By O ring seals I'm assuming you mean valve seals. You can do it with the heads on if you have access to compressed air.

 

Well, she broke a rod today, too. Or at least, so says the cab driver I work with, as well as the coworker who is also a mechanic. My dad says he is going to come in tomorrow but I am starting to look at how much I can do on my own, regardless.

It looks like I'll need to pick up a few tools I don't have, not to mention all of the parts I will eventually need.

At least I got one problem-free drive after a year and a half, lol.

 

yup, that would be that rattle. the 305 seems to break rods and spin bearings rather often. mine did that, and i know 3 other people who have as well. the valve seals arent anything major to worry about other than some blue smoke at start up. but since you have to do the bottom end now, whats your plan?

 

I lied about the broken rod. My dad came by, and says it's a spun bearing- since he's the mechanic I'm trusting his judgment there.

I asked him about the possibility of turning it into a 350, since we have to pull the engine anyway, and he said not to. Apparently someone offered $8500 for it as is, without even hearing it run, because it's original, numbers matching, and unrestored. I'm not taking that, 'cause I love the car, though.

So we're just gonna take it apart (it's staying at my place this time, not his ) and fix it now. I just wish I knew how long it was gonna take. :/

 

You could always put a 350 in it and keep the 305 for if you ever want to make it original.

How many miles on it? I'd probably do a full rebuild, not just bearings. I'd also stick a mild cam in there to get a little bit more grunt, not too aggressive though so you can retain the stock heads and valve train.

 

Converting kilometers to miles, it's about 93,000. We're gonna do the valve seals at the same time, since we'll have the engine out and taken apart anyway.

I'll ask my dad what he thinks about a cam- I think he even mentioned it as a possibility, but I've got no problems keeping it bone stock, either. And I'm much too **** about accuracy and such to do an engine swap unless it were permanent.

Anyway, the plan is to get started next weekend and see how far we get. Ideally we'll be done before I go on holidays in August, but we'll see how it goes.

 

whats so special about it to keep it numbers matching?

 

*shrugs* Nothing really, except that it is numbers matching now so it might as well stay that way. I've never been really big on modifying cars to begin with anyway.