The deal is, I trashed my 91 RS a while back. I had hit a Nissan Maxima coming back from drum lessons one night, and ended up buying an 85 blue and white Camaro (redid the gaslines and blew the v6 out of it the first day I drove the car)The 91 stills runs well and for now, it's my winter beater. I'm not sure what kind of transmission is in it, probably stock saying as I haven't done anything to the car and I know the previous owner didn't. It's an automatic, nothing special. Never ran the track with it, so I have no specs. For the 85, I plan on going straight horse, performance, and sound. I want it to sound and run angrily.

However, the 85 is my new project. It's in good condition, has my brand new rims and tires on it already, and for Christmas, my father gave me his 350 four bolt main engine (competition orange painted block, 35k miles on it at best, Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold, Double Roller timing chain, etc., it's nice) and my mother bought me a pair of Summit Racing Performance Headers. My old man REFUSED (even after I offered him money) to let the 400 turbo tranny attached to the 350 go. Here's my first question. What should I do for a transmission? I don't want the piece of trash trans I have in the 91, it's starting to slip a bit. But, if I go standard and find a nice tranny, I'll have my work cut out for me because the85 is, stock, an automatic. Plus, I've got one hand and getting they'll put me through more **** once I get a standard under my name (trust me, they gave me garbage because of an automatic, never mind a standard). I can drive stick no problem, but tell that to someone who works the DMV.

Another question is a carb. The 350 needs one, and I'm not sure what I want. I've gotta drive the car everyday until I can get a different beater car, so I don't want to go for a 750 Holley Double P and suck down the gas like it's water. But a 4 barrelled will definitely help out the HP. Budget is not a problem, saying as I can collect the pieces as I go.

Any ideas?

More questions as they arise with the post.

Thanks.

 

Why not just stck with the auto? I have heard many times that auto's win races. less chance of missing a gear, you wont have that little moment of - nothing - while shifting...

go with a 650 for now till you see what the 350 can do.

 

i cannot say about the carb, but for the tranny. Stick with the 700r4 thats in it. have it rebuildt. so long as all its doing is slipping, theres no major problems with it

 

What trans do you have in the 85? I think its 700R4. If you are going to rebuild one I would get the 91 rebuilt. 85 was a tuff years for transmission changes. There where so many changes 85-87 it can be tuff for the mechanic to get all the right parts. By 91 they had all the bugs worked out. 700R4 can handle a lot ofHP just make sure the guy rebuilding the tranny know the torgue you will beshooting forhe can make it hold up. Just remember theold automatic tranny saying. The candle the burns twice as bright burns half as long. So do not skimp on the parts. You are going to have to build a much longer candle if you want it to hold up long term under any real torque.

Switching from a automatic to a standard can be a bit ofjob. I know a lot more people that bought the standardandthe petal and then once they get around togetting all the linkage pc-parts the go "WTF did I get myself into" and they drop the mod. The easiest thing to do in my world is to buy a doner car. Maybe you could find a doner car that already given up most of its good parts.Just scrap it out when done.

 

I appreciate all the advice, it's given me some direction, and I've gotta say, the last post really made me a little "iffy" about building the 85 up.

The only reason I actually chose to build the 85 and scrap the 91 hunk of metal was because the underside of the car is in absolutely horrible condition. The rot (from acid rain and dirt kickup from where it sat on the lawn, yes, we learn the hard way) has reched every cross member, eaten some of the gas/brake lines, and it's so bad tat even the tow arms are rotted right off. It's not safe, and I personally don't have the welding skill at 17 to fix it all up. My dad does, but he won't pull through on a job he doesn't wanna do.

To be honest, I really don't know what is in the 91. It's possible that it's just low on tranny fluid and I'm being a whiner about a slipping transmission when it's an easy fix. At this point, I know I'm just going to go for an auto; shift kits are nice, and will help me with performance. The other thing that'll help me is that I have an uncle who is a mechanic (pretty respected in my area, built his own Monte Carlo SStrack car and raced it for 5 or 6 years in state-regional events) and can definately help me out.