Hey everyone, Im buying/building a v8 3rd gen for my girlfiend, being the 3rd gen f bodies are her favorite car and i personally like camaros. I owned a 90 RS, and i had an 86 parts car i never drove. But anyway, my question is, if i get an 83-86 non z28, how hard is it to put the iroc/z28 ground effects kit/front bumper on? my RS had the same ground effects, but I dont know how hard it is to swap, or even if they swap at all. And another question, how hard is it to drop an old pre 86 SBC in a 2.8 chassis? thanks in advance, and hello all.

 

It can be done but you're going to have to do some fabrication and drilling. I don't see it being that much of a hassel because from what I remember when I stripped my friends 88 z28, taking it apart wasn't to bad. Putting it together will need some drilling for the mounting bolts. As far as the front and rear bumper covers you're better off buying ones that came of an Iroc or Z28 and just install them. The side skirt wholes will need to be drilled out and lined up. Hope that helps I'm going off of memory from about 6 years ago.

 

Yes I was just going to get the whole set from a donor camaro or ebay. Thanks for the help. Are the bumpers direct replacements though?

 

Yes they are, pretty much all the body parts are interchangable, though there are some small differences throughout the years, like moving the third brake light, and adding ground effects, etc...

 

When installing the rocker panel pieces you will also need the braket that is welded to the car. Or make up some of your own. But if you get a donnar dont forget to take that part with you.
Motor swap should be very simple since the cars also came with small blocks.

 

Are they the same engine mounts? thats the only thing that worries me. Im most likely getting a car with a v8 again thou, either 305 or 350. I have a 350 waiting for a car in my garage, was in my 85 monte carlo. But now this camaro is going to be a road going car with some ***** instead of an all out race car. Are the 700r4s in these cars likely to break? I know all you really need to do is have them flushed and replace the TC, Cause they get clogged. But anyways thats for a different post thanks guys! This has been pretty helpful.

 

Motor mounts have been the same since 1967, and stayed the same untill the LT engines came out in Gen 4. 700r4 is a decent transmission, but I wouldn't put more than about 350 hp or 350 ft-lbs into it, and you'd do well to get a shift kit and a soilid trans mount, which can be found here