So heres the start of a long and slow rebuild of my 89 RS. Currently Sitting in a shed 3 hrs west of where I live. It will be home the weekend after easter. ill be taking photos as I go just for my own sake of having it documented as to what it was to what the finished product will be.


Details are 1989 GEN 3 RS Camaro. fuel injected 305CUin. 5 speed manual. 50,000 miles on the clock.

 

Wifey thinks its getting a "refresh" back to stock.........However ported heads, oversized 2.02 and 1.60 valves, double valve springs, stage 2 cam, gilmer drive, TPI corvette injection + computer and long tune headers, should give it a bit more "pep" in its "step". aiming to be able to have a fun road car that I can do the occasional track day with.

 

holy sht ! nice ! im looking forward to an update!

 

That'll be a nice project, is the car pretty solid? I used to have a 91 305 RS. Those TBI heads are a choker, and all the porting in the world will make them nothing more then expensive boat anchors. The ramped intake port design was made that way for gas mileage, and it's deficiencies can't be removed or ported out. You'd be a lot better off trying to find some HO heads, or TPI heads from a Z28 or Vette. Anything but the TBI heads.

 

Good luck on your build!

 

thanks for the kind worlds everyone. Its a solid car with no rust at all. al the sills are good and so is the floor pans and the boot.

 

well well well I was finally able to drag the car out of the shed yesterday and bring it home. theres heaps of photos that I have to upload but Ill try something else first. paint is fair for the age of the car. some work needs to be done as I was aware but all in all a very solid platform to work from. Im one very happy camper

 

Be careful with the 305's. They are not very strong motors. I was a GM tech in the late 80's and I did a lot of crank kits in 305 bone stock on cars with less then 30k on them. The only 350 I ever had to touch was because of a stuck thermostat that caused the motor to seize up.

Everyone I know of that tried messing with the 305 ended up with an oil pan full of parts. I even asked a GM engineer once in Pittsburg Tech center about possible modification to make it strong. He said the main difference between the 305 and the 350 was the block. The 305 block was designed for low compression and to be as light as possible. You can put the same rods in a 305 and a 350 but due to crank flex the 305 will spin a rod bearing and the 350 will not.

If you really are going to want to drive this thing swapping to a L98 350 is the way to go. A modified 305 will not stay together at the torque that a stock L98 350 outputs and the complete L98 engines with TPI can be bought in good condition for under $1000.

Your T5 5 speed will not hold up to a stock L98 very long but it will be fun while it lasts.

Edit:
Even if you just do light mods to the 305 go easy on it. They do not like high RPMs. Talking to customers, many of the spun bearing come when they let off the gas at higher RPMs 5000 ish, with the stick you want to push the clutch in right after letting off the gas. If it feels like the engine is slowing the car down push the clutch in and use the brake.

 

I might have picked up some 16x8 5 star rims today with good tyres too. Just waiting on a phone call to see if the offer was accepted


on another thought whats the file size for uploads

 

a very productive night in the workshop. Isolated all the loose ends of the harness and hooked up a battery and start crossing things off the list. tail lights = working, indicators = working, electric rear hatch = working, park lights = working, low beam head lights = working, high beam = not working. re installed the indicator stalk with cruise control. HOWEVER the voltage in the battery was less than 8 volts. And all the dash gauges are moving when you flick the ignition on and off. Im a pretty happy owner at the moment