Hey guys new to the forum and just looking around.


I'm a military member serving in Pearl Harbor Hawaii and I will be going on leave soon...but I'm wanting to surprise my mother with a nice rework of her vehicle.

This is her baby that was given to her by her father before he died.

A beautiful 1983 Z28 Camaro she still drives today. It has alot of miles on the engine and I've figured that I want to completely rebuild it into a new car again but I'd figure I'd start out with the Transmission and a new engine.

I'm not a car guy and I don't really have time to fix it up myself so I was wondering if anyone knew a get outlet for doing this.

My mother lives in Hoover, Alabama and I was thinking about replacing the aging 305 she has in there for a nice 350.

Keep in mind this is an automatic and I'm fixing it up for her. Maybe in the future I'll figure out how to make it a manual but for now auto will be fine.


I want to put the best of the best engine and transmission in it so any advice would be awesome to hear. Also it leaks oil terribly as it has been driven all the time but she still runs and sounds awesome so I can't say I don't like it.

 

What are you looking for out of the car? Do you want it fast? How fast? Is this for you or her?

Most middle aged women would be fine with just returning the car to the way it was when new. I don't normally recommend rebuilding 305 since you can buy a GM crate 350 motor for $1500 but when you are talking about a middle aged women who love her car and a lower miles 305 then it is not a bad idea unless you want power.

There is no such thing as a "best engine and transmission" You may find a best deal. You can drop $25,000 on a supercharged LS7 with transmission. You would still need to pay someone another 4-6K to get it all installed and a rear to hold up to it. You can step a notch down and get a GM 502 for 15ish installed with a trans that can back it up.

When it comes to engines it is all about trade offs. Race engines tend to be very uncomfortable to drive they shake and jerk and tend to stall while try to go slow. Car that are nice and smooth, quiet and get decent MPG tend to lack power. The only way to get both is to go high tech and boost. That get high dollar very fast but it is your project.

 

It's for her but also the vehicle is going to go to me after she's done with it.

I want it to be powerful and fast but not uncontrollable. An everyday driver that would be fun to hug the gas with but not all the time. I know nothing about upgrading other than I'd want a 350 and a new transmission. Perhaps I'd like to charge it as well. This is a carborated model not fuel injected

 

Well yes it came with a carb but switching it to fuel injection is not a huge deal depending on your budget. Maybe you should start there. Next you are going to have to find a speed shop or someone willing to deal with NON-stock parts. Most mechanic only repair or replace stock parts, once you get into upgrading motors swapping in aftermarket carbs most will not do it because you end up wasting a ton of time getting brackets and cables all to fit and work right. Your speed shops are use to do that type of stuff and have a lot of aftermarket stuff hanging on their shelves.

If the car is stock your carb and ignition system is controlled by a ECM (computer) Step one with any upgrade is going to be to replace the Carb and distributer.

A nice setup would be a GM 4 bolt crate motor ( I think they are 260ish HP) A torker style intake, Holley avenger carb, Jegs Distributor a nice set of headers and a magnaflow exhaust and a GM crate trans. By the time you are done paying someone to fab all that up you would have about 6k in it, 7K if you want everything all shinny. The motor and trans come with a GM warranty so any issues show up with the motor or trans you can just take to a dealer.

This setup would have almost twice the HP of the 305 and nice low end power and it would drive like a new car. You would lose a little MPG but IMO It would be worth it. The crate 350 could later be modded up to 350 HP without a huge cost but it would be shaky at idle and kill the gas mileage.

 

If I was fixing it up for Mom, I would look at the GM crate motors with my first choice would be the 350 Ram Jet motor. Its a stand alone FI crate motor with everything included for the swap. It makes 350HP and 400TQ and its FI. So mom can just get in turn the key and its running and setting itself. Its the simples swap for a carb to FI that's out their and it cost a lot less and it has a warranty to go with it. For the trans it would only get a freshing. O and you might want to get Ma a new set of wider tires for the back, 400TQ at low RPMs can easly turn a mild mannered person into a street light bandit.

 

I think my mother is against Fuel Injection.

For some reason when she got it back in the day she was told they had problems with the first FIs for that vehicle and it's stuck to her since.

I've tried to convince her otherwise but I'm not sure what her true opinion is on this.


I'd much rather go FI and complete the upgrade to something much more powerful but drivable.

 

Then put a intake and carb on it.

 

There was issues with the first V8 EFI system. The crossfire injection that was in some Z28s in 82-83 was pretty bad. They had all that sorted out by 85. Anything EFI you would install today is going to be better then a carb, certainly better then a computer controlled carb. You can tell your Mom that comes from a GM master tech that worked on those cars at the dealership.

The Ram jet is a nice setup, for a long time I planned on putting one of those in my 67 since it was not number matching but for what you can buy a low miles complete LS1 it tuff to say no to almost 30 MPG. If you get all the stock part just about any injection tuning place can get it up and going.

For me I have a solid low miles older 350 so I am just going to convert a LT1 injection system over to, It helps that I have already have everything left over from another project.


Back to case at hand: There are sooo many options. GM even sells complete kits.
http://paceperformance.com/i-1011616...s-package.html

You could save a little money by getting a 3 speed automatic but I think the 4 speed automatic is worth the money. I would expect another 1500-2000 dollars for the install and exhaust.

 

That's not a bad deal. But I might be on a budget. Depends on my bonus I get later on.

I think the most I'd like to spend on this project initially would be 5k to just get her started....and then go up from there over the next few years to make her shine.

 

New engine and a new trans plus instalation for under 5K is going to be tuff. The problem will be once you get away from stock you have to do everything. You can not leave one thing still hooked to the computer that other things not. There are tons of ways to do a good job under 5K but the all require you to do the labor. A turn key package like I linked could be cheaper then buying discount parts here and there because you are going to be paying some 75 per hour to get everything to work together.

You could get the 305 and transmssion rebuilt and replace most of the wear items for 5K.