Well, I'm finally trading up and going from a '98 V6 to a '82 Z28. It has a 250 from a c10 pickup and a T5 tranny out of a '89 'Maro. Now, I am a little worried that gas is gonna kill me so what kind of mileage am I looking at? Also, for those of you who have cars like these, what are you paying for insurance?

 

Do you mean it has a 350? If the motor is totally stock, you are looking at maybe around 14 or 15 around town, 20-22 highway. Insurance shouldnt be anymore than your current 96, if not less. I pay $600 per year through progressive for my 83 Z.

 

Hehe, oops. Yeah, I meant 350. What kind of coverage do you have?I was looking at getting liability and comprehensive.

 

Gas isn't to bad as long as you keep your foot a few inches from the floorboard. I had an '82 with the Crossfire Injection (Dual Throttle Bodies) and it didn't even to bad. They have no wind resistance at all going down the highway. That's why you can go 140 mph on 200 horsepower. You'll love that '82! Be carefull with that T-5 though. It didn't take much to snap 3rd and4th gear out of mine.

 

Thanks for the info. What did you mean by you snapped 3rd and 4th? Were you shifting too hard?

 

Yea, I was racing a '96 Camaro Z28, he got me off the line due to traction problems, then I hit2nd slid a little and caught back up to him,slammed 3rd to finish off the deal and it made a bang and then nothing was there. I thought it kicked out of gear soI tried to put it back in as the '98 started pulling away but there was still nothing. Iput it in fourth and there was nothing, like if it was in nuetral or something. I stuck it in 5th and 5th worked.So all I had is 1, 2, and 5.I LOST.

 

I also have another question. I've been reading a lot about TPI and carbed. What exactly is TPI and which is better?

 

Myself I've never had the Tuned Port Injection system. I've just had the TBI Crossfire and carbs. I've heard a lot of good things about the TPI system, and I know you'll get a lot better fuel mileage off of that then you would a carb since it's always adjusting the fuel mixture to the 02 sensor. I'm in the process of switching to multi port injection from my carb. It's impossible to set a carb to where it's running a perfect fuel mixture all the way through the RPM band, where as fuel injection can do it and does it for you. I'm buying the Edelbrock 35000 FI system. Had to sell my Harley to get it, but it will be worth it I'm sure.

 

Damn, it must be pretty expensive for you to have sold your Harley to pay for it.So TPI is definitely the better setup? How much does is cost to change over from carbed to TPI and how long (average) would it take to do the conversion?

 

Yea it's $3000 for the Edelbrock multi point system and distributor that goes with it. I've never tried switching over to TPI, but would I would do is scour the junkyards and see if I could find a wrecked TPI Camaro and take it from that. You'll have toswap the computer to run it, O2 sensor, and an electricfuel pump that will work with the injectors. I'm not sure how much pressure the TPIneeds, but with the multi point system I'm getting it takes an electricfuel pump with over 50 psi of pressure. It'll take some time and effort to do the swap, but fuel injection is the way to go.