i was just given a 99 v6 camaro it dosent run i know it needs a starter. its been sitting for about a year and a half. has 93,760 miles on it. i dont know much about the car but i do know that the last time it was driven smoke was coming from the tail pipes and from under the hood. it was a thick white smoke and the person dose not remember the smell. also after this they drove the car it made it but they said their was a knocking coming from under the hood. so i was wondering what are some things i should look for on this car so i can get it running. eventually when i have the money i want to put a v8 in it so dont tell me to do that. i just need hep trying to get this car in running condition or if its even worth putting my time into. any help at all would be much apperciated. thank you!

 

in my best gorn voice, you dont want to put a v8 in it. believe me. sounds like the motor had a blown head gasket (check the oil to see what color it is) and if thats the case the motor is toast. good thing is you can pick up a gen 3 3.8 for cheap and using the sensors and intake off the original motor have a great car with more power than a gen 1 v8. oh and i deleted the double post in the other section for ya

 

iv checked the oil and its black, not milky or watery just old oil. no other odor to it other than oil also. if the head gasket is blown is it possible for it to come from just the exhaust side and not leak into the oil.

 

yes and it could be just the intake gaskets.

 

Very possible, The most common way a head gaskets blows is between the coolant passage and combustion chamber. This would cause a whitish steam out of the tail pipe. It is pretty rare for a blown head gasket to cause coolant in the oil,,,, But Even if we know the blown headgasket it not destory the motor what we do not know is if what ever caused the headgasket to blown did anything else to the motor. Example: It is pretty common for head gaskets to fail because a engine overheated. It is also pretty common for piston/rods to get damaged when overheating. You could spend a lot of time and a couple of hunderd bucks fixing the headgaskets just to find out the motor is shot.

You could drain the oil thru a pc of chease cloth or some type of filter and look for metal. No metal is not a guaranty of a good motor but metal is a guaranty of a bad one. You can also cut the oil filter open. pulling plugs might give you a hint on which cylinder is the problem.

If it was me I would install a newer used SIII 3800 in there and be good for another 150K. Motors are cheap because there are sooo many around. I have heard stories of people findind SIII's with less then 20K on them for under $400

 

so what do you think the best route would be to go with this car. try to fix it, replace the engine, rebuild it, or just sell it and see what i can get for it?

 

if you have access to a shop and tools to change the motor then thats what i would recommend. if the body and interior is in good shape then you would get way more from a running car.

 

You are more of a factor than the car itself. What resourses do you have? do you even like the looks of the car? I am pretty sure you will like the way it handles unless your into the small wheel base Honda's.

If you goal is to get a fast car, start searching for a 98-02 Z28 with a light hit in the front end. I have seen them sell fairly cheap. You want to avoid hard hits. Then use the front clip off this free car to fix it. Your not going to find a LS1 car super cheap, it will be north of $1500 because the running motors/transmission sells for that. You may be able to fine a wrecked one with an oil leak or high miles cheap. Once your done part out whats left of the 99. With a little luck and a little work you could be into a 4K car for under 2K.

Or you can spend $600 drop a newer 3800 and have 200+ HP V6 that get 27MPG and will run for a very long time in your free body. Cheap/easy way to drive would be to buy a wrecked V6 car (they sell for about twice scrap vaule) fix it with your front clip then part out and scrap the free car. In the end you would only have a few hundred in the car.

 

yes i have access to a shop. would it be best to sawp to a ls1 in this car, or should i stick with a v6 for cheaper and just try to get as much power as i can out of it? also i really like this car. def not a fan of the rice burners i perfer american over anything. and have always owned GM cars. so i would like to get this car on the road. also will the transmission on my car go with ls1? and what else would have to be changed if i did the bigger swap? with this car is it possible to take the engine from under the hood or does it have to be removed from the bottom? i apperciate all the help you guys have given me already. thank you

 

You have a lot of research to do. The reason we said earlier in the post that the V6 to V8 swap is not worth it is because of all the parts that are different from the V6 to the V8. You are going to need a doner car to do the swap. The front frame section and most of the wiring all the way to the speedometer is based on the engine, Coolant system, fuel system, Oil cooler ect. ect ect. Please go check out the project section, it can be done you just need to understand the hours involved. There are hunderds of parts you will need off the doner car. You pretty much just using the body from the V6. Buying a wrecked LS1doner car is going to cost the same if it has frame damage or not because the value is in the drive line. You can bolt your front clip on a wrecked car in a single weekend. Since you have no emotional attachent to this car swapping a motor REALLY makes no sense. If the wrecked car is not totaled by a insurance company it will be worth twice what a "swapped" car is worth.

FYI It is much easier to pull the motor from the bottom

The other thing to think about is Value. A car that has been swapped it only worth the some of its part. 95% of the buyer out there will not look at a swapped car and there is not way to hide the fact because the engine code is in the VIN.


We have members who have done the swap but your have to remember the V6 bodys are cheap part, the valuble part of the swap is the drive line. The only time the swap makes sense is when you have a known good LS1 drive line you are 100% sure its in great condition and it is in a twisted up body and you have no intension of ever selling it. Imagine this, you pay $1500 for a wrecked Ls1 Car. You send about 120 hours swaping everything over. You start it up and after a half hour of running you see low oil pressure and get a slight knock. You pull it in gear and the trans just starts click (damaged in the wreck).

If you decide to do the swap great, Please make a project thread, show us everything. The only reason I advise against is because we have a lot of member and I have known a few outside of the forums that have started to swap only to realize after a month of work they are not even half way yet. Most people end up parting it out and calling the scrap man to pick up whats left. I am just trying to let you know in advances what you are in for. Like I said earlier it is all about you, are you the type of guy that does not mind doing hours of research then doing hours of work and love it or are you the kind of guy that gets pissed off changing spark plugs cause they are hard to get too.