hey everyone. Im new here and new to owning a camaro (technically not mine until 3pm) and i have a few concerns about it before i bring it home. My brother in law is giving me his 4th gen camaro (He didn't tell me what year but i know from the bdy style its a 96-99 and he told me it was the "bastard child" of the camaros because of the rear wheels were bigger that year and only that year) and told me the only thing wrong with it is it needs a new rear strut and a headlight. Thats nothing major, so whats my concern you may be wondering..

my concern at this point is he has told me it hasn't been started in over a year (he lost the ONLY key for it..

Catch 1 - got to get a new key from the chevy dealer. Thats about $50 i'd guess since to get the key made is $30-$35 get taxes charged and such, id estimate around $50-$60. Not bad..

Catch 2 - it has sat for 2 - 3 years without being driven. So the battery is dead, already have the jumper cables.. free jump.

Total investment so far-$50-$60

Which brings a lot of concerns for me right now. What should i expect to find wrong with it (motor/trans wise) since it hasn't been driven in a few years and has pretty much sat in the wonderful west virginia weather? Aside form the basic tune-up and fluid changes that i will perform on it, what else should i be on the look out for?

Thanks in advance

 

welcome to the forum. there are two different 4th gens, well more than that but motor wise and body wise there are two styles. 93-97 and 98-02. we need to know what year it is and what motor it has.

 

if its been sitting that long change all the fluids and the gas before driving anywhere

 

I planned on doing the oil and trans. Never done gas before, how would I go about doing that? Should I flush the radiator to or just drain it? Ill have the specs on it later today.

 

My first two 94s had sat for no less than a year with over 230k and 169k, they both fired right up.

I changed the fluids and drove them daily without any issues for thousands of miles.

I've had nothing but good experiences.

 

Drain + refill...you'd have to siphon out the old gas.

 

You can pull the fuel filter off and let the pump drain the tank there's a filter in the tank that should catch any debris

 

awesome, so much easier then trying to siphon it out. No garden hose or a siphon to do that with anyway ha ha ha. And to let the pump drain, should I do it like i did on my truck (pull the filter, turn the truck on so the pump starts up, let it drain) or is there some other way to do it? I'm pretty sure when the filter is off it will only run until the gas in the motor/carb is gone then it'll stall out.

Okay as per requested I have the specs on it..

it is a 1996 3.6 6cyl. Waiting on him to tell mom what style it is (RS, SS, Z28) but I remember seeing it once and I think I remember seeing the RS emblem on the front fender and wheels. But once he tells mom-in-law shes going to tell me.. last time I, personlly, talked to him about it, he wanted 2500 for it. Figure since he told mom he would give it to me for free, then mom should be the one to talk to him. My luck, i talk to him and he'll tell me 2500+ for it again. But i do think it is a RS because i wanted a z28 and thats one of the reasons i put off on buying it from him.

Im not rolling in cash at this point, so id rather not have to pay for it just in case something is majorly wrong with it and wind up put in a hole to where i can't afford a gallon of gas ha ha ha ha and since right now my truck is down i can't just drive to his house to check it out.


but theres the specs.. he already signed the title and hopefully when the wife gets back today she will have it in her possession to hand over to me so i can go get it notorized and such. Hopefully by the end of the week, i'll be crusin around town in my very first brand new (used) camaro.

 

1996 would be a 3.8 and it is not a Z28 or SS because they are V8 LT1s. It could be a RS.

After you drain the fuel put a high grade fuel and some injection cleaner in there with it. Varnish from the old gas will be your enemy. Do you run the pump more then a few second once it start to run empty. It can over heat.

 

yep new keys, new fluids and new battery. then see what happens.