Hello all,

Figured I'd make a post and introduce myself. I've been an F-body fan in general since I was young, and got my first Camaro at 16 years old - a 1984 Berlinetta with a V6 (and a pretty sad one, at that!). I graduated up to a 1988 SC with a throttle-body injected 305 and an automatic transmission the following year, and spent most of my free time (and money!) on it until I went to college, when I was lucky enough to receive a 98 V6/auto car from my father. At some point I sold the 88 when I didn't have anywhere to store it any longer, and continued to drive the 98 for several more years (and across country when I moved!), until it finally dropped a valve at somewhere near 250k fairly hard miles. I didn't have the funds to repair it, or a place to store it, at the time, so it was sold to the highest bidder at a sad price, and I moved onto the cheapest econobox I could find just to get me around.

Fast forward to yesterday, and I tripped on an ad on Craigslist for a "1994 Camaro Z28" with very little info and a crappy picture, but the price was excellent and the seller was throwing in a handful of parts he had laying around his shop, as well, so I went to go check it out.

After my first look and hearing it run, I was still on the fence, even with its low price, and I worked it out with the seller to let me sleep on it, as he had given me a bit of an odd story. He told me that the man he purchased the car from, had had 2 camaros - the Z28 I was looking at, and a V6 of the same year. Somehow, the Z28 got totalled, and its parts put into the V6 chassis - rear end and all. Of course I was a bit curious, so I ran the VIN through a decoder and sure enough, it came back as a 1995 V6/5-speed car, but having seen the LT1 under the hood, and pulled the car through all 6 gears and reverse, it seemed like the weird story may be true, and I wasn't quite sure what to do at that point.

Of course, since its been so long since I've had a Camaro, most of that didn't end up mattering in the long run, and when I went back this morning and started it up again, I knew I had to bring it home.

So we finalized the deal, and despite her problems and a bit of wear and tear, I brought home what seems to be a fairly respectable project 95 Z28 clone, with an LT1 and M6.





Sorry for the poor quality pictures, I'll see if I can get any better tomorrow. She's definitely not the prettiest on the block, nor do I expect her to ever be the fastest, but even with her problems (like a failing head gasket! :O ), it still put a MASSIVE grin on my face on the short drive home, and I was instantly hooked again.

So anyway, hi!

Glad to be back on the right team, and I can't wait to get back to wrenching, its been way too long!

 

Hi right back at you. Good luck as you tackle the problems that need to be fixed.

 

Well I hope you got a good deal, with converted cars you are really betting on how good a job the person that converted it did. Wires and hoses routed wrong and brackets installed wrong can cause a car to be very unreliable.

With these types of car the swap would even be much of the dash wiring.

 

As far as I can tell it looks to have been done fairly well, actually - even the dash cluster was swapped in with the motor/trans. There's some (pretty major) fit and finish issues, but when running no unusual gauge activity and even with the leaking (read: pretty much totally blown) head gasket, the car starts pretty much right up as expected.

That said, I appreciate the warning, but honestly that was all considered before I bought it. I was looking for a project car for me and my dad to work on and this seems to fit the bill very nicely, but I definitely will have more research to do than I'm used to just to get started, due to the potential transplant issues you pointed out, Gorn.

As for the deal, I feel like I got a great deal at $1000 with extra parts thrown in - had it been much more I wouldn't have been willing to pay it, largely due to the transplant work.

 

Yea that is a good deal. The trans alone is worth $800 Make sure the oil is clean, any antifreeze in the oil will wipe out the motor pretty quickly.

Make sure to grab a GM manual from the manual section. In section 8-200 the is a bunch of pictures on how things should be routed you should review that and make sure they got it right since you are going to be pulling most of it anyway to do the head gaskets.

 

There's definitely some coolant in the oil, but since I'm stripping it down to do the heads and head gaskets anyway, that will be easy to take care of. My biggest concern is the idea of tearing the heads off to take care of that problem, and discovering major cylinder scoring or the like.

Thanks for the tip on the manuals - heading to check those out now!

 

FYI when you mix oil with coolant and you run the engine she is done for. When you pressurize the coolant/oil mixture it causes a chemical reaction that releases an acid. That acid will melt away the babbitt on the bearing. It will also deposit said babbitt into you oil passages so it can ruin your new bearing after you install them.

Back when I worked at the dealer we always fixed warranty work. If a car needed a crank and 5 connecting rods then that was what it got. The only exception to that was coolant in the oil. Coolant in the oil and ANY noise GM just sent in a new motor. The cost of fix a coolant contaminated engine was not worth it. You must strip it down to the bare cast block and dip it in a strong acid and flush it. Now you are ready to start your rebuild.

You are better off finding a used motor. It is a lot of work doing those head gaskets. Last thing you want is 4 weeks later to be replacing the motor.

 

I appreciate the tip, but I'm not terribly concerned with it at this stage, honestly. I went and checked again and it may not be coolant in the oil, for one. It does seem to have a bit of a gas smell, but given the car's history, I'm not going to jump to any conclusions until I can tear into it further (haven't had much time this weekend, sadly). I could very well just be smelling my old gas can in the garage and thinking it's coming from the dipstick in my hand. I'll be able to better determine when I get it up on stands sometime this week and start draining the fluids, and even more so when I pull the heads off.

For what its worth, the oil doesn't really seem thinned, isn't foamy or thick, and is the appropriate color for old but not overly dirty.

 

What coolant in the oil would look like. A milkshake look. I am glad that it is not an issue. I have seen so many people do intake and head gaskets only to have the motor spin a bearing 5 weeks later.

 

The milkshake of death!