i bought my 96 z28 last year for 2600$ it wasn't in to bad of shape needs paint redone some fading here and there. i got it so cheap because the guy did not know what was wrong i looked under it as i could here it missing turns out the # 8 plug wire was cracked and the wire was arcing on the exhaust manifold. i didn't say nothing! hehehe, drove it home threw wires in it no more SE light on. ran great but had a 140K on it but i am doing a stroker that is in progress. but why do you car about mileage when you want to do a stroker anyway. you are going to have to rebuild it anyway! as a car like the one with 27k on it. i wouldn't want todo anything to the car its to mint of a car. just my 2 cents so far i have CAI, headers, 373's, msd, borla exhaust, bbk TB, and a pcm tune i have about 4500$ total in it with all work myself except for the gears just giving you options man! but if you have 13k to spend go with the ls1 they can make crazy power.

 

I would say first decide what body style you want and then start shopping for cars. Be patient, a car that you like for a good price will show up eventually. Don't be too hasty when buying a car, that's how you get ripped off, one major rule is don't fall in love with one car, keep your options open, you'll find a good one eventually.

 

Yeah the thing I don't understand is why you're looking for a low milage car if you're going to swap or bore the engine anyway. Just get a high milage z28 for cheap and then you can bore it out or whatever you want to to do. It would even be easy to put a crate engine in it because the suspension and other parts will already be set up for the V8. If you put a big crate engine in a V6 car, the front end will be sitting REALLY low. If you really want a low milage car (I understand, I really wanted one and I got one) then leave the engine alone until you put lots of miles on it and it needs a rebuild anyway.

 

speaking of rebuild at high mileage, what do you guys consider to be the mileage a rebuild is needed?

 

depends on the engine. if nothings wrong with it keep running it, if youre low on power/compression, burning oil, using coolant, time for a rebuild. milage doesnt really play in rebuild as much as how it was treated/maintained.

 

Amen brother. I haveknown many cars that werelow mileagepieces of crap, it's all about the owner. I've also seen manycars with 150k that run\look like new. It all depends on howshe has been treated throughoutherlife....

 

It goes along with the whole "if you treat your stuff right, it will treat you right" Same exact thing goes for your car. We have a Mercury Mountaneer with the 5.0L Ford in it with over 110,000 miles and it doesn't use oil or coolant or anything. It's been well maintained and still runs like it, the only problems have been an exhaust leak with the EGR feed tube. Keep up on maintence and most motors are fine for at least 150K.

 

Then ill just get a LT1 z28 with like 110k for cheap... probably like 2 or 3 grand

 

Now you are talking my friend- just be sure to take your time and find one that hasn't been abused

 

yeah... dont do what i did and rush into something that looks/sounds nice with out really inspecting what you cant see/hear as clearly.

As for the rebuild, i dont use oil my oil pressure is usually low tho (even before i added that engine restore crap) I have a knock/tick that may or may not be exhaust because it sounds like its coming from the engine not the manifold and its pretty loud compared to the sound that the gap in my pipes make.