Hey everyone, I picked this '95 up for $400 this afternoon. The original plan was to tow it on a flat trailer with my friend's H1, but plans fell apart and we pulled it about 30 miles through back country roads with our Blazer and some very good rope. It has just over 200k miles, but I don't really care about that since by the time it will be driving under its own power, it won't have many of the original parts on the drivetrain. Originally had a 3.4L V6, but that has apparently been gone for years. Transmission came with it, but I don't think I will be able to use it. The entire wiring harness/ECU is all there, but that will be replaced as well. The previous owner was going to put a V8 in, but never got around to it and decided to sell it so he had fewer projects to work on. He found 3 usable (for transport) tires and the factory spare, but we switched that out with the full size spare off our Blazer. This thing ended up getting towed home on two S10/Blazer wheels and 2 ...other... wheels.

For starters, of my two friends that helped with the recovery and myself as we pulled into my friend's property for temporary storage. (The three of us didn't ride in the car for the whole trip, but we just hopped in when we came down his driveway. My friend in the driver's seat kept the car on the road the whole way there)

Oh, and I know you guys love pictures, so here are some for starters:











My current plan is to find an LT1 with ECU and wiring harness, along with transmission, rebuild everything, and then drop it in. Once we have the car *technically* up and running, we will drive it back to my house and continue the work on it. The reason it's not at my house to start out with is that my mom does not know about it yet, and would certainly not be happy to come home to a car without an engine in it.

I decided to name the car Undead because it's definitely dead right now, and I'm going to bring it back to life.

 

Your going to need a donor LT1 car. The conversion process is not super complicated just very time consuming. You can save yourself a lot of time and headaches if you can find a 95 donor car. You will have much less work then any other year. No matter what year you get you will need the frame section or Kmember from the V8 car.

Here is a page that shows you what you need. Note there is a chart that show the parts you need if the donor motor is not from a 95, IMO the "W" is a biggy, that is the car wiring harness. Not the engine harness you need that in all swaps we are talking the whole dash. http://www.tacreationsusa.com/3_4_3_8_v6_to_lt1.htm


You may not want to hear the but the cheapest and easiest thing to do will be to find a Z28 that took a light hit in the front and was not covered by insurance so it was not totaled. Then you could swap your front clip and air bag into it and you would be driving a car in a weekend. Your are going to pay almost as much for a real total for your donor might as well get one that can be fixed with your parts. In the end the original Z28 will be worth twice what the converted car is worth. The other great thing about buying a lighter hit car is that in many cases you can test drive the car. One of the big issues with cars that are hit hard is once your done then you find out the trans is shot or the motor has a tapping after all that work.

 

Thanks for the info, I had been looking through the other build threads, but I hadn't yet seen a complete list like you posted. My current plan was to just get parts from the junkyard and slowly move things over. I may be able to get a Firebird Formula that has a salvage title or something from the same person that sold me this car. I don't remember the year offhand, but that car is complete. If I could buy that, it should be pretty easy (parts compatibility wise) to do a total swap, right? I want to say it is a 93, but I am honestly not sure.

I already knew about the K-member and transmission, but I believe the 3.4L trans I have is good so I can at least get some money out of it, along with the old radiator. I was hoping I would only need the engine wiring harness/ECU, and not the whole dash assembly. I will have to stop at the local junkyard after work this week and see if they have any relatively complete cars I could strip of parts.

I'm not too worried about putting an engine in the car only to end up with a weird knock or something. The current plan is to buy a LT1 and trans and rebuild both in my garage with my two friends. The three of us have been working on cars together for some time. I'm an electrical engineering major, my one friend is about to finish welding school and is ASE certified, and my other friend already finished welding school and is also a certified electrician.

 

Quick question: what model transmission is this? It is supposed to be the original one to the car.

 

It's a 4L60E with the 3.4L bolt pattern. Same trans that came in the auto V8s, just bolt patterns are different.

I do suggest you read this thread before getting seriously involved in this. There is much to be done to do the swap. Do remember too, you are obligated to tell your insurance company after it's finished that the car is no longer a V6. God forbid it happen, but if it were in an accident, and they found out the engine was swapped without knowing, they may not cover the damage.

Links to the threads:
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...-thread-68658/
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...ictures-68220/

If, however, after reading these threads you still feel up to the challenge to do the swap, we will happily be here to help and to guide you through it.

 

Thanks for the advice and transmission ID!

I've actually gone through Socom's thread 3 times now haha. Last night I had already been reading through the other thread you linked to, but I gave up about halfway because of the author's attitude towards accepting help. As for the insurance thing, I've got no problem telling them it's a V8, I just need it to pass emissions. I will probably be moving out of the county I currently live in and into one that doesn't require emissions testing, but I don't see that happening for another few years still. (I would like to be able to use this car before then, especially with the current condition of my '96 Buick daily driver)

I guess I have 4 options right now that I need to decide between:

1. Find a 3.4L and rebuild it, along with the existing transmission, and drop it back in.
2. Part the car out to make an overall profit, and put that towards something that already has a V8.
3. Buy a donor car (I don't really want to do this)
4. Find a wrecked, but largely intact LT1 Camaro at the junkyard and get everything I need off of it.

Option #4 is my preferred choice, but I don't know if I will be able to afford it, or if there even is a car like that in my local junkyard. I will go there on Tuesday to find out.

I am 100% positive that I can complete this build physically and mentally, but the problem, as it often is, is the financial aspect of it. I really really want to do a V8 swap in this car, but I need to figure out if I can afford it. I guess I will make a complete list of the parts I will need in the morning, then take that list with and figure out the prices. Once I have that, I'll look around and see what's available for parts.

 

The 93 is an odd ball computer wise. It is not an OBD1, it more like the late 80’s computer system. It does not have a PCM it has an ECM. You would need to swap everything. The issue with going to the yard is the amount of parts you are going to need. Unless you can work a deal for the whole car and they just keep it there it is going to cost a lot more getting parts one at a time.
To rebuild a motor correctly it tuff to do on a budget. Any motor with over 100K should be bored oversize and pistons replaced. I have seen many “ring and bearing” jobs that had lower oil pressure and less HP after a “rebuild” It is perfectly normal for cylinder to wear out of round. While your old rings will seal ok new ones will not. That could take up to a year to wear into the out of round condition. The way rings are designed they can handle about .005” out of round. As a general rule unless you have a machine shop plan on about 2K in machine shop work to rebuild a motor right. Budget wise you are MUCH better off finding a lower miles used engine that you can check out/test drive before it is pulled.
In most cases on crags list 4th Gen Lt1 cars that have been hit with a deployed air bag sell for about the same thing as the motor and trans sell for. LT1’s in running condition do not sell cheap. I paid $1000 for the one in my 93, it had 32k on it. I would expect to pay $600 for any running LT1 and another $300-$400 for a good tranny. I have seen Z28’s with light hits in the front sell for $1200, even less if you can go to an auction and have a bit of luck.

Cost wise putting a 3.4 back in is the best bet for getting it on the road.( did Socom ever sell his old one?) But IMO the most valuable thing you have is all those nice body parts that could easily fix up a damaged Z28.

Parting out the shell and going with a 3rd gen is a good idea budget wise as you can easily adapt the 3rd gens to older tech and parts are dirt cheap.

Make sure you check out the floors and rear frame rails on any T-top car before you move forward. We have seen many cars that were bought as drivers the needs new frames rails and floors.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

Ok, it'll probably be at least 2 weeks before I have money to really do anything with this car, so I have plenty of time to brainstorm and try to figure out what I want to do with it.

That '93 Firebird may be an oddball, but the whole car is complete so it should have everything I need if I end up with that. I made a pretty basic parts list using the guide that was posted earlier, and then I went on the local junk yard's website since they have an online pricing system. Let me know what's missing from this list.



(The $x + y is for price plus core deposit)

The total price may end up being less than this, because that engine price at the top is for a "Fuel inj engine w/ accessories" which I assume includes the alternator and such. I will find this out tomorrow. They also have a vehicle inventory on their website, and right now it shows a '94 and '99 Camaro along with a '96 Firebird, but it does not specify the engine in the cars.

If I do a V8 swap, I can sell the current transmission as-is for $150-200, and the radiator for $30 or something. I don't think there is much interest in the old wiring harness and ECU.

You have definitely turned me off towards the idea of doing a proper engine rebuild at this point in time. No way I can afford the machine work right now. If I rebuild it, I want to do it right the first time. I know the transmission rebuild is much more manageable, and even if I stick with the old trans and a 3.4L I think it needs a rebuild. Looks like it was left in the rain for a while and got some water/dirt/sand in the lines on the side of the trans.

I do like the idea of finding a wrecked Z28 and swapping over body panels. The hard part is finding a wrecked Z28. I have an app on my phone that has been tracking local CL postings for Camaros and Firebirds for the past few months, and I don't think I've seen a single wrecked one on there yet. If I buy a Z28 and move over body panels, I can then part out the rest of this car, which is still in pretty good condition.

Even if Socom didn't sell his old engine yet, he is in Maryland and I'm in Indiana, so I would have to pay for shipping (which I honestly have no idea how much that would cost). I suppose I should message him and ask about this possibility.

I'm really starting to think that the best thing to do for my budget is to buy a 3.4L and put it in the car, then sell my old Buick, and then sell this Camaro for a profit so I can buy a 2nd or 3rd gen, which is what I would really love. I could also just directly part out the car, but I do not know whether it would be more profitable to part it out or sell it with a working 3.4L. It would be easier and quicker to sell as a complete running car.

I will definitely check out the floors and frame rails next time I'm out by the car (might be a few weeks). From what I've seen so far, there is barely any rust on it, but that's also what my parents thought about the POS Ford Taurus Wagon we bought last year that has a spotless body but a 1.5' hole in the passenger floor. I know the driver's side window on this Camaro has some issues and doesn't want to close completely, leaving a gap large enough for water to get in. Hopefully, it is a recent enough issue that it hasn't done any damage yet. There is also a dent under the rear passenger side seat where the car looks like it might have bottomed out. I haven't looked underneath to see what the damage is yet, though.

PS: This is the Camaro I was trying to buy at the beginning of this year. It ran and drove, but I couldn't come up with the money for it in time



I think that '74 is my ultimate dream Camaro. I wish I knew who bought it...

 

Today I stopped by the local junkyard and picked up a few things for my daily driver LeSabre, and then I found a good set of rear hatch struts on a '94 Camaro, so I grabbed those since mine are dead. I talked to the guys in charge of pricing for a while and I guess that a whole engine usually comes out to be <$300, but that doesn't include the wiring harnesses, not that it matters since there wasn't a LT1 Camaro there anyways. My friend and I found 2 Buick Roadmasters with LT1's, but I don't think those wiring harnesses would be compatible, correct?

Tomorrow I will be calling a place that is supposed to have a 3.4L engine for a 1995 Camaro and it has a 60 day warranty, but I don't know what they want for it.

 

Correct the wiring harness is different you also have to remember the Buick would have a different a accessories mountings. You would still need all the brackets off a 4th gen Camaro and the exhaust manifolds, throttle cables, egr system to go with the exhaust manifolds ect... That is why I said in the end its cheaper to buy a donor. I will be amazed if you can find a working Lt1 for $240. Heck most reman places will give you $200 just for a long block. Are you talking a U-pull it yard? Last I was at one there was 8 stripped carcasses in the 4th gen section.