Im in need of some help with my 1994 firehawk, I just picked up.
someone has put alot of work in the car allready, good and bad.
this is what I do know about the car,
It is a 6speed, lt1, 383 stroker w mild cam(maybe), 1.6 roller rockers, BBK headers, somekind of y-pipe, not cats and ofcorse a flowmaster.

this is a list of repairs I need some help with.

exhaust: it sounds like it may have an exhaust leek, when ever the transmission holds the car back, (back talk) it will backfire, and pop. I do not like this, sounds trashy to me. could this be from a exhaust leek or from no cats or other? I want to get this fixed ASAP. FYI the timing is correct

speedo: the speedo dont work, should I replace the cluster or the speed sensor first?

and brakes: at Idel speeds the car is hard to stop, ive looked for vac leeks with no luck. could this be from the cam?
or cheap pads?

thanks for your help!

 

The backfiring and popping when the transmission holds the car back is pretty normal, although you're probably getting a little more sound because you don't have cats. Toss some high flow cats (I recommend Random Technology or Magnaflow metallic cats, you'll lose maybe 1 or 2 HP) and most of the popping should go away.

For the speedo: Do you have an SES light lit? If it's the sensor it should be throwing a code.

Brakes: Need a little more info here, does the car roll forward or does the pedal get hard to push? I doubt it's the cam, if you had a cam large enough that it makes stopping difficult due to low vacuum it would have a noticeable lope at idle.

 

good call, the SES light is not on, I guess ill check the cluster,
the brakes get rock hard, allmost like I lose power brakes at any speed below 1K RPM,
over 1k rpm they work as theyshould.

back to the exhaust, the backfire is very loud, like a gunshot, the poping I can deal with but the backfire has got to go. I believe i will look into geting magnaflow cats

 

for the backfire, if you say the timing is correct, could have a bad distributer cap/rotor, bad spark plugs, bad ignition control module, bad plug wires, or youre getting too much fuel