What's up guys, looking hard at some 90's F-body Camaro's here locally, and I've got a couple of option's I'm interested in.

Some pre-face;
I haven't ever had, or worked on, any Camaro. The only experience I've got was with my old '92 Grand Marquis, and as of late, my '05 RAM 1500 (4.7L 2nd gen magnum). Both of which had, and have, ample space in the engine bay to work around. I've taken note, both through reading and with eyes-on and hands-in with the cars I've gone to check out, that the F-Bodies have a bit of a spacial challenge with their front ends. Willing to work with it though, I love the way the cars look, and the way they drive.


Anyways.
My options that I've narrowed down to, which will also give you perspective on my financial limits with this.

Option number one:
*Sorry, no picture. The listing has been taken down after I've seriously talked with the guy about his car, so as to prevent any other potential buyers from jumping in. Just picture a standard, run of the mill, 1994 with a steel roof, and extremely faded paint*

1994 LT1 Z28, which has been fully re-built mechanically. The exterior is in extremely poor condition, with paint that's down to the white base coat on the roof, and the hood. The rest of the plastic body panels are basically either down to the plastic, or are on their last layer of paint. All panels and parts are in good shape, no damages or crinkling.

Chassis, engine block, drive shaft/diff, all have 114k on them.
The transmission has been swapped out for some aftermarket racing-spec one, and it's got an S&M ratchet shifter on it. It's an automatic, with manual sequential shift, much like a regular motorcycle transmission, where you just pop-shift into gear.
He's got a higher rated torque converter in it, and it grabs at higher RPM's. Lurches a little bit into motion in first gear, but it's smooth after that. Long-tube headers, comp rollers and rockers, eddlebrock 58mm throttle body, new opti, fuel pump, engine seals front and rear replaced, crankshaft, push rods, ball joints are new, new tires, shocks/struts, brakes, fuel injectors have been upgraded to higher volume rated ones (not sure what brand)...

He's hit everything that apparently needs to be done with the actual engine, and the transmission, for the age of the car, and with the miles it has. It's noticeable how much different the power output to the road is in his. Significantly quicker, you can feel what all's been done to it. However, it's got all the AC components stripped out, and I'm a bit of a cupcake here in Florida, so if this one gets picked out, I'll have to go onto Rockauto and load up on parts, and install everything. Dash pad is also missing, it broke on him when he did his radio install, never replaced.
He's asking $4500, firm. It's a steel roof model as well, no T-Tops. =( It won't need any real physical work to make it reliable, just cosmetic and AC.

Option number two:

There's a 1998 LS1 Z28, which is completely stock. The car hasn't been modified, at all. It's only been owned by a 65 year old man who was the owner of a Chevrolet/Pontiac dealership back in the day I guess, and the car has 74k on it. Interior is all leather, loaded, T-Tops, etc. Great condition on the interior, an the exterior is almost like new. He's had it for the most part in his garage, and it's always been covered up with the cover he's got with it.

He stuck an SS hood on it, and he's got some after-market, slightly larger wheels 6 spoke black polished wheels that he might (will) give up with it. That's the only deviation from totally stock, excusing an obvious swap to a modern radio in the dash.

He's got full papers showing maintenance records, and receipts for fluids that he flushed on his own at his garage. Transmission has had it's fluid flushed regularly, full synthetic it's whole life, etc. Says tires are still good, as well brakes, new shocks and struts. No leaks, seals are good on the hatch and tops.
He's going for $6500 firm with his.





Now, for my knowledge so far, with what I've read up on. Stock on stock, the LT1 seems to be a slightly better performer, as I've seen in videos, and read about. However, due to placement of simple things, like spark plugs and that optispark distributor, it's a headache to work on it and change anything out, usually taking from what I've read to be like... 2 hours for a spark plug change out. That's disheartening, but after seeing the '94 with long tube heads on it, I can definitely see where that struggle comes into play. It's CRAMMED in there. Bloody knuckles could be in the future.
The LS1, while it's performance was apparently slightly lesser, looks MUCH easier to do basic maintaining on. It's also been regarded to be more reliable, has better seals, etc.

I'm not looking for a street king, drag racing machine. I've got my big old rollin' turd of a truck, and I just want a car that'll move with a purpose, and the F-Body Camaro's took a sparkling to my eye. The '94 is built up, and was originally intended to be, speaking from it's owner, a drag strip capable car. It never made it there however, as he got an S10, and chopped it all to hell with a big-block V8 swap. He's been using it as a daily driver to some degree, and just doesn't want it anymore.
The '98, was bought as something to just have by this older gentleman when he left the dealership, and he's just been taking it out on the weekends, and then cleans it and puts it away.
Obviously, the '98 has been better taken care of, but it's also gonna end up costing my $2000 more overhead than the '94 will. Counter point, the '94 will need $2000, or more, to get it to the point of the '98 in terms of appearances and function (no AC, I can't stop mentioning that. It's hotter than sin over here in FL right now). To finish that off, it's still an older model, and it won't have my favorite feature of the F-Body's, which is the T-Tops, even after getting a cheap spray job, fixing the AC, and replacing the dash pad.


At this point, it's boiled down to more or less performance over appearance, with sub-set consequences being more difficult future maintaining over easier future maintenance. I'm just looking for a fairly cheaply priced fun driver here. I might want to go waters deep in performance upgrades and tuning later in the future, but I don't see that happening quite honestly.



I figure I'll be on these forums a lot more here in the future, so this seemed the best place to post up asking about this. If there's any other information ya'll want, feel free to ask. I've got plenty of info on both cars, and both owners are more than willing to break out into minute detail about everything.
It's just two different guys, that had two different purposes for the cars that they're now selling.

 

go wake up the guy and buy the 98. ls1 out performs lt1 hands down. be surprised if the 98 is still there

 

Hey craby,

That's about what I figured out after reading around.
There's a guy here on our ship (I'm an active service Navy dude) that used to build up F-body Camaro's for drag racing, and he personally said that I shouldn't even look at the LT1 if the LS1 is even an option.

I didn't know that it had more power off the bat though, lol. Guess I found a gem then. I've already told the 1998 owner that I'm headed up there with check in-hand for the car this weekend on Saturday. We're underway right now, so unfortunately I can't go grab it this second, lol.



Aside from listening out for piston slap (which I've already heard on a previous 1998 that I looked at. Thing had 283k miles, guy was asking $4200, lol.), what else should be I listening/looking out for with the drivetrain/engine when I go to check it out?
I know basics, like looking for any kind of fluid leaks, making sure there's no gasket problems with the transmission or oil pans, as well as the differential, etc. Pops, groans, creaks, slop, yada whatever, so I'll keep with that.


I know that the 94-02 cars here do have their little random noises they tend to make, with rattles and creaks thanks to a lot of plastic parts, so I do know what to listen for with that one. I also know the known leaky points for gaskets/seals around the t-Tops and hatch, and how to fix them fortunately, but is there anything specifically I should be looking out for beyond all this?

 

not much different then lookin at any other car. want to look for abuse when buying any 4th gen they is fun and its easy to get carried away. lol. you know, bald tires and rubber caked up on the rear wheel well. sounds like this is not an issue with this one. i know there are some things that are better in the 00-02 just not thinking to well this morning.

 

What'd you mean, some things being better in the 00-02 cars? Like what?

 

copied from another site, if i have owned one i would know

" '98's had 28# injectors, 99-00 had 26#, and the '01-'02's have 28.5# injectors. They also started using the truck cam in the '01+ cars, as well as the LS6 intake and no EGR. The exhaust manifolds changed in '00, so that's why you see headers listed as 98-99 and 00-02. I've also been told that the head casting procedure changed for the '01+ cars, but I've yet to have that verified."

 

Gotcha. Well, assuming this guy doesn't flop on me, we should be set for the '98 anyways.

I'm not looking for a drag racing/street racing machine, honestly. Just a fun car to pud around with when I'm not droning back and forth to work in my truck.

 

Well, I now own the second listed car in the OP. Going to pick it up this Friday, or Monday, just depends on our ship schedule this week.

It was indeed as good as the pictures suggest, inside and out. No leaks, only one squeak (old struts he never got around to replacing up front, they're only slightly squeaky on hard knocks in the road. That's an easy replacement, and fairly cheap too.), smooth shifting, and to my shock and awe, ice cold a.c. that rivals my RAM 1500.

No rust underneath, no sagging doors. No gapped body panels of fenders, and no funny smell.

Looks like this summer cupcake found his AC enabled, mint condition Z28.


A nice little pleasant surprise that the seller tossed in:
-New window motors to replace the stock ones that are slowing down
-New tie rod ends, to have as a spare part. Stockers are still fine, no slop. He was just halfway through the front end before he decided to sell this car to focus on his 1984 Grand National and Vette, which are both also in mint condition.
-Various little bits, extra fuses, brand new in bag leather T-Top bags, etc.
-The kicker: I got all eight wheels. What I wasn't expecting, was having eight brand new tires, nipples on sidewall, minimal surface scoring as well. Has the optional chrome attached, and gave me the black gloss stock z28 wheels as well. All wheels balanced.


I think I got a good deal.

 

man you got a great deal, and its going to a navy man, life is good.