CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

The code name for my project is Operation IROC-Z. Very simply put and very appropriate for what it is. I thought that this was also the best place to post this thread since it's all about history and restoration.

These pictures I'm posting first are from Saturday. I am almost finished doing the carpet delete mod. What is revealed is the body/paint from the factory. For it being as old as it is I am impressed. There's a few rusty spots here and there but overall it's very clean.

I am showing pics of this first because I want to hear what people think. I did this in part to remove weight of which carpet does put some decent weight in the car. 2nd, I wanted it to be cleaned and sanded/painted again in certain areas. 3rd, well, it's not needed and my project is ultimately for my car to be a full street/strip race car but more so street/highway racer. The 1st pic is right before I took the carpet off. The next few pics show the paint/body/interior with the carpet gone.



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puma1552

iTrader: (1)

very solid, lets see the rest!

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I assume you mean the driver side?

82CrossFire Z28

iTrader: (1)

The exterior comes to mind

puma1552

iTrader: (1)

Yeah the exterior!

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

Okay, I'll get those together in a few. Keep posted.

Thanks.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I need to wash my car badly but here's a few pics of the exterior that I took the other day.



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puma1552

iTrader: (1)

very solid car to use for a project! will be following, looking forward to more pics

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

you need to cut about 6 inches off those tailpipes, they're WAY too long, and get rid of the red iroc lettering, it doesn't contrast well with the paint, but besides that its a pretty nice car

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

That's what my mechanic told me about the pipes. I like them like that though. I can however remove them since they're just clamped and not welded (to make it easier to remove once I do change them out).

The IROC lettering, yeah, I mean it's nice to me but I don't really pay much attention to it. I think it's the factory lettering but I don't know for sure. I honestly think a previous owner changed the position of it because on the 88 5.7 Liter's the IROC name is towards the rear more so.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I'm about to upload some engine bay pics because of the amount of work I've been doing. I'll post some parts I'm using too.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

These pics are showcasing the work I've been doing in the engine bay so far. I've got a new a.c. delete pulley on stand-by but until I can get that one bolt with the stripped head off, I can't do it. It's dirty in the engine bay right now but not too bad. I've deleted alot of stuff out of there and I'm not done yet!

I got one of those overhead lights to hook on my hood and worked from 10p.m. last night until about 5:30 this morning pulling the stuff out of the car, re-routing my hoses, eliminating alot of weight and hoses and other crap. I've got the block hoses re-routed into each other & I am going to get the rest of the A.I.R. stuff out too. The only issue I have at the moment is that bolt on the rear bar holding against the rear of the a.c. compressor. The head on the bolt is stripped, so my 15mm can't get it off.



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CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

Come to think of it I may just take the IROC words on the doors off. I know it's an IROC with other work done to it besides what I'm doing at the moment but everyone else doesn't need to. hehehe

scottmoyer

This looks more like a mod rather than a restoration. Moving to the appropriate forum.

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

I think the Iroc lettering is supposed to go farther back then where it is, so it is a possibility that a PO repainted and had new letters put in, how does the car feel after removing the AIR system? I've been thinkin about doing this same thing in order to be able to run non emissions headers

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

This is actually a combination of modifying and restoration. I'm going to restore the paint back to the original state after everything else is finished and do a few other interior repairs too.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I haven't fully finished removing the AIR System but so far so good. In fact I was afraid of removing it but I knew in my head that the car would be fine. It's just scary when you start taking stuff off of a car that is 20+ years old and that has had these parts on it since the factory. You never know what will happen.

I've been working on various cars for along time now and this IROC is by far the most interesting piece of work so far.

The car drives fine though and if anything it's somewhat louder.

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

thats exactly the same reason as to why I haven't messed with it, wouldn't want it to quit running the way it does now, because since I've had it, not once has it given me reliability issues

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

No, you'll be fine if you removed it all. Technically/legally we shouldn't but our cars don't need emissions and if you do a safety inspection make sure they aren't too picky or if you know someone that will pass you (as long as everything else is safe) then you're good to go.

By the way, I JUST GOT DONE REMOVING THAT STRIPPED BOLT!!! HOORAY BABY!!!! I spent 3 hours last night and 1.5 hours tonight trying to get that punk off.

I had to use a 9/16 or 14mm to get it off!

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I finally finished the a.c. delete pulley installation. It took me 3 nights to do it because there were several other smaller jobs to do to accommodate this project. Most hoses were eliminated. The engine block that has 2 pipes for the coolant to flow into are re-routed for the coolant to flow into each other instead of into heater hoses/the radiator.

I plugged up some vacuum sources on the intake, kept my intake coolant flow but blocked off the side pipe that had coolant flow from the old heater control valve & I plugged up the pipe that allowed gas to flow to the canister for that emissions part. The a.c. and heat is all gone in my car but I've got to remove what's left of the a.c. housing.

I removed all of the cruise control set-up. That includes the wiring, cable and servo. The wiring for the a.c. compressor and air conditioning in general have been cut off and the wiring for the old smog part (AIR part) have been cut. I'm going to cap those off for safety reasons. The windshield wiper reservoir is gone as well as most of the carpet.

I've got to also remove what's left of the pipe that allowed coolant to flow from the left coolant hose that went into the engine block. This pipe goes around the rear of the intake manifold into a hose that used to hook up into the heater core. The heater core is gone along with the radio/CD player. Lol, it's been alot of work, alot of blood and sweat. So far so good.

I test drove the car last night with the delete pulley on now. I had to make sure everything was running smoothly. The results of a 25 minute drive which included a pit stop for gas was this; lighter and faster & easier driving during the city. The RPM's don't jump/surge in between 35-45mph anymore. I suspected the cruise control servo/cable had something to do with that. The car stays cool and no leaks. I also want to mention that when I took the car to get on the interstate I didn't even hit the gas fully and I didn't apply full power to the wheels but holy crap, the car was going so freaking fast that I felt like it was going to flip! No crap there. The car also has a older mild cam in her which is nice for mid-top end power too.

Enough talk. Here are some pics.



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88 5.7 Iroc-Z

now just get some headers so you can get rid of the air tubes

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

Oh yeah, for sure. I've been trolling the Craigslist ad's for awhile looking for the right deal on some long tube headers.

joee5

iTrader: (4)

Work in progress sure to be a masterpeice once completed. Good luck.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I'm lucky that my ride is in solid shape. I've been very keen on keeping it maintained and detailed since I've had it too. Once I get some more dough I'm buying the Holley Stealth Ram Intake kit with the APR and so forth.

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

I thought about the stealth ram, but it takes torque away from typical everyday street use RPM range and moves up into rpm ranges that u only use when racing so since mine is a dd I didn't see any reason to get rid of my TPI intake

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

It does take some torque from the bottom end but more than makes up for it in the mid-upper range RPM's. It wouldn't hurt that much off the lights especially if you've got a good rear end with gears.

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

haha, see thats why I didn't do it I have a posi BW, but its a crappy 2.77 so its bad enough off the line as it is,

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

Well, I know the 2:77's aren't better than say a 3:42 but I have a 2:77 and it's pretty good off the line. You just have to know how to hook it off the line. Good quality tires make a difference too.

I make my car get off a line real sweet but I am looking to swap in a 10 bolt 3:42. I do not want anything bigger than that because it'll start affecting my car's awesome cornering and handling abilities.

Picture racing at a curvy ramp at 70mph without braking. That's how I do it and usually the car racing me won't do the same thing.

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

well Im currently running Michelin Pilot Sports so tire quality isn't an issue, its just that better acceleration off the line would be nice, i mean the 350 grants great pull of the line, but what I'm tryin to say is it would pull more with a 3.42 ratio

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I am personally very satisfied with what I'm doing off the lines when I have to grant you. I don't do it very often at all though. My car isn't a daily driver, so when I do go out I don't race anyone very often at all. In fact it's VERY hard to find anyone to race. Plus I always see Mustang's around and lot's of tuner/foreign cars but hardly any F-Body's of any year. In fact most of the time if I end up racing like I did 2 weekends ago, the person finds me!

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

mine is a DD and even tho my town is OVERRUN by R****S nobody really messes with me, only once in a while one gets ballsy, and I'm satisfied with its takeoff for bein stock, but its just human nature to want better results and thats how I feel about my car

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

What kind of headers do you guys think I should go with? I was thinking some long tube Hedman headers and since I'm keeping my catalytic converter it'll have to be compatible with that as well.

Then the long tube headers present an issue, space. I'm going to replace the y-pipe with the headers but I was thinking of getting some shorty headers in case the other ones prove to be too much of a hassle.

So what are your opinions guys?

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

Here are a few more detailed parts pics I took recently. I went ahead and painted my air intake housing with that black paint for plastic by Krylon and it looks so much better now. I also removed my K&N air filter stickers off because I don't like tackiness.

I also went ahead and painted (with the same spray paint) a few good even layers on the long bracket piece that holds the upper part of the radiator and the 2 fans that have a bolt in each side. Looks alot better now!



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88 5.7 Iroc-Z

aww man makes me want to get rid of my emissions crap, love all the free space on the passenger side

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I almost forgot what my ride looked like without all of that stuff on the passenger side. I had to go get a picture of my engine bay from a year ago to compare and I was astonished at how much work I have put into my ride.

All of my friends and car guy's I've met online and offline have complimented my work. They think it's better looking and bad a@@ to do for a ride that has almost a 100 "free" mods to do.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

What do you or anyone else on here think about me deleting my IROC-Z stripes/body stickers on the doors think? Part of this work I'm doing involves it being somewhat of a sleeper look.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

Here are a few more pics of my finished painting work for my bracket pieces and air intake housing. All of it hooked up now and ready to go. By the way, the color isn't pink, it's burgundy.

The other 2 pics are where I'll have my future NOS installed. I'm planning to buy 2 bottles of 75 wet shot nitrous and I'll have a shop install all of it. 2 bottles will go in the spots on each side where the speakers used to be. Then I'll probably have one large bottle of a wet shot in the grooves where the seats used to be and of course it'll all be concealed and it'll be installed safely. I'll change my mind where needed if need be as far as locations go.



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86blackiroc

iTrader: (12)

I'm sorry, but I have to voice my opinion. You're not "modding" your car, you're just removing good parts and plugging stuff off. You remind me of the previous owner of one of my cars. I REALLY hope you are saving everything you remove, so when you get bored with the car, you can give all the parts to the new owner of the car.

And I hope you're running a vented gas cap.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

The very definition of modifying something is to change it from it's original form and replace it with a better part/piece(s). Then you have the other option for cars besides just modding and that is deleting parts that choke up and clog up the life of that car. In this case many of us know these cars come stock with alot of crap that aren't needed anymore to run efficiently, removes weight, frees up space for future modifications and you have more room to work with in your car in general.

Definition of MODIFY

1.) To make less extreme.

2.) To limit or restrict the meaning of especially in a grammatical construction

3.) To make minor changes in b : to make basic or fundamental changes in often to give a new orientation to or to serve a new end <the wing of a bird is an arm modified for flying>


I have also noticed that there are ALOT of pessimistic people like you on here and outside of here too. If you see something you don't like or that 'you' think is stupid then you're quick to point out your opinion. Frankly I have no interest in hearing your negative marks or pessimistic opinions. If you or nobody else have anything of substance to say or offer like others have on here then don't inform me of it unless it's something having to do with life or death.

As for my parts I'm keeping several of them because I'm a pack rat but I will never be bored of this car and I've been working on cars for along time, so I'm never bored of cars. For the record I am modding my car and deleting the crap it doesn't need which is how it should've came out from the factory (the 350's anyway).

86blackiroc

iTrader: (12)

I'm not saying you are stupid for wanting to delete items from your car. But once again, you aren't "modding", you're just "taking apart" and leaving it like that.

For example:

If you delete the smog pump junk, also remove the lines from the manifolds and put pipe plugs in the holes.

If you remove the charcoal canister, dont just plug off the vapor line and leave it sitting there poking up in the air. Remove the line from the car and cap it off where it starts. Then install a vented gas cap.

If you remove the heater hoses, don't just cut them in half and hook them together with a bunch of clamps, then leave it laying on the frame rail. Take the time to remove the hoses completely, remove the nipples, then install pipe plugs like you're supposed to.

And for crying out loud, why remove the top of the AC box if you're going to leave the bottom half still there? Remove it too and make a cover for the firewall.

Put some thought into it. Any hack can remove parts and leave it be.

*I'm sorry, I see you did remove the rest of the AC box now, so disregard that part.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I'll try to answer your remarks as best as I can and hopefully you'll understand that I'm not finished with what I'm doing either.

1.) The canister piece is gone and all of the pieces that hooked into also. However, that line I've got capped off is not a permanent fixture. I had to do that until I can find the time/money to buy more car stuff to finish not just that but the rest. Hopefully you would understand that?

2.) All of my heater hoses are gone. The only ones left are for the upper and lower radiator hoses which I have to leave. Then the engine block has my set-up so that the coolant can flow into the engine. I used to have real bad overheating issues but ever since I replaced my cooling parts with better flowing, better quality parts I've had no issues. In fact the way my hoses to engine block are now along with the hose that hooks into the intake manifold I've had no issues more so. I think my car runs abit cooler (by 5F) vs. before.

3.) I was thinking about the A.C. Box and the 2 holes in the firewall. I was thinking, maybe I'll leave one hole open so heat can escape from the engine bay out my car window. I've driven the car a few times since last month with it like that and I can feel the heat from the engine bay swooshing right out the firewall hole into my car right out the car windows. IMHO it is removing alot of that circulating heat that would otherwise just stay in their and make it even hotter. Plus if I were to drive it on a colder day it would be warm and toasty in the car, lol.

4.) I'm not a hack guy but I do put alot of thought into what I do. I have spent many hours and nights working on this. Eventually when I'm finally done you'll see how well my thoughts were put into action. All of these things I'm doing will come together in time and until then I'm very pleased so far. I've had nothing but compliments from guys and car mechanics who've looked at it. I've had some pessimistic comments from people online (not just here) but overall I'm on my way to also swapping out my intake manifold and fuel rails/injectors too.

88 5.7 Iroc-Z

sorry I haven't replied in a while, yes you should get rid of the lettering and either put on the stock lettering or leave the car without letters

BlueZee28

iTrader: (30)

Leave the decals and stripes on it, they look good and the pre-'91 Camaros look plain without the decals and stickers because the ground effects aren't as intricate leaving the sides of the car kind of "blehhh..."

ATX-Iroc

Its your car so im not gonna say nothin bad but i dont think all that was a good idea. A couple ideas i can help you out with are to remove the oil cooler next time you change the oil because its not doing anything for you looped off like that. A couple of cheap mods that would make a good difference would be a torque converter for a 4.3 s10 (only about 100 bucks) and it would be a good idea to install a poly torque arm bushing while you have the trans out, and you get to change trans fluid and install things like a corvette servo much easier.

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I'm looking for a stall converter, 10" 2800 to be exact. I already had the transmission fluid and filter changed out about 3 weeks ago too. I'm going to beef up the transmission alot more in the next 6 months to a year. Right now I'm trying to distribute my attention to the car as evenly as possible along with needing to do other maintenance work on my other 2 cars. I have 3 cars to maintain but it's what I do!

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I was wondering guys, what kind of rims would look best on my car? I am sort of tired of the Z28 rims on my ride that I bought earlier this year. I want something like I had before but not exactly. Any opinions?

naf

iTrader: (7)

If you're worried about venting the heat from the engine bay, remove the weatherstripping on the rear of the hood and let it vent past the windshield. Please don't let it vent through the cabin, especially with all of those hacked up pieces that are likely releasing fuel vapor and engine exhaust. Put a little thought into what you do...

You remove the carpet to save weight then want to install TWO (or 3) bottles of nitrous? and associated plumbing?

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I do put alot of thought into the stuff I do. I am not finished by any means. Alot of the things I'm doing/thinking of I jot down for ideas. I have alot of ideas about where the nitrous would go. Besides, the power 1 bottle of nitrous will give me more than makes up for the added weight the bottle brings. I realize I won't be using it often but like I said, it'll be awhile. I'm estimating this whole ordeal will take me several years & I hope this site is still up by the time I'm done.

As far as vapor's are concerned, lol, I've been through worse than driving in a car with a open firewall. I'm looking for some sheet metal to block up the holes and I gotta paint them before I do. So it'll be a minute....

Thanks for the comments guys but I've noticed alot of pessimism/criticism. I want comments but I'm a pretty smart guy, I take notice of things that I know will need to tended to. I had my mechanic of 40 years take a look at everything and based on his professional opinion and my own professional opinion I'm safe to go. So I'd like for some more positive remarks, if that's okay.

I did ask a question earlier that I would like to know your opinion on. Rims, what kind of rims would look best on this ride? I like stock look but where I'm taking my car I want something more meaner, more me. Any ideas?

CamaroIROC88350

iTrader: (1)

I've figured out finally what I want to do with the bottom half of my engine and I'm not talking about cam/new pistons, rods, etc. I'm doing that anyway but what do you think of the 383 stroker set-up? It's taken me a year to decide what to do with it because the internal upgrades in the car are a few years old. I want to freshen things up and do the work myself (with help at the shop of course) and I wanted some opinions on my 383 idea.

Also, once everything is finally completed, I plan to keep this to myself. I'm not a bragger so I think it's better to just keep the 383 stuff to myself once it's done and tell people all I got is a cam/headers/rods/pistons/ and the HSR intake.

CaliChevyLover

those are the rims you need