So i have a 1992 camaro that i acquired from my dad last year and besides falling in love with it, i have some questions, as you can see from the picture i uploaded. When i first saw the car i knew it had an engine swap done to it, since i saw other camaros with the tpi setup and then i look at mine thats a tbi with the tpi cone just sitting there. After researching i found out my camaro came with a 305 LB9 which if i recall is a Tpi and the current motor looks like a 305 L03, I over heard my dad saying that the previous owner said it had an engine swap from a suburban It might be possible but just had me wondering. Are my worrys right? I saw that the L03 has a bit less power than a LB9 but more research shows alot of potential in it, so eh not that bad for my first car which i plan to work on alot. If you are wondering, its an old picture when the car needed a steering column that i just could not find from a local junk yard over here in chicago, after tired of waiting i just bought it online and got the car back and running, then ran into more small problems (Overheating, Bat not charging properly) which are easy fixes . Its a 1992 Camaro RS btw Thanks for any input

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

If it came from a Suburban, it could be the LO5, the TBI 350. Get block casting #'s (easiest to find are the three digits cast on the side, visible from underneath, which are the last three digits of the full block casting # and all you really need). If you pull the valve covers you can get the head casting #'s. Hey, if it's actually a 350, all the better, right?

true, i need to clean up the engine tomorrow so ill check it out and post it up

I also have an L03 in my car, it seems to be enough for me, it goes pretty well and isn't fast enough to get me in too much trouble.

But I've heard that TPI is always better than TBI, hands down. I believe our L03's came from the factory rated at 170 HP and the TPI's came with something like 210 or 230 (correct me if I'm wrong anyone.) TPI is a more advanced and efficient system.

I have only drove it a few times (had to repair alot of things to get it where it is now) and i loved it, did some burnouts in the alley way besides my house and the thing just hauls.

Im about 85% positive its a l03 305 Tbi, looks alot like the others i see around here, Im gonna pull the valve covers off soon enough to give em a clean as well as the engine compartment soon so ill see if i can dig up some casting numbers.

I also think the car is enough for me as well like yourself kings, but im sure i can dig up a good deal on a 5.7l 350 around here if i make some calls well see tho

I would hope nobody would have done an lb9 to L03 swap, theres almost no practical reason to do that.

IMO if you think it 'hauls' and you havent been driving around early 1980s 4 cylinder automatics for the last 5 years, its not an L03.

looks like the previous owner did, since when i decode the vin number it turns into a lb9 305 motor, and hell even had the front cone intake on it still that tpi setup use.

and yea im easily impressed since i have only been driving a nissan sentra (140hp/132lb/ft) before the camaro as my daily driver for work.

not a bad car for 500 bucks, the previous owner really did a half *** job keeping the car running.

Assuming you Sentra is a mid 90s se-r, its actually atleast as fast, most likely faster than a stock l03 car. An l03 might feel like an improvement over one of the 1.6 liter sentras but not a 2 liter one.

IMO if you had a 2.0 sentra and your new tbi fbody feels faster, its most likely an l05, not an l03.

Come to think of it, could a suburban even be had with a 305? Im thinking they were all 350s.

If it's a 92 RS it probably had a L03 in it originally. What's the 8th digit in the vin?

tpi RS' were really rare... thought they only came in the b4c cop cars ?!

Ya, given the age of these cars, a lot of stuff can happen through the years, including someone putting rs badging on em and apparently swapping l05s in. Only way to verify an rs would be with rpo codes, correct? Im more of a firebird guy so Im not positive but Im pretty certain. Chevy didnt even designate z28 or not in the vin, unlike pontiac who atleast designated base model vs formula/ta in the vin number.

edit: further researching on suburbans shows me that they never received an l03, only an l05, if your engine did indeed come from a suburban, its an l05.

305 suburban?
read "pig"

E, The full vin is 1G1FP23E1NL165658

Which from the decoder says ''E 305-170 (L03) E 305-170 (L03)''.

So it didn't have TPI originally.

I agree. The RS came only with a v6 or the LO3 TBI V8. If that car came with a LB9 then its a Z-28 not an RS. also sounds more like it has a LO5 in it now. The LO5 and LO3 would look identical to eachother. The only true way to tell is to get the casting numbers or pull a head and check the bore. I have a 91 RS that i swapped a L98 into and I can tell you that LO3 is a dog from the factory. it can be made to move alright but won't be fast without dumping a lot of money into it which could be better spent on a better motor.

Somehow it got the TPI air inlet installed. I'd guess it had something to do with broken parts replaced with what was available, but who knows?

305 TPI is VIN code "F".

get them casting numbers!

So today i went hunting for the previous owner with what area/address my dad gave me so i can talk to him about the car for a bit, i headed over there and he said the car was in a head on crash a few years before when he owned it, he aquired a camaro for parts to fix this one up and said it was an older camaro that was also crashed but in the passenger rear. He also said he swapped the front end with the parts camaro and had a left over front intake cone and put it on there hoping it will allow more airflow in the engine compartment.

So pretty much the front cone was nothing more than a front end replacement but i did get some good news, he said the parts camaro had a 5.0 as well (305) that had around 50,500 miles on it that he swapped in since the original engine had around 220,000 since his family drove the car everywhere which is why his wife crashed it against a honda

Sorry for the mix ups but atleast now i know what im working with.