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History / OriginalityGot a question about 1982-1992 Camaro or Firebird history? Have a question about original parts, options, RPO codes, when something was available, or how to document your car? Those questions, answers, and much more!
Okay so I have an 82 z28 Indianapolis 500 Camaro that I'm restoring with all numbers matching right? However.. I've come across something unusual about it. This car has a manual transmission, and from what I've seen about them by looking them up, they only came as an automatic. Do I have something rare? Or is it just a duplicate that I should just do what I want to with? It also has some unusual parts.. please ask what I mean, and I will explain more about the car. (Yes I know there is a dent.. it's the only thing wrong with the body other than paint.)
So, it has crank windows, but electronic locks, the driver side seat has a knee adjustment, and I was going to mention the carburator because it has a cross-fire injection sticker, but you've already helped sum that up. It also has two lights that I thought where fog lights but when I looked they arent hooked up to anything, and there isn't a switch for them.
They all had the LS Conteur Seats with knee adjuster. With carb they didn't have the cold air hood just the plates. The fog lights shouldn't be there. As for the non-power windows with power locks, I'm pretty sure it could be ordered in just about any configuration. The one i had didn't have power anything, but did have the console clock. As for the cross fire sticker someone probably put it on to make people think it had the higher horsepower engine. But it is a pretty rare car these days. I would restore it for sure. i have been looking for my old one for a long time now. It looks pretty straight to me. do you have more pics?
I remembered the 1st time I saw one, in late winter 81 or early spring 82. Driving down the road. I DAMN NEAR FILLED THE CUP ON THE SPOT. Almost had to pull over to the side and get a grip on myself. (ummm…… yeah, .. ,,, .. huh-uh-huh-huh) I could hardly WAIT to buy one.
Then I test drove one.
I had a 79 Z28 4-speed at the time, with a cam, and double-hump heads on it, and a Holley 6210, and 4.10 gears. It SCREAMED for that day and time. (remember... no LX mousetanks, no LSx motors, no CNC cast heads, no over-the-counter 383 kits, no no no no no...) It even got good gas mileage. Drove it to Indy one time for the Nationals and the people I was with pulled me over because they were sure I was about to run dry, but no, I still had over ¼ tank while they were going to have to stop at the next exit.
But the pace cars, in spite of how AWESOME they looked, were horrible drivers. I had abuncha rent-a-mules back then, seems like one of them was one of those POS Citation or Celebrity or Corsica or some other one of those FWD POSs from the early 80s, and it was SUCH a POS... had a throttle-body injection. Looked like a male organ standing over the intake with its fly unzipped and its legs spread peeing down into it. The thing ran GREAT; started up instantly every time, never seemed to cough or sputter or otherwise misbehave no matter what I did, got good gas mileage and all, but it just …. wasn't ….. exciting. It ran like a tractor. Good torque, pulled good, and all that; but no … whooma whooma. No "fun" whatsoever.
Imagine my … negative surprise … when I popped the hood on a pace car, and saw 2 of those. It ran EXACTLY the same: instead of a 2.5 with 1 TB, it was a 5.0 with 2 of em. Couldn't tell the difference. Exactly the same except twice as much of it, and near twice as much car, so it was still about 95% short of "excitement". The LG4 ones were even worse. Just … gutless. I also had a 78 Z28 350/350 at that time, which was my work-truck beater; even that total steaming bucket of plop would run away and hide from the LG4 82.
I waited until late 83, and the L69, before I bought into these cars. I still like the way the pace cars look; they're GORGEOUS, and will be remembered far into the future as the vanguard of things to come; but in their day, they were … less than they should/could have been. All the same I wish sometimes that I had one. with a LQ9/4L60E in it maybe instead of the CFI or LG4 dung.
Last edited by sofakingdom; 12-31-2018 at 10:24 PM.
You are right the LG4 and CFI were turds. I swapped in a 355/350, 4:10 gears and all the go fast parts in my Pace car within 6 months. While that car was down i bought a 1984 z/28 L69 5 speed, smog delete, intake, cam and headers. I had more fun in that car than the built Pace car. What i hated most about both was rebuilding rear ends every other week. That is until i came across a 9 bolt with drum brakes for the 82. So someone in Kentucky has an 82 Pace car with a 9 bolt rear with drum brakes, 355/350 and with an 87 rear spoiler.
Just a point of fact here the L-69 was just a hot rodded LG-4. LG-4 with 323:1 and a 4 speed was not a bad running car in 82, especially with a couple of tweaks and a bigger radiator.
LOL... I thought the 79 Z28 was a complete dog stock. I pulled these guys by 4-5 car lengths without even power shifting-when they were new.
Agreed on all counts. All those late 70s 350s were the same POS, whether found in a truck, Impala, Vette, Malibu, whatever. Same 8.2:1 compression in all of em, same 929 cam, same 882 / 624 / 993 heads, same crap throughout. Which is why one of them with better heads and cam - a WELL chosen cam, not yerbasic "Stage 3" or some such crap, jammed in with the stock heads still there - could DRILL a stock one.
The L69 had around 50 more HP than the LG4 off the showroom floor, according to its "ratings", FWIW. Its 3.73 gears also made a MASSIVE difference. It wasn't just the motor that was better, the WHOLE CAR was just … better … than LG4 or LU5. But, there wasn't a pace car available with it, so those GORGEOUS cars for their day were crippled by those pitiful motors they came with. I will never forget how underwhelmed I was the first time I drove one. Total disappointment in spite of their AMAZING appearance.
The car needs a lot of interior work and whatnot to go back original, and while I personally own it, I'm probably going to put a built 350 in it, it has the super t 10 4 speed in it. I'm going to have some good fun. The stock motor has only 42k miles on it. The motor is a 305 HO. I thought it was knocking and took it out but apparently it was a butterfly clip closed in the exhaust.. anyone know what that's even for? I figure some sort of emission stuff.
Last edited by Thaddeus C Rand; 01-01-2019 at 11:40 AM.
Kind of a surprise that it would have a HO motor in it, since it couldn't possibly have come that way, with that few miles on it. Not many people will take out one 305 and put in another 305 when 350s are so cheeeeeep and plentiful. The coffee-stirrer LG4/LU5 exhaust on the 82 would cripple the L69 anyway, that one thing alone is probably 20 - 25 of the HP difference of the L69 over the LG4.
I'm going to check the numbers on it again just to be sure, but it really does only have 42k miles, the guy that owned it before me was a car collector, and kept it relatively safe before some other people stole it and where going to paint it, hense the paint being messed up, and the dent. But it was found just in time.
The L69 (aka HO motor) was introduced in late 83; April or so. Since there's really no such thing, from the factory anyway, as "features from the future", you can be fairly sure that your 82 didn't come with it; and the "numbers" (8th digit of the VIN) will show it came with either LG4 or LU5. Probably LG4, which will be VIN code H. But, by all means check, and let us know.
Okay so I did a little looking around. (Sorry that took so long, I've been busy) turns out it's a stock 305, and the people that had stolen it took the carburator, and intake off, and put different ones on. The motor had a single plane intake stamped HO, and an old carburetor that was in poor condition. I'll probably just end up putting this built 350 in and leaving it at that.
12-31-2018, 01:58 PM
