Elephantismo

Saying hi, and introducing the new project (err...old project?).

I've had this 1991 Z.28, b4c, 5-speed, original 305 TPI car since about Fall 2005.

Backstory:
It was a dependable daily driver as I finished college. The original 305 had been rebuilt, very mildly cammed, heads touched up, airboxes cut with scoops, hypertech thermomaster chip, flowmaster muffler, empty cat housings (partially... non-intentional), an accel coil and lowering springs down ~1 inch from and rear. May have had a few other mods, but I'm not very aware.

Right before graduation, a torential down pour flooded the curb side parking it was at (dry to flooded in 30 minutes!), and after escaping from the flooding curb side parking, it pulled water into the motor and hydrolocked while leaving the store with a wet-vac (to clean the half flooded car!).

I picked up a pretty nasty used 4 bolt maid TBI 350 from a running 3/4 ton truck for $450 (on college budget still) dropped it in, took it out for the first spin and 1/2 miles into the drive a rod came through the bottom of the block. Someone (at the junkyard I bought it from?) decided to check a rod journal and didn't tighten it back up. I was in way too much of a hurry to have the sense to check that and didn't catch it. I later found the clean, perfect missing rod nut in the bottom of the oil pan.

It sat for some years and in 2008, when I had a decent job, I bought what was supposed to be a early 90's TPI motor from an f-body that a shop had rebuilt and the customer walked out on.

Hastily bought it from a rebuilder in Houston (who still operates one or two locations IIRC) rushed it to San Antonio where the car was and dropped the motor in. It ran great! Took the other motor back to houston the following Monday to collect the core charge and the shop was permanently closed... A year later I found out they had another location, but I never tried to return the core.

The 350 didn't sit well with the stock tuning and it didn't run well. Lot's of sensors were fouled too, so it got kinda of shelved. With no where to work on it wehre I lived in Houston, it sat. And sat... until in 2012 my brother put a set of injectors in it and drove it long enough to go over a low speed bump and rip the exhaust out from under it. And then it sat some more, Until the last month!

It's had a lot of work lately:
-A fuel tank, sending unit, pump, filter and flush
-UMI adjustable panhard bar (bolt seized in the stock one, had to cut it to remove the tank)
-UMI upper panhard bar (to improve exhaust clearance)
-22# Bosch Design 3 injectors
-Fuel pressure regulator
-MAP Sensor
-Reprogrammed ECM (following the guides on this site and using a Willem burner on a 27SF512 EPROM).
-Thermostat
-Radiator Hoses
-Heater Control Valve
-Lots of fluids replaced (Redline D4 ATF in trans, Mobile 1 5-30 engine oil, Water wetter coolant)
-SET THE TIMING RIGHT!


Might have done a few other things as well...

I'm stoked today, because after fussing and fighting with, some stumbling, over heating issues, poor idle control, etc I finally managed to take it for a drive where it made good power all the way throughout.

Also, while changing the oil, I ID'd the heads as 90's TBI 350 head (14102198).

I have a stock 305 TPI motor out of a 92 B4C on a stand, so my plan is to clean it up and run a hydraulic roller cam in it to get a mild gain over stock, but keep it stock looking under hood. For now... maybe...

I'm also considering a set of dart iron eagles, a bit bigger roller cam, an HSR and short tube headers.

I have an innovate wide-band O2 sensor sitting here waiting to weld into something and do some tuning. With the heads on it currently, I feel I would be wasting my time.

So I'm in the planning stages! I want to use it as a daily driver for a little while again and ultimately just want it to be a streetable, 12 second 1/4 mile ET, fun to drive auto-x car.

I'm browsing around for advice and ideas on how to achieve that.