Hi all. I've been looking around this forum for about a week now. Can't believe I found such a gold mine of information about my v6 camaro! I've been working on it lately and I need to rebuild the rear end in it. Does anyone know what the stock gears in a no option camaro would be? I'd like to bump them up a bit to improve acceleration. Also does anyone know how to verify which motor is in the car? According to the previous owner he replaced the original burned out 2.8 with a 3.4 out of a 95 camaro. So far everything I've put on the car has been for a 2.8l. Me and my dad just replaced the oil pump and pan and the parts I bought were for a 2.8 and they looked the same as original? I know the 3.4 is basically a bored out 2.8. I was just wondering if there is anything obvious that would let me know which one I'm working with. The motor seems to have plenty of power and my brother has a 2.8l camaro and I can smoke his easy.

This is what a 3.4 looks like out of a 4th gen:

If your engine looks like this then you got a 3.4 (NICE), if it doesn't look like this and an engine swap was indeed done it's probably a 3.1 (still bette rthan the 2.8).

Stock gears for a an auto were 3.23 I believe.. there is a thread not to far down that's all about gearing V6's, lots a good info there for ya on whatcha' got and upgrades.

^Well, I suppose he could have a 3.4 under the 2.8 intake.....

The previous owner gave me all of the receipts for the parts he purchased for the car. According to the invoice the motor he got was a 3.4 that included the water pump but that was basically it. He had to reuse all of the accessories and intake from the original 2.8l. Is that possible? I've been looking on the motor trying to find casting numbers or something that I could look up to see what it is but I haven't found any yet. One thing about my car, the fan switch is grounded out and runs all the time. The guy set it up this way b/c he said the 3.4 had a diff. switch than the 2.8 and it wouldn't plug in.

Thanks for pointing out that thread, I didn't see it before. It looks like my car has 3.43 gears.(Its a t-5) So I'm thinking I'll probably get some 3.73 gears to give me better acceleration. Do you know if I can swap in a posi? The 10 bolt rear is the same right, its just the guts that would need to be changed?

Someone correct me if I am wroing, but I think you'll just have to swap to different axles with a different spline count and then put it all together with the posi unit, and there is some kind of shimming you have to do with the gears, which I have yet to study and understand. You might as well rebuild the rear end while you're at it...new bearings and stuff. This is what I've heard, anyway.

I've been doing a little research and I thought I would only need to change axles if I went with a posi from an '88 or later camaro. That seems to be the year they changed from 26 to 28 spline axles but I'm not positive. I figured I would probably need new shims to swap a posi in.

Look for reinforcing 'webbing' around the freeze plugs on the sides of the block. The 2.8/3.1 blocks were smooth.

I will have to check that out.

I don't understand the whole shim business. I never worked on gears or axles or posi units before. I hear that if it isn't done precisely, there's a world of problems awaiting.

Basically you're adjusting where the ring & pinion contact each other, the clearance between them and the preload on the bearings. It's fairly simple with a dial indicator and some marking paint once you know the basics.

Alright, I checked the block around the freeze plugs and it looks exactly like this picture I found that shows the freeze plug on a 3.4l v6 so I guess that gives me my answer.



It's kind of like a raised X going through the freeze plug, is that the webbing you are refering to?