Jammen Firebird

Well Im new here and I just picked up my 83 T/A from an old friend of mine that is now in iraq. I bought it for my high school auto shop class and plan to work on it through out this year and by the end hope to have a pretty badass T/A. I have already gotten some help from the fourm finding out what motor I have. I was told a 350 but it is a 305 Lg4 and it has 350 heads already on it. The car runs really good and doesn't seem to miss a beat. Let me know what you think!

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...t-img_0222.jpg:

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

looks like a good project car and anything that runs for $500 is a deal.

rwdtech

do a 91 conversion on it

Jammen Firebird

I have some $ but im still in high school so I dont have much just going to make it in to a clean fun 3rd gen TA.

StreetRoc85 350

ah the joys of thirdgenning in high school. takes me to back in the day......

good deal man

rwdtech

lol i was celica-ing in high school... not fun at all! being my first car though, it was the sh*t in my opinion

StreetRoc85 350

hey its all good man. its normal for you to question your preference at that age... at least you finally came around!


lol j/k

Jammen Firebird

Yeah I love third gens. My first car was a 87 Crx man was that thing fast. And now I have a 97 Ranger as my daily driver and my 83 trans am as my TOY!!!!!!!!

BlkBird408

Excellent buy especially for $500. What are you planning to do with it?

Jammen Firebird

Well I basicly bought it for the motor to pull apart and put it back togeather. And it burns some oil so I am going to try and see whats causing that and I am going to try and fix it. also The body is kinda rough so I am going to try and strighten out the body and clean up the interior and prob. put new seats in the front. mostly the mechanical aspect of it all. Also I might put a shift kit in it and if everything ends up good with the motor I plan to put about a 100 shot of nitrous in the car mostly I want to have a decent looking car that is pretty quick.

slowfast

10 bucks say the oil burning are valve seals, leave it alone for now, and save your money, trust me, Im a freshman and had my 84/lg4 for 3 years,,

coolram62

iTrader: (2)

Very sharp Bird for $500.00.Wayfast makes a good point about the valve seals.If she sat up for a good amount of time could be why she smoking.And there the typical SBC leaks.Your right about the TGO being very helpful.
Oh I feel old.I graduated before the 3rd gens even came out.A friend of mine got a brand new '81 T/A for graduation.I hope your friend in Iraq is doing well.

TurbomanKnight

Freshman in High School?!?!

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

Yea, do a compression test on it. It should pass with flying colors. Then replace the valve seals ($30 or so), run it, and spray some water in the carb and clean out the innards. Maybe drop on some headers, and freshen up the ignition. Drop on a lil' nitrous and you'll be tearing along in no time!
What head castings are on it? 350 heads on a 305 is a recipe for a DOG!! If it feels like it runs ok now, you're in for a big (good) surprise soon!

Jammen Firebird

I Am going to pull the numbers somtime and find out the way I belive its 350 heads is because On 305 heads you have an extra bolt hole and I cant see the extra hole on these heads so i belive there 350 head maybe not though. I also just put new spark plugs in it and it runs really good I was surpised! The old ones where full of gas(flooded the car and wouldn't start) and oil So I changed the spark plugs.

O and I will prob. will find out sooner than later case my exhust manifold was making this ticking noise the other day so I tightend it down and the tick stoped and I drove the car a little yesterday and got back in the car today and the tick is back well come to find out some how that exhust bolt on the manifold broke so I am going to have to pull the manifold off and drill out the part of the old bolt that broke and re tap it for a new bolt. O well thats what I got the car for is to work on.

fast86z28

Cool, high school is when I got into 3rd gens/fbodies. I'm 21 now and I've owned 5 fbodies since I was 16 lol.

chevylover5

iTrader: (1)

yea my first car was a 92 z28 and i still have it. im a lucky kid i guess but it looks like a pretty sweet project car! i re-did my whole interior so ne questions about that just ask im like a "pro" at taking stuff apart on a camaro and most of it in the ta is similar.i agree with the valve seals leaking! my buddy had the same problem with his lg4. its kind of a pain in the *** so unless u are really ambitious id say leave it allone for now until u get to know the motor better

slowfast

My bad Im a sophmore now.

izcain

Glad to see someone putting effort and taking pride in their cars while still being in high school! good luck with the build!

Jammen Firebird

thanks I will keep it up dated and will be asking a hole bunch of ?'s

Morder.

iTrader: (1)

Wish I had a 92...lol

Looks like you got a good deal for $500

Jammen Firebird

Yeah I think I got a pretty good deal I was looking around and every thing I found was like 1000 so when this one came up I jumped on it!

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

You're lucky, i had to drive 2 different sunbirds during most of high school, then I got my camaro maybe a month before graduation. You're lucky to have shop class, they canned ours the year before I hit high school, so I had to find time outside of school to work on my stuff.

Agent13

iTrader: (6)

Good luck with it and keep it looking like a 1983.

Jammen Firebird

^^^^ yeah most likely I will. I am looking into possably doing a 4th gen dash though.

83camaroMN

Looks like a nice car!!

ScottyRS

iTrader: (2)

I just gradutated high school this year. And let me tell you, Third Gen = Chick Magnet.

It also equals *** holes sticking gum on your hood. Park far, far away...

Swim500in5

My thirdgen = a very short chase off my college campus. The campus police gave me a warning about excesive use of power (burnouts/donuts) while on campus. Sometimes even if the roads aren't wet you just can't help it. Good thing their jurisdiction doesn't extend off campus.

Keep it up and your goign to have a nice car~

CrazyHawaiian

I recently picked up a $500 project car to beat on and abuse, mine was a 91 Camaro RS but the reason it was so cheap is it has a L03 and a huge rust problem on the roof. Does your $500 project have any rust? If not then you definately got a smokn deal. Rust sucks!!!

Jammen Firebird

^^^Well first off no It dosn't have any rust that I know of!

Also I have an update. Well last week I made a side exit exhaust for my car and before I put it back on I decided to fix the the manifold bolt that broke of and part of it was still in the head. So monday I got my manifold off to fix the busted bolt and it was the furthest bolt back on the manifold on the driver side and would of been almost impossable to drill out and fix that my teacher new that I wanted to rebuild my motor any way he said. " well hell just pull the son of a bitch out". That was monday and hear I am on thursday and the motor and trany are out of the car!
Also instead of rebuliding the LG4 I think I am going to Buy or trade my teacher my 305 for a 350 that he has .And then rebuild that. So there's a update on my car. I am going to power wash the engine bay and try to get some pics up soon!

jamon8

iTrader: (3)

dont put those manifold back on please!!! HEADERS are so cheap

also while you are looking to add more power see what your autoshop teacher says about creating your own weld in subframe connectors

Jammen Firebird

Yeah I didn't evan think about the sub frame conecters. And I am deffinetly getting rid of the stock manifolds!!!!

slowfast

I wish i had auto shop,id prolly be at school working on it right now

BigBoi4Lyph

good find man i also bought mine for 500 86 z28 iroc-z I think it was only worth 500 when i got it but it wasent totaled and it ran and drive. also has virtually no rust except where the battery sits under the hood needs to be replace! Good find tho These cars are great! Im also in shop at school im a senior this year so i was to get it done. im doing the 6 speed swap after the end of this year! Shop teacher gave me a 75 350 4 bolt main to build for it too!

Stevo

iTrader: (45)

**** i never got to do that kinda stuff in my shop class...and i took 3 years of it.

92RS(real slow)

all we did was brake changes, and oil changes for the first year, and second year was basically all electrical book work

donnie926

Great

Jammen Firebird

yeah my schools pretty lucky that we have all the tools and shop needed to do pretty much anything we want!

Well It looks like what my teacher thought was a 350 was a 307 and the other one was a 400 so it looks like I will be rebuilding my 305. O well Ill just take the money I have and add a good carb. and I already have an intake off of a 350 and some headers. Ill prob. look at getting a better cam for my rebuild.

maroon88iroc

iTrader: (7)

i have auto shop and i have yet to take my car in... we only do live work like 4 or 5 weeks out of the year. and everything we do during that time is basic stuff that i would rather do by myself instead of letting other people mess with my car...

btw i saw someone say they are a sophomore in high school, i am a senior and i got my car when i was a sophomore so you can see what is possible. i really have to give it up to you high school kids though. i know at my school everyone is into the rice, that is not for me, i built my car for the past two years and ive only driven it to school maybe 5 times this year. everyone knows me by my car and it is one of the nicest and probably the fastest car in school though but i think it is really cool that you guys can continue on with the AMERICAN tradition.

Jammen Firebird

Have some updates so far the engine is out and totaly apart waiting to get parts for that and im getting started on some body work now so I can get it painted by the end of the school year

Jammen Firebird

btw the first pic is the engine after I pulled all the acc. off and before I pulled it out(month old) and the second one is about two days old. washing all the dirt and oil off the bottom of the car and it also has the front fenders and nose peice off getting ready for sanding and body work!!!!! And this pic is off the car before any panals where taken off. O also sorry for the crappy pics its from a camera phone I need to take my dig. camera in and use it for pics. Let me know what you think!

slowfast

Please dont build a 305, 350's are so cheap!! hell I got a rebuilt 400sbc with a trans delivered to my door for $750.


But if you do want to rebuild that 305, I have a compcams xe262 k kit that will really mazimize the lg4's potential.

maroon88iroc,
I always wanted to be a mechanic, since i was little, I just recently got into the idea of going to college for busness and opening up a high po' shop later.
I got my car when i was in 8th grade, Im a sophmore now, I really wanted an old buick, but the guy just wouldnt sell!!! o well im way addicted to fbodys now!!

naf

iTrader: (7)

Before you sink any money in a new intake and carb, I recommend you spend some time on the Carburetor forums here, specifically looking at threads concerning the ccc-qjet. What you've got stock is not holding you back any. Start here:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...?highlight=305

Kevman

I'm in the same boat with being in Highschool and fixing up a 3rd gen, but mine's a regular firechicken with a 2.8 5 speed.. Have fun with it, restoring cars is frustrating, and at the same time, you learn so much...

Jammen Firebird

Thanks for the link! yeah my teacher had some older hooker headers that had a dent in it and he said if I wanted to fix the dent I could have the headers! Also he gave me an intake off of a 350. Also I am looking at getting a new cam and a different carb or just working with the one I have, so thanks for all the help!!!

Jammen Firebird

well I have some updates of my car all is going good First off I have decided to paint the car "gray pepper metallic witch is the same color as the gt 500 in the gone in 60 sec movie. and also my car has been getting some sanding done so I posted some updated pics. Its alittle farther than whats in the pic. also since the dash pad is all cracked I decided to fill up the cracks with the "great stuff" expandable foam. and sand the dash smooth. And I have started to fiberglass the dash and paint it the same color as the car!! so here are a few pics of that as well.

izcain

Looks like your making some good progress! keep it up! I like your choice of color.

speedingpenguin

iTrader: (1)

I graduated highschool last year and I had the most fun in those entire 4 years the few days I drove my first Firebird to school after the engine swap. I'm not sure if its that I didnt notice, or that its just cause of where I live, or if its maybe just because of who I am and what most people thought of me (First few years in highschool i was a huge computer geek haha), but I never got any sort of attention in any of the cars I owned and drove to school. At least not from people I didn't know and wasnt friends with. And as far as being a chick magnet, I think my firebird was just the opposite! On more than one occasion I heard girls walking through the parking lot or whatever making comments about how loud my car was and stuff like that, and not in a good way, LOL. I just smiled and laughed to myself, oh man, those were the days. Even when I had my 96 Cobra, noone even looked twice when I drove through the parking lot. Meh. ****'em, I had my fun, just wish I had left my mark in the parking lot as several other people from years before had done.
But yeah dude, looks like a nice project, you're lucky you have the opportunity to do that sorta stuff in school, enjoy your highschool years because IMO those are the most memorable, ESPECIALLY when you've got a project thirdgen :-D

84 trans am

(Quote) But yeah dude, looks like a nice project, you're lucky you have the opportunity to do that sorta stuff in school, enjoy your highschool years because IMO those are the most memorable, ESPECIALLY when you've got a project thirdgen :-D

I agree completely. I got my 84 T/A when i was a sophmore and wish my school had a good shop class. Mine was mostly bookwork, but on my own time i had her running great. Nice thirdgens just scream for attention in a high school parking lot. I was one of the lucky ones and my first car survived and i still have it today. Sounds like you have a great project going and i wish you the best of luck.

Jammen Firebird

Thats funny that alot of you have said that your third gen has brang attintion to itself. Case there has been more than one person that I have told that I have a trans am that I am working on in auto tech and alot of them ask me if its the same one thats sitting inside the fenced area by the auto shop. And thats when it was in the form thats in the first pic that I posted. So its pretty cool that my trans am in a semi torn up beat up and now where near good looking condition was gaining attintion.