Well I have been lurking around the third gen forum looking for ideas. My buddy has a 91 rs that he wants to start building up. We are coming up with a plan right now and are going to get started soon. I have good knowlege of the small block chevy and he asked me to come up with a plan. He gave me a grand total of 2000 dollers to spend. Since I have never messed around with a third gen camaro I would ask for some experianced help. Right now he wants to use the 305 since it doesnt burn oil and has good compression in all cylinders. I was thinking along the lines of a performer intake, 600 cfm electric choke carb, older non computer HEI, swap in a lt1 cam, long tube 1 5/8 headers, dual dynomax cats, H pipe and 2.5 inch duals with good mufflers. also I was thinking of a rear axle swap with a Iroc posi with 3.27 gears. I found a guy who had a few that he is charging $200 for. What do you guys think? I think he can acheive about 250-300 hp with this combo and have a good launch at stop lights.


Also, Do the electric fans depend on the stock ecm to switch on and off, or are the independant of the ecm?

 

Keep the TBI and burn your own chips. I find tuning an EFI engine easier than a carbed one.

 

Well to each his own, I am very comfortable tuning a edelbrock 600 cfm, and all I need is a a/f meter and a screwdriver and my "butt" dyno. Yes efi is a more efficent means and can be less maintence in the long run. problems that are posed with that route is that, first We would need to learn how to burn chips, get a bigger tbi, mess with a bunch of sensors that are already suspect with over a 100,000 miles. emissions are not a problem with carbs even with out cats and EGR. A engine that is in good tune will pass no problem with out em, assuming its not a visual check and a working ecm is not required. My vette is a testament to that. The plan is that we are going to get the most out of the 305 until it breaks then put in a mild 350 in its place. the stuff we are doing will bolt right onto the future swap when the old 305 gives out.

 

Don't the TBI 305's have the crappy swirly heads on them? You may want to look into a set of used 416s.

I myself wouldn't run the long tube headers because of the lack of ground clearance, but that's not to say that you will have clearance issues. I got my virtually rust free shorty headers and Y-pipe for $60.00 out of the bone yard right off a 1985 TransAm.

I have a Flowmaster American thunder system and really like the sound. Very low tone and very loud.

The 3:27 rear sounds like it would be a 9-bolt? Very expensive to rebuild if that was ever going to be needed, if not, I would buy it especially if its a posi.

The fans I believe are controlled by the temp switches only but I could be wrong. Mine didn't work when I bought the car and the previous owner had wired in a back lit toggle switch on the dash that looked very nice so I left it. Hey it works.

You may want to look into a better adjustable (and shorter) torque arm in order to improve the traction.

A 2500-3000 rpm converter would be nice with the LT1 cam.

The stock HEI will work till 4500 to 5000 rpm. If you plan on going faster I would upgrade the ignition module to an MSD Digital HEI Module and a matching MSD coil.

Good luck, spend it wisely... two grand doesn't go very far. I have spent ten grand on my T/A and its still not done, almost, but not quite.

 

yep I have made a few adjustments to the recipe since this was posted, He is expanding the budget to include new vortec heads and mill them down for better a CR. I have revised the exhaust system because the other day I got under the car for the first time and saw how bad the situation is! I never knew GM, when they designed the third Gen, made the exhaust system a total after thought. Heck my vette has a boat load more room for an exhaust system than a third gen. Well it looks like we are gonna go the route of some headman shorty headers and merge them into a single 3" and put a big single Cat on and cat back it with a decent cat back kit. Also I was seeing zz4 cams on ebay for $140 and might put one of those instead of a lt1 cam. the heads will have the better springs for the added lift.

 

I actually have done the same thing. Mine was 305 TBI, and i changed to 081 heads bigger cam (214/224, 465 lift) Elelbrock RPM intake and edelbrock 1406 carb.

 

I just burned the chip on a bolt-on cadillac brougham L03 305 roller cam engine with "187" swirl ports on it, in a 1987 chevy truck. All that was on the engine was a pair of Flowtech P#11500 headers. Stock intake, stock TBI, stock air cleaner, high flow cat, and flowmaster 50 series. We then ran it on the Mustang dyno. With the stock 305 truck ECM it made 164.7 RWHP @ 4,000 RPM and 261.2 ft/lbs @ 3,400 rpm. That corrects to 219.6 HP @ 4,000 and 348. ft/lbs @ 3,400. After programing the same untouched, nearly stock LO3 made 181.7 RWHP @ 4,400 RPM and 284 ft/lbs @ 3,200 rpm. Those numbers correct to 241 HP @ 4,400 and 378.7 ft/lbs @ 3,200 rpm. Good numbers for a stock cam, stock head, stock intake, 305.