About three weeks ago, I found a 84 Camaro Z28 for sale in a classified ad. I read about the vehicle on a website that the seller had created for it, contacted the seller and learned more about the vehicle's history, and drove 6 hours to look at it and drive it.

The car has been well documented, is a 2-owner car (the 2nd owner bought it from a friend and had known the car its whole life), appeared to be in fantastic shape for its age, ran strong, pulled hard, and was priced similarly to a lot of other third gens that were, in my opinion, far below this car in quality, condition, etc. So, after talking with family and friends that have limited knowledge of performance engines, I bought it after deciding I wouldn't lose money on it and will be hauling it home Sunday.

Now I will admit, I am not a gear head and have a very limited amount of knowledge on performance engines, but that is why I am here--to learn from you, the experts in all things 3rd Gen. I am 27, spent the first 12 years of my life around various cars my dad brought home (most sounded good but were rough). I am excited to learn about what I have just bought, but I need some help.

Below is a list of the "specs" of the car per the seller. I am asking for insight into the strengths and weaknesses as you see them, an estimate of how much has been invested, potential power numbers, any information on the various components, etc. that will allow me to learn about the vehicle and its components. I plan to primarily take the car on local cruises, an occasional track day, maybe some car shows, etc. but it will not be a dedicated strip car at this point. I was also told that it was built to take a 150 shot of nitrous and that will likely never happen while I own it.

Engine: 2011 Build with less than 200 miles since. 355 cid balanced and blueprinted rotating assembly engine assembled with ARP bolts.

Block: Chevy heavy duty 350 4 bolt mains

Carb: Holley 3310 750 vac sec with K&N air filter

Intake Manifold: aluminum holley dominator- runners polished and hand ported to match heads

Cylinder Heads- Holley Systemax 2 aluminum-2.02 intake valve diameter, 1.60 exhaust valve diamter; full roller rockers & guideplates

Camshaft- Lunati 501A6LUN Hydraulic Roller Lifter, lift at valve - .530, advertised duration- 288/296. Duration at .050 tappet lift-234/242, lobe separation- 110. Center line - 104. Lunatic valves, pushrods, hydraulic lifters, double springs, chromemoly retaners. Chromemoly single groove valve stem locks

Pistons- TRW forged with moly rings

Rods- Eagle forged H beam with floating pins

Crankshaft- scat forged

Damper and Timing- PBM with timing marks. Lunatic LIT-93099 SBC Plus roller timing chain set

Ignition- Comp Cams 1200 composite distributor gear, Hei curve advance, 8.8 Accell wires, in-dash Mallory tach with shift light and adjustable rev limiter

Driveshaft- aftermarket balanced with spicer U joints

Rearend- Auburn positraction with 373 gearing

Radiator- Griffin aluminum radiator, giffen aluminum trans cooler, electric cooling fan (interior switch)

Water Pump- Weiand 9240 Action plus

Transmission- TCI 700R4 with manual reverse valve body, matching TCI 2800 stall converter,

Suspension- customer made 18'' factory style Iroc rims, aftermarket brake rotors and brake lines, graphite bushings- front and rear, KYB adjustable shocks and struts, Intrax 2'' drop coil springs front and rear, Hellwig front sway bar, Lakewood adjustable pan hard rod, boxed lower control arms, customer made torque arm with driveshaft safety loop, competition engineering subframe connectors with crossmember for torque arm

Interior- 6 point roll cage (.120 mild steel), Corbeau deluxe racing seats, Corbeau 3 inch 4point safety harness, quick release, removed back seat, keyless entry with alarm and starter disable, shaved door handles with poppers

Thanks in advance for your time and knowledge--I greatly appreciate it!

Brandon

 

It sure wasn't cammed for nitrous, and most nitrous builds use a single-plane intake. Because that intake manifold has been "ported", but not by one of the few reputable sources, I would trash it in favor of an RPM AirGap from Edelbrock.
Try to find out if the pistons are domed or flat top. Hopefully flat-top, so you can get a more reasonable cam. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cc...make/chevrolet
That'd be a better choice even without the spray. Should still be well over 400 HP.

 

Overall the whole build sounds good and well thought out.

The only things I see in there that may cause you a prob would be....
manual reverse valve body transmission. That is not very fun to drive on the street

The driver/pass side roll bar door bars... It will get old fast, having to climb over those things. Look into adding swing out kits to both door bars

IMO.. The cam is a little big for street use. It will work but your vac will be lower, fuel mileage and emissions will be worse, etc.

If racing at a track... The roll bar seat crossbar is mounted to low, and the belts are mounted to low. Level with to no more than 4" below driver's shoulders when seated is the rules.

 

Thank you both for the information. It is greatly appreciated.

I will look into swapping out the manifold and cam, cosmick.

The manual reverse valve body transmission doesn't seem to be quite right in functionality either. It seems to "fall" in and out of gear a bit too easily, but that might just be how those operate or maybe an adjustment needs to be made.

I have already researched the swing away roll bar for the door openings as I am 6'3'' and already don't have much head space. Seems to be a cheap and quick fix with some of the products I have looked at. Getting out of the car requires me to go up and over the bar and that is challenging with the t-tops on. My dad is 6'6'' and I didn't think he was going to get out at all.

Thank you for the information on the bar heights and seat belt mounting heights being a bit off. It is odd to me that they were put in like this (assuming rules at tracks are consistent across the board) because he was building this to be tracked primarily.

Any estimates on the value of this car? Again, I have seen cars similar to this range in prices from $8500-15,000. I know it takes a special buyer...

 

What you have is a "HOT ROD". And you will be much better at working on cars after this one. Good luck, it should be very fast!

 

Value on a hot rod / modded car is kinda tough to figure. It's a great looking car for sure, with pretty good parts in it.

I would say $9,000-12,000 range would be fair asking price, and I would guess he has $15,000-19,000 invested into the car.

Yes the roll bar seat crossbar rule is the same across the board for race tracks, and it's for good reason. When the shoulder belts are mounted more than 4" below your shoulders, in a crash it can cause spin compression due the belts pulling down on your shoulders too much.

 

Thanks for the information and thoughts--appreciated.

 

Also if your 6'3", I'll bet your head is waaay above the primary roll bar hoop. Another big no no in sanctioned (and some organized) events.