hi, my friends and I are looking into buying a summer project car and decided a third generation f-body could be a very good platform to work on. I found a 1992 firebird with a 305 ci engine and 185k. I wanted to ask what problems this year car with this many miles usually runs into. most of the drivetrain will be ripped apart and replaced anyway but i want to try to avoid getting a car with engine damage or anything of the sort from the get go. thanks in advance for any help.

EDIT: what parts to the drivetrain are weak on these cars, 170 horses out of an 8 cylinder seems a little low to me. any stock swapouts from other engines that will up the horsepower? im sorry if i'm asking too many questions, gm v8's are new to me.

 

If it's a base model Firebird with a throttle body injected 305, and you want performance, then keep shopping. Even one step higher (305 TPI) would have better suspension, exhaust, etc... As old as these cars are, the price is going to be about the same whether it's a V6 or a 350TPI.

With 185k miles, expect that the entire car is worn out.

 

if the drivetrain will be ripped out, just get anything with a non rusted body and clean interior. why is it so important to find a car with no mechanical problems if u are replacing them?

 

because i want to be able to get it back to my garage without having it towed, i would have liked to be able to keep the original block and just replace engine internals but judging by how the engine seems to be in the 305 tbi, i can't do that. I personally would rather keep the stock block and trans case because of the cost of small block v8's and knowing the car ran before can help to determine why the car may not start later. I would hate to rip the drivetrain apart because i think the engine is dead and not be able to crank the car over with the new parts because of something stupid that the car had before that didnt work like a wiring harness or something stupid like that. that may seem dumb but this will be my first custom overhaul on an american car and i watched mu uncle almost lose his mind because of a nova that he dropped a 427 crate engine into but still couldnt get the engine to crank because of a part that he didnt replace from the car when he bought it.

 

doesnt sound like you know too much about what your getting into

 

which is why i'm here, im trying to learn about these cars before i start to work on them.

 

well as far as the rear axles go under these cars no others from any other vehicles than 82-up F bodies will bolt under them so without major modifications you are stuck with 7.5" 10 bolt or the 9 bolt borg warners

as far as a stronger engine the 92 one is computerized(fuel injected) so it will take at minimum larger injectors and a different computer to install anything other than the 305 engine

and it goes from there

its not like the old carb and non computerized days anymore

good luck and welcome to TGO

 

WElcome to the boards
I think the first thing you might consider is your friendships. I would not dive into a project of this size and not have the who owns what sorted out before hand, it is a sure fire way to get into some fights.

If your going to modify a 305, you would be ahead to find a good 97 ish (I think they ran from 96-98) Vortec powered Truck engine. You can pick them up for around $1000 with the harness & all... Forget the harness, see if you can work a deal. rebuild that engine, the parts will be cheeper or the same as what you will need to put into the engine any ways. AND you get better heads. In stock form a 97 Truck engine in a 3rd gen should blow the doors off of most of the TPI engines from 85-92.

(beyond the engine & trans) The typical things that wear out on 3rd gens are the door hinge pins, steering linkages, cracked subframe by the steering box, little things.

Make sure the car is rust free is my biggest suggestion, it will help with a lot of things when you start tearing it apart...

Good luck.

John