I bought a 1986 IROC-Z28 Camaro:
-305 TPI
-ttops
-3.42 gear ratio
-turbo 350 tranny (previous owner put in)
-and a nice stereo they put in the car right before deciding to blow the engine.

Bought the car with a blown engine when I was 16 (ill put pics of the carnage). Been working on it till now (18 years old now and in college), and probably will be for a while because I always seem to find new things I want to do w/ my car . Pulled the engine, bought a used GM good wrench engine with aprox 15,000 miles on it (or so the previous owner said). We tested the compression, all checked out. Tore down the engine, replaced oil pump, all gaskets, had the heads rebuilt, cleaned the motor, and painted. It was a cheap paint job but looks hell of a lot better than the motor when we got it, good enough for me with my non existent flow of money being a college student.

I have never really worked with cars too much besides the basics until now, so this has been a HUGE learning experience for me. Thanks to you guys, I wouldn't have been able to do this TGO forum.

After cleaning the engine up I got a New Performer intake, with brand new Holley 750 cfm vacuum advance electric choke carburetor. The car came with Hooker super comp shorty headers that I cleaned up and painted. The headers are backed up with a 3" Y pipe and 3" straight pipe back to the muffler. The exhaust came on the car like that when I bought it.

While in the process of gathering all the parts for my engine, I cleaned the engine bay and spray painted gloss black. turned out better than I had thought ( especially for a cheap job ).

I then put the engine and tranny back into the car and I've been adding more and more parts since then.

Now time for pics

 

heres some pics of the original carnage

 

Here's the car from when we got it, and starting to pull the motor.

 

Here's the engine we bought for the car. And yeah, I know, looks like a POS. But nothing a little time and effort cant fix, and of course a lil $$$ too.

 

Here's the engine after a little clean up and paint, and with the rebuilt heads that they painted black instead of chevy orange... w/e just throw some paint on them...

 

here's the headers all cleaned and painted, half way through painting engine compartment, and a mock up on the engine after painting.

 

putting the engine and tranny back in the car.

 

And heres the engine as it sits now, probably 3-4 months after originally puttin gthe engine into the car. I put a new chrome air cleaner on, new carter fuel pump. New aluminum fuel lines from the fuel log on the carb all the to the tank with AN fittings. Probably a few other things im forgetting too...

 

new gauges... yes i know, they are sunpro. I needed something at the time and for $40 and a clean install... they dont look half bad . New sony xplod deck.

 

New CHEAP sub and amp from my friend. It sounds decent for now. And I dont want my car to be a complete ghetto blaster. Just want a lil thump in my trunk, and it does that well enough for me.

 

and one of my favorite rear pics of the car.

 

And im done for now... tell me what you guys think

 

Very nice, that old engine was toast

 

Looks great! Nice job especially on a budget.

 

yeah the way everything was put together on the car when we got it I'm not surprised they blew the engine.

 

Very nice job. This is me in a nutshell. Money is also very tight for me. I also live in Michigan. I'm also very new to all of the mechanical aspects. I have a long way to go with my TA, mainly cosmetic. Your work you've did is very inspirational, and gives me some hope.

 

Thank you! It's been a long time coming for me. Been trying to work on the car between work in the summer and college in the winter. But there's nothing that hard work and a little know how can't fix on a car. Like I said before, w/o this website I would never have got as far on my car as I did. Research Research Research!

 

what part of kalamazoo u living in? I got a green 85 iroc 305 tpi 5 speed im rockin.

 

Looking pretty good for a budget build! And it looks like someone needs a right rear tire as well, unless the pic just makes it look burned down to the braid, lol.

Just a quick question...any reason you decided not to keep the TPI setup on the new motor?

 

I decided to not keep the TPI because of the expense of converting it to use on a 350. I figured it would be easier to put a carb on it rather than swapping injectors, prom card, sensors, etc... And I was looking at a set of injectors when I was considering that option and if I remember right, they were at least $200, whereas I got my carb (pretty much unused) for like $250 with a $100 intake manifold. so It was still a little pricey, but I knew for sure I would be able to get the car running with a carb. I know nothing about working on EFI.

Sorry for the super late response, I havent been on here in a while.

 

Im in Oshtemo, right off 9th street, hbu?

 

nice job! i wish my kids were as enthusiastic as you are. best of luck with your car & college.

 

Im a EFI guy and not a carb guy soooo..
You can use the 305s injs(if they were good) on a 350 along with the stock chip until you had the money..
Im also not a fan of a orange block or the black underhood paint but I am a fan of all the hard work you put into getting her going.
Congrats on a job well done!!

 

I live over on east michigan up on campus. I think I might have passed you a couple of times. the car i saw was red and it didn't have any emblems on it. does that sound like yours? I go to KVCC btw.

 

Looks fantastic dude, I really like it. How much did the whole projkect cost you?

 

Great project. Congratulations on bringing something dead back to life. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I still have all the stock emblems on it so that might have been a different car. It's in storage for the winter right now.

 

I honestly have no idea how much the entire project cost from beginning to end because there were so many different things that we did throughout the project but i would say anywhere from 4-6k?

 

Looks nice except for the dinosaur on the intake

FWIW, you can pick up a L98 chip and used 22lb injectors for less than the $350 for the conversion. The money you think you saved with the carb swap will be lost in the long run with all the extra fuel you will need

 

i have to agree with pocket you should have kept the tpi and in my opinon left the engine bay red....i do like your car though it looks nice and straight. show us some interior pics next!

 

I think the bay looks great in black and your carb setup is really nice. I would rather have an EFI setup but I get 25mpg highway in my carbed auto so that isn't bad. EFI just isn't for everyone.

 

well, I do still have the entire wiring harness and computer along with all the TPI components so maybe down the road from here when I have some more time and money I will convert back to EFI. Right now Im away at college at U-M, so I have no time at all to go back home and work on it.

The reason I decided to paint the engine bay black was because I don't know where to find paint that would match my car exactly. And I don't have the right tools, (air compressor, or spray gun) to do a good job. So I made it the best I could w/ what I had. It needs a new complete paint job, so down the road, once I'm graduated and actually have a little money to spend I'll want to repaint everything, and buy an LS engine and convert to a t-56 tranny. But those are just dreams right now. It's as good as I could make it at the time.