Hello everyone,

I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but here is my story and question.

I have a 1982 Camaro that my inlaws gave us after my wife and I where married. It was wrecked when my father inlaw bought it and he rebuilt the front end and repainted it. Its a bone stock 1982 iron duke camaro when they gave it to us the motor was pretty weak, and for some reason had a lot of piston slap in it, so I pulled the motor and rebuilt the 2.5 liter. The fuel injection was messed up so I replaced the TBI with another one I found off a s-10 and it work. Well needless to say I drove the car for a while and then parked it in my shed and left it for a couple years. Until today I dug it out and really need to do something with this car, its in great shape for being as old as it is. Body is straight no rust, no dents. The drivers seat has one tear but otherwise in great shape. My wife has made it very clear that this car can't be sold because it was her highschool car, and as a man who still has his highschool car (1971 429 Mach 1 mustang) I can understand and respect that.

The reason I parked the car was because it gas mileage is pretty shotty, it gets 16 mpg at the best. Its doesn't have tilt wheel (which just drives me nuts) and is as plain as you could get a camaro in 1982. No gauges just lights and that damn big gas gauge (I don't like the guage pack or lack of in this car). It still has the stock steel 14" wheels on it.

Last summer I picked up a junked out 85 camaro that was a v-8 (motor is long gone) and had a 700R4 in it. Reason I picked it up was to do a v-8 swap, but I'm really second guessing that Idea. So I guess my question is- is a 1982 camaro with a 2.5 Iron duke and is plain as plain can be too rare to convert to a v-8, or should I just put the 700R4 behind the iron duke and put the tilt wheel and a set of guages in it and call it good and see if that improves my mileage. I guess i'm on the fence with this car and don't really know what to do with it.

Thank you

 

I think the general response you're going to get is: it's your car, do what you want with it.

My interpretation is that you are asking if you would be destroying some kind of value in the car by doing the swap. The reality is that the iron dukes just aren't all that interesting to people. They have no real value in the "collector" world. Someone else here had an iron duke car that was in perfect shape and they decided to keep it that way because they thought it was unique and they liked it.

IMHO, the iron dukes are not plentiful, but nobody really cares. I'd feel different if you were talking about tweaking a pristine, factory original pace car, but that's just me.

 

Here is a cool thread you might find interesting: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...k-car-1-a.html

To me a V8 swap would make it worth even less under most conditions. It would still have the lame gauges. Probably not worth much as it sits though. Wife's memories are the real value with the car. The '85 would make a better candidate for a V8 to go racing around in.

Best of luck with the car.

 

That 700R4 won't bolt to the 2.5 anyways (FWD bolt pattern). You need to pick up a V6 trans if you want to swap.

Might want to figure out what rear axle is in it and see if that can't possibly be swapped as well.

Swapping the cluster and the steering column will be a piece of cake compared to the transmission.

 

thats not entirely true. every 82 I have seen with the iron duke had the SBC bolt pattern, not the metric pattern.

the official breakdown is "early iron dukes had the sbc pattern, latter ones had the metric pattern" but I cant find anywhere that specifies what year the break was.

My understanding always was, when it came to these cars the 2.8 and 3.1 V6 were the only ones with an oddball bolt pattern, there may be some iron dukes with the same pattern, but I can say with some certainty not in 82

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, it gives me something to think about. Thank you again

 

My advise...
Take the dash from the 85, get yourself a tilt steering wheel, and install an LS motor.

You will have to change your sway bars, the springs and other things, but it would probably be worth it in the end... the I4 has no value even if perfect, unless it is for a museum...