Got this Berlinetta several years ago and let my daughter drive it. Didn't do much to it other than the simple stuff (better sway bars, wonder bar, frame braces-it didn't even come with a rear sway bar). Now she's driving a 2011 Golf and it's time to pull the leaky LG4 and see where we're at. Not sure where I'll go with it yet but here's my start:

Starting to pull stuff out:



Cruise and evap can coming out with cruise wire harness:



Drained radiator and began to remove the shroud. Wasn't planning to evacuate the AC system (in the garage anyway) but I sprung a leak at this hose where it had likely been damaged by an errant pulley at some time in the past:



Shop fan's running now...

Because I'm going to be painting the bay and re-doing everything I pulled both the ECM and engine/lighting harness out along with most everything else. Less that might get damaged when the engine comes. Here I am yanking it... I removed the right wheel and dropped that side down to make it easier with my baby hoist.




Engine (kinda messy but if you look closely you can see my Gamecock diploma on the garage wall ):



Engine bay empty

diploma eh? whatcha got a degree in? and also damn clean car, whatcha gonna be dropping in there?

That degree was for Applied Math, I was on the six year plan back then.

I haven't decided yet on the motor. I'm not opposed to keeping the 305, I've got a mild 350 in the TA and a cammed 350 in the Sport Coupe. I hope to tear it down this weekend and see what shape it's in. It only has 150K miles but it wasn't taken good care of.

The car though is rock-solid and all of the digital stuff works (thanks to John in Rhode Island for some replacement pieces/parts). I will need to re-do the tranny and steering box along with the motor though.

Bad news on the motor. Front lobes on the cam were wiped:



Yes the first two were near round. Measured less than a tenth of lift with the calipers.

While I wait to see if a decent roller 305 shows up on CL or decide to go with a 350 I'm taking the front end apart to rebuild:



Will replace CA bushings and install new ball joints. All of the other steering linkages, brake calipers and hoses were replaced last year.

Did the car run real rough with those cam lobes rounded off? I would imagine it would...

Actually no. It ran smooth but I never got very good gas mileage and it didn't have any oomph, but I figured that was just the LG4 in it. Who'da thought an LG4 cam would fail? I mean the lobes are damn near round when it's new.

how do the cam lobes round off like that?

In this case it was likely lack of oil at some time in the past. The front of the cam is last in line. In addition, modern (last several years) oils have reduced the amount of additives (primarily zinc) that help protect the cam and lifters. Roller cams are much more tolerant of modern lubricants.

Subscribed.

Love berlinettas!

damn, tough break on the cam......... made any progress since ur last post?

Got most of the AC stuff out. Still got to remove the brakes and little stuff:



Got POR15 on the K Member. I'll topcoat it with Eastwoods Chassis Black later. It will give it more of a satin finish.



Picked up enough base to color the engine bay but it will probably be done over the Thanksgiving holidays. I work the next three weekends. The original color was enamel with no clear, apparently (according to the catalogs at the paint shop) this was the last year for this color. I'll BC/CC everything but that's probably going to be early Spring (fingers crossed).

Outside picture:

Very nice so far. I wish I had the garage to tear mine apart in. I'm assuming you'll more than likely keep that E4ME carb, but if you decide to use some other form of fuel delivery let me know, I need a new one

Just about done taking things apart in the engine bay:



Only problem I've found was a repaired steering box crack. Looks fairly stout as a repair and I have a wonderbar and the triangle braces from the k-member to the frame rails that weren't on this stock.





Rust free Southern car's are awesome.

Epoxy primer:

awesome! love berlinetta's and sport coupes, glad to see another thirdgen not going to waste. would you happen to have any idea where i can get a sport coupe front bumper? preferably 85-87

I got rid of my pos LG4 in 1995 and put in a ZZ3. If I have a vote, do the same thing. The LG4 will never amount to anything.

except being one of the most reliable engines gm ever used

Great job on painting the engine bay. Same color as my 84 L69. Good luck and keep us posted.

Sorry, I wasn't finished with the paint. Keeping it the light beige.

Forgot what a pain it is to paint the bay with all of the little fiddly bits. Took a good pint to cover the black primer.

My LG4 was a leaky mess four years after I got my Camaro. It was horse power lacking dog to put it mildly. I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Got the old bushings out of the a-arms and hit them with POR15 and Eastwood's Chassis Black. Will try to put the new bushings in one evening this week, then get them installed. I re-installed my old strut mounts. They're still good but I may replace them before I'm through. Topped the K member with Chassis Black over the POR and installed it. I'm trying to get the suspension back under her so I can move it out of the garage prior to our annual xmas party in three weeks.

well mines not really an lg4 its an l69 but its a low miles original that i've never had a problem with, well no the only problem i had was getting plugs in around all the emissions **** cant wait to delete it all this winter

I was amazed at how much more room I had after all that stuff went in the trash.

Very nice, I'm subscribed!!!

i bet, was it hard to get everything off, i know its not as simple as just un hooking everything and throwing it away

Looking good, subscribed!

Take the stuff off, plug up the vacuum ports from the carb, and tuck/hide the wires. If you really don't care you can cut the wires off.

Thank you for painting the engine bay back to its original color instead of leaving it black. Looks awesome now.

simpler than i imagined, and i should hope to have it done soon, gonna try and get rid of the thermovac stuff too, but thanks for telling me

Great work on the engine bay!

As true as this is - it's not the reason that your frame cracked. You've got VERY little rust under there ! That frame crack is a VERY common problem with most early Sports Coupes and Berlinettas. In 85 + cars additional bracing was included on ALL F-Body cars to eliminate these Frame rail 'stress' cracks. (These extra frame braces were installed in ALL Z-28 / IROC ) The cracks are caused by the PUSH/PULL action of the steering box.... another place to look for possible stress cracks is at the drivers side lower corner of the radiator support.

Here's a pic of an IROC I rebuilt a couple years ago.




There are 3 pieces that you want to add to your front end. The holes are already in place in your frame and crossmember so they are very easy to install. If you look at the intersection of the frame rails and the cross-member you will see 1 triangular bracket on each side. The 3rd Bracket is mounted under the drivers die "battery Tray". ( they are painted red ) There is also a 4th piece you could add too; it's a 'rod' type brace that leads from the pass side of the cowl to the pass side hood/hinge. Installing these braces will do MORE for your front end than adding a Wonder bar.

I'm Jealous !! Mine's got such a LONG way to go ! I've got to wait until next spring before I can start on the bodywork,...... Just got done stripping the car to metal and coating with Etch before cold temps forced me to stop !




I don't want to clutter your thread - just showing that I can relate to the effort it takes to do what you are doing. You've got 1 REAL - REAL - REAL CLEAN Berlinetta to work with ! Nice to see your doing the job "right" and another Berlinetta will be on the streets for years to come !

Yeah only the higher-end Camaros got the wonder bars; pretty sure no Birds got them. Even my 91 Trans Am with the WS6 suspension didn't even come with one. But I put one in over the summer (the one from Top Down Solutions I wanna say) and man that did make a noticeable difference in the heavier corners. And no my car didn't have any of the cracks in the frame rail to begin with so I'm happy to know they won't happen now at all . Very good investment, probably the best 40 bucks or so you can spend on a thirdgen if it doesn't have one already.

I've got the triangular brackets for the k-member. I noticed on tear down that it did not have the bracket under the left battery tray and am planning to nab one next trip to the JY. I've put the rod bracket on my 87SC and the TA and will keep my eye out for another. I've had a spare wonderbar under there for a while.

I did notice the start of a tear on the rad support. Really kinda set me off as I didn't see it until I was prepped to paint. Maybe 1/4".

I'm doing this a bit out of order too. I would have removed the fenders and front clip before painting the bay, but I have a deadline to temporarily vacate my garage and wanted to get the suspension back under her-at least so she'll wheel on her own. All of the brakes and steering box will get re-done before being re-installed. I've got some of the control arm bushings back in (need to finish that) then I'll be putting new springs over them.

So the front of the rad support and framerails will be hit with the full tear down sometime after the holidays.

Oh and I noticed that the upper cowl was painted black instead of body color. It's unlikely this was done by a PO although it is possible. Was this an early years thing or a result of the light body color?

Control arm bushings in and mounted:



I won't be able to snug everything down until it's sitting back at ride height.

Got right side together:



Used the spring compressor from AZ. It's always a PITA. Major like.

The spindles were coated in POR 15 as were the control arms. I then topcoated the spindles with Eastwoods Detail Grey. I've used it on steering boxes and water pumps before under POR 15 and it seems to hold up well. The control arms just got a quick spray of Eastwoods Chassis Black. Same as the K Member.

My coil springs aren't new but slightly used. I put them in my SC shortly after I got it but thought they were too soft in the end. They'll be perfect for the Berli. I'm also re-using the Monroe shocks. They're only about two years old with maybe 5000-8000 miles on them.

Working to get my box rebuilt so I can at least turn the wheels. I'm re-using the berli box. I have a spare short ratio but the 4 turn box is kinda cool in its own way.

box cleaned up and ready for POR 15:



All the pieces/parts:

Back to the Berli in a few weeks....

^^^^ Man Cave ^^^^

Suspension back under with a wonderbar and a sway bar that's a little larger than stock. Sway bar endlinks were new not long ago.




Coated the spindles in detail grey then a clear coat. Cleared the dust shields. Will see how that holds up, hopefully it will help keep them clean. Re-installed the calipers that were fairly new after painting with POR15 and top coating with some engine enamel. Used Wagner Thermoquiet pads (I have them on my TA and like them) and new wheel bearings and seals. Busted all of the brake lines off and flushed, sprayed them out and blew them with air. Bought a new MC that I'm bench bleeding to install, hopefully tomorrow. The reman MC only runs around $28 so it's not really worth the effort to bust your old one open to refurb. The calipers were reman at around $13 a piece, new hoses like $10 each and like $20 per wheel for bearings and seals.

Transmission coming apart:

well the fluids still red so thats good

Rebuilt trans has to go into the 85 TA. It didn't last through this project, made it 248K miles though. Then I'll rebuild the 85 trans for the 84. Wish me luck with a properly functioning transmission when I'm done with the swap.

well goodluck with rebuilding transmissions, isn't the 85 the 700r and the 84 a 200c or something like that correct me if i'm wrong, but wasn't there a difference in those years (name and 700r is a little stronger)

82 was the only year for the 200. The 83-84 did have a smaller input spline count and certainly some other small differences.

ahh, i dont have to worry about it, got an 02 ss's 4l60 in mine, was rebuilt by jasper transmissions

Back at it after a busy Summer and too much time fixing little things on my other cars. The 84 trans went into my trans am. Running fine still after several thousand miles (and a round trip to DC and back last May?). Rebuilding the 85 trans now. Got the small block back together with a good cleaning, new rings and bearings. Got a Summit K1102 cam in the corner by the tool box to go in later. Need to pick up an oil pump and a few other pieces/parts (including a new converter-ouch).

New stuff so far:

Trans kit with band and corvette servo: $119 Bulk Parts
re-ring kit for 305: $110 Northern Auto Parts
Cam kit with timing set: $125 Summit