I need to start off by saying I had a teal green '92 RS as a daily driver starting around '03. I kinda traded it back and forth with my brother a time or two, but between the both of us, it was a great daily driver and we racked up a bunch of miles on it. But it had seen every Ohio winter since new and has become extremely rusty. My wife forced me to quit driving the car in 2018 or so, when the exhaust fumes coming in were making me sleepy and the rear axle became detached from the car on the left side.

Here is that car in it's final year or two of seeing use on a public roadway:

L03, auto, pw, pl, black base interior. The car would photo ok, but the amount of hidden rust is just crazy.

So then nearly two years ago now, my wife found a near twin to the car on marketplace. The only difference was the new car has the custom cloth interior and t-tops. It had been sold to a private junkyard in '00 because the engine was "bad". The car had been sitting there until around '21, when a local guy bought it. Then we bought it (still not running) in early '24.

Here it is when I brought it home:

 

The original plan was to just spend a weekend installing a TBI 350 and call it good. Then use it as a 3-season driver. I should have stuck with that plan, but hindsight is 20/20. Instead, I got curious about the original 305. I wanted to see if it would run.

Interestingly, the battery was from '08. But the car had the same mileage on it that it shows on the title from '00. I put a new battery in it and cranked it over. It spun fine, but there was no fuel. But with a constant supply of 20% ether, it started up and ran like a sewing machine.

So then I went to replace the fuel pump. When looking to see if someone had hacked up the rear floor... yep, someone sure as heck has. And it's ugly. Upon taking it apart, I discovered the ugliest fuel system I've ever seen.

 

According to the date code on the fuel hose for the hacked up sender, someone tried to get the car running in '08. Knowing that the fuel system was full of trash, I blew out the fuel lines to and from the throttle body. I also replaced the fuel filter. The inside of the tank was full of piles of rust, which I vacuumed out (although the tank is still VERY ugly inside). I bought the cheapest fuel pump I could find in town and installed it on a used sender. It just needed to be a sacrificial pump so I could drive the car and see what else was wrong with it.

 

As it turned out, the exhaust was rusted and falling off. It was also full of mouse house. The converter, the intermediate pipe, the muffler... all of it. I cut it all off and installed an old flowmaster Force II catback. It was originally on an '86 LG4, then I rigged it to work on an '88 L98, then I used it here. I don't recall what all I did to make it work, but I'll post the pictures and we'll find out together.







Looks like I had welded the small inlet catback right to the large outlet L98 cat. And more recently I simply downsized the cat's inlet to work with the L03. Looks like my welding has also improved in the last 20 years, lol.

 

At this point, the car started and ran very well. I drove it to work a couple times, which is a 70 mile round trip. When I stopped for fuel, I discovered that the fuel tank had a BIG hole in it somewhere, above 1/2 or so.




Oh, I forgot. The smog pump was locking up, so I had to replace it with a delete pulley. The lower bolt was seized in the pump. It shouldn't require that many tools to remove it, lol.

 

• So then after a couple days of driving, things started getting ugly. Lots of inconsistent idle speeds, constant stalling, a noticeable miss, then popping through the intake. I pulled the plugs, but don't recall now what they looked like. But pulling the valve covers revealed two broken push rods and a couple sticking valves. When replacing the push rods and trying to free up the valves, I discovered that someone had overhauled the throttle body and replaced the intake gaskets too. Maybe someone in '08 discovered what I had just discovered? Who knows.

BTW, that one missing piece of push rod is still somewhere in the engine. It must be down in the pan now.

But anyway, the car ran ok again, but it still had a miss that wouldn't go away. The weather got cold and I parked it in the barn.

 

Good job recovering the car. Yeah, 305's, while they may not be HP monsters, they will certainly run way past their sell-by date.

Odd, we used to have a 305 in our C Prepared Firebird, and one day it 'just broke' a pushrod. No warning, nothing had been recently done, it just broke. Sadly, it was during a practice for the following weekend's Divisional autocross event, which put us out of the car for that weekend. ON the plus side, we got co-drives in some cool cars. Me: a '82 MSE T/A and her in a former Formula Atlantic B Mod car. It was still a great event.

 

Come spring, the car would no longer run, unless it was fed starting fluid. Not surprisingly, the cheap fuel pump had failed. Let's face it... it did not stand a chance with the way the tank looked, in addition to being an unreliable cheap pump to begin with.

So, I warrantied the pump and installed it in a nice tank, although temporary.



I just moved it around here and there all summer. It still had a miss and I never had time to mess with it. This past fall, the fuel pump had died again. It might have had 2hrs run time on it. The fuel system was still clean too. And THAT'S why you never buy a cheap electric fuel pump folks.

 

So now we are finally getting to present day. I warrantied the pump again and the car ran just kind of "meh". Still had a miss too. So I rigged up a temporary fuel pressure gauge. The fuel pressure was ok at first, but after some run time, it started to drop off.





10 psi is lower than I like to see.

So I removed the pressure regulator and cranked it up manually, just for yucks to see what would happen.




Close to 12 psi, I'm ok with. But it quickly started to fall back off.

 

The current plan is to replace the fuel tank and install a quality fuel pump so that is done for good. Oh and fabricate a removable trap door that is properly sealed and of the appropriate size.

I will also replace the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Possibility a compression test. I don't believe the valves are still sticking, as it doesn't show it on a vacuum gauge. If it still runs with a miss, I'll drop in a TBI 350 like I should have done in the beginning.

 

Great job saving this car from the grave! I always enjoy looking at these type of threads. I've never seen a sending unit with so much gunk! Looking forward to your progress

 

Random photo dump:

 

Watching a Vice Grip Garage video in the background while checking this thread out, the two go hand in hand. Nice car, and nice save! Good luck with your engine woes. My TPI 350 is going to be there eventually

 

Yeah, I'm ok with a 305. They make enough grunt to be peppy daily driver. And economical too. My old car has about 230k on it. This one only has 125k. If it decides to fire on all 8, I see no reason why it won't run for a lot more miles.

 

Thanks. Did you happen to notice the color of the fuel that I pumped out of the rotten tank? Lol.

 

I find this kind of work enjoyable. There's something satisfying about getting a derelict vehicle running and driving with minimal expense and using parts that are already on hand.

I should have started a YouTube channel 10 years ago. This isn't the first car I've bought that had been junked or essentially abandoned. The last one I did has been a Power Tour long hauler twice now.

 

No, I didn’t notice lol it looks like you were taking out the oil! I scrolled too quickly, looking at all the nice surprises you’ve been encountering!

 

Congrats on getting another RS!

My first new car was a '91 RS in Arctic White. I spent a lot of time staring at the brochure trying to decide between the teal color or white. I always liked this color.