1992 Camaro RS

56,000 miles.. everything is in good shape

Edelbrock open element

3" catback exhaust
High flow catalytic converter
Flowmaster 80 series muffler

I'm getting a 3.42 or 3.73 gear this week.
So estimate i have a 3.42

Btw I live in Southern Ohio

So what do you think i will run?

One Question.. Why does the lo3 range from a 15.3 to a 16.5 when i see peoples times-slips? Does the driver matter that much?

 

Driver matters a ton, and keep in mind that these cars are over 14 years old so all of them will be in different states of health

 

I would say your in the mid 15's.

 

I ran 15.88 with 1.96 60ft with my L03 before I ripped it out. Had open element, a/c delete, flowmaster catback, no cat, MSD ignition and 3.27 9 bolt.

 

Thats an aweful good 60' time to be running a 15.88 isnt it?

 

Mid 15's at best. Expect low 16s on your first few runs.

 

Car was a turd up top. My '88 cut 1.83's every round and only runs 14.30's.

 

I have seen alot worse. His car would cut 1.8 60s and at about half track it would start detanating real bad and i think he ended up running a high 16.

He ended up geting fed up with the motor and stomped it in neutral till it threw 3 rods.

 

Dude this 96' Mustang GT keeps trying to race me at my school. He said he runs 15.3's. He has a cheap exhaust, and a shift kit.

He runs the **** out of it. 120,000 miles.

I'm ordering a 3.42 gear soon and in a few months im getting headers. What should i do? hah

 

Spray it or swap in a 350

 

Don't race him and use the cash to treat some ladies to dinner.

 

I would say just for starters get the 3.42's, aluminum D.S.,Ultimate tbi mods and some 1.6 rockers for a little extra cheap kick.Just these 4 will make a noticable differance if your car is in a good state of tune.(plugs,wires,air filter,bla bla bla.)

 

You will need a full exhaust headers back, Intake manifold, Chip, Filters, Those 3.42's will help. Then you should be running low 15's.

 

with full exhaust, open element, 3.42, advanced timing.. you dont think its possible for low 15's?

 

ehhh MAYBE 15.3's. Thats cutting it close.

 

How much horsepower do 1.6 rockers give you?

 

I don't know exatcly how much power 1.6's give but I felt a very noticable improvement in all around power.

 

Id stay away from the spray if you dont have any experience with it. Replacing that 305 with a 350 is your best bet. There is no replacement for displacement.

 

I had no experience with spray when I first put it on and none of my friends had used it either. There's plenty of documentation out there how to spray your car without it blowing up. But I agree if you're not comfortable with working on your car then don't attempt it.

 

Id definitly give the 350 some thought. The avg new car accoring to Motor Trend runs a 15.7, and the avg sports car runs a 14.5. Those numbers are probably alittle off but they are close. With a good 350 you will get more bang for your buck, than you will with that 305.

 

im a 17 year old teeanger with no money lol.. My dad wouldnt let me do it anyways.. but im keepin the car for a while.. so the mods i do now arent engine mods.. im going to change the rear end and stuff

 

I know what you mean. When I was 17 I dumped alot of money into my lg4, and only ran low 15's with almost full bolt ons. Then when I turned 19 I got enough cash to buy a new Camaro with an L98 with all the bolt ons, and now I run mid 13's. BUT now I think what if I had all that cash to put into an LS1 id be in the 11's!.

 

what should i buy first, 1.6 rockers or headers?

Btw whats some good headers that wont leak? thats a decent price?

 

Ive had Edelbrock TES headers on both of my cars. Work great no leaks or anything. With those horrible l03 exhaust manifolds you will be VERY surprised how much power they will had.

 

dewey on the l03 boards ran a mid 14 with a full exhaust, open element and chip burning. That's enough to beat a '96 GT

 

is there any way i can get access to some chips? Because i have no idea how to burn them

 

Most people get a custom chip burnt for their engine specs. Ive got one from Hypertech, and also one from TPIS. Both work fairly well.

 

L03s are horribly tuned from the factory. And all thirdgens have crappy exhaust manifold design.

Full Catback and a good tune will work well with ur 305.
If it helps, my father has a 318 truck, also TBI, and here are some tricks we did.

TBI spacer
Headers
Y-pipe
Catback with glasspack
4.11 gears
Shift kit
Stock aircleaner with oversize filter and holes drilled in it
2800 stall
RADIAL tires
100k miles

Truck weights 3900 lbs and run 13.6-13.7 all day long.

 

I have my 3.42 gear now what should i shoot for? The guy installing my gear is also advancing my timing.

Headers or 1.6 rockers?

 

Headers, get the Y-pipe too. The only thing i don't really like is that the Y-pipe exits as a 2.5", I wish it was 3".

When I got mine (hedman), the directions told me to lift the engine up 2" and a buncha other BS, I just took off the drivers side valve cover and slipped them in, very easy compared to my friend's '72 Cutlass. Took me 1 hour to take off the manifolds and put the headers in, I kid you not, lol.

 

Headers/ypipe, good 3" catback, open air element, posi/gears, shift kit, servo, 1.6rr's. Gonna be about as good as it'll get with TBI withoug spending a bunch of money and getting into the motor

 

Id go with the headers first.

 

How much would it cost an average shop to install 1.6 rockers?

 

It's actually really easy to swap out rockers, just pull the valve covers, remove nut and whammy. The hardest part is re-setting the valve lash, but that's pretty well documented on this site. Make sure to rotate the engine through it's full circle too to check for clearance on all the pushrods.

 

One last question to people who have ran their l03 with a 700r4 at the strip..

Whats the best way to run it? Shift from 1st-2nd-D?
If so what rpm range do you shift at? When i do it manually i shift out of 1st at 4500, then 2nd at around 4500 also. (i understand it loses power at 4,000)

 

Dont shift in manually. The auto will shift in order to get the most out of every gear. When I shifted manually I ran a 13.8, then I let the auto do the work and then I ran a 13.5.

 

if you wanna gear the car, do it all the way. look at some 4.10's. they will completely change the way your car reacts and contrary to popular belief the little bit of extra cruising RPM does not cost any substancial amount of engine life or mileage.
as far as shifting the car, most thirdgen factory tachs are about 300ish RPM optimistic. i found with my old 91 RS i got the best results shifting it when the tach was at 5000rpm. it was usually worth about 3 tenths over letting it shift on its own.
have you done the free mods yet?
i got 89.xx trap speeds with full exhaust and free mods from my 91. they are easy and very effective. adding about 6-8degrees advance to the timing will help a ton out of the hole.
traction is the key to ET. look for a set of boxed control arms or a used aftermarket torque arm to help the car get out of the hole woudl be even better.


good luck

 

that is likely related to the way teh TPI shift governor was set. GM actually took a little time to make sure they shifted in a pretty good area of teh power curve to carry into the next gear. TBI got the shaft and they pretty much threw on whatever weights were handy and hoped for the best.
i have seen stock TBI cars shift themselves as low as 3800 and 4600 at the highest. with less torque avialble TBI reacts a lot more to raising the shift point a few hundred RPM than a TPI car would.

 

People around here would definately disagree with that, where i live people are very fond of their dsm's but hey i guess it keeps parts shops open. I may have a v6 camaro that this summer i will be starting a v8 swap on, but hasnt tooken a dump on me yet. Granted i think they are cool, but i would never own one just because everyone i know that has one has to fix it about every other week