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Hey everyone, I've decided to start a thread about my 89 RS I picked up last fall. I previously had an 84 z28 that I was planning on rebuilding, but when this RS fell into my lap, I just couldn't turn it down. I'd like to start and keep a tally of what I began with, and what I'll be doing with the car as time passes and I thought no better place than here; So here goes nothing...
1989 Camaro
Originally 305 TBI, 5spd, t-top
NOW 383 stroker CARB, 5 spd.
The previous owner bought the car as a toy and after an unfortunate complication he was forced to sell it. His loss was my gain. I paid $3000 for the car. Original 105,000 KMS (roughly 65,000 MI) if my math is correct.
The night I got it home:
It from there went into a storage tent for the long winter up here in Ontario, untill the white crap finally melted.
I picked up a set of 16'' Iroc wheels for $40 because one had a chunk missing out of the lip.
We have a customer that specializes in aluminum welding and fabrication so the damaged wheel went out to him and he fixed it up for me, then they went to sandblasting and are now awaiting paint or powder.
Next thing I tackled was the dirt and dust it collected waiting for the nicer weather. I spent an afternoon with it...washing, polishing and shining.
When I brought it home, I noticed it didnt exactly run as well as it should be. Im fortunate enough to have a good friend who is an engine builder, so it ended up in his capable hands for an afternoon for some "fine tuning" to get it running better. Turns out it was about 25 degrees advanced, and roughly 68 degrees total. needless to say he rectified that issue but as luck may have it, it just still isnt running properly which he attributed to the edelbrock carb thats on it now. The electric choke isnt working, and its apparently too small for the engine.
Today I took care of the crummy headlights and upgraded to the h4 setup. I havent gotten them out yet in the dark to try it out, and as it is supposed to rain for the next 3 days it probably wont be happening any time soon.
Well my new tires finally showed up. I went with Kumho ecsta pa31, 245 50 16 all around. I tried getting the bf goodrich sport comp as2 but they're backordered and nobody had stock with no date of manufacture.
Rims were painted on the weekend and they got mounted on wednesday when I was at work. I think they look way better than the red.
Next on my list is to fix the exhaust. The PO installed frame connectors and hacked the exhaust up and ran it under the passenger connector, so it hangs super low. Once that's done, it's going to be lowered a bit and a few more aesthetic items will be added then it's on to the engine bay this winter.
I popped in some new front signal housings to replace the old faded and cracked ones, then went to a friends house this morning for a visit and his wife decided she wanted to be somewhat of a freelance photographer LOL
Well, it has been a while since my last post and there has been some more work done.
The last week of August I drove the car to and from work for the full week and within that week it burned 3 litres of oil. Needless to say it was time to freshen up the tired 383. So, 3 hours later it was liberated from the rest of the car.
It then got loaded up in the truck and hauled off to my engine builder where we tore into it and got it stripped down only to have the pistons pretty much fall out of their bores with little to no effort. ZERO ring tension, which explains the oil burning. To top things off, after getting it apart something just didn' look right. Out comes the bore measuring tools only to find that it is STANDARD BORE. The P/O apparently decided to feed me a line.
Also found that one of the lifters was stuck in its bore and wiped out a lobe on the camshaft.
Next it was off to the machine shop where it got cleaned and decreased, bored 0.030" over, new coated cam bearings, decked and the lifer bores burnished. It was given a flat black paint job and new frost plugs installed. As that was all happening, I ordered an edelbrock 2102 cam and lifter set, scat rotating assembly, and a new oil pan with matching pick up, oil pump and shaft and a gasket set.
as it sits right now...
Time to measure and make sure everything specs out to where it' needs to be, then assembly can begin.
A little more progress this weekend...shorty is just about together. Unfortunately the oil pump pickup contacts the baffle and trap doors in the pan, so a new one needs to be ordered to fit. We tried to modify it to work, but to no avail...
Been a while since my last update...and I'm glad to say that the engine made its way into its not home and I've been driving the car for about 3 weeks now! In addition to the engine build, it also got some Lowtek springs (which I'm very happy with so far!), Tubular rear lowers and an adjustable panhard bar, along with a new centerforce clutch, Holley brawler 650 double pumper and a new flowmaster exhaust.
It runs great, drives phenomenally and sounds mean as hell what you hop on it!
The engine had to come back out this past winter as the rings on cylinder 8 refused to seat and it was burning a small amount of oil. It again received new rings and bearings, and a fresh hone.
While it was apart I decided to upgrade a bit more and went with a trick flow cam and lifter set, and changed the intake out for a better flowing one. The e street heads also went to the machine shop where it was determined that the valve seats were anywhere from 0.003" to 0.009" out of round. New seats were cut and they also got a 3 angle valve job a bath and new guides and seals before install.
Engine went back in the car a month ago and has since been running great with ZERO oil consumption...which is great news!
Along the way I also installed BMR lower arms, arm relocation brackets, founders panhard bar relocation, and a UMI transmission Mount.
Today this happened...
Freshly rebuilt 99 z28 ls1 rear, new brakes, lines, calipers, bearings, and 3.90 gears.
Then I had to do something about the iroc wheels as they started to flake and looked like garbage...so I went with Y2K's...245/45/17 up front and 275/40/18 out back Firestone Firehawk Indy's. They got painted gloss black by the body shop that we do a lot of work with, and they look awesome.
I did run into a slight fitment issue in the back though...the touched the bumpstops on both sides, so I had to grab a 1/4" spacer to bring them out enough to clear but I may change them out for some 0.5" or maybe 0.75" adapters to bring them out a bit more for Astetics.
paint them head lamp buckets black and youll be shocked how awesome it looks then! z28 grill insert would do wonders too! good looking car, what did you do with the 84?
paint them head lamp buckets black and youll be shocked how awesome it looks then! z28 grill insert would do wonders too! good looking car, what did you do with the 84?
Thanks very much!
The car is actually going to get painted this winter, going to do the hood red, and the headlight buckets black, as well as the side moldings are going to be coming off.
The 84 was parted out...as much as it pained me to do that to it. It was in great shape other than some faded paint. There was a guy who actually drove from 5 hours away, in a snow storm nonetheless, to cut the entire floor board out from firewall to trunk. He was here for about 7 hours with a grinder and sawsall to get the job done in the middle of January. He ended up renting a van and a hotel room at the end of the night, but he left with what he came for. That's determination. I tried to sell him the whole car but he didn't want it lol
I'm also waiting for boxing day to come along to see what some of these companies are going to have to deals on camshafts and roller lifters...
Car looks great. Which H4 headlights did you go with?
Thank you very much.
I don't recall exactly the brand of them, but I can tell you that I got them through a vendor at my work.
They were cheap, and it definitely shows...not so much during the day when you don't need them, they look ok.
At night they are extremely poor, no real light output or direction of light output. They're pretty terrible. Lol
Thanks! I appreciate it! It's in for some changes this winter. Colour will stay the same, but with a few added touches. Other than that some suspension upgrades are in the works as well as a good tune then it goes back on the dyno.
Ha, I appreciate the honesty, I've been starting my research on them.
I didn't do enough....or truly any research before buying them. The old saying stands true, you get what you pay for. I think they were roughly 25 bucks a peice (my cost) and they show it...or in reality they don't show much. I need to change them out. I have a friend that does retro fits, so I may get home to put some Morimoto mini h1 projectors into them.
Ordered some parts for the car this past couple weeks, and with any bit of luck I'll be able to tow the car to the shop over the holiday and work on it a bit.
A set of KYB AGX shocks showed up yesterday morning
And I'm still waiting on a package from founders performance to come in. I'll be doing a 4th gen coolant tank as well as modification to the BMR ta bracket as it contacts the floor, so I'll have to cut the outer holes off and use the inner mounting holes.
I'd like to start auto crossing the car this coming summer so there are some more mods I'd like to get done before that time.
I've also managed to scoop up a set of all black race buckets for it, nothing special but will be much better to hold me in place than the factory third gen seats. I got a smoking deal on them, $200 for a set of three brand new apc seats he bought to put in a boat before realizing the transom was rotten. So I've sold the third to a friend of mine for his car and ended up with two seats for $140.
I was able to get it to the shop and tinker a bit today. New shocks are installed and the Shiney bits got wiped down...now I'm just waiting on the panhard relocation and a new BMR torque arm relocation crossmember. A couple pictures on the underside....the PO undercoated this thing to the max. And don't mind the snow tires, they're only for storage purposes!! Lol
I was finally able to get to the shop and get some more done this past week...new BMR relocation crossmember was installed, as well as the Founders Performance panhard drop bracket kit (drivers side bracket). Also dropped the oil and filter and changed them out.
Next on my list is to go through the rear diff, as it's started howling on light throttle cruising at all speeds. Goes away during decel, which to me sounds like the pinion nut may have backed off a bit.
It looks like you've put a lot of time into cleaning and freshening up the under carriage. Looks good! Sucks you had to pull the motor out for the second time. I've had to do that as well and I know it can be very frustrating. It appears to look like your exhaust may be rubbing on the drive shaft. I know that clearance can be a big problem with these cars.
It looks like you've put a lot of time into cleaning and freshening up the under carriage. Looks good! Sucks you had to pull the motor out for the second time. I've had to do that as well and I know it can be very frustrating. It appears to look like your exhaust may be rubbing on the drive shaft. I know that clearance can be a big problem with these cars.
Function over form in my eyes, so I wanted it to perform before I got too far into the aesthetics. The mark on the driveshaft is actually from the park brake equalizer. When I did the axle swap, I didn't yet have the conversion brake cables, so I tied the equalizer up out of the way but it came free and ended up running on the shaft. I've got to make an order with Hawks very shortly to get the new cables as well as outter window sweeps, but before I do the rear end will be getting some more attention.
That would definitely explain the ware on the shaft. Being able to drive it while restoring it is a bonus. I've done cars from when I started wasn't able to drive it for over a year. Makes you rush to get things done. Keep it up, your doing a great job!
Funny story, my wife said it was supposed to be a multi year project...I don't have the type of personality that would allow me to have a vehicle parked for year. I'd lose interest and sell it all.
Well this happened today...
turns out the pinion nut backed off a bit...so in a last ditch attempt to save it I tightened it and got my bearing preload back within specs, then reset the backlash before filling it with new clean fluid and taking it for a test drive. My efforts were wasted, unfortunately as it's still howling like a sumbitch. Lol guess it's time for another rebuild...
All your time and work is making an amazing car, nice job!!! 
