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Santa getting a kiss from the Mss. before he leaves to put the new sleigh through it's paces before the big day!
Merry Xmas to all!! South Florida Style.
The Mss. and I decided to play it up on our ride to check out Xmas lights. We drive through the NPB Heights. This neighborhood always goes off the chain with their displays and neighbors that like to party out in their driveways. The kids and adults got a big kick out of us rolling down the roads!
Progress... Got my engine bay cleaned up, primed, painted, and even got my UMI K member in about a week and a half sooner than expected! Motor mount plates, control arms, and other misc. parts are on the way! Can't wait to get it drivable again.
gsmarcano you definitely should post up results of the paint job you're getting once it's all done. I'm interested to see who does it and how good of a job they do.
Once my car is back on the road the plan is to save up and get it looking pretty and shiny again. Being that I'm not super familiar with this area still kinda leaves me unsure of who I can trust to do a good job for a fair price when the time comes.
Progress... Got my engine bay cleaned up, primed, painted, and even got my UMI K member in about a week and a half sooner than expected! Motor mount plates, control arms, and other misc. parts are on the way! Can't wait to get it drivable again.
gsmarcano you definitely should post up results of the paint job you're getting once it's all done. I'm interested to see who does it and how good of a job they do.
Once my car is back on the road the plan is to save up and get it looking pretty and shiny again. Being that I'm not super familiar with this area still kinda leaves me unsure of who I can trust to do a good job for a fair price when the time comes.
Will do how to delay a little bit I’m gonna have the two electric window motors replaced also
Just Brought my 3rd Gen 1988 Camaro IROC home today to Jacksonville, FL from South Carolina.
Looking for a reliable all in one shop in Jacksonville. A shop or mechanic that can do transmissions, Engine work, exhaust, and electrical work that enjoys working on our 3rd Gen cars. Need an exhaust, clutch adjusted, and Carb adjusted to start. The car has had a engine and transmission swap and really need it all dialed in after the new exhaust from the headers back is fabbed.
Just Brought my 3rd Gen 1988 Camaro IROC home today to Jacksonville, FL from South Carolina.
Looking for a reliable all in one shop in Jacksonville. A shop or mechanic that can do transmissions, Engine work, exhaust, and electrical work that enjoys working on our 3rd Gen cars. Need an exhaust, clutch adjusted, and Carb adjusted to start. The car has had a engine and transmission swap and really need it all dialed in after the new exhaust from the headers back is fabbed.
Thanks in advance.
I'm at the edge of Jacksonville in St Augustine. There are no '3rd gen' shops around. There are some performance shops but most are EFI related like EFI Alchemy, but they do work on alot of f-bodies, mine included years ago. Most any competent mechanic can work on that car and tune it with a carb.
I'm at the edge of Jacksonville in St Augustine. There are no '3rd gen' shops around. There are some performance shops but most are EFI related like EFI Alchemy, but they do work on alot of f-bodies, mine included years ago. Most any competent mechanic can work on that car and tune it with a carb.
Appreciate it! I have been running into that issue that no one wants to work on carbs anymore. I have one here in Jax but, he is backed up for a month. I have an going to try a mobile mechanic that works on my style engine. In time I will learn more about them and be self sufficient in a few months.
Thanks again and keep me posted on any events or get togethers.
Appreciate it! I have been running into that issue that no one wants to work on carbs anymore. I have one here in Jax but, he is backed up for a month. I have an going to try a mobile mechanic that works on my style engine. In time I will learn more about them and be self sufficient in a few months.
Thanks again and keep me posted on any events or get togethers.
For a carb'd car, all you need to learn is how to set ignition timing, how to check for vacuum leaks with brake clean or carb cleaner, how to ohm out spark plug wires, changing plugs, and adjusting the carb. Get a chilton's manual or better yet an old Helms shop manual off ebay and start reading. Your car is easier to learn on than an injected car.
MAACO shop, south Orlando, Narcoosee road, 2800$ and counting. Had to order two new side windows because the little plastic parts on the bottom that guide are broken. so delayed again for reassembley.
MAACO shop, south Orlando, Narcoosee road, 2800$ and counting. Had to order two new side windows because the little plastic parts on the bottom that guide are broken. so delayed again for reassembley.
Looks nice! - I was thinking of taking my '89 to a MAACO location to get an estimate. What has been your experience with them as far as how they prep for paint compared to a regular body/paint shop? I get the impression from most that use them that they won't go to far and with removing certain trim pieces, etc.
For a carb'd car, all you need to learn is how to set ignition timing, how to check for vacuum leaks with brake clean or carb cleaner, how to ohm out spark plug wires, changing plugs, and adjusting the carb. Get a chilton's manual or better yet an old Helms shop manual off ebay and start reading. Your car is easier to learn on than an injected car.
Thanks! So I made a rookie mistake and it is a TBI. Currently the Camaro is is at Richbrourg Automotive in St. Augustine being gone through. Nick was cool to talk to and a family own shop. Looking forward to getting it back and driving it like it was intended to be!
Let me know if anyone in Jacksonville wants to get together on a weekend and share some comradery and knowledge.
the guys called and the windows got installed, Classic never sent the two new door panels, called and they are going to send an alternative color, 2 months of back order for the original order didn't fly,.....
Looks nice! - I was thinking of taking my '89 to a MAACO location to get an estimate. What has been your experience with them as far as how they prep for paint compared to a regular body/paint shop? I get the impression from most that use them that they won't go to far and with removing certain trim pieces, etc.
It all depends on the price point they have been jobs from $400 up to $4000, so for four grand they do just as good of a job as anybody else
gsmarcano, I should have posted our last meet up. We had one up in Brooksville. Tampa Bay Third Gens on Facebook if you have it. We do something every 2nd Saturday of the month.
L98GTA87, haven't seen you out in a while man. Doing good?
gsmarcano, I should have posted our last meet up. We had one up in Brooksville. Tampa Bay Third Gens on Facebook if you have it. We do something every 2nd Saturday of the month.
L98GTA87, haven't seen you out in a while man. Doing good?
Doing ok, I don’t go too far in summer yet, no ac. But fall is coming.
gsmarcano, I should have posted our last meet up. We had one up in Brooksville. Tampa Bay Third Gens on Facebook if you have it. We do something every 2nd Saturday of the month.
Thanks for throwing that out there, I just sent a request.
gsmarcano, that paint job looks nice they definitely did a good job.
Don't have any recent pictures to put up, but making good progress on my LS swap. Just this past weekend I finished up the back half of my car. New fuel tank, sender, vortec pump to feed the LS, fuel lines, rebuilt rear end, rear suspension upgrades, etc.
Seriously pushing to have the old girl back on the road by Christmas.
gsmarcano, I should have posted our last meet up. We had one up in Brooksville. Tampa Bay Third Gens on Facebook if you have it. We do something every 2nd Saturday of the month.
L98GTA87, haven't seen you out in a while man. Doing good?
and I did move away to Colorado for 10 years, came back to Florida four years ago.
Next Tampa Bay Third Gen meet is April 16th at 11am at Smokin' Aces in Plant City. It is right off i4, across the street from Stingray Chervolet. Everyone welcome, even if you don't bring a 3rd gen.
Haven't posted in a while, because I've been busy knocking things out on the project list.
ALMOST ready to fire it up for the first time.
All I have left to sort out before first start is waiting to get my injectors rebuilt from a local place, make my A/C hoses, and make the heater hoses.
Much more work to do still besides that, but it'll be a huge motivation to get it running here next week.
Its only a bone stock 4.8 with an LS1 intake and LS3 coils, but the way I see it is that its still going to be a massive improvement over the old tired 305 TBI that burnt oil like nobodies business, leaked everything but fuel, and ran on the borderline of overheating if you drove it for more than a half hour.
This is my first car that I've had for 16 years now, can't wait to be able to drive and enjoy it again.
Plus who knows, maybe once I can afford something stronger than the T5, a 6.0 or 6.2 would swap right in with only the need for a stronger fuel pump and a tune.
The goal was an OEM-ish look, I feel like I did a pretty decent job of that. Still need to secure the wire loom though.
Once it's running, I just need to...
Do a final brake bleed since I just did a preliminary gravity bleed on a 100% new and 100% empty brake system.
Bolt on the fenders, front bumper, hood, and ground effects.
Put my drivers door together.
Figure out why the factory keyless entry module I wired up isn't working correctly. (when I go to program my remote, instead of cycling the locks once it repeatedly keeps locking until I remove the program wire from ground)
Finish putting the interior together.
New tires and alignment.
It's been an absolute ton of work, but it's going to pay off for sure.
The car started off life as a 305TBI/T5 sport coupe with no special options(power windows, rear defrost, cruise control)
I've added factory power locks and power mirrors, keyless entry from a 1996 impala that'll also open the hatch.
Kept cruise control with a module from a 2000ish truck.
RFID key fob system that enables/disables power to the ECM and fuel pump if the fob isn't near the car.
Power drivers seat.
After it's all done I'll be looking forward to going to events and meeting up with some of you guys.
P.S. If you're wondering what that funky looking thing is on top of my hood, I tried out one of those ABS headliners and it came out of the box all wavy. Tried to straighten it out with no success. Absolute garbage, I would NEVER recommend anybody to buy one of those.
Luckily I found a PERFECT headliner in an 83 Firebird in a local yard and had it recovered.
Really awesome project. Your car reminded me of a red '88 SC I had purchased back around 1996 that had the 2.8 multiport. At that period of time there wasn't much to choose in the form of converting the v6 to V8 and retaining all the electronics/sensors to make it look factory so I decided to just stuff in a brand new HO 454 with TBI. If I had to do it again yours would be the choice. Keep up with the progress and details, you certainly have my attention!
Well that didn't take long at all. Got my injectors back from the injector shop in Ocala today. All 8 had some degree of varnish plugging them up, one was bad enough to be stuck closed. Luckily they all cleaned up nicely.
A/C and heater hoses were made over the weekend, and first start went very well, all things considered. Let it warm up to work the air out of the cooling system and test the LS1 fans, then decided to take a quick video...
My bad on the quality, I didn't initially intend on putting it on youtube until I realized the 1 minute HD video I took was 200+MB and wouldn't send through text or email lol.
Anyways, I'm super happy so far. There's a few minor bugs to work out. But that's to be expected.
Things to sort out are...
-Drivers side radiator fan pigtail is reverse polarity compared to the pass. side, so it pushes instead of pulls. Easy fix.
-Idle is a little funky, If I adjust the idle screw to idle at 700ish RPM, once it goes to closed loop it'll jump up to 850-900rpm so I put it back down where it was originally.
-Idle doesn't correct with A/C on like it should. Thinking I need to poke around in the tune some more, this is the first bit of tuning I've done so not surprising if I missed something.
-Radiator fans don't come on with the A/C clutch, I wired it so that the ECM gets signal for A/C request and grounded the low pressure signal wire so that the ECM thinks everything is okay. Also set A/C to analog in the tune.
-Engine has an off idle stumble, assuming this has partly to do with the idle settings? Need to fix the idle issue and recheck for stumble.
-A/C blower motor lost its ground from the relay at some point, shouldn't be too bad to fix.
All in all for my first engine swap, plus all the other stuff I messed with in the process, that is a very small list of issues to deal with lol.
Originally Posted by x55Cam
Really awesome project. Your car reminded me of a red '88 SC I had purchased back around 1996 that had the 2.8 multiport. At that period of time there wasn't much to choose in the form of converting the v6 to V8 and retaining all the electronics/sensors to make it look factory so I decided to just stuff in a brand new HO 454 with TBI. If I had to do it again yours would be the choice. Keep up with the progress and details, you certainly have my attention!
Thanks, hope you like the update lol.
It's crazy how many bolt on parts are available to do what I did.
Although the most fun and challenging parts are the ones you have to make and/or modify. Like the Y-pipe I made from scratch with a box of pre-bent 2.5" pipe(it mimics the factory third gen Y-pipe style, but for an LS, and without the same restrictions)
Do you go to any of the Tampa Bay Third Gen meets? If so, when I eventually am ready to take this thing out to a meet up, you'll be able to see it in person.
I wont make this one. Got to knock the dust off of it and clean it up. its up and running. I need to get a good tune it... I have a ok start up and drive tune, but it needs work...
