Hey all.. Not sure if this is the right spot, but I wanted to ask everyone in the So. Cal area a question. Is it tough to find a 1988-1992 camaro or firebird out here that's both V-8 and manual trans? I've been looking for about 1 1/2 months now and can't find anything at all.. Not sure if I'm just looking in the wrong places or if it's more difficult than I thought to find one. Any info or advice would be great.. Thanks.

 

there were 2 for sale here on this site about 2 weeks ago. One was mine but i since started parting it out and the other was another members 89 iroc. There aren't that many but you do run into them
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here are 2 in socal

www.thirdgen.org/techboard/southern-california-area/463416-89-iroc-4-sale.html
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not sure y but the stupid links don't work but here in the southern ca forum there are 2 white 5spd 89 irocs

 

Hmmm.. There are so many automatic's out there.. But I've been wanting one of these for a long time, and it's always been a 5spd that I thought about.. Never even really considered an automatic, but now I'm not sure.
I'm thinking it's probably better to just sit tight and wait for the right car to come along, rather than getting something that's not exactly the way I wanted it.

Also, thanks for the links.. Those are a little out of my price range right now. I'm thinking I might need to save up more to get the car I'm after. It doesn't really have to be in great shape at all.. I'm just looking for an engine and trans that's in good shape.

 

when i bought mine i had given up. I had searched and was unable to find a decent 5spd v8. I went to look at a t-top auto z28 and the same guy had the 85 5spd so i convinced him to sell me that one and he did

 

Wow, nice.. I hope I can get that lucky.. It hasn't been looking too good for me so far though.

 

It's probably going to be easier to find a good auto car and convert it to a 5 or 6 speed manual tranny. That's what I did with my convertible.

Lon

 

It took me 2 years looking nationwide to find my '90. I considered throwing in the towel on my search a couple times and settling for something that wasn't exactly what I wanted, but in the end my patience paid off and I found the perfect car. If you know what you want, just be patient and wait for it.

Also, if I recall correctly, production of V8/automatics outnumbered V8/manuals about 10 to 1, but they are out there.

 

like i said here in the southern ca part of the forum there are two 5spd 89 irocs for sale. they are both 5.0 tpi

 

Hmm, how difficult of a swap would it be? I've found quite a few good automatics in my price range I would really like to have.. It's just the fact that it's not a manual that's holding me back.

 

I'm doing a swap on my vert currently. Its not real difficult just real time consuming. You pretty much have the remove the center console and cut a hole there for the shifter, cut a hole threw the firewall for the master slave cylender, You'll need the clutch and brake pedal from the manual car install those, wire the neutral safety switch to the clutch switch, and finally install clutch, trans flywheel etc. Its not that hard just time consuming. I've been working on this swap with a friend of mine and so far we've worked on it 1 day each weekend (including an engine swap) and all we have to do now is mount everything.
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here's a real good write up a read before starting my swap. There's one here on this site but this one i found is more detailed and has pictures

http://www.fbodymotorsports.com/thirdgen5spdconversion

 

www.thirdgen.org/techboard/southern-california-area/459446-88-iroc-305-tpi.html

thats a link to the 5spd iroc my friend is selling
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for some reason when i click it the link wont work but if you copy it and paste it into your browser window it will pull up the page

 

I have been on Craiglist looking all over the Western US (for 1991 and 1992 Camaros) and the most of them I find are in California. Alot of 305 5 speed RS especially. There are a few on the Sacramento Craiglist.

 

Do you have any engine criteria? A factory 5 speed car will only have a 5.0 (305 c.i.) engine. With an automatic you can get a 5.7 (350 c.i.). The 5.7 gives you way more room to modify it.

As Lon mentioned, you could find a nice 3rd gen. with a 5.7/auto and just swap in a 5 speed. Lots of people have done it and then you end up with the best combination.

 

Yeah...get in line trying to find the parts. Real popular swap lately.

 

With the difficulty and popularity of finding manual trans swap parts, you would be better off with a 305 5-speed car and swap in whatever hot 350 you want.

 

hawksthirdgenparts.com has used t-5 set ups for 82-92 f bodies
i got mine from there and it works good, i just needed an adjustable TB because the flywheel i bought from kragen was too thin

and if you dont know how to do the swap, on youngsfbody.com tech pages has the instructions

 

I suppose i was lucky that i found my 92 RS five speed with the 305 TBI V8. I went to the Long Beach swap meet and found it there. There may also be some at the Pomona swap.