How bad does this engine look for you guyse? the seller says it runs fine, exept something starts vibrating after 2500 rpm?!?! What do you guys think? Haven't seen the car myself yet!

 

It is VERY dirty lol, but that could get cleaned..
And either way, youd change all the wires, and so on..
What is it? How much miles?

 

The car is a 84 Trans AM, the engine has got 80000km on it, thats about 48 000 miles. Don't know what kind of engine it is. You think the engine would run another 40 000 miles?

 

That's the crossfire injected V-8.

 

I haven't sean a working cross fire in a few years. Not much aftermarket help for the induction I don't think, but you could always convert to carb and HEI distributor.

That is really low mileage for a car that old. If it is accurate then it should have a lot left in it if it has been maintaned at all. I wonder if that vibration has anything to do with the cross fire injection. I have heard they are hard to tunel. Hmm, I don't really know.

 

I put 160K miles on one of those engs, then had to replace the cam since it flattened itself out.
Then, put another 100K miles on the original bottom end.
It is a low performance eng. Had somewhere around 170HP new.
Had good low-end torque.
Replacement parts are getting hard to find.
You could sell the CFI on ebay for $200 or so, then switch to carb.

Need more details on the vibration problem.
Any noise associated with the vibration?
Does it vibrate in park/neutral at 2500 RPMs, or just going down the road?

When I installed a flex fan on mine, I picked-up some vibration, but it started around 1500 rpm.

 

I wouldn't buy it.


How much does he want?

 

 

Those 3 words on the air cleaner say it all...

Here's what you do:

1.) Get a good intake/carb. setup
2.) Replace existing CFI with your newly purchased intake/carb. setup
3.) Take CFI system and use as boat anchor.

 

Even given the mileage on the engine, it is AWFULLY dirty. It looks like it actually has a LOT more miles than he's telling you

 

Yeah that looks kind of scary to me... notice the in-line fuel filter hooked up with rubber hose in the high-pressure section of the system, just waiting to burst and spew gasoline right oin the alternator and everywhere else... One has to wonder how much else has been hacked and mutilated stupidly like that....

It would have to be really cheap for it to be worth the risk, especially given the difficulty of finding parts for that setup. It's getting hard to support even over here, it might be the last one that still works anywhere in Europe.

Unless you are really interested in the car somehow, and know how to deal with things like entire fuel injection systems that need to be yanked off and replaced, I would recommend staying away. That kind of injection worked well enough in its day but was only used for a couple of years; its computer is very crude compared to today's; and parts are getting really scarce. Then there's the question of how much backyard re-engineering it has had, and what it would take to restore it to some degree of safety and reliability. All in all, not an attractive deal.

 

That guy is asking 2500$ for it. Here are the pics he sent me.

 

The inside

 

It has to be atleast an 83 because they didn't make crossfires in 84. It appears to be a Daytona 500/25th Anniversary. However, it should have Recaro seats to prove it. A limited production model if it is but looks to be in sad shape. TOO MUCH

 

Wouldn't give 2500 pesos for that wreck. An '83 with that much dirt and wear and tear AND only 43k on the ticker? Want to buy a bridge in Brooklin too?

 

Yep thats an 83 and its probobly is a Daytona Anni. Edition that someone painted.

 

It's hard to say. The car isnt in bad shape considering all the hell people put these cars through. The interior doesent look that bad considering all the @ss miles in it. The outside looks descent enough but needs cleaned. The engine is anyones guess, dirt and oil on the outside doesent tell us squat about internal conditions, the noise above 2K could be something minor to a rod about to pop. I wouldent change the CFI system, if it is a Daytona 25th I'd keep the car as original looking as possible.

 

That interior looks like hell !!!! I have a 83 car with lots of miles on it: the seats have no rips, the carpet has no holes, I keep it clean (unlike the owner of that car), everything is assembled correctly, everything works. Just being old is no excuse for a car looking like herds of wild animals have been living in it. That car is a ragged-out pig sty.

It might bring $1000 in the States, from someone who really likes those cars and has the patience and spare parts to rebuild it.

 

I just have to ask this. How many digits on the odometer? 80,000.3 would be six. Is it six or seven?

 

my 2.8 was in better condition minus a wrecked fender/bumper and i got it for $500

betcha my 2.8 is faster than the cfi too : D

imo, 2500 is waaaaaay too much for it

 

I guess Colorado's different. I couldent/cant buy ANY thirdgen that condition for under 2K. Total thrashers go for $1200+ and I'm talking no headliner, accident damage, running on 5 ect. POS Rustangs in the early/late 80's go for 3K+. I bought my 86 Z28 Camaro "RIP" with faded/chipping paint for 3K, I got the Firebird with door damage and an assumed blown engine from a dealer for $1200. A lthough the Firebird only needed a cam and the body work cost $300 so a total of $1800 to get it on the road.

 

Heres my problem thou, the owner of the car wrote me, that he is the third onwner. The second owner diden't use the car much. The last two years befor the third owner bought it, it was just standing around. The third owner has had the car for three years now, and it has been standi also for three years. That means 5 years of standing
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¨¨

He also said to me, the price is so high, cause he would make more money then that, if he were to sell just parts? What ya all think? Is the car worth of buying, if I can get the price donw? And how much would you think it's werth?

 

Yes, it's a 83, first on the roud on september in 83!

 

Hmm, Id say no. The guy isnt going to get $2500 parting out the car especially with a 305 that has an unknown engine condition, a used 700r4 isnt going to bring much. The body parts doors/fenders and hood arent going to bring much especailly when you can get all but the hood aftermarket NEW for $500. I'll give him $50 for that hood.

 

He told me that it isn't the original engine in, so I have no idea what kind it is.

 

I think this guy is yanking your chain all over the place. Sitting around un-attended to (and most likely un preped for storage) for 1 year is going to cause problems, let alone 5 years. And who replaces an under 40,000 mile cross-fire injection motor with another cross-fire injection motor? And if they cared that much about the car to actually do that why did they let it go to hell and not keep it clean? I agree with the rest of the guys, this guy is asking too way much. While the cross-fire injection system might be rare and exotic, its rare in the Iron Duke Camaro sense and not the Turbo Trans Am sense....if you know what I mean SSC is right too, he isn't going to get much at all parting out that thing. I'd say if you like the body and paint (straight, not been hit), and are buying this car to do work on it and are prepared to do so, it's worth $1000. Maybe a bit more if you really had your heart set on an Anniversary T/A or if 3rd gens are really hard to find over there.

rezinn: Older odometers don't go to 100,000 miles, they just reset at 99,999 to 0. I wonder if maybe the Km odometers do the same thing, because I agree this car does not look like a 40,000 mile car.

PS - Did they make an Iron Duke Firebird too? All I remember is hearing about the Camaro but it would make sense if they released a firebird version too. Did they?

 

I dont' know about the reset thing, but your right, it really could be. How would I be able to tell? I really like the way the car looks, and I do want to work on the car, that's why I'm looking for a cheap one. Yes, I is hard to finde over here. The moste you finde are really expnsev once, they are in gr8t condition, but far to expensive for me!

 

Ok, he put this engine in this june.

 

This past June? Now, I've lived in Europe before and there is no way an engine could get that dirty in less than 5 months, especially in the summer months. So, either he put in a used engine that he didn't even bother to clean the crud off of or someone isn't exactly telling you the truth.

 

I think we're all trying to tell you, the deal doesn't "pass the smell test". There's a very good chance you'll be buying a pile of garbage that has no hope of ever being anything but a pile of garbage especially without spending huge sums of money out of all proprtion to what the car is actually worth, and you'll be paying what we would consider top dollar for a cream puff car, but instead getting a steaming bucket of .... excrement. Unless you just really, really like the car for some reason the rest of us can't figure out, we think you should leave it alone and keep looking. Let that guy unload his pile on some other less educated sucker.

 

My stock odometer is currently reading 268,399.2

The part abt this car sitting would worry me the most.
Most cars go to hell real quick if they aren't driven occasionally.

Most every seal in it will need replacement.

A/C is probably dead.
Brakes will most likely need a lot of work.
A.I.R. pump will likely fail soon (if that matters to you).
Transmission seals will probably be leaking.


I'd have to pass on that one; especially living across the pond from all the parts your gonna need to get it in good shape.

 

my odometer is at 190,xxx dunno what the rest is but mine can go past 99,999

 

That's odd. Most of the odometers I've seen only go to the 10,000 digit. What year and model thridgens do you guys have?

 

duh...nver mind...checked the sigs and names

Well, it appears that GM had 100,000 digit odometers in 82. What made them go to 10,000 digit odometers later? They do some dumb stuff sometimes. Take the peanut cammed 86 thirdgen for example......

 

yeah... whats up with that? Makes it real nerve racking to buy a 15 year old car with only a 5 digit speedo.

offer him 500 and be done with it. I paid 1800 for mine but the interior was in very good shape. Such good shape that i took it out to keep it looking new for the future in case i decide to do something with the car, oh and the small issue of saving weight. Im hard core about having extra weight in an already heavy car.

 

In the interior pic. you can see the leg rest at drivers side.They only had those in '84.There's no front grills and the car has ground effects.I'm pretty sure the car is '84 and i think they did an engine swap.

 

Thanks for all your help guys! Well guess I'll be passing on that car! The search continues!

 

thats incorrect . The 83 Daytona editions had the leg rest and the ground effects.

 

I didn't know that thanks for the info.This topic discussed several times and i remember they were saying that only '84 had the leg rest.And i remember that '84 was the first year of optional aero package with ground effects and 15" rims.But still in '83 they had the grills right?

 

Anybody that yaps about making more money off of parting it out versus selling it is a complete jack@ss..... Next time someone says that to you, just ask him what he is waiting for if that will make him soooooo much money .....

 

It's pretty easy to accumulate dirt on a car that old. I'd suggest going over the motor a little more closely, looking for oil leaks, sludge in the PCV valve, etc. These indications may give you a better clue as to the real milage. Is there fluid on the power steering lines? What about around the oil pan and trans pan? That's the type of crap that might help you figure out if it's a high milage motor or not. The fact that it's filthy doesn't mean much. I've got a friend with an immaculate 16k mile IROC. Pop the hood and it looks almost as bad as that car. He's never once cleaned under the hood.

 

Would any one of you know where I could get a book over such trans am engines? Or do you know a Website, or do you have a book as a PDF file?!

 

if he said he put another motor int here id avoid the car or not pay anywhere near as much as he wants for it. *** only knows where that motor came from. At least if you only paid a couple of hundred for the car you wont be royally screwed if the motor takes a dump. My brother paid 3500 for a real dog of a camaro with a beat to hell lg4 in it and the motor blew two months later. He ended up paying another 3500 to get a 350 put in, same type of 350 that i put in mine, oddly enough, and the car still was nowhere near done. Moral of the story is that he ended up paying 7 k for a car with a beat interior, rusted body, rear end with whinnig gears and a blown posi unit, and a shot suspention. As ive learned, the bill can add up fast with these cars. Be careful what you buy and dont jump on the first thing unless it looks like its sound.

 

That car is THRASHED for 2500 bucks. Save up another grand and buy mine, its in alot better shape. I wouldnt touch that car for 2500, no way.

 

The 83 Daytona editionsDont have the grills.

 

That car is hardly thrashed. It looks pretty solid overall. It's got a dirty engine and needs a little interior work. Big deal. Plus, in Switzerland, I would imagine that the pickings are pretty slim to begin with, so ANY thirdgen with a straight body is probably worth that much.

 

i think the car looks pretty good, body seems pretty and interior is decent enough, the engine is a bit dirty......if you dont know where it came from, you will probably put in your own, wouldnt you?

 

I wouldn't buy it. I paid 2000$ for a 88 that has a good body, interior, and a lo3. (better than crossfire). Id keep looking. That car looks like a piece.

 

No chance in HeII...maybe worth 500.00

 

Man....who the hell revived this post from the dead? Anyways, I think Jim said it back last october. When you guys go live in Switzerland, then you can say how much this car is worth. Different cars have a different value in different parts of the world.