I have an 83 Z28 with CFI. I just put a new 350 in the car and found out the old intake manifold is stripped out where the water neck bolts in. So now the coolant is slowly leaking out, it's getting worse over time of course. GM does not make this manifold anymore I was told by a dealership, and it's impossible to find it anywhere it seems. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do or where I can find a replacement? When I put the 350 in the car I also put a new computer and chip in the car that is made for 84 vettes with CFI because they had 350's. I also put 84 vette CFI 350 fuel injectors in the car. Does anyone know if I can put the same manifold from an 84 vette with CFI and 350 in my car. If so, have any suggestions on where to find them? I would love any help. Thanks!

 

bevel the hole and weld it then drill and tap. might try a thread insert like helicoil or keensert.

 

Never thought about that. Thanks for the info. I will try it out.

 

Yup, I'd try a Heli-Coil first.

Yes the manifold is the same on a 305 and a 350 CFI. It choked a 350 even worse than it did the 305. That's why the CFI Vettes were so pitifully slow. The L69 cars could walk all over them. Would have been humorous if it wasn't so humiliating to see GM's flagship performance car sunk so low as to get beat by a far cheaper car with a 305.

 

I have a complete 305 Cross-Fire for sale from my 82 Z-28.
Don't really want to disassemble the eng, but if the price is right I may.

 

heli coil.

 

I have a spare if you decide you need one.

It has not been ported, but I could have it done for you as well.

PM me if interested.

 

Thanks for all of the help everyone! I am going to try and restore my current manifold for now. Thanks to those who gave me the offer to buy their used manifolds. I will let you know if I need one of them if it doesn't work out with restoring mine. Thanks again!

 

If you haven't ported it, and are removing it again, you should consider it...

Tech Article on Porting a Crossfire Manifold....

 

Yup, Heli-Coil is the easiest fix for it. I've repaired the water neck holes in I don't know how many aluminum intakes with heli-coils. Just make sure to drill the holes straight before using the heli-coil tap. I think I had to do my carb stud holes at one time if I remember right too. All the aftermarket companies should've done this to their aluminum intakes to begin with! Most of your high dollar aluminum engine parts have this done when they're manufactured. Oh, btw, if you ever do need to pick up another crossfire intake, just look on ebay. I see them on there all the time for dirt cheap. My dad has an 82 vette with the crossfire and he's bought two extra intakes off ebay for next to nothing.

 

Heli coils are great, i picked up a proformer rpm intake at a swap meet for 5 bucks cause the bolt holes for the carb were all stripped, well 3 of em anyway.. 3 heli coils later i got a good buy

 

Thanks for the info. I will be considering this for sure when I pull off the manifold. The tech article will be a great help.

 

Does anyone know how the Cross Fire Injection got it's nick name "Miss Fire Injection"?

 

Sigh....

Actually, it was more commonly called cease-fire injection

The 82 & 83 Camaros have hood flaps that open at WOT.

Some people obviously didn't realize that driving WOT in a pouring rain or with large amounts of water on your hood was a BAD idea. Can you say HYDROLOCK?

Being GM's first mass produced eletronic fuel injection didn't help - sure the system had comparable (slightly better) horsepower numbers to the emissions choked carbs of the late 70s, but it wasn't a massive gain (GM was reading TPI and the L98 at the time). The crossfire shortblocks weren't anything to be proud of either - small emissions cams and small valves...

While I like my crossfire cars today - I can't imagine owning one without WinALDL, and the ability to change proms, etc. Not to mention that GM didn't have larger injectors available at the time (to my knowledge, I could be wrong....)

Its taken 20 years for the DIY community to really get a handle on the system - there never was any real aftermarket support like for TPI but there were MANY MANY more years of TPI.

And no, my crossfire cars don't misfire unless I do something stupid with my ignition system

 

Hey ChevyHacker I knew it had something to do with water but did not know about the flaps at WOT! Thanks for sharing that. I've heard many names for the CFI but was only able to remember that one. Again appreciate the knowledge.

CALIROCZ28

 

I've thought a dozen times about adding a relay to kill the flaps when the wipers are on - but then again, maybe I'm old enough now not to go into WOT in the rain.....NAH....

 

Your only that old if you let someone tell you your to old. Don't listen. Drive hard, drive safe and have fun till we die of old age!

 

What do you mean when you say you wouldn't own one without WinALDL? What is WinALDL? Right now I am using 84 vette injectors and prom chip in my cross-fire, and what a difference it has made. But, do you have any better suggestions?

 

What I mean is that today, there are excellent tools for working with GM fuel injection that didn't exist 20 years ago.

Had I bought the car new, then a year later installed a new cam & some heads on it, I wouldn't have the diagnostic and reprogramming tools to understand where to make changes and then be able to alter my VE tables, etc. I'm not even sure what year Hypertech, Jet, etc started making custom proms.

Its easy for me to see why hotrodders would have hated CFI, but loved TPI - they installed new cam & heads, and the MAF's ability to understand the airflow kept the tune pretty reasonable.

Again, not saying one is better than the other, just explaining how I thought the reputation started.

Winaldl is a free program that hooks to the ALDL post and logs the ECM data stream.

CLICK HERE FOR THE WINALDL SITE

 

I had an 83 crossfire a few years ago. I learned alot of stuff on that car. That was my introduction to computer cars. I did replace the engine with a 350 and put a set 882 casting heads with 2.20 intake valves on it. They were rebuilt units from PAW. I agree about porting the intake. I couldn't believe how tiny those things were when I took the manifold off. I opened them up quite a bit, but was careful not to over do it so I wouldn't loose the bottom end driveability. Then I stuffed a Comp cams emissions cam in there at about .454 lift( I don't remember all of the other specs) . Then I rebuilt the throttle bodies and took all the emissions stuff off. I was still running that sucky stock exhaust and no chip. The car felt a ton better with the 350, but I could tell that the crossfire was choking it. No upper RPM, but good bottom low and mid. It was a one wheeler peeler too. The one time I took it to the track I got a best time of 15.09 with a ton of wheel spin and a very tired 700r4. So I t would have been a solid 14 second car as is if the tires would hook up. It did better than I thought it would. That was running on Comp T/A ZR's with 16" Centerline billet stars. I was considering the set up from Turbo City with the revised manifold and bigger throttle bodies along with the new computer, but never did. I wonder how that all would have worked out? They said it was capable of handling 450 HP but I wasn't exactly sold on that. Good luck on your car .

 

Thanks for the info. I am going to look into the setup you are talking about from Turbo City, sounds good anyway. I just bought my car about 6 months ago and put a new engine in it among a million other things. I have put so much money into the car that I have to keep it. I really do like the car anyway though. Third gens have always been my favorite car, it's my daily driver. I had an 84 Z28 5.0 H.O. a few years back, then I sold it after a year or so, biggest mistake I ever made. That car could walk all over my cross-fire. Oh well though, time to move on and build this car up. Thanks for all of the help and info everyone!

 

Head over to the Crossfire Injection Vault - there are serious DIY solutions that should be way less expensive than the Turbo City setup. For example, I'm installing 2" throttle bodies this week - there is a board member that bores them and installs new plates for less than $150!

My board name is the same on that forum - look for my posts and you can see updates over the last year as I took my camaro from stock through a series of upgrades, including a new motor.

Its still WAY lean up top (got the new wideband o2 sensor last week) so the new tb's & injectors should really help...

Anyway - if you have any questions, or want pics, etc - just let me know.

Ian

 

I just signed up on that board a few days ago with the same member name I have on this board. After reading more info about the Turbo City setup I have definitely decided not to buy it. I have already gotten a ton of new ideas from just reading other members posts. I will look for yours also and check out what you have done and are going to do. Gets a little confusing on that board because most of the time everyone is talking about corvettes. Thanks for the info! I will let you know if I need any help.

 

Yes, there aren't many active crossfire camaro members - just PM me if you need anything, I can tell you if there are any differences for the f-body...

Ian

 

Thanks! :hail: