I recently acquired a '89 Camaro RS T-top from a dealer for $4000, (not bad considering the car seems to have had the paint completely redone, even the firewall is the new paint) runs like a charm. It has the L03 (305 TBI) in it, and I have no idea if it has rollers in it, or if they were still using hydraulics in them in '89. I'm planning on doing moderate mods to it so that would include the cam, so knowing what kind it uses, short of pulling the manifold, valve cover, one of the lifters just to find out. the chilton manual says nothing, and i've seen before that some of them had rollers and some didn't, depending on the year. So what kind is most likely in there? I'm really hoping they're rollers.

Another question, did borg warner make the t-5 for some of the camaros? i did a look up on the rpo codes of my car and it came up with one, "transmission, man 5 spd borg warner, 77mm, 2.95" just what are those last few numbers for? 1st gear ratio? cuz i also got "axle rear, 3.08 ratio" (which was actually a ratio i was thinking of going to since i thought they were all 2.7x or something like that.

Sorry for the long post, but better too much info then not enough right? :-)

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Hondas get all the girls.
Camaro's get all the women.

'89 Camaro RS T-top L03, no mods.... yet.

 

Yes, the motor is a roller motor, they changed in 87. Changing the cam will give you a huge performance gain (yours now is tiny), but you need a roller cam. You could have a 3.08 posi rear (that was the best option for RS camaro's). The heads also suck on L03's so changing them would be worth a good deal of power. Headers, heads, and a cam should put you into the mid 14 sec range. Swing on over to the tbi board because I'm no expert about tbi, and those guys really know their sh*t. There are a number of people who have made nice 14 second tbi cars, but they run high 15's/low 16's stock.

Good luck

 

Your lifters are certainly hydraulic; and if the original motor is still in it, they have rollers. The factories use hydraulic lifters in virtually all cars nowadays, and have for many years. There are very few new solid lifter cars or trucks. You can tell if it's a roller by pulling the intake; you don't have to pull a lifter out, the factory uses this great big stupid "spider" thing to retain the lifters in their goofy roller contraption, so it's real obvious. You can't tell by looking under the valve covers alone.

The T-5 is a Borg-Warner product. GM bought it from B-W (which is a far older company than GM, FYI) like all the other mfrs that used it. You are correct, 2.95 is the 1st gear ratio; the trans specs have nothing to do with the rear end gears. If your car has an auto trans then it's got 2.73 gears unless somebody has changed them; if it's a 5-speed they're 3.08s.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

[This message has been edited by RB83L69 (edited December 03, 2001).]

 

deleted what i just said, i didn't read the last post all the way thru, sorry :-)

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Hondas get all the girls.
Camaro's get all the women.

'89 Camaro RS T-top L03, no mods.... yet.

[This message has been edited by kingtygr (edited December 04, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by kingtygr (edited December 04, 2001).]

 

77mm refers to the distance between the mainshaft and countershaft centerlines.in this case bigger=better ck.out that dimension on a t56 and you can see why its much stronger

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1985 IROC Original Owner. Roller 406-4 bolt superram,p600b,1LE brakes,art carr,1 3/4 slp,blablabla-only 26k original miles and aint never been driven in the rain-swappin to SD as soon as burner gets here.

 

(ignore)

[This message has been edited by five7kid (edited December 05, 2001).]