Here's a question to get you thinking.

The car: 1988 Camaro Iroc-Z 350TPI, 700R4

Condition: All stock

Engine health: Seems to run rich (gas smell), white smoke on startup after sitting for a while. Otherwise, no smoke..


Exterior: Needs paint...Faded top

Interior: Dash cracks, seat cracks...the usual.

The goal: A "nice" 3rd gen weekend driver with enough horsepower/torque to be semi-impressive.


Other thoughts: The 350 TPI stock is quite unimpressive from a performance standpoint.

If this was your car... How would you spend a $2,000 budget? Performance is definitely on the wanted list.

Just trying to budget and figure out what I want to do. Need input from the experts.

 

well how far are you willing to go? will you pull the engine? would you be willing to learn how to burn your own chips for TPI? or do you want to be able to drop a carb on it and go?

 

Well, since you're asking how I personally would spend $2,000... not how I think you should... I'm going to tell you.

$1000 goes towards converting to carb, nice cam, valvetrain upgrades to handle the cam, and a torque converter lockup kit. Should still have a good bit leftover, save it, you might need it someday.

The other $1000... spend as much as you feel like spending on a full exhaust from the headers back, take the change and get some subframe connectors.


That's how I would do it if it were MY car.

 

I'm not afraid to learn. I'm not the most mechanically inclined person, but I can follow directions and don't mind reading.

I like the carb swap idea though.. I had another thread in the carb forum creating a shopping list for just such a swap. That may be what I do... Not that I don't want to learn to tune TPI, it just seems like a carb setup might offer lower overall "future maintenance" cost. Cheaper replacement parts vs TPI parts, etc...

 

Leave the engine alone.

Gears; converter; shift kit; headers, cat, cat-back; LCA RBs; tires.

Maybe a set of new spark plugs.

Oh, and don't forget about gears.... get those 2.73s out of there. Go fo 3.42s and about a 2400 RPM 10" converter.

 

It has white smoke? I would fix your head gasket problem first then :P

 

Id say it depends on the person you are. What are you interests and ideas for this car? So far with my car its been all muscle and mods...but no exterior work haha. But I should someday reach that point. I am like you, a man who seeks performance but, not only that...I love a good sound.

 

I was assuming it was just the valve seals, he says it's only at startup.

 

Where are you located? Swapping an '89 fuel injected car to a carb is a no-no in every state due to federal laws, and you wont pass an emissions check if you have those.

An '88 350 TPI would come with the 9-bolt rear end, which probably has 2.77 gears instead of the preferred 3.27 gears. That would be why you are unimpressed with the acelleration. Unfortunately, a new gear swap and posi unit for a 9bolt cost about $1000, while a new rear end is about $500 or less.

First mod for these cars should be a set of subframe connectors welded on. Then a general tune-up including spark plugs, wires, fuel filter, cap, rotor, 160 or 180 degree thermostat, etc. Then you can either do the pain in the butt job of replacing your valve stem seals to fix the white smoke on startup, or buy another set of heads and swap those on. The stock casting number for 350 L98 iron heads is 14101083. You can do a mild porting job on the new heads and replace the springs and retainers with Manley part# 22410-16 and 23652-16. That'll allow you to install a camshaft of .500 lift, and up to .550 if you swap to screw-in rocker studs on the heads.

Or spend the money on a 3" cat-back exhaust system. They're all pretty good and will give you more power, but ones made specifically for thirdgens are getting hard to find. A 4th gen one will fit if you have your muffler shop make the connection from your cat to the pipe.

 

rip that tpi B.s out throw on a eldelbrock intake and a holley carb....id do an ignition upgrade too....(msd 6AL)then change your rear gears.....my best advice is to get a rear end from a 4th gen camaro b/c 9 bolts are hard to find parts for.....by the time u do all that your rockin around $800...get a 2500 stall torque converter....thatll put u just over 1000.....you may want to put a MILD....i say MILD cam b/c u cant go radical due to budget...head and valve train parts aint cheap....jegs sells a carb, cam, and intake kit thats susposed to be pretty nice......so by the time u buy all that you will have around 600 left for a paint job.....if your handy with a spray gun and can block sand u have no problems.....but if u aint dont even bother with a cheap paint job PLZ....PLZ PLZ dont take it to mayco...

 

If its blue smoke, that would be true. Not for white. Blue = oil. White = water/coolant.

 

air dam thanks i was reading through and through and im like wtf white smoke? valve seals? NO. bad valve seals will allow puddled oil in the valve train to seap down passed the seals into the cylinders and it all gets burned and blown when you start up, that would be BLUE smoke. WHITE smoke is coolant which could be a variety of things. leaky line, bad thermo housing gasket, head gasket check everywhere. im not sure how coolant is ran througha tpi intake but check em all. BEFORE YOU SPEND ANY MONEY ON UPGRADES>>>fix the smoke problem and refresh that motor like someone already said, plugs wires, stat, cap, rotor if needed, air cleaners oil oil filter gaskets, coolant flush and refill, and so on. next, add another grand to your budget and pick up an sts turbo kit hahhaa

 

It's almost garunteed to be a head gasket, but you can replace all your intake gaskets and stuff anyways while you are doing the heads.

 

i would do full exhaust. header, y pipe, and catback first. then i would get a freer flowing tpi base and runners. if you buy used that 2000 will take you very far. the 2:73's need to go badly. i'd go with some 3:73 gears. if theres money left over just keep going with some bolt on's. It sounds like you really don't wanna get crazy with it so i'd stick with bolt ons. you'd be happy with an extra 50hp.

 

Someone who doesnt know the distinction between white and blue smoke, may not pay as close attention to what color the smoke is and not understand how significant that is. They'll just say white color smoke not realizing it, and oil smoke can easily look white to someone who doesnt know the difference.

 

infernal, IMHOx10...if you cant identify basic colors we learned in pre school and see everyday in the world such as blue..and white... you shouldnt be driving the car a car any car and especially not a beautiful 3rd gen. thats a recipe for disaster. you shouldnt have to be mechanically intelligent to tell the difference between white and blue lol.

 

what justifies a response like this? white smoke = bad head gasket?? nope. could be alot of things as we said before

 

well white smoke could be alot of things but head gasket replacement will probably uncover any other cause in the process...


What about just plain blind people... see those clowns driving every fricken day!

 

if you want a "nice" thirdgen you'll have to upgrade/freshen the interior and paint. but that could easily be 2000 right there in paint alone.

depends on how bad it is, maybe performance is what you want.

if the car is bone stock as is here is what i'd do.

holley stealth ram. complete installed ready to run for 650 bucks but depends on where you shop.

while your at it, fix your smoking problem. get new head gaskets, freshen up the valvetrain/seals. you should be able to do this for 300 bucks or less. probly a good deal less. maybe even mildly port/gasket match the heads to the HSR for best performance.

hooker headers/ypipe with a catback of your choice. 600-700 bucks or so.

if you dont have 3.27 gears, get some used or get 3.70's. problem is finding a 3 series carrier for that 9 bolt. all else, get a 300 dollar 3.42 gear 4th gen rear or 3.23 disk thirdgen 10 bolt

A converter probly be the best bang for the buck, but can be expensive. not sure you'll beable to do gears and converter on a 2000 budget. if you can get a 2800 stall converter. anywhere from 300-800 bucks depending on brand.

shopping around you maybe able to do it all.

but in summary, you should get HSR, gears, full exhaust. Gut your air intake boxes and get the heads freshened. take care of ignition with new wires/cap/rotor if stock is crappy. working on the tune will be important but my car didnt realy need much tuning with HSR. Even without a converter that car will be strong up topend where TPI dies. HSR,full exhaust/gutted air intake, gears will make it happy. well running it should dyno 245-250 whp. capable of mid high 13's on street tires. slicks/converter it will go bottom 13's

 

Ok how is a leaky line going to leak into your combustion chamber and burn to create white smoke? How is a leak coming from a thermostat housing going to get into the combustion chamber and burn to create white smoke? The only way you can get white smoke coming from your exhaust, is because you are leaking coolant into your combustion chamber or somewhere that leads to it like the intake ports. Coolant leaking past the intake gasket and into the intake port and then into the combustion chamber is somewhat unlikely, but a head gasket that is corroded or blown out is very common. You could have a warped cylinder head and the coolant is seaping past into the CC. Could be alot of things? Not really, there are only so many ways coolant could get into the combustion chamber.

 

yes there are only so many ways it can get into the combustion chaimber... but a blown head gasket capable of leaking into the chaimber would also have other symptoms... IE compression stroke? where is the air going to go...

 

Great responses everyone. :-) Fixing the smoking issue is #1 on the list regardless of what else I do. Funny thing is, I've had about all the same ideas that everyone here as mentioned... Hadn't considered the sub frame connectors, but they sound like a good addition.

 

yes subframe connectors are a very good idea... especially the weld in.. bolt in are ok for a while but they will start to get loose

 

thats you dont need to burn coolant or "combust" coolant to get white smoke. any coolant leaking onto ANY hot componant will cause it to smoke white. but now that i think of it would smoke from the engine bay or if its a rear "runny" leak it would be out from under car. i dont remember him saying its coming from the back of the car

i just re-read it smoke on start up..aaah ok ok i wasnt thinking. i'll shut my mouth now

 

I was going to respond, but you corrected yourself on that one lol.

 

I checked the coolant. When I first got the car it was a bit low (but clean). I refilled it and it's still quite clean. Oil isn't at all discolored (or "milky"). Quite odd actually. You'd think I would be able to locate other "symptoms."

I went out tonight and started the car.. I think the TPS just broke... The SES came on and when you press the gas (say, up to 1500-2000RPM) the car *stays* at that RPM for several seconds after you release the pedal. The linkage seems to be operating properly.

I love old cars. :-)

 

check voltage at the TPS wires with a voltohm meter. should be like .54 volts at idle i believe and over 4 volts at WOT

 

I'm sorry but this car requires far too much work - beyond your $2,000 budget.

Sell the car and use the proceeds with the $2,000 to find one in better condition and start from there.

I realize this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but you should give it serious consideration before you turn that car into a money pit.