Hey, I'm new to the forums, but it's the first place I saw that could possibly help me in my rebuild.

Real quick; I purchased the 84 z28 H.O. a year and a half ago for 500, titleless and very junk, but it was driveable. Soon after purchasing it I went to basic training and never got to doing anything to it when I got back. I finally got some friends together and started tearing it apart last night, and I quickly realized how little I know about cars.

So far it stopped cranking, realized there was no belt going to the alternator, its rusting everywhere, the throttle isn't working properly, the ebrake doesnt move or work, previous owner installed a pointless kill switch, the bumper frame shows there was a minor frontal collision, everything is covered in at least a few milimeters of gunk and grime and/or rust, and things just plain aren't connected to what they should be. Exciting

I really don't know what to do, other than just tear it down and work my way back up, but I have a couple questions

What is the bare minimum of parts needed for the engine to crank and run (ie can I get away with takin all the electrical for the lights out and still crank it?)

Are there any considerations I should take while dissassembling the car?

From guys who've worked on this car; is it a difficult car to work with? to get parts for?

And in general does anyone have any suggestions about what to do in general with the car, I'm really up for anything

Thanks Guys

-Bil

 

Here is a good place to start learning about engines.
http://www.gofastnews.com/board/technical-articles/
David Vizard is a highly respected engine builder.

 

both the throttle and e-brake are mechanical cables, which could have rusted and seized (like numerous other things). for that, your best bet is replacement (for the long term). but for the short term, i would pull the cables out and try to lubricate them with something. maybe pb-blaster which is penetrating, so at least they may work enough to operate or get it running.

as with any engine that has sat for a while, it is usually harder to get it to run again. things can seize and cause issues.

if there is no belt running to the alternator, there is obviously no power being generated to keep it running (assuming that it starts eventually).

i would definitely charge the battery (battery powers the starter, and if there isnt enough power, the starter wont be able to turn it over). the battery might also need to be replaced.

as far as third-gens in general, they have to be some of the easiest cars to work on (at least from my experiance). TONS of parts are available from virtually everywhere.

SBC's have the most aftermarket performance parts available (as far as i know).

as well as the fact that there are literally thousands of third gens sitting in salvage yards that you can pull parts from.



in my opinion you are debating on entering the point of no return... if you choose to continue you are going to be throwing in alot of money into it. you have to decide if the return is worth it. in example, if everything is as rusty as you say it is, is it worth replacing numerous body pannels? or lots of body work? or a decent paintjob?

you might just find that another third gen might be at a better starting point in several aspects.

1. it has a 305 (which i tend to consider one of the worst "performance" engines chevy has ever built, note that "performance" is in quotes.) although it is not hard to throw a 350/383/400 in there.

2. (through your description) the body is rough shape, and could take alot of time, $$$$, and frustration to get it to look decent. also it has been involved in a frontal collision.

3. you have no idea about the history of the car or how well it has been maintained (if it has been maintained).

***you also need to determine the use/future for this car as that is highly dependent on how much $$$$ its going to take.

if you desire it to be a "show car" i would deem it a bad choice due to
the shape of the body and how much work needs to be done.
if you want it to be a collector, HORRIBLE CHOICE being
puchased titleless.
if you are looking for a fun project and are willing to learn and throw in
some money, it would be a great experiance.

its up to you. go to the myspace in the sig, thats the camaro i paid $2000 for, flawless body, decent paint, and a strong 350. that might be better than throwing >$1500 in just to get it to run and look presentable.

 

Thanks for the responses guys, I've been helping out with the work on this car as it's actually in my garage.

Impaled, you hit it right on the head, this car is really just meant to be a fun project for us and a few friends and hopefully we can learn a lot in the process.

We did actually get the car to run tonight, it ended up being a combination of a bad battery and that stupid, pointless kill switch that the previous owner installed for no reason. The thing isn't even mounted anywhere, its hanging out on the floor by the pedals, wires exposed and all.

Glad to hear that the general consensus is that these cars are easy to work on. There does seem to be a ton of room in and around the engine bay compared to most more modern cars.

Your thoughts on the engine peaked my interest a bit. Looking up the specs on it originally I was very unimpressed, although I am more used to the kind of numbers that more modern engines put out. My 2000 v6 Mustang makes more hp than the 305 though.

I'm not sure what to do there. Like I said, our idea for the project was to just have some fun and learn a bunch, so we were planning on tearing the engine apart, cleaning and restoring whatever we could, and putting it all back together. The engine that's in there now is a perfect candidate for that type of treatment. Getting a new engine would kind of defeat the purpose, unless we found one in a car in equally as bad of shape.

Again, thanks for the response, it really shed some light on the situation for us. As we get more into things and do some more research I'm sure we'll have some more questions.

 

there are hundreds of thousands of 350's laying around just waiting to get built/rebuilt. the engines are almost identical in every aspect except for the bore (and minor differences on stock heads and stock cams), it wouldnt cost you any more than the block to go to a 350, then you also get some engine swapping expriance as well.