I recently got a 1986 Camaro Z28 and sadly or not the owner before be decided they knew how to change it from the original carb system and swapped it to a holly performance carb. Sadly though they have Frankensteined many of the wires, hoses, and systems. The emissions system is totally blowing my mind with how they have hoses run, it looks nothing like any diagram I have found. They have connectors lose everywhere, many without any apparent locations with the new system to plug into. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to cross my fingers that I can get by with this till I can afford a new motor and hire some shop to drop it in. Or hopefully find some means of help to make it's functionality closer to what it once was, within limits of having the upgraded carb. I'm going to try to get some photo's so maybe they can explain what my words lack.

In the end would it be easier to track down "original" parts and just build it back the way it was. Or learn the way of the insanity till I become one and can understand what in the world is going on under the hood of this car.

 

Once you go away from the computer controlled carb (and hopefully they replaced the computer controlled distributor at the same time as well because that won't work right either) you have basically nullified all the emissions stuff anyway. Best to take it back to "1960s muscle car simple." PCV system, vacuum line from the carb to the advance can on the distributor, and nothing else.

You simply don't have the hook-ups you need on a Holley to make any of that stuff work the way it was intended.

 

If you can get the car to Columbus I can get you straightened out, would need to see it. PM if you want some help, I doubt that you need to drop another motor in it, just probably needs a good sorting out.

 

Welcome Aboard!

The last tiem I was in Tiffin (National), the emissions laws were not very stringent. Our Savior is probably going to change all that, and since you are going to spend time, effort, and probably money to resolve this, you might consider getting it closer to the original configuration.

Damon is absolutely right about the easiest path. A dual advance distributor will solve some problems, but the system still won't be what the factory intended. What's worse is that most of the Holley "performance" carb installations I've seen do not do a very good job of operating the transmission TV cable on autos. If you have an auto and don't like rebuilding transmissions, you might want to get a used E4ME and bracketry.

Damon - I'll be in N. Philly in about a week. Maybe I'll see you cruising up and down the inner lanes of the 1.

 

Don't let that Tranny bit 'bout the TV cable scare you, I've been running 700R4 w/Holley for years in several different applications,it's not that hard to get the cable geometry and adjustment right, people tend to complicate the procedure. I'll walk you through it if you need help, you have my number...

 

The system was running prior to having a fuel pump go bad and needs to be replaced. Had an issue with the electric fan and thermostat for the radiator. Got those fixed but before I could lean the mixture out and set the idle is when the fuel pump kicked it. Without touching anything, the vehicle did run decent just had its few bugs and needing to be leaned out at hand Nothing else had seemed to be acting weird. So I'm at a loss because I went for the older vehicle cause 1 I had a 97 RS and loved it and happened to come across this when I was looking for something to cut some costs. Well now its turning into a large dollar sign and fast it seems. It's sad to say but slight stress level from trying to figure out what this idiot did is about enough to make a person want to find any means to get rid of it. Be it sold for parts, or just flat out scrapped.

I like the car, it's in decent condition body wise and all for it's age. Could be a bit better had it been garaged a better amount of it's life. But nothing to unsightly. Until you get under the hood, engine itself looks decent enough. Then the chaos sets in, and sadly I find myself thinking more and more *great I've got a giant paperweight* Because I highly doubt I'm gonna have enough cash to buy all the peices, be it remakes, ebay purchases, salvage yard finds. The whole top of the engine has been tinkered with.

Covers on up to the carb itself, leaving wires disconnected and then some.

 

As far as the replacing the motor, simply what I was thinking of doing is finding one from one of the salvage places that cleans them up and all. Get it and have somewhere install it and just leave the 1 that has been in it alone till I can figure out what the heck to do with it. Yet again though runs into funds issue, I try and get things dealt with one way it costs me an arm and a leg. I go the other same thing, who ever this person was has simply left me between a rock and an avalanche

 

There. now through all my posts. You have all the pictures I just took of the engine bay. Should be decent enough resolution that you can see what the individual has caused.

 

If your goal is to take it back to stock, you've got quite a ways to go.

However, if your goal is to get rid of all the emissions and (now unneeded) computer controlled stuff and go "old school muscle car simple", you have very little work to do. I could have that mess mostly sorted out in about an hour. The broken air injection tubes on the exhaust manifold would take a bit more work, even if only to remove and plug them. There's mostly just a lot of stuff that the previous owner disconnected but didn't remove.

 

Damon is right. I don't see anything that isn't connected that should be if you're just going for "muscle car simple". Most of what I saw was the conenctors for the computer carb, some leftover AC stuff, the half-disassembled smog pump system, crap like that.

If you wanted to go to stock, yeah you're missing a lot of stuff. Stuff that's only needed to slightly lower the pollution of the car.

 

If this is a Vin H, 86 LG4 and you want to remove all of the computer controlled wiring, you can start by removing the wire harness that passes through the pass side fender to the ECM under the pass side dash. Nothing it's connected to will be doing anything anymore.

Your only concern after it's removed (and it's still a problem now with nothing hooked up) is an alternate method of controlling the torque converter lockup. This harness will have a four prong connector going to the trans that used to command lockup per the ECM. There's a sticky on top of the carb forum with some help on locking it without the ECM.

Pull this harness and save it somewhere in case you ever want to go back.

An 86 L69 would have an intank electric fuel pump that is controlled by the ECM. It will have a second, two wire pressure switch adjacent to the oil pressure sender rear of manifold near distributor. If you have one it will have to be wired differently (and probably isn't running now).

 

Ok, here goes for round number 2 of odds and ends of information I'm gathering from all corners of the earth. I had another individual go about telling me a little bit of what I can do and this is what he had to say.

"Ok...first item: TV cable is a cable running from the carb linkage down to the trans linkage. What it does is change the position of a slide valve in the trans valve body to match the throttle position by changing trans internal pressure. This influences trans shift points and apply pressure of trans clutches. Therefore it is important. There are many different versions of holley carbs. Those made for street applications either have the lever arm for the hookup already on the unit, or offer a optional bolt on arm assembly. (you can actually make one but it takes some experimentation to get the length right) On race carbs there is no provision for this as most race cars use a "manual valve body" that requires that you shift each gear yourself. You could still make an arm to serve that function if needed though.
As far as the lockup feature goes, you could install a manual switch to provide lockup but you would need to study up on exactly what circut pins for the transmission are involved. likely, the ecm would read throttle position and match that to other signals from the engine then triggering lockup. If your car came with a Quadrajet carb with electronics added (factory) what you don't have is a tps to send any info to the ecm. since the ecm also uses that same information to change engine timing, it will affect your overall engine performance. You could invent a way to attach a tps to to your throttle or you could use an older GM distributor with an external vacuum advance to take care of this.(advance timing on those is controlled by the vacuum pot and flyweights in the distributor, not by the computer.)
So, unless your transmission is damaged and not functioning correctly, it needs no rebuild but needs a control cable and a manual means of engaging lock up. Other changes are as I outlined. Your other option is to get an OEM carb and use that, but last time I checked it was somewhere around $1000.
Hope i didn't confuse you more, but my info is valid.
good luck!"

In this he stated about a distributor with an external vacuum advance. If I am gathering what he's saying then is that in this photo " https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...s-cimg0282.jpg " The distributor if my brain serves me correctly is what is in the photo and the external vacuum advance is what I see coming off the bottom side of this unit, and from this is it supposed to connect onto the carb unit? Or am I supposed to be splitting this vacuum and sending one down to the trans? Or have I actually got 1 problem solved with the system thats sitting in it right now. And mearly have to get a rig setup to control the torque converter on the trans system?

 

If I remember correctly, summit has a few items for controlling lockup on the 700r4 without any other electronics (I think they were intended for hot-rod conversions) It's what I would be looking at, in your situation.

 

I did find what you were talking about "ACCEL DFI Gen VII Torque Converter Lockup Control Kits" Not a price I was hoping to see, but not much I can do on that front lol.

Now as for a distributor external vacuum advancement. Is this the vacuum like I see coming from my distributor cap with my spark plugs? As there is a vacuum port on the carb and it is connected to this location. If having looked in the photo. You can see the silver of the piece that is attached to the unit and then the purple hose goes from it, onto the carb. Or is it that I am going to have to split this feed and have it going to something in my transmission? I hate to be asking so many questions, but thanks to the person who owned it before me lol it's got me loopy as to what peices I need to get a hold of. I know many of you are giving advice and it's great. Some willing to help more person to person lol, but sadly at current standings. I'm left lookin like a complete idiot not knowing what's what right now.

 

Yes that's a vacuum advance dist. For lock up there are several inexpensive alternatives:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...c-control.html

 

I just went thru some of this myself and it is some The Charcoal Can on the left front of the vehicle can still be utilized for mileage purposes and emissions with no performance loss. Remove the valve in the vent line(the little round thing in the photo) and just run a line to it. The other hose can be tied into the PCV line although on older muscle cars this line was connected to the aircleaner. Just make sure you have a good gas cap. This way you wont get the fuel smell in your garage. I know some people run a vented gas cap with a filter but I don't recommend that at all. I actually have the original build manual from GM on these cars if you need any diagrams or a section I be more than happy to scan it and email it to you. I took it from the Dealer I worked at. Good luck!

 

Well latest news is, I finally got it back up and running. Replaced the fuel pump myself, got the remains of the smog pump out of there, fixed some wiring and replaced the thermostat.

Next I'm looking at getting the system lifted up in the front, so I can finally get under and track some of the disassembled hoses as well as figure out whats going on with my dipstick for my oil. Gotta figure out why it made a pig tail out of the dipstick. So going to have to see where it's bent or begin to worry that something was dropped down into it and has lodged simply requiring a replacement of the dipstick tube into the engine. Also while I've got it up I need to track what exhaust valve is leaking and find it's means of entering the cabin...a lovely treat I finally noticed. It's a journey that hopefully some extra cash will start showing up so I can tend to it all and get this beast out on the road way.

Gotta get me a TCC system in place, saw one that was supposed to be able to self trigger but also allows for a manual overide to force it into lockup...gotta do some more looking to verify the unit is what I need. Also have to tweek my throttle linkage a little. I found out that the 2 plastic housings like to snag up on one another at a spot. So gonna see if I can't take the first mount and bend it back twards the cabin just slightly so it will release all the way if needed. I should have the ability to, but gotta check everything to make sure I'm not gonna cause more of a problem there. Also going to have to check to make sure I got the right system in it that will deal with shifting?

Anways, it's late and after reading tons of things my heads a fog so I'm off. Just figured I'd update a little as to the slow goings of progress here. Thank you all for your help, and I sure know I'll have a spot to ask questions if I screw something up or encounter some problems.