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My girlfriend has a '86 firebird she's in love with (she has a civic as a DD). Quite frankly it's a POS though. Her dad bought it with plans to flip it (buy cheap, fix, sell for profit). She got it as her first car instead, so it wasn't finished as much.

- It has a rebuilt 305 with the carb that was on it when they bought it. She has no idea what the original configuration was. The original block, pistons/rods, crankshaft are sitting in his garage, I don't know if they reused the cam, or if it has different #'s. The carb has crapped out, which is most of the reason for this posting.
- They did a free flow exhaust for simplicity/cost.
- There is no A/C compressor, but most of the other equipment is there, along with probably all the other emissions factory crap.
- The elec fans switches don't work (don't turn on, but the motors work when connected to the battery).
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She really wants to put it in local car shows (read that as "she doesn't care about power"). She wants to clean up the engine bay to have only the bare necessities.
The carb, at very least needs a rebuild, her dad has been researching buying a new (or rebuilt) one online. Any particular carb you recommend? W/o a whole lot of research i thought a qjet would be nice for her so if she does want to drive it, she won't need to refill the gas tank every day (i read they require massive tinkering to dial-in).

I'm 99% sure it has a computer of some kind, except i can't find it. Is there a way that can be gotten rid of? She's going to redo the interior also so gauges aren't an issue.

What did you do to reduce under hood clutter? can you point me to resources so i don't have to ask stupid newb questions in public?

here's a pic of the engine. i'm pretty sure this is the old one, but all the accessories were re-used so it looks the same:

click to make it bigger

if i'm being a dumb newb, point me to some resources so i can educate myself, i've been having issues finding info about 3rd gen birds.

 

Well, how do you feel about your emissions equipment? Do you want A/C or are you fine with removing the rest of it?

 

she wants to ditch the emissions & the rest of the A/C stuff for now. My main problem is there's so much crap in there, i can't tell what's what to start taking stuff out.

 

Well, without being able to really draw you a verbal map I'd say start tracing hoses. If you still have the factory headers you could do a lot for your looks by losing them (and the ugly AIR spiders) and picking up a nice set of shorties. all the AIR and AC equipment should be pretty obvious. If you can snap a large-ish picture of your engine bay, I'll paint you some circles n shizzle on it.

 

ok. I'll see if she can get some pics of it from different angles.
I won't be back over there for at least at least 2 weeks for a personal inspection, maybe a month.

How hard is it to change out the exhaust? links to writeups (I'll google it too)?

My hobby is Jeeps, so i'm used to an inline 6 cyl, and tons of space to work in (removable fenders and grill).

 

you can also get rid of the radiator catch tank on the pass side and replace it with a aftermarket . you can relocate it any where and they are smaller and look better. check summit , i think i got mine for $45 .i plan on putting mine on the brace next to the radiator

 

I circled some things you can remove in the pics you had up on the link from that first pic. The evap canister is part of the A/C system and can be removed along with any wiring attached to it. The radiator overflow and washer fluid tanks can be replaced with smaller, less intrusive pieces. The link posted diablood5 for the summit tank will work for the radiator overflow. For the washer fluid tank you can replace it with one from a 4th gen and mount it in front of the radiator under the hood latch. Or you can do what I and a few other did and replace both tanks with a single tank from a 90's Ford Explorer or Ranger. It fits nicely on the opposite side from the battery and kind of "balances" out the look of the engine bay.

On the engine itself, you can remove the A/C brackets since you won't be mounting the compressor back in. The lower brackets on that side are for power steering and you'll want to keep those if you're keeping the power steering(which she will probably want). Or you can remove all the power steering stuff and go with a manual box from an S10. The smog pump and its associated hoses/wiring/brackets can be removed if you are getting rid of the emissions stuff. Make sure she doesn't need the emissions equipment to pass inspection. The carb is computer-controlled so if you replace that you can get rid of the ECM (behind the dash on the passenger's side) and a lot of wiring and vacuum hoses. You'll also need a new non-computer-controlled distributor. Once the ECM is gone you can remove all the wiring going to it and all the emissions-related sensors and wiring. You'll also need some new headers without the AIR tubes as mentioned in a previous post.

The radiator fan is an easy fix. Summit has electric fan controller kits like this one:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRF-30103/

or you can just buy the switch:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRF-30111/

and wire it to the existing fan relay. If the fan is not running now, then the kit might be the better way to go since you will have all new wiring and won't have to troubleshoot the existing wiring.

If the A/C condenser is still mounted in front of the radiator, you can remove that as well.

 

i found this on the bottom side of the hood. can i just remove everything on that diagram (i'm hoping you guys already know whats on there b/c the pic turned out horrible)? or are there things i need to keep?


these are some random wires that don't go to anything. I'm thinking maybe from the A/C compressor? any ideas? it's the driver side of the engine bay toward the front of the block


passenger side thing


more of the wiring on the driver side


front driver corner of engine bay


overall shot, kind


this hose i figure is suppose to attach to the exhaust manifold cover thing, well it doesn't do a very good job of it...

what/where is the smog pump?

 

Smog pump is bottom pulley passenger side, below the A/C compressor (if you still have that).

I cant see pictures at this comp so if you've posted one I'm afraid i wont be much help for now.

Shorty headers are a snap, slide in and out with no mods needed and minimal squeeze and effort, though chances of you needing to run new exhaust pipes are pretty good. No time like the present to put a muffler on it!

 

thanks for the info. her dad doesn't want to hassle w/ removing the engine so the exhaust would have to be done in the car. glad to hear it's possible.

 

Yes, headers are definitely possible. The passenger's side should just slide right in with some twisting and turning to get past the hoses for the heater and A/C. The driver's side is much easier if you remove the steering shaft and unbolt the master cylinder first.

 

If there's a computer, it'll be under the dash on the passenger side. For a carburetor replacement I'd recommend a Canadian Q-jet, they are not computer controlled. If you can find one from a thirdgen it probably will only need rebuilding, you shouldn't have to tinker with it.

 

Here is a larger pic of my engine compartment. Its actually even simpler now than in this photo. The stainless lines on the passenger side frame rail are not there anymore. Two of them were the transmission cooler lines which are not there since I am converting to stick. The other two are the fuel lines which got moved so they go straight down the firewall. I'm going to make a heat shield to keep some of the heat from the headers away.

I gutted the entire engine compartment. Absolutely everything and anything that bolted into the engine compartment was taken out. I then filled in some holes and painted it. I then only put back in what makes the car move.