I just found an 86 Camaro Z28 305 TPI I want to buy it for myself as a welcome home from Iraq gift! I am not that new to the Chevy game however this is my first TPI. I love the car and with a $700 tag I had to buy. I want to restore it to factory specs, but I dont know where to start, Im looking at a budget of about 1700 starting out. The motor runs strong and the trans still shifts smooth so unless there is something better than a good flush and a rebuild kit where should I be looking to start my rebuild. (The car will be my daily driver so that is why I'm keeping it stock for now)

Thanks in advance for the advice...

 

For what they were, they were decent engines back then. 86-87 uses a unique v-belt + serpentine belt accessory drive system that's kind weirdo but works fine. The MAF sensors were a little flaky (and no longer available for replacement from the aftermarket, I think). And being a pre-87 motor they still used a flat tappet cam, not a roller like the 87-up stuff.

The main party-pooper in 86 engines was the use of a very very mild cam (85 used the more aggressive cam from the L69 carbureted HO 305 motor). But in 86 they went all conservative with the cam, killing a bunch of power. Do a search for "peanut cam" on this board and you'll get the skinny on it. You can also read about the cam specs in the Tech section of the board, but the short version of the story is that you can upgrade the cam to L69 specs (or aftermarket equivalient) and pick up some power without having the spend bucks to reporgram the ECM. Those MAF-equipped cars were much more forgiving of mild cam and heads upgrades than later MAP-equipped cars.

For example, you could upgrade the stock '86 cam during your rebuild process to a very mild Edelbrock Performer cam (or the identical Summit K1102 house brand cam) and get all of the power back (or more) that was lost to the pathetic 86 peanut cam.

If you're in the mode to do some more computer-compatible upgrades to the engine while you have it out, an aftermaket set of shorty headers and (way better than stock) Y-pipe that is typically included with the headers are your best bang for the buck on just about any 3rd gen F-body.

 

Yea I read up on it earlier today I saw the milder cam was a loss of 25hp but there was a gain in torque. Im mainly interested in a factory resto. Im just not all to sure where to start. The car is not in bad shape Im just a newbie on the tpi.

 

You're fortunate with an 86 becuase just about anything you do to it will make it faster. For what you're trying to achieve you don't need to do much to get noticable seat-of-the-pants improvemets. The heads are OK (not spectacular), the TPI setup is OK (not spectacular), pretty much everything is OK (but not spectacular) except for the cam and exhaust. There's serious power to be had with little downside and without much hassle in those 2 areas. They're the weak links in the chain.

Beyond that is where you have to start considering more complementary upgrades to the rest of the drivetrain (plus expensdive chip reprogramming to make it all work together). Small changes is where it's at if you want to get the most out of a near-stock setup.

As you've seen, the '85 cam was worth about 25HP over the 86 "peanut cam" with very little torque penalty. A set of shorty headers and a decent exhaust is worth about another 25 above that. That's a solid 50HP over stock (netting almost 250 at the crank- about what a big-boy 350 L98 TPI motor puts out in stock trim) without having to spend huge bucks or deal with any chip programming gyrations).

For most people, having to reprogram the chip is about where they lose interest. If you want to do some upgrades without having to change the chip this is about as far as you can go. And it's a nice bump in power if you want to tackle it. If not, rebuild it all-stock and drive it.

 

Thanks for the input... What type of cam should I be looking at and would a summit racing exhaust kit do the job or am I looking at having to go magnaflow or flow masters?

 

How far are you looking to go with this car as far as the restoration is concerned? Unfortunately $1700 doesn't go too far when talking about old cars. I find after owning 4 f bodies now I'll spend about a grand just doing odds and ends to get it up in road worthy status. Sounds like a lot but you'll see. So what Im trying to say is if it were me, especially on a $1700 budget, I would start by going through the car doing all the maintenance/tune up items and take care of anything that needs repairs. Also keep in mind these cars require a bit more maintenance than the more modern cars we've become accustom to. Because of this ive taken the liberty to make of list of things that I do when I get a new F body.

Make any necessary obviously
Oil and filter change
Grease your front end joints
Oil you hinges (hood, door, trunk, ect)
Coolant flush
Wheel bearing greasing
Transmission fluid and filter change
Plugs, wires, cap, rotor ect
Air filter replacement
EGR valve cleaning
PVC valve replacement
differential fluid change
O2 sensor

Things to inspect

All vacuum hoses
Belts
coolant hoses
Timing
Brakes (parking break included)
Tires (for wear and pressure)
steering system for play
Exhaust system
Rust

I'm sure Im probably forgetting a thing or two but thats a pretty good starting place. At this point the car should be 100% road worthy and up to date on all its maintenance. After you go through these items the first time its not so bad as a lot of these things only have to be done every 20-50k miles. However, these cars are often neglected so that leaves you doing a lot of catch up work.

 

Thank you Rolling Thunder (were you by chance with 16th FA? Just asking cause I know theyre known as rolling thunder also) That sounds like very sound advice and I will take this list of things with me to the mechanics to have them all looked at!

 

Everything recomended is correct.I would not change the tranny fluid if the tranny works properly.It may start slipping. Only change the fluid if it was changed on a reguler basis. Changing the filter and fluid on a 1986 that never has been changed could cause problems.

 

Thanks... How could that cause problems?

 

Well what can happen is that the transmission is so worn out the old fluid is the only thing keeping it together. The sludge makes seals seal the metallic grit floating around in the fluid gives the worn out clutches that extra bit of bite needed to prevent them from slipping. Stuff like that. The problem is its one of those damned if you do damned if you dont situations. Ive found doing fluid changes (not flushes) has been good overall because on the flip side if you don't change it sludge makes valves stick which can cause erratic shift problems. The transmission fluid is so burnt up it can no longer absorb the heat from vital components which is death for the clutches. I look at it like if you change it and the trans dies really it was already dead you were just bleeding the last few miles out of it but if you don't change it you may have just given a good trans a death sentence. However everyone has their own opinion on it and it really depends how many miles the car actually has so in the end its a bit of a judgment call. GM spec according to the factory manual calls for fluid changes every 100k miles for most cars (as in not used for what is called sever duty like towing and taxi service ext) so a lot of times your not soooo far late for your fluid change anyways. Although for future reference I dont agree with the 100k mile fluid changes. Again its a bit of judgment call and as result Ive heard recommendations ranging from every 12k to 50k.

P.S. Af far as if I was with the 16th FA, no I havnt been involved with the armed forces my ID was a nick name I picked up when one of my neighbors mistaken my car for actual thunder rumbling off in the distance.

 

Thanks for the input it sounds like a coin toss in my case lol