Well, I have a '91 Camaro RS. Most of it is stock as far as I know. Sadly, it has an automatic transmission, but I know it has a V8 in it. If I remember right, the V8s that came with automatics were slightly powered down 305s. I'm more interested in some simple, but not too simple modifications that I, someone without too much experience, would be capable of doing without completely ruining everything. I'm not going to worry about dumping money into the exhaust because the last owner put a flowmaster on it, but I'm not sure about the headers. From what I've noticed it seems to idle high, around 1400 to 1500 RPM once it gets warm. Do you think I should go ahead and fix that, or just leave it as is?

 

Expectations vs reality and actual and honest on-hand cash to spend.

What do you expect from the vehicle? Do you want it to run like the 4th gens? But, first and foremost, before daydreaming (there is a ton of info if you use the search feature) you must state how much money you have. If you only have, for example, $500 but not many hand tools, jack stands, a place to work etc, then spend it on plugs, wires, flushing the coolant, changing tranny fluid and filter, greasing the fittings, changing the diff oil, changing the oil and filter, getting an open air element. You've now spent a few hundred dollars on all of that if you did it your self. How are the tires and brakes? before even spending penny one on any performance you SHOULD perform what I call "make ready work" which I listed above.

After that, if you have a $few hundred left you are basically left with headers and a y pipe.

But, before even spending a dime on the car, if you will not be happy unless it roasts the tires, will run high 13's in the 1/4 etc, then you have the wrong powerplant and will need to repower or sell the car and buy something else.

if your next question is "how much will it cost to.............."

your car is 20 years old and I can ssure you it's been addressed many times on this forum and the search engine will yield tons of results.

 

A lot of that work was done by the previous owner, and he had it only for a year. Some of those sound as if they're part of routine maintenance, and it's probably about time I get most of that done. The brakes are nearing the point to where they need service, so I'll be doing that shortly after registering it. The previous owner also tuned it, so what I know how to do I'm a bit hesitant to do because of that. All in all, right now it sounds nice and runs well.

 

Does it actually sound like its running at that high of RPM or just indicate it on the dash? The tachometer on the 90-92's reads way off of what it actually is on a lot of cars, there's instructions on how to fix it in the electrical section I believe. Pretty simple and cheap to do, and a good way to start learning about your car.


Edit - Link to the tach fix https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...meter-fix.html

 

if you know the previous owner quite well and trust them, fine. If not, only receipts prove what was done, otherwise, assume it wasn't done and yes all my list is maintenance items but on my "make ready" list when ever I buy a used car be it to give to a kid or to sell.

 

I haven't been able to get a good look at the headers, so I can't really say anything about those, but I do know there's a flowmaster back there because I can clearly read it on what I'm assuming is the muffler.

It does sound a bit high when it idles, and the tach on the dash reads around 1500

 

your cluster is defective,if you put the car in drive at 1500 you would bark the rear tires.

 

That isn't the case, though. The tires don't "Bark" unless I put my foot down.