Hi all,

I have been gone from the board for some time--I sold my '82 beater about five years ago. The bug hit me again, and I decided that I wanted to get my hands on a ratty beater. A couple weeks scouring Craigslist scored an '89 for $600 (plus the $50 I promised to give him for fuel; he and his dad delivered the car from 45 miles away). This is my sixth Camaro and third third-gen car, and by far the ugliest...

My goal is to try to run some low 14 second/high 13 second quarter mile times for as close to a total cash outlay of $1000 as possible. I recently traded a non-running '90 CBR600R with no title for a good running 100,000 mile Goodwrench 350 crate engine. This engine has 993 smog heads on it, and I'm sure compression is in the area of 8.5:1 or 9.0:1. I'm hoping to score some cheap headers, put the car on a diet and stick a cam of around 270 degrees duration into this engine, get it into the car and go racing. Any low cost/no cost recommendations for making more power from the engine? I would prefer to leave the heads alone, but if the feeling is that I'll have to swap for better heads that is possible. I just missed a set of vortec heads that went for $200 on Craigslist...

Thanks in advance for any input you might have!

 

Welcome back, I recently returned also, haha.

And ugly? That thing looks sweet. Those are by far my favorite 3rd gen rims, wish I could find some.

 

Hey SDTransAM, thanks for the welcoming words. I like the rims too, I was told by the seller that they came off of a 25th anniversary car. The car has enough problems that I can definitely state that the $600 purchase price was fair, and maybe too high. It came with only an ignition key, no door keys, the interior is pretty trashed, the paint job is rattle can black, applied by the previous owner to cover the baby blue house paint that was on the car when he bought it. The tail lights aren't working and the 305 in it now leaks oil so severely that the Exxon Valdez disaster looks like a minor incident by comparison. Definitely a project, but the price was right!

 

only way that is going to happen for $1000 is spray it... 1 grand wont buy much. What about the tranny? What gears? Is the tranny any good, do you really think its going to live behind somthin with power after seeing how the engine was takin care of.

 

I agree entirely, Brando5641. I'm hoping to score a cheap rear end assembly with 3.73 ration, stick a 270 adv. duration cam into the engine, add headers and head to the track. I think this could get me into the mid 14s, and a major weight reduction plan could get me low 14s. I missed a 4.56 posi rear on craigslist for $175 a few weeks ago; I didn't have the car yet and was a little hesitant to buy the rear with no car. The winter is just beginning here in Iowa, so I have a few months to keep an eye out for a suitable rear. For now the car just has stock (I think 2.73) gears in it.