Hi everyone. I just recently purchased a 1989 Chevy Camaro RS with a 305 v8. It's mated to a 4 speed automatic transmission, and it's genuinely a decent car. It has 1 small ding in the rear quarter panel, other than that it's solid. It has 67,000 original miles, transmission was recently rebuilt with warranty, good solid car.

The only problem is I'm not quite sure about the engine. Judging by my VIN number, I've found that I have a LO3 305 V8, which seems to be much hated by everyone, the only thing is I believe the LO3's were all TBI, and this car has a 600 CFM Edlebrock 4 barrel carburetor sitting on top, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Did it add power, or lose power? It's also got an accel racing coil/distributor.. Those are the only engine mods to the car. Other than that.. it has a B&M shifter.

What could I do too add some pep? It'll burn the rear tires off if you punch it from a 5-10 MPH roll, I can't really ask much more for a daily driver but I'm just in the search for a fun, reliable, pretty good on gas, streetable car.. It doesn't have to have 500 horsepower, so please don't give me the typical answer of "Tear the boat anchor out and put in a 350" because I want all numbers to match on the re-sale, and this car to stay original somewhat.

What's the best combo for what I have setup already? What type of gear ratio works well with this combo? Also the car came with a set of brand new SBC Shorty Headers, what kind of gains do they add, if any?

Any info is welcome guys, never owned a Camaro before.. but I love this car already.


Picture of the day I got her https://i.imgur.com/FgCE2Uz.jpg very very dirty, but too dark to take a pic of it now haha.

 

I'd look into a 350 swap, try to find a low mileage vortec 350. Get a vortec 4bbl intake.
Your car has been modded, it should have tbi from the factory.

 

The carb is not factory. All i can say would be an open element air intake and a free flowing exhaust. Headers if you're good with a wrench. The thing with the carb is that you no longer havethe ability to tune the car because your carb is not computer controlled. While it doesn't have to be tuned, tuning it will get you the most out of your mods.

 

welcome Ryan. nice looking car!

 

I appreciate it guys. Got her tagged and on the road today, you could tell it was garage kept because it had old gas in it, upon burning that and adding more.. it decided it was going to overheat, so I swapped the A 195 thermostat, for an A 160.. and now it runs excellent and maintains good temp, I guess it just needs love that's all. :P

I already love my third gen.