Hello all,

I haven't really introduced myself. I used to have an account on here a few years back but I forgot all my information. I had a 84 firebird for a few months, sold that and then picked up a 90/91? Firebird formula? Sold that one as well...regretted it. Ever since then I've been trying to get into a muscle car. I grew up in one, my dad had a 70s model firebird back when I was a baby and now he has a 2012 Camaro rs. I've had a 78 Monte Carlo in pristine condition and although that satisfied me for a little while it just wasn't enough. I moved to virginia this summer to find that the car scene out here is actually pretty decent! My father in law has a 1984 z28 with a 383 and my uncle in law has a 86 iroc with a 355. As soon as I got in both of them I put a bug in my wife's ear that I had to have one! A neighbor was selling one down the street that was completely taken apart and completely gutted! But the body was straight, it was a 5 speed, hardtop and already had a freshly rebuilt 350. I had to have it! Here I am now officially back and here to stay with a 1984 Camaro z28 H.O.

Currently has

5 speed
3.73 gears
80s 350 block
Flat top pistons
Stock bottom end I'm assuming..
Prw 1.52 roller tip rockers
Edelbrock performer cam
Edelbrock performer intake
Edelbrock 1406 carb
Edelbrock headers
3 inch stainless steel exhaust
Pypes violator muffler
Fiberglass hood
Hard top
Aluminum dash

With this car I started with it in total chaos. Previous owner cut all the wiring and completely gutted the car.

So far I sourced some headers, exhaust, all interior and I've been putting this thing back together piece by piece. Timing was way off, carb needed to be rebuilt, had to replace cam and lifters because previous owner didn't adjust rockers properly. Figured out some of the wiring to get my essentials going.

Now she runs beautifully! Smooth idle with a nice lope, power all the way to 5500( haven't taken any further yet!) plenty of torque right around 2200-4000( this car spins the tires in second gear at a 30 mph roll!) handles awesome! Still stock suspension but even in stock form she corners nice and steering is responsive! Already with a lot of weight removed she feels really light and picks up quick! She is currently drive able and is driven every day that is not too cold or wet.

She started a mess but I stuck with it and haven't gave up, it's still in the build process as there are so many things I want to do to it, but as far as running condition she's 88% complete.

I would like to do

Lower it about 2 inches
Run 17inch tires and rims
Upgrade the rest of the suspension and handling
Upgrade the rear end
Do a t-56 swap
Put a stronger clutch in it
Do a full engine build with all stronger internals prepped for a supercharger
Do 125 shot of nitrous
Upgrade the brakes
Etc the list goes on!

Here are a few pictures and videos of my progress



Timing off, no exhaust, just headers

Timing still off, first time ever driving it trying to figure out timing

Timing getting closer, running rich, had to adjust floats after this and pump shot


Timing is now spot on and carb dialed in. Video taken shortly before I found out one of the cam lobes was gone.


Same day, before cam swap. 2nd gear roll burnout


Those videos were taken weeks ago, as of now the cam is swapped and broken in and everything is running good, as soon as the weather clears up I'll have more videos and pictures of my progress! Enjoy! All help welcome!

 

nice little log. haven't watched the vids yet but I will

 

Such a long road it is when you are fixing someone else's butchery. Seems there is never a light at the end of the tunnel. When there is, sometimes its a train. Stick with it and don't get discouraged. SOMEONE DONATE THIS MAN A LIGHTING HARNESS!

 

I know right!!!! As far as electrical, I have the turn signals to figure out, stop lights( I have the tail lights working), blower motor( there's no plug for it anywhere), and the wiper motor( same issue, no plug or wiring harness) :/

I need to see If I can source a plug or harness for the the wiper and blower motor, unfortunately the parts car I got all my interior from also had the wiring cut at the firewall with no blower motor or wiper motor on it, ridiculous I know.

 

A small update, finally got my brake lights and turn signals working, did my first real oil change since the cam swap and all still looks good and runs good! Went about 200 or miles on the break in oil, fixed the throttle return spring that was binding up on the carb and lowered the idle a bit(950 to 650). Now I can hear my secondaries come on here's an in car video I took tonight, quality is OK, it kept focusing on the mount and not the road lol, opened her up to 3/4 throttle towards the end

 

Another video I forgot I had that my wife took about a month ago, nothing special just driving to the house

 

Very disorienting. LOL

 

I'm with Joe, That last one was a tuffy......


Keep plug'n away at it, You'll get there before you know it !

 

Lol I'll try and get better videos up, I think I have one on the freeway and my daughter isn't crying in that video lol

Anyways next on the parts list are the plate for the blower motor on the firewall, get my wipers going and then get all new weather stripping. Plus I need to buy turn signal assemblies because I didn't notice I didn't have them until I started working on my turn signals! Once I get my car back to where it's supposed to be then I can start working on performance

 

I can suggest this for both the mechanics and electrical.The factory service manuals where published by GM for the dealer's mechanics.It is a detailed service manual that is hard to beat and very cheap to get.Go on Ebay and do a search for your yr and model car for both the service manual and the electric supplement manual.You can get them very cheap.Also sometimes if you go to the service manager at the Chevy dealership,they will give you theirs because they where going to throw them out anyways.But in any case get them and you should be all set for info.

 

I'll look into that, right now all I have is all the schematics from all data that I got from work. It's funny looking at my father in laws Camaro and realizing,"wow my car was supposed to have that too!" Because like I said I got the car completely gutted. So far I've only spent about a thousand(including) the price of the car to get it back to road worthy daily driver within 3 1/2 months. And those are 40+ hour work weeks, pregnant working wife, babysitting my daughter months. The most time I got to spend on the car in a day is about an hour. Maybe two days out the week so I think I'm making good progress. The nasty weather out here and not having a garage slowed me way down though.

 

Finally got my car weighed! 3180 with me in it and 2980 without me in it

 

Nice ride!

So glad to see you didn't ditch the original ground FX for the 91-92 style like all the other lemmings

Ever consider just getting a AC delete box? I did and I don't regret it one bit. Much more clearance for everything on the passenger side, and you still have a smaller vent box and blower…just in case you might want to defrost your windshield or you need heat one of these days! I think you'll like it better in the end…better than installing a plate over the whole thing IMO.

Got mine on fleabay from a great seller….he even included a CD with the install instructions!!

In any case, sounds like you've come a long way with the car and have future plans. Take it from me…it never ends!

 

Thanks! Yea I was actually looking at those in a Ricks Camaro magazine, about 150 bucks which is probably the route I'm going to go!

Your right about it never ending! The other day I grabbed a notebook and a pen and started to write down a wish list for the car and I'm already at one page front and back! And I wasn't even done! :0

 

Just keep in mind that the AC and non-AC blower fans are different. Preferrably, you'll want to get the original fan with it. I adapted my AC resister to mine so it has variable speeds. Plus I didn't want to hack my wiring any more than absolutely needed...

Again, check flea bay on and off if you're not in a hurry. I think I got mine shipped for 110 bucks, and it looked like new when I got it. Ricks has some nice stuff too! I've been eyeballing the dash pads they have for a while now.

 

Hmmm, I picked up a blower a few months ago...don't remember if I said a/c or not...and the install will be a ground up wiring, I'll have to wire the blower motor, figure out the controls and switch and what not. It has an aluminum dash in it right now, I have an original dash + all the stuff that came underneath it, behind it etc, so I have to figure that out as well, but waiting to put it in until I get a new heater core and that ac delete. I still drive it pretty much everyday with no heat, with temps as low as 31. Any lower than that and I take my wife's car lol

 

I had started a thread a while ago on the non-AC box…has good pics of the differences that others posted - here:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...e-box-1le.html
I noticed I never finished the thread, but it's all installed and was pretty easy to do. Bunch of other great threads out there too!