Ok so first off, let me say that I'm a 16 year old kid whose only car I have wrenched on is a 65 fairlane with a carbureted 302 and no power brakes,power steering, ect. So even my 30 year old camaro feels like its from the future.

I have a 1987 camaro sport coupe with 200,000 miles but not a single speck of rust (which is impossible to find in the Midwest) Although the little 305 runs like a saw machine you can tell it's wore out, and parts are starting to break. I currently have a roller 350 motor sitting in my garage but being an inpatient teenager I REALLY want fuel injection. I was looking into the tpi setups because they are cheap, stylish, and just seem like the right thing to put on a third gen but I have heard many stories of the tpi cars either running like crap or that the tpi setups exrremely limit power production. Although the car is a daily driver I don't want to have anything slow by any means. My original plans were to throw some afr eliminator street heads on there and maybe a cam to match, and make somewhere from 350-400hp. Is this possible with the tpi fuel injection or should I just buy one of those expensive plug and play kits? I am still in high school and although i have a job, minimum wage only pays so much and I can't really just throw $4000 at a motor and pay for gas and other parts of the worn out car (it doesn't even stop straight yet) I am fairly lost on this whole situation and don't really know what to do so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Alex.
(btw sorry about the long thread. I guess that's what high school English class does to ya)

 

If this car is your daily driver, you're in high school and you make a minimum wage then a set of AFR eliminator heads and cam are pie in the sky thoughts. Myself along with many other members have "been there and done that," pouring all of your time and money into making a car fast when you are in the position you are in is not wise. I wish many times over I had only put money into making my car dependable and saved the rest for a time when I could do real modifications properly and I had another car as my daily driver. Take a look at Dennis' thread: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...z28-build.html
His thread is the same story as my first Camaro. We did it as best we could at the time and we end up redoing it (or scraping it in my case) years later.

After you make the car dependable for the near future you can put your money into preserving the body and interior. If there really is no rust and you live in the midwest and your going to daily drive it you're going to need to undercoat it pronto. Spend your first chunk of money on the undercarriage. Remove any surface rust, remove old cracked seam sealer, buy and weld in some outer subframe connectors and then seam seal all the mating surfaces and crevices and then undercoat the bottom AND wheel wells. This will almost ensure that when the time for a rebuild/repaint comes after several years of daily driving that the car will still be rust free.

After that the next chunk of money should be to freshen up the suspension. Replace the springs, rear lower control arms and panhard bar (buy that as a combo from founders because it's cheaper to do that then remove and replace the bushings), buy some rear lower control arm relocation brackets, sway bar bushings and end links, transmission mount. In your position I would rather get quotes from a shop to replace the fron A arm bushings and ball joint because it can be a real bear if they are original. If the struts and shocks are really old you can replace those too with some stock quality pieces from an auto parts chain store.

I wouldn't modify the engine one bit not only because of your current situation but because you might lose interest in this platform or cars altogether. A rust free thirdgen with a preserved underbody and interior would sell quickly for decent money.

It's not all about how powerful your engine is that makes these cars fun. When I started autocrossing there was a guy in a near stock GTA with an automatic that was faster than my car by a couple seconds. Don't need to pour money into these cars to have fun.

 

I probably should have noted that I've already done most of those things. I am actually currently installing shocks, struts, lowering springs, and slotted and drilled rotors in the front. (My dad owns a body shop connected to a chevrolet dealership and he kind of rushed the process a little lol) I know i don't need a hotrod at 16 but I'm trying to do the motor the same as everything else. Right, fun and reliable.

 

I dont have very many good pictures but the paintwork is literally perfect. Everything from taking the reflectors out of the fenders and completely replacing all the rubber on the car. The interior was my next task but my motor has started to act up and you can tell it's not gonna last as much longer as I'd like it to

 

If the motor has to be replaced buy a GM goodwrench 350 with a vortec head and intake. If you really want power later you can sell the engine without much trouble.