Greetings,
I am trying to figure out what's what on my 1983 Camaro. Can anyone tell me what this hole is in the first picture, and what these three lines are in the second picture and what's that line they connect to?
Thank you
Doug

 

It's spelled CAMARO. I'd doubt that's a Berlinetta, since it has an LU5 Crossfire engine found in '82 and '83 Z28. That "hole" attaches a metal hose to the air cleaner to provide heat to the throttle bodies.

 

Thank you noticing the spelling error. All spelling errors should have been corrected.

The VIN cross checks as Belinetta. If you’re saying this engine is not stock then that might explain why I am having trouble with what’s what.

Thank you for identifying the hole. Can you tell me what the three hard lines are?

 

Those tubes are part of the AIR injection system, used for emissions.

If you have confirmed that your car is a Berlinetta, then that engine has been swapped.

 

The tube in the first pic went to a hose that took hot air that had been drawn in from around the exhaust manifold under that sheet metal shield, for faster warm-up. There was a valve in the original air cleaner that operated when the engine was cold to make it do that, then when it reached some suitably warm temp, went back to normal. Carb cars were equipped with that; I don't think the CFI had it butt I could be wrong. If it does, then there'll be a matching hole in the bottom of the air cleaner snout, and the hose that goes between them would be a metal crinkly looking thing.

The 1st pic could be of a 83 model with CFI, which if it's indeed a Berlinetta, didn't come there. The 2nd pic is a 88-up TPI engine. The 1st one is a red car, the 2nd a white one. What are we really working on here? What in the VIN makes you think it's a Berlinetta? Post the first 10 of the VIN, not the last 6 which are the serial number, and we can maybe tell you more about it.

 

Good eye. While I was searching for answers to my questions I found those two pictures that shows exactly what I was looking for only no explanation. Here are pictures of my car's engine bay, and the VIN as requested. 1G1AS87HXD She is a beautiful monstrosity with numerous issues. One of which is it won't go into park. Feels like maybe a cable or linkage needs to be adjusted, if that's even possible. There are many hoses not connected to anything, leaks like a sieve, and occasionally just won't start. You can crank and crank and nothing. Then without doing anything at all, it starts. Weird. Looks like I need to find the stock air cleaner housing for some of the hoses. The second radiator you see in the pics is a temp fix as the stock one was leaking pretty bad.

 

OK so yet a whole other car.

What the Sam Hill are we working on here? The red CeaseFire car, the white TPI car, or this ... some other color, or not ... LG4 car that's been swapped to an Edelbrock carb without swapping in a mechanically controlled distributor? They didn't even hook up the transmission TV cable, meaning, you could burn up the transmission in less than 50 miles of driving it, if it isn't already burned up (as is likely, and also being likely the reason it came to you so cheeeeeeeep a day or 2 ago)

That is indeed a Berlinetta VIN. A Sport Coupe or Z28 would have P where yours has S. Not that the trim level matters that much to the matter at hand; just, it's always good to be clear about what's on the operating table before operating on it.

No surprise there. That carb swap looks like about as much of a total hack job as can be hacked. Whoever did it musta just waded in, unbolted "all that computer s***", maybe used their dykes liberally, bolted up a nice new shiny thing up on top where it didn't really matter, butt basically was a bull in a china shop not knowing what they were doing.

It is indeed. Since that's 83 by the VIN (D in the 10th digit) it should have a 700R4. Is that what's there?

Well, acoupla the hoses do go there, butt I don't think the stock air cleaner housing will fit on that carb. Which is why the HACKER had to spend ACTUAL MONEY and replace the stock one, which if that could have been avoided, the stock one would be there. Looks to me like absolutely NOT ONE PENNY was spent on that "installation" beyond the ultimate bottom-line bare minimum.

You've got a genuine expensive endless mess on your hands.

A trip to the quarter (dollar bill? credit card?) car wash under that hood would do wonders. That's one of the filthiest engines I've seen in a long time. Even worse than mine and that's sayin something.

 

I take that back about the TV cable, that's the cruise one laying off to the side there. The TV cable is at least hooked up; whether or not it's "right", can't tell.

I would also note, the engine wasn't that disgusting puke orange-red from the 60s, originally. It would have been either "corporate blue" or black, most likely black. So, who knows what the engine REALLY is; could be the original butt somebody just squirted paint on the valve covers a LONG time ago by the amount of filth built up on top of the paint, could be something even worse, could be something better, could be the original is still down in there somewhere. Who knows.

Butt hay, one really good thing about it: the AC appears to be largely intact. There's hope.

 

sofakingdom, you have me actually laughing out loud. So, the red and white cars where just stand in pics I found online because I was too lazy to walk outside and take pics. The abomination pics I most recently uploaded are of my actually vehicle. It wasn't cheap... it was free, ish. I traded a 1998 Toyota Camry that didn't run for this. It has been sitting in a field since 2016, but the Camaro at least runs so the trade felt like a good deal. This weekend, I plan on locating the engine and transmission data plates, then I should be able to determine if they are stock, or at least where they came from. My biggest concern was the large hole in the original post. I thought at first it was the PCV but after looking more closely I realized it was not. I did find that hole in several pics in the manuals but nothing talked about it, which is why I am here. Thank you so much, to all who have replied. Your input has been priceless.

Side note, Heater is hot, AC is cold, Cruise works. She starts and runs. Just gotta plug all those leaks. It's bad.

 

At least it has the aftermarket hot air intake, albeit on the wrong AFB instead of a Rochester.

If the shift cable is removed from the belcrank on the transmission, the trans can be manually shifted into park, and if the pawl engages and locks the driveshaft, the problem is outside the trans.

If the AIR system is disconnected as it appears to be, the air injection tubing at the exhaust manifolds can be capped for now. It is unlikely the system would ever work anyway, since the carb is probably not a mixture-controlled type and the ECM is probably never going into closed loop mode with the inputs and loads missing.

 

Yikes.

Good luck with your efforts to save this one!

 

If the transmission can otherwise shift into different gears, then yes, the shift cable might just need adjustment.

So, since it has that ... other ... carb and consequently must have that ... other ... air cleaner, the Thermac is gone, and that 1½" or so hole in the heat stove, has nothing to connect to. Won't hurt anything to leave it that way.

The 4 small pipes leading into the exhaust manifolds on each side, are for the Air Injection system. They would have connected to the "smog pump" which used to be in that bracket below the alternator. The pass side of that system is visible in th epics; can't tell how much of the driver's side is still there. I can see some of it butt doesn't look like the check valve is still on it and maybe the pipe has just been crushed to keep it from leeeeeking exhaust. That whole system can be removed; the nuts that screw into the manifolds are 5/16" inverted flare, which these days people often call out by the threads instead of the tubing size, which I think are ½"-20. Plugs like that used to be commonplace, butt with so few things using that type of fitting anymore, they're MUCH harder to find nowadays. A brass ¼" pipe plug will screw into the threads well enough to hold, and with enough Teflon tape, will seal well enough to "work".

I'm guessing the reason they didn't drive it, has to do with the carb conversion. Since it still has the original distributor, which is supposed to be controlled by the ECM, and the ECM is largely disabled by the wrong carb being there, it won't know what to do for ignition timing; and as a result it will certainly be very retarded from where it should be, that being the "limp home" mode built into it. It probably runs real lazy and overheats. It needs a distributor with vacuum advance.

Looks like it's had the classic connector meltdown in the battery feed to the blower motor high speed relay. That's what the 2 wires twisted together and taped up right by the transmission fill tube are.

I hope you have the radiator fan shroud and all that.

The largest hose I see disconnected, is for the PCV valve. There "should be" a fitting on the back of the carb for the brake booster line, and the PCV hose should go where that is now once it's been moved to the right place. It'll be ALOT eeeeeeezier to find things like that after your trip to the car wash. Meanwhile it'll just constantly belch oil fumes and get oil all over everything, as it plainly has already been doing in however short of a time it's been running since you got it.

Looks to me like it was abandoned for good reason. That thing has A LONG WAY to go before it's useful. Butt hay, for as little as you have in it, maybe you can end up with a somewhat working car for a good price.

 

sofakingdom,
I tried adjusting the shift cable. There does not seem to be any adjustments that can be made. It also looks like the shift cable is not the correct one based off the pictures of new ones on the parts store websites. I removed the cable from the tranny and could shift through the gears. You are 100% on the "limp mode", and the overheating. I do still have the radiator fan and shroud, they're just not installed with the current radiator. I have plans to pressure wash the engine compartment.

To get it out of limp mode, you mentioned a distributor with vacuum advance. Would I be better off leaving the distributor and looking for the stock carb? Also thanks a lot for your inputs you and the others who have posted have helped tremendously.

 

It's not going to be easy to find the "right" carb. Not impossible, to be sure; just, not easy. And worse, ones you do find, are likely to have been removed and abandoned for cause; whether that's owner stupidity, expense to repair, unrecoverable wear like electrolysis to the castings, or whatever, there's no guarantee you'll be able to restore any such to usable condition. Again, not saying it's "impossible"; just, not easy, and not certain.

The other way to attack it is to completely and correctly convert to a non-computer-controlled system. For that you'll need a non-computer-controlled distributor (aka one w vacuum advance) such as https://www.summitracing.com/parts/dui-12720bk. You can get a junkyard one butt the calibration is almost certain to be TERRIBLE. One like this will come ready to run, and the engine will run FAR better with it than a random junk stock one even if you restore it to perfect working condition. You'll need to do something about torque converter lockup; there's kits you can buy for that, that replicate the function of the factory setup for that transmission in a non-CC car such as an export model. You'll need to fix the shifter cable of course; easiest thing to do might be to just buy one off of RA and be done with it. Same for the TV cable, except that with that, you'll also need the correct linkage on the carb (which is highly specific to the carb itself) and a mounting bracket for it, which the aftermarket ones are ... mostly pitiful. The TV cable is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to the proper operation and longevity of the transmission; you can easily burn the transmission up completely in just a few hundred miles of driving with the TV cable setup wrong. It's impossible to tell if it's right or not; it does look like it has the Sonnax "corrector" spring thing on it, for whyever, which sometimes allows minor imperfections to be overcome.

You can peel back the entire computer harness if you unplug each plug at its "device", unclip it from its wire looms, and coil it all up beside the pass side fender where it comes through. DO NOT "cut" or "splice" ANYTHING: someday you might be glad you preserved it to whatever extent it still can be preserved.

On the flip side, who knows how future-ready whatever carb it has on it now, might be. It's not impossible that it's TERRIFIC; it's also not impossible that it's a total POS. No way I can know that. I'm not a fan of Carter carbs in general, not their own brand, nor the Edelbrock copies of them; butt they can often be made to work OK enough, even if maybe not "the best", so you're probably better off to at least try to get it to work right. If it was new when put on, then it's not without hope. One thing that needs to be done IMMEDIATELY is to straighten out that "fuel line" (I use the term loosely) mess before it pops off or bursts, sprays fuel everywhere, and burns the car to the ground.

I'd strongly suggest switching to an electric fan with a temp switch in the head. That clutch thing from the Stone Age consumes around 12 - 15 HP which is NOTICEABLE driving around; in addition to, an electric system can be made MUCH more effective for cooling, as well as reducing fuel consumption.

And of course, FIRST THING, a trip to the car wash. Even if you have to tow it. No sense wallowing around in that giant pile of filth while trying to figure out what you've got and what it needs and trying to do useful work in all that grunge.

 

Priced around for a used carb, a rebuild kit for the current carb, the link sent for the vacuum advance distributor, as well as others, tranny cable, etc. Not the cheapest things in the world, but doable. Had the plan to wash the engine compartment today but decided to look into the carb and the fuel pressure as it was drive-able and now it either won't start or runs very lazy before dying. I know it was suggested that the carb and or distributor were the likely causes and they most likely are but, wanted to check the fuel pressure. Google suggested the pressure should be anywhere from 5PSI to 13PSI depending on whats installed, but the 15PSI fuel pressure gauge I put on barely moved. Randomly the needle would move to about 2PSI, then fall to zero. Back on google and it suggested the pump needs to be replaced which means dropping the tank, or cutting the sheet metal in the trunk, neither of which I want to do. With that, I've come to the point where I have finally realized I'm well in over my head and it's time for me and the Camaro to part ways. Thank you all for your inputs.

 

The pump isn't in the tank. Look on the side of the block, down low, next to the crank damper, pass side, below the smog pump bracket.

Regardless, carbs don't work off of fuel pressure anyway, the way FI systems do. They work off of fuel VOLUME. Kinda like, the flow of a river doesn't require pressure, just LOTS of water moving slowly. Google is WRONG about that, it's quoting you EFI pressures. All a carb needs is enough pressure to keep the fuel bowl full (which is only at atmospheric pressure itself). Q-Jets, more so than most carbs, don't need much pressure, and can't deal with it, if it's excessive; 2 -3 psi is entirely enough for yerbasic stock LG4 like you have, and any more than about 5 or 6 will overwhelm the needle & seat valve. Stock pressure in that system is usually no more than about 4 psi.

A new FP is no more than $25 or so and only takes a few minutes to change out.

 

Would you really give up so easily?

I'm not gonna do the "tough love" thing here and put my boot to your glutes, but really dude, when you first got into this ya had to know that this wasn't gonna be a "slap a few sparkplugs in it and go cruisin on Saturday night" kinda thing, yes?

That car is in need of a major restoration by someone dedicated to the task who ain't gonna bail at something as simple as a badly running engine. To me, the only reason to bail out on such a project would be if the car has major rot, which brings the question; BEFORE ya go spending any kinds of money on it, have you checked it thoroughly for rot in all the usual places these cars rot? If not, your next mission here would be to learn where those places are (floor, spare tire well, etc) and make sure ya got a solid body to work with. minor rust/rot is repairable, huge missing areas of rot not so much, and so far all we've seen of it are underhood engine pics. Now is the time to go all over it top to bottom & post up pics of what it looks like in the places that matter......