Had an idiot mechanic changing my rad,thermostat,and cam all in the same shot.Gouged the aluminum plate by scraping off the old thermostat seal,and put a cam in it a bit bigger than stock (claims it would work fine) as it is.When I asked him what the size was,or who made it,his reply was he does not know because it came in just a plain white box from the shop he got it from!! Completely stock 92 GTA with a 350 TPI.Coolant leaking from the thermostat housing so it just sits as a giant puddle along the top of the motor.Getting sick of my car running on full cold all the time.Would it be better to just machine it,or buy a new base plate? Also have to switch to a stage 2 chip,and bigger injectors to make up for that unknown cam size Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

If you don't know what he has put in it and can't find out, I suggest you don't drive it until you can have somebody competent have a look at it. How does the car run?

 

The car runs fine seems to be a little sluggish in the power dept.Other than that,and the "Service Engine Soon" Light coming on once inawhile.All is fine.

 

I'm starting to think there is no such thing as "competent mechanic" here in Canada

 

Competent and mechanic don't belong in the same sentence. It's an oxymoron.
You really need to jump all over him about finding out what cam he installed. He doesn't know????? He had to have ordered it.
You're running full cold? Did he even install a thermostat or just leave it open?
Leaking?

Take the car back. You paid for a service that wasn't provided.

 

Know what you mean. I still do just about all my work myself, even though my back's not what it used to be and I can afford to hire it out. Having someone do shoddy work on my car is like having some other munch feel up my wife or something. Of course some things you just can't do yourself like machining or alignments or a mammagram.

Anyway get the water neck off and put in a new thermostat. Just goop up the nicked areas good with silicone sealer. You'll have to get the throttle body off, but it's not a big job if you have a socket set and a couple of screwdrivers.

Might put a light film of sealer on the throttle body gasket to when you put it back on. Vaccum leaks on a TPI suuuuuuuuuuck.

You absolutely must find out what cam you've got. That's the heart of the motor you know. Stay on the guy's **** about that.

 

Apparently the moron no longer works there.No suprise.Anyways,I'm thinking of just yanking that cam and adding a brand name.Any suggestions on a cam for this sweet car? Stock 92 350 GTA,with a 3 inch stainless Magnaflow exhaust manifold back dual stainless high flow cats (this is Canada ) It may seem far-fetched,but would it be possible to make this car push a minimum 500 horse from it's 350? Money is not an object....I just want to know if it can be done with this car,as an everyday street car.If not,then I'll get rid of it and get myself a 69 Dodge Charger.

 

better head a known came to specs you need. better Intake.. it can be done or real close.

 

Have had good luck with LPE cams. Remember bigger is not always better!

 

Some of these guys are all around 400hp at the wheel which is about 500 at the crank. Very do-able if you make the time and spend the cash. Since money is no object, they may very well contract for ya and get that 3rd Gen wheel standing in the 11s!! Don't hurt to ask...

Oh yeah, look at this link and you'll see who is:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...owing-tpi.html