I'm thinking of buying a 1988 Firebird for $200 the car has been sitting for 2 and half years and hasn't moved or cranked since..... the entire brake system has failed so I will have to replace everything there which will cost me about 500 right off the bat, How hard do you think it will be to get the motor running, I was thinking just to do a oil change on it and throw some stabill in the gas tank with some fresh gas, the motor in it isn't original it has 150,000 km and the car itself has 280,000 km..... Another problem is the guy will not sell the wheels with the car so i managed to hunt up a set of 1977 firebird snowflake rims 14" for $100.... (Now just to find a set of radial t/as to dress the car up in)

 

Also the motor is from a 1987 Camaro, i will be quite familiar with the motor since my 88 camaro that had has the same type motor

 

I know from my experience that My car sat in my garage for 3 years without being started and it was crazy how many things i had to replace to get it running right. The only reason i didnt just buy a decent 3.4L out of another f-body is because the car only had 90k on it.
Some of the things i know i replaced were:
All new injectors$$$
Wires, plugs, dizzy, cap, and rotor
Fuel pump
IAC senser, pcv valve.
Oil pressure senser.

You do have an option of just looking arround and finding a 3.4L out of a f-body, its a easy swap. The engine literly bolt right up and its got a little extra Hp. But youd have to find a decent one which would cost like 200-800$ tops. Thats just my thoughts about your situation.

 

well I could throw another motor in it i found a few on the local classifieds one 3.4l idk if its gone or not and one modified 2.8l, only problem is the $ involved with it most of the time where i live people want about 800 - 1200 for there motors and this car needs somethings done to it to make it driveable, im scared that i will get the car home and everything will be shot on it!

 

yea i totally understand.. I ended up putting about $1000 in my car to get it reliable again. I basically had to re-due the whole fuel system. I should have never let the car sit like that for 3 years but i had other priorities that were much more important.

Was the car sitting outside the whole time or in a garage??? By the sounds of the brake lines (brake system being bad) it was outside right??

Ill tell ya this if you pull a plug and it smells like varnish(bad gas) or jsut remove the gas cap and smell it..... you'd actually save $$ putting a new motor in the car, my injectors and fuel pump alown were $350 I could of gotten cheeper stuff im sure but there expensive now matter what ya get. And replacing the fuel pump is no fun task.

When i first started getting it going again. It ran good here and there because i didnt replace every single injector( I just wanted it to run), and seemed like every freaking sensor was failing one by one.

So if you get the car plan on fixing the brake system, ignition system, and fuel system. Took me 3 months to get mine in tip top shape... which was too long considering the car only had 90k on it and was garage kept its whole life.

 

car is sitting outside, i was thinking of getting the car home and running fuel stabilizer through the system with built in injector cleaner.

 

also besides that doing an oil change/brake fluid change

 

just do it, for $200 you can scrap the car and make a profit (in the states anyways) im not for sure what kind of scrap prices you have over there. but if i had the same opportunity, id do it

 

yeah im thinking about getting it, i need to sell my beast outside, i love her but i need to get an easier car to learn on 5spd is just to hard

 

i have never owned anything but 5 speeds, it is so easy once you get it down

 

yeah true, Well my mom told me today I can buy that thirdgen firebird and keep my car if i can come up with the 200 to bring the car home.

 

XDDDD Glad MOM approves...

Who ever's selling it for $200 has no brains. He could haul it to a yard and make more than that.. So definitley buy it.

Why do you keep talking about putting stabil in with new gas?? That should have been done 2 years ago, so it's too late now. Chances are the car's going to need a lot of work to make it run decent, ESPECIALLY if it's sat outside.

 

i got things confused not stabil i will be put high octane gas in it, and seafoam so it lubricates the **** out of the motor

 

I should probably not laugh at your confusion about how that product works, but it's to damn funny.

 

what the hell do you mean?

 

Seafoam (at least the cleaner) is not a lubricant.

 

oh haha i understand

 

Straight oil will be the best thing for it after sitting. Get the engine running before you worry about getting all the carbon off the valves and such. If you hear lifter noise, then before you change the oil again put some in the cranck case and drive with it for a couple hundred miles. Then change it and maybe add a little Lucas.

 

I'd run a quart of blue Rislone and the rest cheap parts store oil to get it running. I like that stuff for freeing lifters. You're not going to be running that oil for more than it takes to get the engine heat cycled a few times anyhow.

Why do you think the entire brake system needs to be replaced? Did some idiot put oil in it?