Ok, I have a 1989 Chevrolet Camaro RS Convertable with a 350 that someone dropped in the car before I got it. Im not sure exactly what all they did to it but I've been doing some repairs my self to it and am wondering what I should or could do about making it into something worth looking at.. Right now, its all stock setup and its a TBI fuel system (Im thinking of converting it over to TPI, from what others have told me this should add alot of horse power and throttle response, etc.) I am mainly looking for suggestions on what to do and in which order to do it in. Im looking to get the most horse power that I can get without doing too much damage to the engine.

I've been looking at other sites at different heads and such to put on the car but not sure which would be best to use (or if I should just stick with stock). Also, the engine smokes just a little when I first crank it up in the mornings, which I've heard from most that this is normal for a third gen but I don't really like it; and theres this annoying clicking sound that gets faster as I accelerate but goes away when I let off the gas, I've done alot of work trying to get rid of it but can't seem to. At 1st I thought it was a lifter clicking, but its not, seems to be coming from the exhaust, maybe a cracked exhaust manifold?? Any ideas?

Sorry for the long post
TIA!

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it aparently has a 10 bolt rear end, not sure on other specifics of the rear end.

 

Sounds like you got your distributor positioning fixed. The ticking sound is almost always a leaking exhaust manifold/header gasket. If that is not it it could be out of spec adjusted rocker arms. As far as engine mods go, to be very honest the topic has been covered countless times on this board and all others. It starts off with everyone asking you how much money you have to spend, then people tell you to do intake and exhaust first, and so on. Do some searches and look in to a parts catalog because anything that bolts on is usually a good start.

Oh yeah, if you are considering a conversion to tpi, save yourself a ton of money and pick up a holley stealth ram. Any money you spend now on a stock or aftermarket long tube tpi system will eventually be replaced. If you have the money and need a hand putting together a nice package, let me or any other member with experience building these systems know. It is one thing to put together a maybe engine, and another to put together one that you are willing to build. Good luck and let us know your plans.

 

Yah, I did Took me a couple of tries but finally got it.. Car was running perfect for about a day but now its running like absolute crap, have this strange vibration and a very bad hesitation when I try to accelerate and while idling at the stop light if I take my foot off the gas it kinda jerks while moving forward.. But the good thing is my oil pressure is back where its supposed to be lol. As for the mods, I've been reading through other posts and I have noticed alot of the things others are saying about mods, but I suppose the main question should be, should I keep this engine or buy another one? Or just get some mods for this one, and I've seen alot of conversations about Carbs. and TPI and I still don't know which one is better. It seems to me that TPI has 8 injectors squirting fuel directly into the heads right? and the carb. is alot like my TBI it seems, so wouldn't that mean TPI should be better?

Thanks for replying.

 

Well, so far I've only got about $2,000 saved up to work on this car, the rest is getting dumped into repairing damage from a tree that decided to fall on me while I was going down the road
Im trying to spend it wisely and not waste it on stupid addons that won't do nothing. But I want to start from the beginning and not put a bunch of money into mods and then have the engine go out on me a few weeks later. If I buy a compression gauge and do a compression test on the engine won't that tell me if there are any major problems? When I changed the oil pump I looked up inside the block and everything looked perfectly fine (not that I would probably know if anything was wrong but everything seemed fine)

 

Hey it's good to know that I'm not the only late nighter on the third gen board. I really hate to try and bug a fellow car guy, but this whole "should I check my engine to see if it is OK" thing is something that you really should have evaluated before changing your oil pump. The main advice I can give you is to sit back and write down a game plan as to were you want your car to be in three months, aswell as were you want it to be in three years. 2000 dollars can take a 350 and make it run twelves in the quarter, but it can also buy you a loley rotating assembly. If you are going to be happy with running a twelve second car than let me know and I can put together a package that will run mid twelves for around that price. In my opinion building a camaro for speed should never be attempted on your daily driver car unless you have everything done at once. If you have a second car, take your 350 (assuming it has an OK short block) and then throw exhaust, heads, and an intake on it. Then start saving up for a new tranny and or rear end as soon as possible. The idea is that if you rear end and tranny hold up to the 12 second passes your motor is making, then you are as good as gold, however you have to assume and expect that they won't, and either have the money ready for repairs, or accept that your car will have down time. The whole key to this car game is to realize your plans from the get go, and to minimize how many times you have to replace the same part. Don't replace a stock tranny five times because it can't handle the power, once it blows if you don't have a free replacement save your dough and buy one that won't have to be replaced again. It truly is sad when you look at the car you have been building for the past 8 years, and you can only account for 50 percent of the money you have actually put in to it. If your camaro is your primary transportation, put a stealth ram intake on it with a stock tpi throttle body, throw in some LT1 pull out 24# injectors, along with a good cam, headers, and exhaust, and run a tpi speed density ECM. This package will come in at around 1300-1500 bucks and net you a mid-low 13 second quarter time. The key is to use parts that you can sell again at a minimal loss, or reuse like the intake and ecm. If you need any parts to get you started let me know, I have many that I will send you for cheap that will get you going in the right direction, parts that you can use and then sell when you are done with them and get most if not all of your money back. First off let's see what your main goal for the car is, and if it is your primary transportation, then we will go from there.

 

Ok Let me think about it a bit more, gotta run to work, I'll decide exactly what Im going to do later today.. I do have another transportation, 1986 Chevrolet Camaro 2.8L v6, its not much but it gets you where you need to go (especially when my v8 has to be repaired).

Thanks for the info, will be in contact later today