hey, just picked up a 79 Z28 yesterday, thinkin about doin a tranny swap to a manual, other than that what are some good cheap ways to get horsepower other than exhaust? this is also my first carbed car so im not sure how easy it is to unleash these beasts, any info about these cars in general would be great

 

hmm, There's so much you can/should do to get any performance out of these cars...
What kinda gears do you have? Swapping to a manual might be more pain then its worth... but I've never done it, so you might want to research that.

 

its got an overdrive transmission right now but im not sure what gear ratio, and as far as going manual, driving an automatic is boring, so to be it will be worth it to me in the end, not to mention i have a friend that is gonna help me swap them for free because he loves changing trannys

 

Not long after I bought my Camaro I bought headers, flowmasters, MSD ignition, K&N air filter, new carb, shift kit, 2500 torque converter, 272H cam an lifters, aluminum valve covers. It was good for 13.6's@103mph at sea level. 3500lbs.

About a year after all that was done, I yanked the engine and did it the way I should have the first time around. I bought a 430hp crate engine from GM. My old headers, cam, lifters, carb, valve covers all became useless.

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If you must do something to the car as it is now, convert to a true dual exhaust with headers. The sound and increased performance will put a smile on your face

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An overdrive tranny is definatly not stock. It would have come with a 3 speed originally.

 

yeah the guy who had it before me bought it with the turbo 350 tranny and it went out while he had it and he decided to just put a overdrive tranny in it instead of putting another one in it

right now im thinking just exhaust because i will probably drop something like a 454 H.0. engine in it, but for now its my daily driver so i was wondering if there were any small cheap mods i should consider before that time comes, once i get another car this is gonna be a drag car, but i still want to be able to drive it to the track

 

I dont know what engine is in it or air cleaner set up. But on the elky I went from a stock air cleaner to a cowl hood with 3 inch open air cleaner and it made a huge difference seat of the pants and picked up 1.7 mpg the next tank on the highway. If it has the heat valve on the right side exhaust manifold mke sure it opens up all the way and put a new cat on it. I would do a tune up with changing fuel filter and play with the timing. You can get a distibuter kit for 12 or 13 bucks and play with the springs. I did that at the track with an mc ss and it made a big difference. Also and electric fan set up. My mc ss made 7 rwhp when I put electric fans on it.