I've never owned or even driven any Camaro before I recently bought my '00 Z28 and I'm impressed with just about everything this car has to offer with the exception of the seating position (I'm 6'4"), but I'll live. I was wondering if I could get some input from anyone here who would definitely have more knowledge about these cars than I. First, is it normal for the driver's seat to not slide back as far as the pass seat? It seems that the pass seat slides at least 2-3 inches further back than the driver's seat. Second, since I have no personal previous experience driving ANY Camaro, my Z seems much faster than I would've thought. I've owned an '07 GT Mustang 5 speed and my Z is So much faster. Not like a couple of tenths quicker to 60, but more like a full second or MORE faster. I've also owned a modified TT 300ZX running 18lbs of boost and it put down quite a bit of power, but my Z28 still reaches 60 faster by a hair. The history of this car is unknown to me since it was bought through a lot that purchases from auctions. Who knows what's been done, but it looks exactly like any other Z under the hood (I've looked at quite a few pics online). Any ideas as to what could have been done to this car to make it do 0-60 in about 4 seconds? It's N/A, with what only looks like Flowmaster cat-back and a K&N filter. I've timed it a number of times now and it's been right around 4 seconds flat to 60. My iPhone has an app in it that I've also used to time it and it also reads 4 seconds to 60. From what I've read here, stock LS1 A4's shouldn't be that fast. What should I look for to see if it's been internally modified or is simply another type of LS engine? Sorry for the novel, but I'm a noob to these cars/engines. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

sounds like you have a fun car.

considering these cars are ~340hp from the factory, its no wonder why you think its faster than your other cars.

 

a pic would be great...but yeah camaros are pretty damn quick...even my lt1 still rips most cars.

 

Maybe someone changed the gears but didn't have the speedo corrected. Maybe someone did heads and a cam. Many mods like a stall that can't be seem from just popping the hood.

 

I'll clean her up and take a few pictures. She's filthy right now since we hardly get a decent break from rain and road grime around here. Any ideas about the seat? It looks like it may have been reupholstered recently. Any way it could've been reinstalled incorrectly? About the performance..I'm going to hit a local tuner shop and have them dyno it. Problem is, without any knowledge of gear ratios and whatever the rear end may have in it I'm thinking it'll be inaccurate. Any suggestions?

 

An LS1 Camaro is a bit lighter and quite a bit more powerful than an '07 Mustang GT. Without knowing how much power you made with your 300ZX, it's hard to compare.

Gearing shouldn't affect dyno accuracy. Go get it tested and let us know what you get. With a K&N and a Flowmaster cat-back, an otherwise-stock LS1 A4 should put about 300hp to the wheels on a DynoJet dyno. However, note that a dyno operator can tweak the settings to make the dyno show pretty much whatever he wants, so if you get more or less than that, it doesn't meach much.

The real test of horsepower is quarter mile trap speed. Take your car to a real drag strip, get some practice so that you can get off the line with minimal wheelspin, and let us know what your trap speed is. A typical stock LS1 A4 trap speed is 105-107mph.

It's pretty easy to figure out what gears you have. First of all, to find out what your car came with from the factory, check the RPO code sticker on the driver's door. GU2 means 2.73:1 gears, and GU4 means 3.23. Those are the only ratios that came on the A4 cars.

Next, to find out what you actually have, the easiest way is to do some speed-RPM comparison tests. For example, get it up to 60mph and set the cruise. Let it shift into 4th and wait until the converter locks. Have a buddy pace you in a different car to confirm that indicated 60 is really 60 (if you have aftermarket gears but the engine computer was never tuned to compensate, it won't be). Then, take note of your RPM.

1500 rpm @ 60mph = 2.73 gears
1750 @ 60mph = 3.23 gears
1900 @ 60mph = 3.42 gears
2050 @ 60mph = 3.73 gears
2250 @ 60mph = 4.10 gears

This test isn't very conclusive either, because our cars have notoriously inaccurate tachometers. I lucked out and got one that's dead on, but I've seen others that read 500+rpm higher than they should. If yours shows ~800 at idle, it's reasonably accurate and you can go ahead with this method. If it shows something else, buy or borrow an ODB2 scan tool and use that to read the RPM.

 

Cool. Thanks. I'll be running to work in a bit. I'll take note as to the RPM's @ 60 mph and get back to you later. I'm fairly sure about the accuracy of my tach and I know my speedometer is right on since they run a lot of photo radar traps around here that show you your speed. I believe that my 300 had been putting down around 400 to the ground. @ least according to a friend that sold it to me. I test drove a 6.0 GTO a week after I bought my 300, and was very let down by the GTO's performance in comparison to my car... But you know, apples and oranges. I'll let you know what I find out. The dyno will have to wait a week or two. Had to buy new discs and calipers all around to get rid of some annoying vibrations and stuttering stops at stoplights. And I'm suffering from what I feel to be a bad voltage regulator - disco strobe lighting and dancing voltage idiot gauge. Later

 

If your Z28 is faster than a 400rwhp 300ZX, then it's definitely modded. Of course, your friend might have been wrong, or your Z28 might only feel faster due to differences in the linearity of the power delivery.

The voltage regulator is built in to the alternator, and is not serviceable separately. If you want to change it, you'll need a whole new alternator (not a big deal).

 

Thanks JakeRobb. My car is @ about 1750 @ 60, so right on the $ there for 3.23 rear. I was gonna yank the alt and have it bench tested to be sure tomorrow. Haven't priced one yet, but I imagine they're around a buck fifty. Sound about right?

 

A far as the seat goes sit in another Camaro and see if you can go further back. I'm 6' 1" and have plenty of room to adjust back if I want to.

 

I've never replaced the alternator on my Camaro, but I have on several other GM cars, and they've always been less than that ($80-110). It's been a few years, though.

 

Sorry it's been so long, but a few new issues popped up with my Z28. I swapped in a battery and the disco lights went away after about 2 days of driving but now after pulling and inspecting a plug, it started slightly sputtering with a little throttle in 4th. It now sputters badly in any gear if I try to accelerate at all. Backfiring from front and back is now the norm as well with any throttle. The plug looked healthy but very old, and probably at about .080 or .090. I'd normally say the problem would easily be the plugs, but this problem only surfaced recently and seemingly out of nowhere. Maybe the equally ancient and crusty plug wires? Anybody experience this before? It seems to come and go, with it happening more with the recent warm weather/warm engine. I could use some ideas. I'm changing the plugs/wires tomorrow. If it persists, where should I look next?

 

I changed the plugs and wires and it smoothed out greatly. I changed the AC belt while I was at it and discovered that one of the prongs in the Mass Air connector was bent pretty bad and was barely making contact, so it may have been the culprit. Between it and the plugs being @ .080 and .085 on average, it was running like crap. After driving it tonight and having zero problems, I'm much happier.

 

Awesome! Glad you got everything figured out.

 

+1 about the lt1 cars.Most manufactures took 10-14 yrs. to come close to what our 93-97,s for times & the fact they were cheap&fairly easy to mod,even more so.