The z28 had like a rating of around 230-240 horsepower and the rs v8 was rated at like 175hp. I owned a 92 camaro rs v8 and I can tell you from experience it is a pretty slow car......but I was young at the time and I loved the way it looked and drove. If your not crazy about performance then I would get an exhaust system (for sound reasons) and then go onto maybe wheels and some small appearance stuff. If your really into performance and want to make it into a street rod or really fast car, then I think your best bet would be an engine swap to like a lt1 or something of the sort. The z28 also has a rear semi high rise wing on it. I'm sure there are many other differences between the 2, but I'm not too sure about all the smaller details.

 

I just bought a '91 Z28 a week and a half ago!
Check my sig and you can see the difference.

The '91 and '92 Z28 came with a different hood, which had two awesome-looking scoops on it.

The Front bumper on the RS had more of a grill-look to it than the Z28, which had a bowtie in the center with two air scoops on each side of the license plate(if equipped on the front with a license plate)

The RS and Z28 ground effects are exactly the same, but the wings were different. Like I said check my sig and youll see.

As for the engine, the RS could be had with a V6 or the 305 TBI(Throttle Body Injection) and the Z28 could be had with either 350 (5.7L) TPI (Tuned Port Injection) or the 305 (5.0) TPI.

Like someone mentioned...the 350 could only be had with an automatic while the 305 could be had with either a manual 5 speed or an automatic transmission.

The rear end gears were different but Im not sure what determined which you got.

Thats about it. The main difference being the hoods, and the fuel injection setups. The TPI is actually a better setup but the TBI isnt that bad. People talk a lot of smack but Im willing to bet most of them have never even layed their hands on a TBI car, much less have the knowledge to speak about it honestly and knowingly. The TPI is better for performance, but youll be fine with the TBI until you want to start racing or something.

The TBI is worlds better than the "CrossCrap Injection" they had in the early eighties.

Also, the wheel and tire combination were different, but Im not sure what was available with which.

The rims on my car in the pictures are not the factory ones and NOTE* I am changing them!

I want the factory ones back on there.

Most of the convenience options were on the Z28's most of the time(T-Tops, rear defogger, power windows/locks, etc)

anyone else?

anyone know what came with which rear gears in 91-92?
Mine has 2.73's (My next mod is 3.73's...due next month or so)

 

What will most LIKELY happen right now is, I'll probably start fulling around in the interior of the car for now, and like I said I really am a complete beginner so, this is where I think I'll stick for awhile... I'll also probably have the engine rebuilt and have any other problems that it may have as is fixed. New paint job and all that... So tell me if I should do something different, I'm really hesitant to go anywhere near under the hood, because of the fact that I have no idea what I'm looking at under there (yes that bad...) Thanks for all the help so far guys!

 

This is the place to be is you have questions about any Camaro I wouldnt go anywhere else except for www.thirdgen.org

As far as performance....you could have a shop swap in some different rear end gears like 3.73's if it dont aleady have it, then maybe do a camshaft swap.

Your best bet would be to talk to your buddy who is really into car and knows his stuff(everyone has the "car friend") and have him help you decide what to do, then ask questions on this board to make sure your buddy is right and go from there.

A good tune-up is the first thing you should do.

Spark plugs, spark plug wires, change the oil/transmission fluid.
Have someone/a shop set the timing for you...

Cars are expensive so get ready to spend some hard-earned dough

Heck I just got my money and almost every penny is about to go into my car(Minus bills, of course )

If your looking for some extra power a camshaft or head swap is the way to go, but I dont know a whole lot about your motor(TBI) so maybe somone can chime in...

 

I was wondering around how much does an engine swap cost from my 305 TBI to a better engine, I'm not sure what engine but the one I currently have is getting up there on the miles, around 170kish... And I'm trying to figure what would be better, rebuild or new engine. If someone could help me out with this it'd be greatly appreciated... as to what engine I should look at if I do a swap, how much would that sort of thing cost?

 

It looks like most of the info you are getting is correct. Just another little tid bit of info. You could not get get a convertable with the 350 and you could not get a 350 with T-tops after 90.

I just deleted the webpage from my favorites that gave a couple high horsepower engine build ups with the TBI. I was going to do that but then I bought my IROC and sold my old 305 TBI Formula.

 

anz, one benefit to rebuilding is that tbi is very reliable
that's one of the main reasons they used it
if you wanted to step up some cubes, you could get a 350 and it would swap over pretty easily
the lt1 and ls1 swaps are also becoming very common and they do have installation type kits at a few places

 

My dad swapped in a 350 crate engine for a Caprice in his 91 RS. Kept it TBI and what not. It was a little bit faster than his 305, the only problem was that he couldn't get traction. One wheel peel is a bitch.

 

I didn't see anyone mention it, but I believe that the Z28's had a better suspension setup then the RS', but I really don't know what the details were. It may have even been an option to get the Z28 suspension on an RS, but I don't know for sure.

 

iirc, the rs had the standard soft ride suspension (like mine) which had smaller wheels (15") and an overall different suspension to keep it more smooth
you could option it up, but i'm not sure if it was the z28 suspension that it got if you did
i know you got 16" wheels though and a few different things to make it handle better though

 

the Z28's got different shocks, which had a firmer ride for better handling.... Im not sure what else besides the 16" wheels

 

I know it must have been mentioned somewhere else, but for some reason my search button isn't working, everytime I try to do a search is makes me relog in over and over again and the search doesn't go through anyway... Does someone know of a website that gives you the overall difference between TBI, TPI, LT1, LS1, etc... I know most of you probably know the differences off the top of your head, but I don't Gemme time, I will... I just about ripped out the entire interior to put Dynamat down... Ran into some problems... Don't have the right tool to remove the seat belts so I could pull the carpeting up, I did however look under the carpet in the driver's seat area (forget the name) and guess what I found!?! RUST! YAH!! Such a perfect spot too! So now I'm gonna have to go get that fixed... But anyway, I'm still interested in this engine thing, I'm not sure what to do...

BTW I do have larger wheels...

 

Autozone has the tool...its right next to the sockets and wrenches

I forgot the size, but drive the car up there and just get them to let you use the little tool they have that find the size of the bolt...

Its a little keychain looking thingy thes red in color, with a bunch of little things that look like stars (you know what I mean when you see it) Its also right by the sockets and stuff

At the store here its on a little shelf thing that you can turn(like the stuff the put watches in at walmart or sears, etc, or sunglasses)

 

Yea, now that I'm at it, I'll probably get new carpet too, can't hurt right? Either that or I could clean/dye the carpet... thats no biggie though... I'll probably get the seats professionally done, probably all black leather with the Camaro writing in Yellow (The car was originally red, but I believe the previous owner before me did it yellow, which I like) But I'm going to change the yellow color a bit... I'm trying to think how a good yellow would look with gold metallic flakes in it... I'm guessing a lot of people would say that you won't even be able to tell that theres flakes in it, but I'm sure it must make it glisten some, no? I'm still scared about redoing it yellow, I know when you do it yellow, either it'll look great or horrible, so we'll see...

 

Ive seen a yellow Camaro with silver flakes and you could definately tell

It looked pretty good but the guy paid like $3000, it was a very proffessional job...I would rather have a $1500 paint job and $1500.....

As far as how it looked...it looked great but like you said its like flipping a coin..it depends on who does it. I personally think yellow with silver flakes(lots of'em) and two wide black stripes with silver flakes would look good. The stripes like on the old '69 camaros....