Hi, all. I just got my camaro about a week ago and it's wonderful. It's my second car (I'm moving up from a very cruddy 93 Mercury Capri) and I'm very happy with it! It's a 1993 Z28 with 72k miles, and its completely stock. Other than a minor ding on the side, a few scratches in the paint, and a few minor interior problems (a missing glove box latch, a broken hinge on center console, and missing clips on driver side power window/lock button holder that causes the buttons not to sit in the door. all of which i plan to get replacements for tomorrow at a dealership.) it's in great shape. oh yeah, I just put in a new left window motor, that was broken, but now is fixed (thats how the clips on the button holder got broken. i was putting the door panel on and one just snaped.) So the car is in good shape, and I've got about $1,000 to spend. I'd like to start making some performance upgrades on the car, but I'm not really all that savy when it comes to automobiles, and i havent a clue where to start. I'd like to keep the car as something I can drive daily to class and to work and reliable to take long road trips in. So I'm not looking to do anything realy extreme, but I'd like a bit more power than just stock. I'm thinking possibly exhaust or something of the sort, and then maybe suspension, or intake, but i'm not all together sure. So if i could get a few pointers as to where to begin, that'd be wonderful.

Thanks

 

CAI- $200
Cutout- $40
or if you don't want to be that loud...catback ~$300
Gears- $300-500 installed depending on where you go.

Didn't mention if you have an auto or manual.

There's so many things you can do but start with the basics....let the car breathe. CAI and then open up the exhaust. Get rid of those crappy stock manifolds when you can.

From there you can go many directions. Gear, converter, suspension, cam, rr's, heads, etc....

Don't forget about the free mods and have fun

 

CAI? Cutout? And oops, I forgot, it's an automatic.

As for exhaust, whats a good brand to go with? I was thinking go with SLP's loud mouth exhaust since it seems to be popular. And yes, I do want loud. Loud is good.

 

CAI = Cold Air Intake, there are many brands available, most are well under $200 new...you could prob. find a used CAI for cheaper though.

A cutout is basically a bypass for the exhaust. You open it when your ready to run, and it bypasses your muffler, or Catalytic converter, depending on where you mount it @ in your exhaust system.

 

Start off with the CAI / LM, then save a little more for some gears.

 

get some fbody flex control first before you add more power to it, cai& loud mouth is fine but you really want to stiffen it up or you wont be closing the doors to well.

 

check out the free tranny shift option that you can wire up and basically have a factory supplied performance shift kit in your car. The ecm has the programming but for some reason GM only brought the option out in the t/a but not the camaro. The wiring is already sitting in your passenger side kick panel, you just need to wire up a momentary switch and a light. Do a search in this forum or the net for performance shift button/option and I'm sure you'll find the website that tells you how to do it. It makes the shifts harder, tachs the motor out just a little bit more, and makes the tranny real sensitive to throttle changes so it's ready to roll when you are.

I would definitely go w/ a cold air intake, it gets hot under that hood, especially down in florida , then I would work on exhaust, make sure it's had a tune up, new cap and rotor, wires, plugs, get your injectors cleaned, you know, just start out w/ a clean plate. Also might want to flush and change the tranny fluid, coolant, rear diff, and brake fluid. Make sure the car is rock solid before you go into blowing money on go fast goodies.

If you plan on getting to know the car better get a haynes manual, if you plan on messing w/ the wiring or getting into any of the motor/tranny, get a helms service manual.

good luck.

 

CAI, Headders & Catback