New 1LE Owner
 

Picked up a 1994 Camaro Z28 last week.

It is a '1LE' car that spent most of it's early life on tracks like Watkins Glen.

It has the original (and mechanically stock) LT1 engine and T56 Borg Warner 6 speed with 47K. It has a Hurst competition shifter, Koni Yellow DA shocks/struts, Global West adjustable torque tube, Hotchkis control arms, Hotchkis strut tower brace, Hotchkis panhard bar, Eibach lowering springs, Torsen T2 differential, 4.10 rear axle ratio, 4 point roll bar, drive shaft loop, cold air intake, Hypertech power tuner, rev limiter and exhaust cutout. It's fitted with 17x9 'SS' replica wheels but it came with the stock 16x8's as well. The car came with a ton of documentation including the original race decals, track times etc.

It's pretty clean for a track car, but not perfect.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psojqshpce.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ps4m2wngzm.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...pssvjw9bnz.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psdmjugf5i.jpg

Short term plans are to get it up to scratch mechanically and do something about the chrome wheels. Then have some fun with it at an autocross event or two. It does need a new cat and there is a PS fluid leak from somewhere. A tune up including plugs and wires is probably on the cards too, so I'll be asking questions in the tech areas for sure.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Welcome to the board, great looking 4th gen!

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Welcome to CamaroZ28.com ! ! !

Always good to see another LT1 F-Body alive and well, particularly a low production car like the 1994 1LE.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Thanks for the welcome. First Camaro for me, and definitely first LT1 so big learning curve ahead of me. I've been in touch with the owner that raced and did all of the suspension work on the car. He's confirmed that the engine is stock - no cam or other internal mods. I plan to keep it that way, but there are some maintenance tasks that need done - new y pipe and cat, new plugs and wires and possibly a HP power steering hose. I'll be posting some questions on those items in the technical section once I've done a bit more reading through some old posts.

The car was originally stripped of all of it's rear panels for track duty so there are a few smaller trim items I need to locate - I tried the dealer but all of the stuff I'm looking for is NLA.

In case anyone is wondering about my handle - I've been a Pontiac fan for a while - this is the 1LE's stable mate;

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psac6rztmw.jpg

I'm pretty sure the T/A and the Camaro are arguing with each other after I close the garage door at night.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Clean looking stuff! I have had a lot of luck finding parts from Hawks Motor Sports Hawks Motor Sports ? 1982-2002 Camaro and Firebird Specialists, Classic Industries https://www.classicindustries.com and Rock Auto https://www.rockauto.com/. Passed that, The junk yard will be your friend!

It doesn't seem like there is a lot to do for you; are you planning on the track?

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

With the suspension mods and the 4:10 gears, I'm picturing it will make a pretty fun autocross car. That's definitely on the list - but probably not this season. I need to get it up to snuff mechanically and address the wheels/tires before I can even think about that. I'm reading through old posts and formulating a plan for the Y pipe and plugs/wires. Sounds like the plug/wire task is an easier one with the Y pipe removed so it probably makes sense to tackle both jobs at the same time versus doing them individually. I've discovered the OEM Y pipes are NLA but I'll post a question about all of that in the technical section in a couple of days.

Thanks for the links! :thumb:

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

You're welcome and good luck! The plugs are definite challenge, but believe it or not the stock manifolds are not the hardest setup to change the plugs. I had shorty headers for a few years and had a way harder time with those than the manifolds. It has been so long since I had to work with the stock exhaust, but with the placement of the driver side cat can make the rear plugs a challenge.

If you change exhaust (in regard to headers), the main thing I would recommend you focus on is heat management. I have run into a ton of issues with heat on both short and long tube headers that have caused my project many road blocks.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Definitely planning on keeping the stock manifolds. I'm told the current system on the car uses the stock y pipe and cat, so I'm leaning towards simply replacing the Y pipe and (leaking) cat with the Walker replacement. From the cat back, the car has a system of unknown origin but it looks well put together and in good shape. There is a short section of pipe and a manual exhaust cutout mounted just inboard of the right rear wheel and ahead of the crossflow muffler. I've not popped that open yet to see just how loud it is, but I imagine it might come in handy if I ever get to disliking my neighbours.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

No it's definitely not stainless. It's possible the mid-pipe is even stock - but it looks to be a pretty healthy diameter if it is. The rear muffler is mounted in the traditional crossflow position with a single inlet on the RH side and two outlets on the LH side. The two tailpipes exit on the LH side. The original owner indicated the muffler was a Flowmaster. The 'cutout' branches off the over the axle pipe on the RH side (similar to the Borla you linked to) and ahead of the muffler. It's comprised of a short section of pipe welded to the main pipe that terminates in a hinged cutoff valve that can be slid open manually. That cutoff valve ends up just aft of the RH rear wheel below the spare tire area.

Hard to describe so I will try and post some pictures when I get home.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Picture of cutout;

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psvkpbvh66.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

That is way easier to get to than mine, I have them right behind the headers.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...e0c5109106.jpg


The stock intermediate pipe is crimp bent 2.75" diameter. You can get mandrel-bent replacements in 3", 3.5" and 4". The 4" version is a tight fit over the panhard rod brace. This is the Mufflex 4" catback, through a 4" Flowmaster race version crossflow style muffler, single in/single out.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Managed to track down a photo of the car on track circa 2008;

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psq4dyvnua.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Beautiful car and judging from the photos it is in beautiful condition, especially the cloth upholstery. I have the cloth seats in my daily driver convertible and love them, they are comfortable and hold you in place around corners.

What class or run group did the original owner participate in?

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

You know - I'm not 100% sure. In the documentation is a whole sheet of recorded tracks times and locations along with the miles for each day, but there is no log book. Might have even just been HPDE type events.

Now that the car is running well - I'm turning my attention to other things. The interior is very nice, but the headliner material is sagging. That's probably next on my list of fixes. I've also realized I need to get the car on a lift and take an inventory of the suspension mods. The PO advertised the car with a Global West torque arm, but it's not - it's a Random Technologies torque arm. It also has tubular front LCA's but it looks like only the lowers and not the uppers - no idea of the brand. Springs are definitely Eibach and rear panhard bar is definitely Hotchkis. No idea on sway bar sizes or brands either.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

I've been keeping a watch on Craiglist, eBay etc. for a set of wheels and tires to replace the chrome ZR1 reps that are on my car currently. Came across a set of lightly used C5 replicas fitted with Falken RT615-K's on Craigslist and bought them home;

https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...psn6bkdnxc.jpg

I'm still going to keep and eye out for an original set of SS wheels, but these should suit the car much better than what's on there now.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Yes I think you scored on those wheels! Post a pic when you get them on the car.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Finally had a warm enough day to get the Camaro out of storage and swap the wheels on;

https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...pshwi9v6lq.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...pscuysnyoe.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Hi Pontiacs, That looks much better IMO. The black center really works with the black roof of the 1LE.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Took care of a couple of items that have been bugging me;

Replaced the mangled power distribution block, with a reproduction one;

https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...psp5sakdo7.jpg
https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...psay4br3gt.jpg

And replaced the chewed up front air dam with a new GM one;

https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps41wgh6sq.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

No pictures, but I just got done replacing the (sagging) headliner. I'm guessing that's a pretty straightforward job on most 4th gens - but it was a royal B*TCH with the roll bar in place.

For anyone that's looking for one, I ended up buying mine from Rock Auto. It came in somewhere around $130. Fit and finish is pretty good, but you do have to trim all of the openings for the seat belts, rear light, sunvisors etc.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

The original headliner in my Formula is beginning to sag. I anticipated a problem with the roll bar, particularly after I told the shop I wanted it as close to the roof as possible. Hope my T-tops don’t complicate it even more.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

My roll bar is a Competition Engineering 4 point - it touches the headliner on the corners. I think if I'd had my original fibre-board headliner recovered, I wouldn't have got it back in without breaking it. The replacement headliner is ABS plastic so I could bend and twist it into place around the roll bar without it cracking or breaking. The toughest part was getting it over the roll bar while at the same time forcing it under the seat belt retractors.

My car is also a hard top - I think the job would be easier on a t-top car.

Either way - I'm definitely glad it's done! :metal:

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

The T-top headliner may be more flexible. I don't have any factory belts, no back seat, 5-points for both front seats. Also don’t have visors... weight reduction carried to the extreme. Made filler plates from aluminum and painted them to match the headliner.

But the bar is custom made chrome moly, and he actually bowed the top bar upwards to conform to the inner contour of the roof. If worse comes to worse, I figure I could get the ABS headliner, and cut it into front and back 1/2’s, so the seam would be hidden directly above the roll bar. Would make it a simple install...... I think.

Some photos in this thread, although the factory belts were still installed.

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/app...2/#post6995905

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

1st autocross yesterday - what a blast! With the 4:10's I was able to stay in 2nd the entire course. It's the first time I've opened the exhaust cutout and it wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I though it would be. There were 40+ cars total - so we got to do 5 runs. My wife drove as well so 10 total. The car never skipped a beat. Very short start video;



https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps7rtq2d2z.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Glad you got your car back on track. How did you place?

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

We were both near the bottom of the field, but did pretty well overall out of the 10 or so novices that ran. My wife surprised the hell out me by being very competitive - our best times of the day she was only a couple of seconds behind me. We both took out some cones but didn't go off course on any of our runs. Definitely a big learning curve, but our times dropped with every subsequent run - down around 15 seconds from the first run to the last.

I have my car setup with the Track Addict app and a rollbar mounted GoPro but we were having so much fun I forgot to record any of our runs. Next time for sure.

The car is definitely better than both of us - it would be pretty quick in the right hands.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Car is still running great - and times are improving with every event. LT1's cooling down between runs today;

https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps8comyaxe.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Hi Pontiacs,

Glad to hear you are making progress with the autocross project. Thanks for updating this thread.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Not sure many folks are interested - but oh well :)

Fitted some bolt-in UMI sub-frame connectors today. Required some minor slide-hammer work first as the front frame 'boxes' where 'squished' a bit - I assume from lots of floor jack use over the years.

I think some 5 point harnesses are next on my list - the stock seat is not holding me well during Autox and I find I'm bracing myself on the steering wheel. One more autocross event this year, and then the car will be parked up for the winter.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

You would probably have more people following the build if it was in a different forum. I don’t think many people come to “New Member Intro” to look around. I could try moving it to a forum with more traffic, and retitling it as a build thread.

Other problem is there aren’t many “regulars” on this site any more. Maybe a half-dozen of us are here all the time, mostly trying to help. 90% of the posts are from new members asking for help wth a new LT1 purchase, and it’s a “one post and done” situation. A lot seem to post a request for help, and never sign back in to acknowledge they received a response. Depressing.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

No it's all good - I don't really post updates expecting a response and if I have a question I'll post it in one of the technical forums.

I come here daily to check on posts and will probably continue to do so while I have the Z28. There's a wealth of information in old posts, and I can find most stuff with a search. Hopefully the site never goes away for that reason alone.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

I agree with the need for better belts or seats. When I am driving my SS on track I find I am holding (bracing) on to the steering wheel too much. My car has the leather seats that are slippery so I use a piece of no slip fabric under my butt to try to help the circumstances. My old track car had a Kirkey racing seat with five point belts and it really held me in place so I could just use my arms for steering inputs, like one is supposed to do.

I am headed out to Sonoma raceway next weekend (Sept. 7th) for a group 3 track day. I just installed so new Toyo R1R track day tires and I'm looking forward to some fun!

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

We just signed up for our first HPDE weekend at Summit Point at the end of April. My wife will be driving the car Saturday and I will be driving it Sunday. We have to miss the season opener for our local AutoX region, but we've been wanting to get the car on a road course ever since we bought it. Can't wait!

I'm going to buy new tires for the season and I will be doing a full fluid change (oil, trans, rear and brakes) before the event. Any other tips/tricks/advice/money I should spend before hitting the track?

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Hi Pontiacs,

Your ideas for changing fluids is about right. Of all of them the brake fluid is the most important. I changed my brake fluid a couple times to be certain I got all the water out of the system. I am just running Castrol Synthetic DOT 4 brake fluid (black bottle). It is not the highest dry temp fluid but it is the heir to the LMA product line and is very resistant to moisture contamination.

Did you ever get the belts you were thinking about in a previous post? I just recently swapped in my Kirkey racing seat from my old car and even with the stock three point belts the difference was amazing. I made the seat brackets fit to the stock mounting points so I can put the seat in in about a half hour before I go the to the track. I tried using the racing seat on the street but it is a bear to crawl in and out of so I swap the stock seat aback in for street use.

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

No - still on the fence about that. I know better seats and harnesses would help, but there's a fine line there between street/weekend race toy and dedicated race only car. I'm not sure I want to go down that rabbit hold just yet (that may change after our first HPDE event).

I am running Falken 615K's currently and they have been great, but they are due for replacement. There's not a lot of choices in 200TW tires in 275/40/17. What's your thoughts/impressions on the Toyo's?

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

I am satisfied with the Toyo's but have not got anything recent to compare them to. I doubt they are any better or worse than the highly regarded Falkens. I chose them because Toyo sponsors so many things for the race groups in NASA which is where I run.

To be honest I have not had the nerve to drive the car beyond the tire limits yet. As I had mentioned previously my SS had a bad over steer problem when I first took it out and while I think I have that under control I have not pushed the car so far that I am sure. Spinning out at 60+ mph is not something I am looking forward to! I am even thinking about going to join up with a local autocross group just to get a chance to drive the car over the limit in a slower setting.

Good luck with the upcoming track day, I am sure you will have fun!

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

The HPDE days were cancelled due to COVID.

The first Autocross event of the year in our area happened last weekend. 150+ cars split over 2 days. It was hectic! The organizers grouped the cars by class for the heats so we had to run our car back-to-back again. We didn't even get time to shut it down between runs. With 6 runs each that meant 12 runs on a 60 second course with only a couple of minutes idle between runs. Fortunately it was only mid 70's all day so the car had no problems. Our last runs were our fastest and I was only .3 of a second ahead of my wife.

Couple of obligatory photos;

https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...psap7jqf9g.jpg
https://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c...psnbq3xsal.jpg

Re: New 1LE Owner
 

Pontiacs,

I am glad yo got to run again. Nice photos, don't hesitate to post more!

My local track is still closed so we con't yet have any track days scheduled. NASA keeps tentatively scheduling them then canceling them! Soon I hope. . . .