'92 Camaro RS

[USSkoval]

I got another project Camaro, my son has been helping me with it. It's been a lot of fun so far, since this is the first project car of mine he has really taken interest in. It's a replacement for our other beloved '92 Camaro that was a victim of substantial unibody rust.

It's a '92 Camaro RS and it has been off the road since '00 when the engine was supposed to be "blown up". Although date codes on the battery and fuel hoses (from a hacked fuel pump replacement) say someone attempted to revive the car in '08. Other than driver floorpan, it's very solid.

 

[Bent77]

L03/700 car?

 

[USSkoval]

L03/700 car?

Yep. I've got a 350, TPI and a T5 that 'could' go right in it, but I just want a nice cruiser.

My intent was to post more pictures and info last night, but I fell asleep lol.

 

[USSkoval]

The story is that the car had a bad engine in early '00 and it was sold to a salvage yard, were it sat on a concrete pad until a few months ago when it was sold to the guy I bought the car from (he knew nothing about the car, other than what I just mentioned). The car has 30 miles on it since the title was transferred in early '00. The battery was from '08. There's brand new (but old) calipers, rotors, pads, hoses and sway bar end links on it. Someone hacked a fuel pump access into the rear hatch area. The rubber hoses they used to patch the sending unit back together were dated '08. The 3/8" hose was trans cooler hose and swelled shut. The pump was dead. The inside of the tank was NASTY. Like, the worst I've ever seen.

However, the car started up and ran great on 20% ether starting fluid. The smog pump was locked solid though.

 

[USSkoval]

I cleaned the tank as best as I could and installed a clean original sender that I had in stock. I also put in a $29 lifetime warranty pump from Advance that I expect will fail.

 

[Bent77]

At least the pump access was cut fairly straight. That’s an easy fix and/or convert to a cleaner hatch

It’s a nice color
How’s the interior?

 

[USSkoval]

Oh yeah, the tires that were on it didn't hold air at all. I mounted up a set of my Iroc wheels (I prefer those anyway) that I installed some "better" tires on. They have great tread, but I bought them in '04 and '05 and they have significant dry cracking. But they do hold air, lol.

After installing the new fuel pump, as well as a smog pump delete pulley, the car started up and ran great. The exhaust was full of mouse house and had rust holes though. So I removed all that. I decided to use a long discontinued Flowmaster single exhaust that was originally purchased and installed on an '86 LG4 Z28 back around '00. I later installed it on an '88 L98 Iroc, by welding the intermediate pipe right to the (hollow) 3" catalytic converter. Well now i was putting it back on a low output car, so I had to adapt the 3" converter to the 2.25" L03 y-pipe. Yes, I hang onto everything and scavenge later when needed.

 

[USSkoval]

At least the pump access was cut fairly straight. That’s an easy fix and/or convert to a cleaner hatch

It’s a nice color
How’s the interior?

Yeah, it's hacked but at least they didn't get carried away. When I'm done sacrificing cheap pumps in that nasty tank, I'll make a nice flanged panel to bolt down with a gasket and riv-nuts. If it weren't TBI, I'd have already dropped the tank and replaced it with a good one, along with a non-hacked sending unit. It's still only marginal with the low pressure TBI.

The interior will clean up fine. The dash pad is wasted, I'll put in one of my less-cracked ones. For some reason, the car has gray door panels and hatch panel, I'll install some of my black panels.

 

[USSkoval]

Ready to test drive:


It ran like a fine Swiss watch:


The next day, after one of the many rainstorms:

 

[USSkoval]

Now about those rainstorms. With all the moisture in the air, the car suddenly ran like garbage. It kept trying to flood out on a cold start and once it fired up and ran, there was one cylinder that refused to party. So I started looking into that issue and that's where I am currently. The cap/rotor look fine, the plug wires (although the cheap Xact brand) seem ok, but the pickup coil looks pretty rough. I haven't pulled the plugs yet to see how they look.

 

[USSkoval]

If y'all notice in that picture of the catalytic converter, the welding. The rear connection was my welding 20 years ago, while the front connection is current. I guess I've gotten better, lol.

 

[Bent77]

I’m not qualified to comment on welds


Have you opened the hood at night to see if any electrons are escaping somewhere else? As long as it sat, probably some mouse munchies hiding somewhere
The dizzy looked pretty rowdy though

 

[USSkoval]

I’m not qualified to comment on welds


Have you opened the hood at night to see if any electrons are escaping somewhere else? As long as it sat, probably some mouse munchies hiding somewhere
The dizzy looked pretty rowdy though

The night I got it running, it was starting to get pretty damp at that point. I never saw or heard any sparking. I've ran my fingers along all the plug wires and didn't feel any chewed spots. I'll probably replace them though because I know they will be a problem in the future.

 

[82355]

Do the L98 swap! Even if you just put the TBI on top of it. A T5 would also be a fun upgrade.

Martin

 

[82355]

L03/700 car?

If the wheels are factory, that is a dead give away. The LO3 required F41 in a '91-'92 RS, and F41 required N90 (16"x8" Z28 wheels), they were only available if LO3 was ordered.

So any '91-'92 RS with 15" wheels had a V6, and with 16" wheels had a V8.

Martin

 

[500$k5]

Couple pics of my uncles 92. Crazy guy sold it at an auction. It went for $4700.

 

[USSkoval]

If the wheels are factory, that is a dead give away. The LO3 required F41 in a '91-'92 RS, and F41 required N90 (16"x8" Z28 wheels), they were only available if LO3 was ordered.

So any '91-'92 RS with 15" wheels had a V6, and with 16" wheels had a V8.

Martin

I actually didn't know that. I knew that most V8 cars had the 16's and most V6 cars had 15's, but I didn't know they were all that way.

 

[82355]

I actually didn't know that. I knew that most V8 cars had the 16's and most V6 cars had 15's, but I didn't know they were all that way.

'91-'92 only.

Martin

 

[USSkoval]

'91-'92 only.

Martin

Right. Previously you had to get an Iroc to get 16's, and they were only standard on those in '85-'87.

 

[USSkoval]

I got around to replacing the distributor and cleaning the spark plugs. They had all been burning rich, #3 was a bit wet and #2 was soaked with some kind of fuel/oil mixture. All of them smelled like that bad gas that was in the tank. I cleaned them all and put them back in. I also dumped another 5 gallons of fresh gas in the tank. It started up and ran the same, along with the same noise. I drove it about 5 miles and it was not happy. No power, rough running, etc. It never got any better. I got on it several times and at one point, I heard a pop noise and assumed it was a backfire through the intake.

So when it cooled down some, I pulled the front 4 plugs again (they are the easy ones). #2 was soaked with a fuel/oil mixture again. So I pulled the valve cover, in hopes of finding clues.

Well that's unfortunate:


When I got the valve cover completely out of the way, I found the #8 intake pushrod was broken too.



I managed to fish most of the pieces out with a magnet, but both of those pushrods still have about a 1/4 of them laying down in there somewhere. Looks like I'm pulling the intake. With all the poking around I've been doing, I've discovered that someone has replaced the intake gaskets too. Now I'm wondering if that was due to broken pushrods.