Dusting off the cobwebs – 1988 Iroc-z Camaro Content

I decided to put up a build thread, both as a way to document my (hopefully) progress, and a place to ramble about life. Feel free to read or ignore either as appropriate :P.

Background

I bought this car in highschool, and while it wasn’t my first car, it was the first one I ever purchased with my own money. I started working at 15, and by the end of senior year I had enough extra saved up to buy a 15 year old Camaro. And not just any 15 year old Camaro, I knew I wanted the B4Z/L98 package combo, because it was the best for those years. B4Z was the IROC package, giving you a better suspension, chassis reinforcement, a faster steering ratio box, and a bunch of other goodies that would fall under the “performance package” on new Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, etc. A bunch of minor tweaks to the car’s various systems that add up to give it a different character than the regular cars. And L98 was the big engine, the 350ci TPI motor. None of this plebian 305ci nonsense! 4” bores or nothing!

My parents, my dad in particular, told me I shouldn’t buy it: I already had a perfectly reliable car; a 100K+ mile, domestic V8 ponycar was probably beat to death by the previous owner, and it is going to cost a fortune in repairs, maintenance, fuel, and insurance to keep on the road. BAH! What do they know? (Turns out he knew from experience, as my dad made almost verbatim the same mistakes with a ’65 Mustang when he was that age).

But it was my money, so after a final warning to at least keep my current car so that WHEN the new one broke down, I’d still have a way to get to work and school, I bought it. Hooray! I had almost 2 whole days of bliss before I went to title/register/plate it, and the state inspection revealed it needed a new exhaust, tires, and a third thing that escapes me to this day (I think the $$$ cost to a high school kid on a budget has caused me to block it out). Thankfully, my HS job was at an autoparts store, and I was able to buy most of what I needed for 20-30% off retail, and got the car patched back up over a couple weekends. Registration, title, and plates was another several hundred bucks, and I had the unfortunate introduction to the world of both sales and personal property tax. The latter especially is capable of shattering an 18year old’s world. “You mean I have to pay you tax every year? On stuff I already own?!?!!!” Heartbreaking. Both to my worldview and my wallet.

Skipping ahead a little so this doesn’t turn into a novel, I had a bunch of fun experiences with the car in college. And it continued to suck money at a prodigious rate. Had to pony up $1200 for a 700R4 rebuild when the trans puked on a backroad excursion. My date was not impressed. It later stuck the thermostat and overheated (I caught it quickly, no HG damage), and I had to rebuild the cooling system, including sending the intake manifold to the machine shop to get the threads for the thermostat housing helicoiled. In hindsight, my dad was right, and I should have saved my money, rocked my original car, and used the time for dating girls and socializing in school. That being said, driving an old ponycar and trying to keep it on the road kept me (mostly) out of trouble, taught me a lot about cars, engines, and repairing things, and led me to engineering and my job(s) after college. I also got to drive on the local mountain roads, autox, drag race, and just have insane amounts of fun with a bunch of car enthusiasts my own age throughout college. So maybe it all worked out for the best.

Towards the end of school, I was out on another date, and the engine started knocking. Oil pressure dropped to 5psi at idle, and we once again parked on the side of the road and called AAA. This was somewhat a theme for the car. It never left ME stranded, but had broken down (spectacularly) on at least 3-4 occasions with a girl in the car. I towed it back to the apartment complex and parked it for the rest of the year, intending to fix it once I’d started my real job that summer and was in a better place financially.

Fast forward 11 years, and a couple of big life changes, and the car is still in the same condition as senior year of college…maybe with a bit more sun damage from sitting outside. Or maybe that’s just the water based Van Nuys plant paint falling apart. For a while, I just had fun with other cars that needed less to enjoy. I’ve owned an E30, a Miata, an AW11 MR2, a Cappuccino, a GC8 Impreza, an Integra, a C5 Z06, a 65 Mustang Fastback, and probably some others I’m forgetting. And that was just the DD’s. I had a couple other project cars. And the Camaro has sat. I think part of it was I had such dreams of restomodding when I was young, that I was afraid to start for fear of screwing it up, another piece is I have moved several times for work, and I never wanted to get to a point where it was in pieces in the garage mid-move, then things get lost and it never gets completed. On the bright side, leaving it alone has allowed it to move on and off the trailer under its own power, and shuffle around the garage as needed, happily knocking away at 5psi oil pressure once it warms up:

Getting Started

So why did I pick a thirdgen, all those years ago? Money? A little bit, I was an 18 year old kid on a budget. I went to a dealer and drove a new 4th gen LS1 car, and was blown away at the power. The LT1 cars were no slouches either. But ultimately, the thirdgens just look better. They have a couple of classical styling elements: the 4-eye front fascia that’s seen on everything from 60s muscle cars to early Celicas. And they have the classic two-box design:

2box design (yes? no? pshhh makes sense to me):

I think the 1st and 3rd gen cars are pretty classic designs, and the 2nd and 4th gens aren’t quite on the same level. Also, the 4th gen cars have a bit of the fisher price/rubber maid grade interior, and the 80s cars, while also being all plastic, at least used the same supplier as every other sports car from the time (MR2, Miata, heck Ferrari and Porsche) and went with the flat black textured plastic (stolen images here, because while I own both an AW11 and a thirdgen, they are 4 states away from each other and this is a throwaway comparison photo):

Mmm-mmm good. So out of the 3rd and 4th gen ponycars (mustangs and camaros basically, Mopar was napping), this was my pick.  I'm in no way saying a thirdgen camaro has a GOOD interior, I am saying 80s interiors were EQUALLY terrible.  But, through nostalgia, they have become endearing.  And the AW11 makes me feel like a fighter pilot.

So why now? What has changed? The quick answer is…I’ve become boring. Here’s where we circle back to the cobwebs in the title. I used to be a pretty active participant in the motorsports community. Then a few years ago I decided to make a job change and chase the money. It worked, after a fashion, but I relocated to a much higher cost of living area, bought a fixer-upper house to try and help compensate, and have spent the last two years redoing the house myself on nights and weekends (3 new bathrooms, new HVAC, tore out the walls and re-plumbed the whole house, new floors, etc., etc. Kind of like the car, the experience has taught me a lot, but it came at the expense of my wallet and social life, and I don’t really do anything for fun anymore. I even worry that it is starting to affect my mental health. Not depression or anything like that, I just feel “Meh” pretty much all the time. I’ve become a neutral from Futurama:

I’d like to change that.

My tastes have changed and diversified a lot in the last 10 years, but I still think it’s a sharp looking car. And with more time and money to throw at it, I’m hoping I can fix it up much better than I ever could back then. Also! The technology and swapability has really improved, the know-how is out there to really improve the restomods. So now the plan is to put an LS1/T56 in place of the stock hardware, make it work as close to OEM as possible, and put a killer suspension and brakes on it. Maybe go run some CAM-T autox’s and surprise some folks. Time to get started.

Some people may have noticed the car looks like a ’91 RS with an IROC hood on it. When I was 19, I thought sleepers were cool. I was rebuilding another car, and threw the 91-92 GFX and badges on mine. Because back in ~2002, the difference between a 230hp Z28 and 170hp RS was actually meaningful.  Jury is still out on what pieces the car gets when/if it gets fresh paint, I kept both.  In a flash of genius, I told myself, "Worry about little crap like that when the car actually runs and drives again, you dolt."  Sometimes I am pretty insightful.

Ex 3rd gen and current 4th gen owner here:

X2: 4th gens have worse interiors (comfort/materials/ingress/egress.)....Best of all worlds is an LS drivetrain in your third gen. Extra points to you for nice dash pad! 

Had same car in silver.  Sadly sold it, but still have my first car (I'm sure you could guess its an 85 Z28).  It is sitting around waiting for a resurrection of it's own.  I will be following along to see how your build goes.

So many third gens are popping up on here, I really need to get up a build thread for mine. 

In for updates!!

This all sounds so familiar. Go read my Trans Am thread. 

I love Third Gens. I had one very briefly myself; a 1983 Z28 that I found while drunk in the back of the Want Ad in college. Even after I sobered up, I couldn't pass it up for $300. I couldn't get a title for it, so I sold it. I'd love to get an IROC myself! 

In reply to Agent98 :

Thanks!  Though full disclosure, that was also a canned photo off the internet haha.  It was too dark to get a good shot last night. 

Here's mine, and the dash is likewise uncracked, so the sentiment was still appropriate .  I like the black and tan color combo. 

Awesome,  I really like that Camaro.

like i said to Zordak, the world needs more 3rd gen.

Parts Car

To start putting the dream together, I needed to source a drivetrain.  Enter CL.  A friend of mine (he’s here on the forum, may check in on this thread) and I had a pretty good run for a while buying LSx cars, swaps, etc. on craigslist, though we found the annoyance of trying to re-sell stuff outweighed the profit.  Still searching for that golden bullet of making money on cars :P.  Anyway, I don’t remember if he or I found this one, but it had been lightly tapped on the right side, and otherwise appeared to be in good shape.  A trailer and a long day got it home, and we confirmed it mostly ran and drove under its own power:

After that, I started to tear it down.  Found a good guide on LS1tech to make sure I didn’t miss any wires, connections, or anything else important, and worked getting the drivetrain out the bottom of the car:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-maintenance-repairs/857641-how-remove-engine-bottom-ls1-fbody.html

And voila!  Dropped out on the first try:

Made me a little nervous, but I got the whole front cradle out as a mobile unit, and rolled it into a corner of the garage.  Then I built a 2x4 front end for the parts car and rolled it out of the garage.  Still need to harvest the rear axle and fuel tank, but that will come later. 

Got the engine on a stand, labeled and removed the wiring harness, and started to plan out what is needed.  At the very least I am planning the rocker arm bearing reliability upgrade, a lightweight flywheel, and maybe a cam to up the powerband a little bit.  I would like to rev it to ~7000rpm, for no reason other than I think every sporty car should have an S2000 type pull up top at a redline that very slightly worries you.  That intention may not come across the right way, I’m sure people are saying to themselves, “S2000s have no torque!  Why are you emulating that?  What about reliability?  Etc.”  From what I can tell, a stock LS1 should handle occasional jaunts to 7K with better rod bolts and some common sense.  And I am less worried about the objective power numbers than I was 10-20 years ago.  I care a lot more about what makes me smile.  And the sound an engine makes at full song puts a big smile on my face so…..high redline.  It’s my car, if it blows up you can say I told you so.  But LS1’s are cheap, I’ll probably just try again

Oh, and the stock ’88 tach goes to 7K.  I want to make it not a liar, because a 350 TPI motor is about done by 4500rpm. 

Sidebar, those shiny 6 spoke wheels didn't come with the T/A.  I bought those specifically for the camaro.  Was just checking fitment to make sure they'd work.  Hoping it gives it a nice, modern look.

I own a 3rd and a 4th gen. The 4th is a little more comfortable on long trips, but the third is more fun to drive. Both turn a surprising amount of heads!

The pedals and hydraulics are going to require the most patience as far as the transmission part of the swap goes. 

Yay! A manual swap, now the thread is worth reading! 

I have a friend who's basically addicted to 2nd gen camaro but he recently purchased a 3rd gen. I'm a closet fan of them, I find as I age I have less brand loyalty and more just a fan of nice older cars so I'll follow along! 

I like those wheels and think they would look great on your 3rd gen.  What are they?

Very cool project.  

They look like SSRs to me, but could be copies or similar

GCrites80s said:

The pedals and hydraulics are going to require the most patience as far as the transmission part of the swap goes. 

I'm hoping it won't be too bad.  I did an auto --> manual conversion to a '91 RS Convertible back in college, though that was a T5.  A few extra holes to cut in the firewall and trans tunnel, but when I was done everything worked liked stock (neutral safety switch, reverse lights, etc.).  Fingers crossed that it was competence and not a fluke. 

pres589 said:

I like those wheels and think they would look great on your 3rd gen.  What are they?

Very cool project.  

Thanks!  TR (Tire Rack) Motorsports brand.  They are very similar to SSRs. 

Flynlow said:

GCrites80s said:

The pedals and hydraulics are going to require the most patience as far as the transmission part of the swap goes. 

I'm hoping it won't be too bad.  I did an auto --> manual conversion to a '91 RS Convertible back in college, though that was a T5.  A few extra holes to cut in the firewall and trans tunnel, but when I was done everything worked liked stock (neutral safety switch, reverse lights, etc.).  Fingers crossed that it was competence and not a fluke haha. 

The 4th gen pedal assembly is the tougher swap than the 3rd gen pedal assembly. The holes are pretty much the same, but there is a lot more extra metal on the 4th gen pedals to fight to get in there. If you can get 3rd gen pedals really easily use them. But 4th gen pedals aren't the end of the world. Everything else is basically the same as a T-5 swap.

Weigh In and Getting Started

All of the above is background, stuff I have been working on the last few months, and finally got around to putting down on paper. I am horrible at documenting things, but I hope I can work on that a little here.

Another side goal of this whole project was to knock a couple hundred pounds off the car so I can thumb my nose at today’s 3600+ lb ponycars :P. To do that, I needed to know what she weighs bone-stock. My car is not a lightweight 1LE model. It has A/C, power everything, iron block/heads, automatic, a steel driveshaft, etc. So not crossing my fingers here.

Borrowed my buddy's scales, zeroed them out, and away we go:

So yeah.  A bit heavy.  But ~3400 lbs isn't a terrible starting point.  Side to side and cross weights look decent, just need to get some weight off the nose.  The car was also on fumes, just enough fuel to drive it into the garage.  I will try to do the same once the car is done to keep the fuel load similar.

Planned weight reduction:

• Iron block/iron heads --> Aluminum block/aluminum heads
• Auto --> Manual (though T56 is a heavy monster)
• Lightweight flywheel
• Steel --> Aluminum Driveshaft
• Steel 3rd gen --> Plastic 4th gen fuel tank
• Stock power seats --> Manual recaro seat

Pie in the sky dreaming weight reduction:

• Stock steel hood --> Stock appearing CF hood
• Maybe tubular a-arms, not sure about street driven durability concerns there.  I ruled out a tubular crossmember for the same reason.

And, since I had the scales, I figured I should make the best of it.  Weighed my Cappuccino:

Full fuel, A/C, floor mats, everything.  Lotus Elise eat your heart out.  'Cause that's funny to me. 

Didn't get much done this weekend on the Camaro, unfortunately.  On the bright side, I helped my sister and her husband work on their new (early 1900s) home.  The tub fixtures had some corrosion, and when I broke it all apart, the drain tube had a pinhole in the top of it!  So, wasn't long for this world.  Out with the old, in with the new:

And I spent the rest of the weekend on a ladder removing wallpaper from the stairwell with a steamer.  No pictures of that, but it was entertaining and mildly terrifying.  I tried not to overreach (pun intended) that high up. 

Today I did stay home to do some daily driver maintenance.  I did a full brake job on the Subaru about a year and a half ago.  To my surprise and disappointment, the calipers I bought from Rock Auto have seized.  The front left, in particular, had to be hammered off the rotor.  Not sure if I selected the wrong grade of parts, or if I just got a bad batch, but very disappointed. 

I had noticed the caliper body was rusting MUCH faster than the OEM, I guess the company skimped on the zinc coating during the core rebuild.  Also, the pistons themselves were rusting, and looked to be a pretty E36 M3ty casting vs. what appears to be stainless on the new ones:

I checked the warranty, and it was 3 months/3K miles, so obviously they knew they were junk too.  New ones are lifetime warranty.  Ah well, live and learn.  I may send Rock Auto a grumpy letter though, because I do feel someone not paying attention (ie not a car person) could have been in danger.  Brakes are right up there with tires for your connection to the road and controlling a vehicle.  It may be time to drop this particular brand from their catalog.  Over the course of about 3 weeks, I noticed the following symptoms: dropping fuel economy (28-->26-->24 mpg), then I noticed the front left was uncomfortably warm when I got home from work, 2-3 days later the brakes were popping and grinding and I took the Impreza off the road until it was fixed....in case anyone encounters the same in the future, hopefully they can learn from my mistakes. 

On the personal front, my girlfriend of 2.5 years and I decided to call it quits.  We were long distance (I work in NJ, live in DE, and maintain my former house in VA...confused yet? me too), she lives in VA.  I am really sad that it ended, but relieved in a small way too.  I don't think I was at my best long distance.  I don't do Facebook, Instagram, or other social media, and cell phones and monthly visits only get you so far.  I think she was on the same page, and that we were both getting a bit frustrated, without much chance of the distance being fixed any time soon.  Hopefully we each eventually find someone local to us that makes us happy.  That's all you can really hope for, right?  Been about a week now, and I am endeavoring to use my extra free time and resources to finish the camaro, rather than getting drunk in the local college town's bars.  Ha!  Look at me being productive in my grief!

You can street drive tubular suspension without too much discomfort.  My IROC had rod ends at every suspension joint (all rear arms, front lower a-arms and camber plates), stiff lowering springs, and it was ok for 3 hour trips, but I was in college at the time, so I was probably more tolerant.

Aluminum SBC blocks are not all that cheap or that easily attainable. And believe it or not a LS1/T56 swap doesn't save that much weight over an SBC/700R4 with aluminum heads. My 4th gen aluminum driveshaft saved 4lbs over stock; so did my Fidanza flywheel (over a stock LT1 T56 flywheel).