I bought my old 93 Z28 back, now it needs some TLC

[jderry]

I know your cam is a bit bigger too. Ill have to see what they have at work. Would autozone possibly have something?

Oh, I thought they were similar.
Anyways, my friend has a 1993 Camaro with a V6, the snap on brick I have works on his car just fine.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

by snap on brick, do you mean a scanner or actual Snap On? If so MT2500 or Solus? Either one isn't exactly cheap, but I've always wondered how well they work.

[jderry]

by snap on brick, do you mean a scanner or actual Snap On? If so MT2500 or Solus? Either one isn't exactly cheap, but I've always wondered how well they work.

MT2500, it works pretty well.
I like it for stuff like my Camaro, that has an OBD2 port with OBD1 computer.

I got it for graduation but you can get them all day long for ~$200 now on ebay or craigslist with more accessories then I have.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

I was looking into the MT2500 a little bit because of the bidirectional controls, very beneficial for diagnosing, but I never found what cars were capable of it.

For $175 I can get a Moates Ostrich2, gets me real time info and on the fly tuning capabilities. It might even work for the 93 PCM.

[mcalus]

So what would I be best off with? The software is $60 plus a cable incase the USB gives me crap, another $60. Would I be better off spending the extra $55 on the snap on MT2500?

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Software is free, hardware is not. Getting a laptop and the OBDI datastream to hump is the biggest issue I have a working OBDI setup w/ laptop you can borrow if you'd like, you aren't around the corner though.

I was going to pull the trigger on an Ostrich2 today but I decided to hold off once I figure out to do with my now smashed 98 :\

[mcalus]

With winter right around the corner I want to get back into working on ole girl.

As many of you have seen that I have had it up for sale for most of the summer, at a decent price IMO.

2 reasons I had it up for sale: A house, I have been doing great at saving money, not eating out for lunch or dinner, cutting back on unneeded things as well. I know a lot of you will say keep the car and buy a house until I can afford both which kinda goes towards my second reason of selling it. It just isn't as fun anymore. I enjoy working on it more than I do driving it. Weird I know.... I like taking something that is broken or looks like crap and making it new again, it's rewarding to myself.

Swapping it to the 6 speed was a great experience for me. Would I ever do it again? Maybe, but it was quite the learning experience. I thought swapping her would make it more enjoyable to drive, it has been but nothing like I expected it to.

If anyone has any tips on making it more enjoyable for me I'm all ears. I have debated swapping it to an LSX and doing a turbo build but I love the 97+ dash better as well as the 98-02 front end, all interchangable but it just isn't the same (to me). Then it makes me feel like I have this hacked together Frankenstein car.

This winter I am going to focus on getting a bunch of small issues taken care of. Hopefully they won't be too costly since I'm still saving for a house since I walked away from the last one I put an offer in on. That's a whole nother story.


Drivers window regulator, needs to be replaced. I'm going to have a body guy at work do it for me since he owes me some favors to say the least. I planned on getting this done before she rolls into the garage befor winter.

AC dryer has been sitting around needing to be installed (new from rock auto) then ill charge the a/c.

HID ballasts, now that I have some usable headlights that are worth a crap I need to hide the ballasts a bit better and secure them better than zip ties.

Tune, she's still on the A4 tune so the speedo isn't working. Pcmforless has a $50 retune. I want a dyno tune but I'm still not sure if I'm completely done with mods just yet. I also need to investigate if I have a false knock from my LTs.

Window wiper motor, it works when it wants to. Need to investigate.

As for performance-
Im still running a stock TB, should I port it? Get it ported? Buy a new aftermarket?
Still debating a lid swap.
Might be picking up an OEM SS hood if the guy and I settle on a price.

I'm sure ill come across more issues that a re a bother but in the mean time this is the small list. Hope y'all aren't sick of this thread justttt yet.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Don't go to a 52mm throttle body, your setup doesn't need it. 48mm at most, and the airfoil does help. A proper tune will be the most beneficial. Being a 93, might be hard to find someone willing to tune it. I have the software and hardware to burn these chips but nothing more than a street tune.

[c0ncEpT]

I have debated swapping it to an LSX and doing a turbo build

If you really do like working on the car this is the way to go. Turbo builds are a pain!

[Boost Addict]

I'm extremely pleased with my gen III swap in my car. Made the car so much more enjoyable than the LT1.

But like Mike said, if you like working on the car, and having to re-invent the wheel, go turbo. Dealing with this right now.

[mcalus]

Don't go to a 52mm throttle body, your setup doesn't need it. 48mm at most, and the airfoil does help. A proper tune will be the most beneficial. Being a 93, might be hard to find someone willing to tune it. I have the software and hardware to burn these chips but nothing more than a street tune.

Stock tb is 48mm
The reason I ask about the TB is in gm high tech's Nov 2013 issue it has an lt1 "fact or fiction". Jumping to a 52mm tpis made an extra 6 hp and 8ft lbs of tq with stock heads and cam.

edit: and as for swapping to an lt1 I really think I would benefit selling this car and buying a 99-02. I doubt I'd be able to sell the lt1 motor and trans easily, which it would sit like the 700r4 is doing.

I don't have that much on my car this is a high dollar part that I can't easily replace.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

I think I had it wrong, 52 ok but 58 too much?

LT1, with the short runner volume, can actually perform worse with too large of a TB. Friend of mine only saw a benefit with the big Holley TB after he had his built 385 LT1. Then again, I'm not very well versed in LT1. Worked on them a bit, never owned one.

My TPI will never see the RPM to benefit from 58mm. Maybe a slight increase with a 52, but I'd rather try to keep the car as streetable as I can with the stupid cam I put in

[JoeliusZ28]

I agree with Michael (H). Im still running the stock 48mm with an airfoil and im making 370rwhp. If you dont have an LS1 lid yet, the tb is not the choke point. Swapping my CAI to a lid made about as much difference up top as putting headers on when my engine was stock...night and day difference.

All that said, im curious if a 52mm tb would make a difference on my car.... Not sure its worth the cost/work though.

Also give us some more detail on why its not fun to drive? My car is a blast to drive. I have no desire to lsx swap it unless maybe it was a wicked LS7 like Kolin's. Perfectly content with the LT1 here.

[mcalus]

If gm high tech performance found out the stock tb was a choke point on their stock head cam lt1 in sure we would both benefit from it. I doubt they were running a lid setup but ill have to check. A lid setup is in the near future for sure that's one reason I'm not sure I want to dyno tune it just yet.

Also, has anyone had any test results at the track with a cai vs lid setup?

[birdie2000]

I've gotta second Joel's question... What about it makes it not enjoyable for you? Why wasn't the 6-speed swap like you expected?

We need some insight into what you like/think is lacking. What makes the car more enjoyable to me might make the car awful for you.


Also, if you're gonna upgrade the TB, get a bored-out stock TB. There are people on ebay who bore them out to 52mm. I believe it's cheaper, but more importantly it has the proper IAC passages which from my understanding most (if not all) aftermarket ones don't have.