DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

I've been chewing on this for a few months now. I still don't know what to do.

Here's the basic history:

I had a 2005 subaru legacy, it was paid off.. and I had a 2005 chevy silverado as a truck for the house that I owed ~20k on.

Well we had a bad flood come through atlanta bout 2 years ago and it ripped a hole ni my roof. So.. I had to come up with $5k QUICK. Insurance refused to cover it because of the age of my roof.

Regretablly.. I sold my 2005 subaru for $9k, daily drove the truck.

Well I HATED DDing the truck, so after 11 months of it I traded it in on a 2007 vette. I'd always wanted one and I loved the car, but living in Atlanta and owning a home it posed a problem. PLUS.. it was out of warranty, was my daily driver.. and was CONSTANTLY having expensive problems.

So eventually.. with winter looming..I bit my tongue and traded it in on a 2010 gmc pickup and just said.. screw it.. I'll drive this even though I hate it.. to put up with winter, and to work on the house.

Well lead foot's disease is a hard one to kill.. I had to do something orI was going to flog my poor truck's 5.3 to death.. and with gas costing me $85 a week I just couldn't.. so I saved up $4500 and bought in cash my beater 2000 camaro z28.



It had it's fair share of problems. Broken and fogged headlights, non working fogs, a cracked driver's fender, a broken driver's door at the hinge, a broken passenger side door handle, purple cloth interior, non working a/c a rough idle, slow as dirt, rough shifting bald tires no brakes bad steering.. the list goes on and on.

Fast forward to this last weekend..



I got leather seats and an SS hood off a guy here on the forums, full tune-up, cleaned the TB, new steering rack, pump, hoses, new alt, fixed the a/c with a recharge and it blows ice cold, picked up a set of 17" SS rims off a guy here in ATL, new tires, new radio.. car runs and drives me to work every day and gets 20mpg doing it.

I love the car, but it has a WAYS to go.. one of which has me looking into a new motor. See, the car's too slow and I don't think the bottom end is good enough at 130k miles to be cramming power into it. so.. by my standards, I'm looking at a good $25-30k worth of investment MORE into this car.

It's been posed to me several times now to sell it, and pick up an 08 vette as a 2nd car, keep the truck.. since I'm going to be spending $30k on a car anyway..

I dunno what to do.. I don't even know what this camaro would even be worth right now. It looks better but it's still in need of a LOT of TLC.

Thoughts?

Conrad

iTrader: (20)

I'd choose the vette over a modded camaro. Financially the vette will probably be the better choice. When you go to sell the modded camaro you're only going to get 1/3 of your investment back on the mods. You'll be happier in the vette, factory it performs very well.

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

Hadn't thought of that. Good call.

I just figure rather than dumping $30k into an old beater car that's still going to be an old beater car after that money is in it (I added it up ballparking a few ago, came out to nearly $40k including the car. )

I could just..ya know.. buy a car that's $30k that's already got the power I'm trying to get to.. without the beater-ness.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

The way I see it, you have two reasonable options:

1) Sell the car, take that money plus the ~$30k you were going to spend on it, and buy the '08 C6.

2) Sell the car, and take that money plus a few grand (from the pool of $30k) and buy a much nicer condition, lower mileage F-body. If you get one that doesn't need all that work, with low miles and a strong engine/drivetrain, you'll be able to attain LS3-C6-level acceleration/power for a small portion of that $30k. Also, you might be able to find a really nice, well modded F-body for initial purchase, saving you even more by not having to buy certain mods yourself.

So the deciding factor, IMO, is whether or not you actually want a Corvette, or just a nicer condition F-body that's much faster. If you go with option #2, you could use some of that left over cash to pay off the GMC truck, assuming you have a loan.

LeanPocket

iTrader: (6)

^^ this

also might want to consider a c5 z jus sayin'

jus to add something, since u put in alot of time and work into yer fbody, it might be a nice to keep it and work on it lil by lil and it'll be a nice weekend warrior. You did a very nice job fixing it up, my vote is to keep it up!

Either way I hope everything goes good for you, GL OP

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

I do, it's a0% loan so I haven't been in any rush to pay it down since my "return" is 0%.

if any debt I shoudl be paying down it's my mortgage.

I've considered selling the car and buying nothing. The truck CAN get 19mpg city, but it doesn't unless I baby it. The cost of insurance on Fbodys as many of you know is RIDICULOUS for an old car like this. If I save up $30k I could actually move and be closer to work..

of course, I don't HAVE to sell the car.. I could keep the car, save up the money and just drive it as is until it dies, then sell it as a roller on here or part it out.

JJR

I would say sell the Camaro and get the Vette. For the money, the corvette is the better running vehicle. More power and better reliability. How often do you see a (newer) vette broken down on the side of the road? Never.

Interesting thought. Why not pay off the GMC and just drive the camaro? That way you would have 2 paid-off vehicles. You could park the truck(or sell it) and drive the camaro. With what you have had done to the camaro it shouldn't have any issues for awhile, providing you keep up with the maintenance.

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

The camaro has engine transmission and rearend problems. This is why I am considering doing anything at all. Even though the car gets me work and back, and I take it on trips, it has a lot of issues, and is in need of a full powertrain.

This is a very high cost as you can imagine.. I CAN cut corners.. but I really don't want to. I feel like I've cut far too many on this car as it is, but it will be a financial drain no matter how you slice it. I've spent far too many hours already looking on here, working with engine builders and on TSP's site configuring engines.. I simply won't be getting a new motor in this car for less than $16k within any acceptability.

As it is, I'm thinking my best bet is to do what you're saying.. drive the camaro until it dies, part it out or sell it as a roller if/when it does (if it dies from say a spun rod bearing or something else that requires a new bottom end..)

As to what to do from there.. well I guess $30k goes a long way on a lot of things. Still.. the idea of daily driving this truck again is not something I want to do.. so I'd rather owe a 0% loan on it and have a paid off vette than to owe a 6% loan on a vette and have a paid off truck.

Element

iTrader: (5)

Sell the Camaro and if you want something to wrench on during the weekends, find a better-condition f-body and start over with that. If you don't want to wrench, sell the Camaro, trade the truck on a newer Corvette, and if you still need 4x4 or towing capability, buy an older Silverado/Sierra.

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

I can't trade the truck. I need it for the house for one, and for another it's probably worth less than I owe.

I guess the issue is just the cost on this car. I mean if I could get it up to speed for another $5k I'd say let's do this.. but it's just not looking like that's the case.

wav3form

iTrader: (1)

I never see Gen 4 camaros broken down on the road. I think the vette comment has more to do with people that own them rarely driving them except on nice days.

wav3form

iTrader: (1)

Why don't you just rebuild the engine, do heads/cam and get a beefier rear end? That should be quite a bit less than 30 grand. Or you could just pay off the truck and trade the Z for an '02 Z06.

nmbr5ml

If you look around a bit, especially in a city as big as Atlanta, I'd bet you can find a low-mile LS1 and a T56 for 3-5K (much cheaper for a 4L60E), assuming you would be doing the swap yourself. I was just looking at craigslist here in Omaha and a guy is selling a low-mile LS2 and T56 for 6K, and this stuff is hard to find in our area. If you don't have the space/tools to do it yourself then yeah, it would be a lot more expensive, but if you do, you could make it reliable and fast for well under 10K, and of course, some elbow grease.

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN98awbhxwM

Here's a video of one of the noises it makes. It only does this when it's cold and HOW cold it is determines how loud it is. The car has what I would consider very poor performance, but it may have the 2.73 gears (the sticker is torn off on the door.. )

in order to be "in spec" I'll need a replacement rearend ($3k..) a tranny, and I don't want to go with a 60 or an m6 conversion, so I'd have to go with an 80e conversion which is ~$4k.. then when you're looking at engine builds.. a SHORTblock from a place like TSP (408..) is like $6k . The cheapest I can get a long block from them configured like I want is $8k.. and there's LOTS of nickel and dime in between all of that from fuel system to suspension to basics like water pumps and gaskets.

A friend of mine is trying to convince me to drop a used lq4/9 bottom end into it, get a rebuilt 60 and a 10 bolt from an m6 guy that's in good condition to do it on the cheap. I'm considering it.. I gotta get my parts list together first on that one.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

If the only thing wrong with the rear is that you don't like the gear ratio, don't worry about replacing it over that. You can take care of this issue at the same time as the trans rebuild, with a higher stall converter. Even a 2.73 car will hit hard from launch OR a high speed roll with a 3500+ stall. At that point, even going to a 3.73 will net only a minor gain.

PS. I've owned multiple 3.23 and 2.73 LS1s, there isn't a drastic difference between the two IMO. If you are experiencing "very poor performance", as compared to other A4 LS1s, it's not the gears.

NC01TA

Wow! You are in the very envious territory, money-wise, to buy a 'new' 2001 -2002 LS1 Camaro or T/A. The sub 10,000 miles 'like new' cars are all selling in the 20's. They are time capsules for those that missed out buying them new 10 years ago. What an opportunity. Doesn't this interest you at all?

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

The hardest part really for me has been determining what all this car needs, and how to go about it. The way I WANT to do things.. a new stock quality paint job (same color..) fix all the dents scratches dings, busted hinges, new full suspension, new 408, 4L80E 12 bolt/9" rear.. re-upholstered leather, new full exhaust etc. This is where I'm getting the $35k part. I'm practically building a new car.

Well, put it this way.. that 2010 GMC 4wd 5.3/6L80E truck I have.. the only mod it has is a blackbear tune.. I'd say in a race from a stop the camaro would only barely edge it out.. from a roll the truck would destroy the car.

I've been counting the engine out really from the first time I started hearing these noises. The previous owner warmed it up a lot before I test drove it and didn't mention them. (my fault.. this is my 1st fbody and 1st "ls1" car, though, I've had "lsx" type vehicles for a long time.. 5.3s, 6.0s, ls2s..) but I guess I didn't think about them being so expensive at the time.

Just went out and checked the oil. I changed it about 2000 miles ago. the rear main seal leaks so I have to keep a pan under the car when it's garaged. Ya ever smell boat/2 stroke exhaust? That's what my oil smells like.. (it's rather strong, I don't usually sniff my oil. ) it's about a qt low but it's still pretty warm from the commute. I'll probably change it this weekend.

All in all. I'd say the motor is "bad".. poor performance, noise.. if I can swap in a good donor 6.0 I can probably take care of that. think I can do a donor 6.0 with a good top end (lsa heads maybe.. ls6 intake, car cam, rebuilt 60E with a new stall) for the ~$5k range? I can do MOST of it myself.. I'm not sure about swapping a motor in this car but.. maybe if I can get enough guys together, an engine lift for safety, some cinder blocks and jack stands I can get this thing high enough in the driveway to roll out the k member and swap it myself..

LeanPocket

iTrader: (6)

i bought mine around that mileage for 13k

in houston they had one with 1k miles going for about 20k
(http://camaroforsaleshop.com/camaro-...OPS-SPOILER-1K)