My goal...

Take this 1994 Camaro Z/28 with 130,000 miles that I bought for $3500 and turn it into a low 10 second/high 9 second street/strip car.

Bought with:
MSD Opti Spark
Shorty Headers of some kind
Moroso CAI
3 inch Y Pipe
Flowmaster Muffler?
Salad Shooter Rims (updated to chrome 5-spokes)

Added:
Stainless steel 3.5 inch exhaust tips
MSD plug wires
Summit Race Seats
2000 Z28 Chrome Rims
SS spoiler
Limo Tinted Windows
Blacked Out Lights
Retro z/28 Emblems

Lost:
Air Conditioning
Emission Stuff
Heater and tubing
Front/Rear Bumper Supports
Air Bags
Front Seats (Replaced with Summit Seats)
Door Speakers and Rear Speakers
Spare Tire and Floor Jack
Front Sway Bay
P/S (finished)
Door Bars (still trying to get out)

Plans:
Lose as much weight as possible
Roll cage
SFCs
Set up the suspension for drag racing
Weld Pro Stars 15x4s and 15x8's with MT ET Drags (already have)
Nitrous
line lock and delete abs
9 inch rear end
Th350 or Th400
LT1 383 or 396
Cowl Induction or SS hood

So instead of just gutting the car and doing everything at once and have the car down for years, I am going to add stuff and race it and post times and keep going until i hit my goal. I want to spray the current engine, see how long the 130000 mile engine will go for along with the trans and rear.

Here are some pictures of it as it sits right now. I know its filthy, had the accessory drive system off, so havent taken it to the car wash in a couple weeks. Would like to wax it before the snow comes.

 

ive got a 96 firebird, with about the same mods, and a "big" shot of n20, and i'm at 11.50's, so with a cam and maybe heads 10's would be doable, just not sure how long it would last like that tho..

 

im doin wat u r and am in the process of buildin a 383 wit probably AI 200cc heads custom cam and a 200 shot and we feel we'll be able to hit high high 9s low 10s through the t56 and a 9"

 

I would gut the pis out of the car if your not going to put any street miles on it. I will help out a lot, and be dam cheap. But at the same time the faster you go the more safety items you will have to add on the car.

to run high 10s your going to need a **** ton of nitrous with only half of the bolt ons. And with 130k its not going to live long on a 150+ shot.

I could see you going high 10s with a n2o stall, proper suspension, LT's with a cutout, and a 175 shot. But the trans and rear wont live too long. I think your going to hard a time reaching your goal without a built motor but good luck.

 

Oh no, i dont plan on hitting 10s with this engine! lol My goal for this engine is to run a 12 something. I just plan on running this until it blows or i pick up a spare engine and build it into a 383 or 396, whichever comes first. Maybe once i have a spare engine built and ready to go, i will spray the **** out of this one until it goes BANG!

 

Im doing something similar with my car, but I've got a 6-speed. Im barely trying to get the hang of launching the car on street tires before I put the slicks on. My car is a garage queen, and its pretty much gutted save for the top layer of carpet and crash bars from the doors. Im guessing the car should be close to 29xxlbs if I removed those little things.

Id like to see how far you go with the stock bottom end, keep us posted.

 

damn bro, just looked at ure car, freaky how similar our cars are, black outs rear and corner lights, no fog lights, had chrome 5 stars when i got it. Well have to meet up and you check out my car and ill show you how to shave hundreds of lbs off, lol.

 

What did you do with the salad shooters?

 

x3 with the same setup. I've also got all the lights blacked out and a pin on hood. Mine needs a little more weight reduction to be where yours is at, but damn I wish mine was hardtop as well. Guess the t-tops help since I have no a/c or stereo...LOL!!!!

 

Hell, just come on by sometime and start yanking stuff out! i think i have most of it, still trying to get these d@mn door bars out and then the exhaust heat sheilds, other than that i'm not sure what else i can do to loose some weight. I want a fiberglass hood, but right now with christmas, money is kinda tight.

 

I gave them to my buddy to use on his 34 Ford Truck/S-10 hybrid thing hes doing, but they are just sitting in the same spot i dropped them off it, were you looking for a set?

 

Yep

Good luck on the build too.

 

Along the way I am going to be keeping track of what is spent on parts and post any changes and try to do write ups on little tricks or stuff I discover along the way. I will post time slips until I get to my goal. So far the car hasnt been to the track, but I'm going to guess if i raced it "as is" right now, I would get a high 13 second timeslip.

I am going to try and hit the junkyard though on Monday and see if I can pick up some decent sunvisors, somet-tops that arent scratched, and I need the little bracket that attaches the fenders to the front bumper. I believe from the factory it was rivited to the tops of the bumper and one bolt attaches it to the fender. Right now where the fender meets the top part of the bumper, its a little loose. Cant find this bracket anywhere Although this has nothing performance related, its really all I need as far as the "Restoration" part of the car goes.

 

They're not going to fit.

 

Good luck on your project. I'm doing something similar with my 93 except I'm putting a LS1 in it at this point. If you're looking for ways to take weight out you can check out the link in my sig.

 

Yeah, reading your thread gave me the inspiration for doing this. Thank you for the detailed write up. I wanted to go fast for as little as possible and the lighter you make your car, the easier it is to go faster. I as well want to keep the interior stock, minus the gauges, cage, and rear seats taken out. But the dash is pretty much just a shell right now, there is not a whole lot behind there anymore. I am having a hard time trying to get these door bars out. I dont have a cutoff wheel handy, so I want to try and unbolt the bars and slide them out in the wheelwells. I have the back bolts out, but i cant get on those front ones

 

^ No problem. Hopefully, I can update it at some point. I did a write up on removing the door bars and making your doors super light. I took about 26lbs total out of both doors.

http://lsxextreme.com/showthread.php?t=833

 

Ok, I purchased an alternator relocate kit from Jerry on this board which also eliminates the power steering. Now all I have is the crank pulley and the alternator pulley. Hopefully this will free up some weight and horsepower down the road.

Also picked up some sheet metal to cover the huge hole in the firewall after I tore the heat and A/C out. I took the firewall gasket, layed it down on the sheet metal, marked an outline and marked where the bolt holes where so i can just trim the piece I need and bolt everything up (Im going to paint this black before I put it on, so I will have the picture for that once I get it painted)

I guess lets start the price list...

Summit Race Seats with leather covers (bought used) $100
Alternator Relocate/PS Delete Bracket & Belt (bought used) $75
Sheet Metal for A/C/Heat-Delete Block Off Plate (Menards) $4.60

Here is the kit on Jerrys car...


And here is the kit waiting to go on the car

 

throw on a EWP and you notice how it revs faster without all the drag from everything else. PLUS that belt size is for a stock damper, if you have a UD pully youll need a shorter belt

 

do the hood delete mod ;]