Hey y’all. I’ve wanted a 4th gen Camaro/Firebird since I was a youngster. Welp, I’m turning 40 this year and I finally got one. I flew to St. Louis from TX to look at a ‘00 Z28 that had 27k miles on it and I ended up driving it back. It’s stock (I think) down the tape deck and 12 disc changer. Now all I need is 12 CD’s.. it’s an auto and if my research is correct it has the 3.23 rear gear. I’m fairly certain that it does because it was running something like 2,300 rpm or so around 70-75 mph. I’m new to the GM world, coming from the 90’s Mustang world, so y’all will probably have to help me a long a little. Here she is, thanks for having me.

 

She’s a beaut

 

Good looking car. Great base to start modding. A ls6 intake, higher stall with bigger trans cooler, wheels and tires, full exhaust and gears with a tune. You will have a nice and pretty fast car

 

Great looking car in nice shape! Congrats 😎

 

I’m thinking it’ll take more than the bolt-on game to make it quick enough to be relevant. Tune and exhaust will get me what 330-340 rear horse maybe? I’m not certain what a new Camaro puts down but a new Mustang GT puts down around 400 at the tire. One is peeing in the wind with bolt-ons if they’re starting 100 horsepower behind the 8-ball. If I had the money for a forced induction or a top end as well as all the other fuel and suspension, and in this world tans and rear end upgrades as well I’d get after it. But since I don’t I’m thinking staying stock is the best money spent. Or maybe I’d get into the bolt-on, stall, and sticky tire game if I was trying to run a 12.8 or whatever at the drags. But I don’t really wanna spend several thousands on 10-20 horses. It’d be loud and slow.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Sweet looking low mileage 00 Z28. It's a cool car as is and I'd enjoy as is for a while 😊 . If the mod bug bites looks like an excellent car to work with.

Truthfully, I have as much enjoyment normally daily driving my basic bolt on 02 Z28 with ~326 whp around as I do my 99 T/A with the 416 with ~517whp.

It's also pretty cool its ~300 to 500 pounds lighter than a new Camaro SS/LT1 or Mustang GT, that helps start to offset some of the power & 10 speed auto advantages of the newer cars.

An 00 Z28 w/4L60E will typically make ~265 whp to ~285 whp depending on which dyno on which day etc blah blah. My 02 Z28 made ~280whp stock with a ~quarter million miles on the engine & transmission.

Best mod for any LS1 fbody with a 4L60E willl be a high quality torque converter like Yank 3600SS or Vigilant or Circle D.

NA with a good heads & cam package can add ~125 to ~150 whp and hit 400+ whp to 425 whp very easily without breaking the bank. Depending on how much one wants to spend ~450 whp to ~475 is very doable to. Breaking 500whp will get expensive NA.

With Forced Induction ~500 to ~650+ ,whp is doable with a Procharger, MagnaCharger, turbo set up or other weapon of choice.

 

Welcome to the financial Mistake forums LOL....... A stall converter alone would net you some high to mid 12s

 

Since you have the 12 disc changer, you have the aux button. You could put bluetooth in the car then there would be no need to carry all those CDs

 

Unless you are heavily immersed in the world of street racing or track events where quickest possible ET is all that matters, I wouldn't worry about being "relevant". Someone will always be faster, and a goal of "trying to keep up" is expensive and frustrating IMO. But that doesn't mean you have to leave it totally stock either. Get it to a level that YOU find fun to drive, whether that's 10s or 12s doesn't really matter as long as it puts a smile on your face. Some of those bolt-ons mentioned above can make it a lot more fun to drive even if you can't beat a new LT1 or 5.0, just a matter of your personal idea of what is quick/fun. Exhaust and quality torque converter upgrades can offer huge improvements in sound and driving experience, IMO.

 

Sounds really lame. I think he should throw a record player in the back.

 

RPO codes for the rear are GU2 = 2.73 and GU5 = 3.23

 

I just got my 1972 Zenith turntable back up and running this week, found an N-O-S cartridge to replace the one I broke almost 3 years ago. Thankfully they are now reproducing the diamond/sapphire LP/78 needle for this application. Oh, sorry wrong forum.

Gotta put an 8-track player in my '98 Camaro next. I'd feel more at home with that, CDs are still feeling a bit modern for me.

 

Right!! I was about to bring up the 8 track.... I mention the bluetooth since I love having my own playlists with no commercials!

 

Well I purchased my first “mod.” It’s not exactly a mod as it is an “upgrade” I guess, but at any rate I ordered a set of lower control arms. I went with a set from Founders Performance that look exactly like the set that I have on my Ford, except the ones on the Ford were sold under the brand name J&M they (J&M) were a little more expensive. The bushings in the stock oem arms look to have seen better days, so why not replace the arms as well. The J&M’s I’m using in the other car have are the bees-knees and these Founders look identical so I’m hoping they’ll be just as good. I got them in black because red suspension pieces & bushings are for teenagers. 😂
Next one the agenda is to order a new trans mount & TQ arm bushing. Here shortly I’m going to take it in to hopefully just have the bearings & seals replaced in the rear and I think I’ll have them replace the trans mount & tq arm bushing while it’s there.

Waiting on the Libyan nationalist in the mall parking lot. My flux-capacitor is almost out of plutonium.

Rear Control Arm w/ 3 Piece Bushings. (Poly Ball)

 

Y2K frenzy - is your sail panel NBM? I only thought the Firebirds had the sail panel the same color as the body with the camaros having their sail panels black.

 

This is correct, the monochromatic roof option (RPO D82) was not available for V8 Camaros during the LS1 years. The only exceptions were the B4C "special service" (police package) cars, which got body colored roofs like the V6 cars, and the Z4C 35th Anniversary SS car (which all had red roofs to match the only color offered on that package). So a basic '00 Z28 would certainly have come from the factory with a black roof, regardless of body color.

But many of these late 4th gen roofs have been repainted at this point, even on low mile cars, due to the bubbling roof issue. Hopefully someone actually replaced the whole roof panel and prepped it properly, because if it's just a repaint then the bubbles will certainly come back.

 

Yeah they’re blue. It has had a re-spray at some point in its life, but I’m not sure if they used to be black or not. I believe ‘93/‘94 were the only years where black tops were “mandatory” for Z28’s, and I believe that it became an option after that.

 

Your 2000 Z28 would have come with a black roof, there was no other option. The RPO D82 "monochromatic roof/mirrors" option was only offered from (I think) 1995-'97 - it was definitely not extended into the 1998-'02 years. Starting in model year 2000, the mirrors would have been painted body color but not the roof (other than the exceptions I noted in the post above).

 

I just looked at the RPO’s and it looks like it was originally all black.

 

Yup I knew I wasn't going crazy. I wish the Firebirds were the same way as the black matches the ttops, dark windshield and hatch window. It just meshes better, same with the body color mirrors, the black mirrors just threw everything off.