New to me El Camino

[kornball426]

Well I passed on that roller El Camino I was thinking about, and this one popped up and I jumped on it. It's an 83 and it belonged to a nice older gentleman who was unloading most of his possessions to move down south and retire.

It has a kinda poorly done paint job but it looks good from 10-20 feet and runs and drives 305 sbc with I assume TH350 maybe a TH200 honestly didn't even pay attention to the transmission, it will be coming out anyway. Runs pretty good drove it like 25 miles home. Has a nice steel 2 inch cowl induction hood. It's missing a trim piece in the pics but I have it, and I haven't washed it yet, it's pretty dirty.

Seat needs to be recovered, was wondering if anyone has suggestions for a bench that will bolt right in or close to it that might be cheaper and nicer to swap in than recover the stock bench?

 

[Max Headroom]

Nice pick up. Should be a sweet ride.

 

[ck80]

Smart move to pass on the other heap, in the long run you're going to be 100x better off.

 

[RustBucket]

Nice.

 

[kornball426]

Nice pick up. Should be a sweet ride.

I already kinda love it... I'll like it a lot better with a decent engine in it. It's so incredibly slow with the stock 305.

I want to do a 6 liter LS engine and then maybe turbo it down the road. But in terms of ease I'm tempted to just put a 350 or 383 vortec headed gen 1 small block in it. Pretty sure I'll be happier in the long run with an LS engine though.

Getting an overdrive gear will be great too, was running around 4,000 rpm on the highway doing like 65 which sucks! My daily driver will do 120 at about the same rpm haha. I don't know what the rear end ratio is but it must be really steep, and even with those gears it won't break the tires loose if you gun it from a stop. Basically just gutless.

 

[kornball426]

Smart move to pass on the other heap, in the long run you're going to be 100x better off.

I agree other than I wish I had the 8.5 rear out of the other one.

I regret trading the bolt in G body 9 inch I had. Was a Strange housing with 35 spline chromoly shafts, aluminum center section, and wilwood disk brakes. Definitely wish I still had it, it would be going in this car. But oh well, guess I'll just have to shop around for a rear for this car.

 

[lilbowtie]

Much better choice!

 

[ck80]

I agree other than I wish I had the 8.5 rear out of the other one.

I regret trading the bolt in G body 9 inch I had. Was a Strange housing with 35 spline chromoly shafts, aluminum center section, and wilwood disk brakes. Definitely wish I still had it, it would be going in this car. But oh well, guess I'll just have to shop around for a rear for this car.

You can't trust that the 8.5 in the other car was much good anyways. Could've been worn out every which way. Besides which, it's cheaper to buy a rear end than fix everything else that was wrong with that car.

By the time to fully rebuild an 8.5 you could build something else. The only place you really almost need an 8.5 is in a 84 hurst, a 442, or a turbo regal if you want it correct.

 

[kornball426]

You can't trust that the 8.5 in the other car was much good anyways. Could've been worn out every which way. Besides which, it's cheaper to buy a rear end than fix everything else that was wrong with that car.

By the time to fully rebuild an 8.5 you could build something else. The only place you really almost need an 8.5 is in a 84 hurst, a 442, or a turbo regal if you want it correct.

I can trust that it's better than the 7.5 inch rear in this car. 🤮

Honestly the body on the other car was about as nice as this car... Interior was about the same as well. Thing this one has going for it is a clean title (very important to me), and I could drive it home.

And as gutless as the 305 is, at least I can go pick up big parts in this with ease instead of trying to wedge stuff into my GTI (which is absolutely mint I don't want to dirty up the interior). My main reason for wanting an El Camino is for hauling stuff which has been difficult since I sold my truck over a year ago.

 

[Max Headroom]

I already kinda love it... I'll like it a lot better with a decent engine in it. It's so incredibly slow with the stock 305.

I want to do a 6 liter LS engine and then maybe turbo it down the road. But in terms of ease I'm tempted to just put a 350 or 383 vortec headed gen 1 small block in it. Pretty sure I'll be happier in the long run with an LS engine though.

Getting an overdrive gear will be great too, was running around 4,000 rpm on the highway doing like 65 which sucks! My daily driver will do 120 at about the same rpm haha. I don't know what the rear end ratio is but it must be really steep, and even with those gears it won't break the tires loose if you gun it from a stop. Basically just gutless.

I have an 84 camino in my shop under about three tons of crap. Useful crap but crap just the same. Hopefully, this summer I will get a chance to put it on the road. About 14 years ago, I took two 4 bolt main 350s and built some really nice stroker bottom ends. I never finished them because work kept sending me places away from home. I did however manage to keep the engines lubed and in good condition. I recently (a couple of years ago) bought an inexpensive set of aluminum closed chamber heads, I will work them some and they will go on one of the strokers, which will then go into the camino.

Like you, I don't like a non-overdrive trans, so I bought a built 200-4-r. It's rated at 500 hp. I plan to hook that to the stroker for the camino.

I personally don't fool with a lot of computer controlled equipment. I think the power gains over old style stuff is not worth the crap you go through figuring out what went wrong when they break. I don't plan on spending the money to buy the diagnostic equipment needed to do that. Anyway what I have in my 78 Malibu is a gm roller motor from 87. It runs well and makes plenty power for the money I put in it. Eventually, the second stroker will go into the Malibu.

This stuff takes time.