1989 Camaro RS

reaver

Lockers Installed
Supporting Member
Location
Caldwell, ID
i love when this thread updates. keep it comin!

*heads off to fb to search for a camaro i dont need*
My wife would kill me if I bought another car that gets crappy gas mileage. I've resorted to driving her little hyundai veloster to work. 35mpg vs 17.5 I get in the Fronty.

Though I'd much rather drive the Fronty.

I really wanted a 4th Gen F body while I was in high school.

And a 5th Gen when they came out.

Maybe some day...
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
My wife would kill me if I bought another car that gets crappy gas mileage. I've resorted to driving her little hyundai veloster to work. 35mpg vs 17.5 I get in the Fronty.

Though I'd much rather drive the Fronty.

I really wanted a 4th Gen F body while I was in high school.

And a 5th Gen when they came out.

Maybe some day...
This thing get nearly 30mpg on the highway.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
Those 80s v8 cars do that. They're so light that the engine doesn't have to try hard at interstate speeds. The Mustang would do better than 30 highway back in the day. Maybe one day it will again.
That's another reason I don't want to mess with it much. Gonna bump the timing, headers and better exhaust, and some 3.23 gears with a good posi unit. Then just refine it to a cruiser.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
Installed a FS110 fan switch last night. Dropped the fan-on temp to around 230 instead of nearly 250. That should help keep the temps more reasonable in traffic.

Kinda looks like my water pump is weeping a little too. Never did see an actual drip but I could see some tracking along the neck.

I think I'm going to warm it back up tonight and check the timing. Maybe bump in a few degrees advance and see if that makes much of a difference
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
Downloaded ALDLdroid this weekend and watched some values in the ECM change. Looks like I have the 1988 only LO3 ECM. I'm going to play with it more this week and see what all I can see.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
OBD I is a whole nother world.
Yep, but with Tunerpro it's not awful. I need to decide on a tuning system though. I'm thinking the EBL Flash-II right now unless I can find a killer deal in a complete burner set up.

I got my mask figured out last night. It is the oddball $4D 1988 only ECM as I feared. But I was able to get good knock counts and IAC steps.

I checked the timing and base was -2° BTDC. Spec is 0° BTDC. I set it at +4° but that was a poor decision. I'm going to reset it to 0° this week and do some logging this weekend to establish a good baseline.

Mechanically bumping timing on these is a half-ass move, but I don't have tuning capabilities yet.

More reading and learning to come.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
Base timing is set back to 0° BTDC.

Also scoped out the bolt holes for the air dam. Looks like it's getting some hefty self tappers. All the OE holes are deformed.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
After work today I installed the FS113 fan switch. It's on at 215°F and off around 203°F. Combined with the newly installed air dam under the radiator, my engine stays nice and cool around town now.

During some test driving in the city this afternoon I never had the fan come on with even the slightest amount of motion and after sitting long enough for it to come on, the fan quickly dropped it to 200°F and then no hotter than 208°F for the short and slow drive back to the house.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
They are not. I haven't taken time to really clean them up and I've got more pressing projects in line before it.

I still need to reassemble that Kodiak 400 and decide if I'm going to sell it or not. And there's other things that need my attention before winter gets rolling.
 

TerryD

Total Tease
Supporting Member
Location
Covington, Va
Friday the oldest daughter and I hit the big cruise-in on Williamson Road in Roanoke with my buddy Matt and his Fox body.

1000007599.jpg

My night ended early due to a failed cooling fan. I tried to limp it out of traffic but it hit 260F+ and was boiling in the recovery tank. I shut it down, popped the hood and let it sit till it got below the red zone on the gauge, then shot though a parking lot to a back road where it cooled right down at speed.

I checked everything this evening and the cooling fan motor is shot. Got one ordered and now we wait.
 
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