Hello and welcome to my cardomain page. This is the home of my 1978 z28 Camaro which I have named Sinister. This is the second, second generation camaro I have owned. My first was a 1979 Z28 which I sold after I bought this one. I bought this 78 Z in the spring of 2003. I saw the listing for the car posted in an Oregon auto trader. After driving 6hrs, I had reached the location of the car. The car was in overall good shape. It had a rust-free straight body (other than a couple little door dings and a rip in the nose.) It had a slightly modified 350 in it and the original saginaw 4spd had been replace with a th400 auto. The interior was about a 6 out of 10. The asking price for the car was $2200 but I talked then down to $1800.
After getting home the first thing I did was remove the factory AC (which didnt' work) and put a heat only converison in it. By doing this it gave me quite a bit more room to work in the engine compartment and also lightended up the car by 100+lbs. Next up on the list was to remove the engine and trans and take the car apart. I painted the frame, car underbody and engine bay and installed all new Moog steering components and bushings. Next came solid subframe bushings for the body. Up next on the list was all new suspension. New stock height leaf springs out back, new Moog 1/2" drop coils up front, Tokico shocks all the way around, and Hotchkis sway bars front and back. I kept the stock drum brakes in the back (That might soon change) and went with stock replacement Wilwood calipers up front with Hawk hi-po pads and Raybestos rotors ( I didnt go with slooted or drilled because I want function over looks)
I upgraded the interior a little bit as well. I swapped the stock bezel for an aluminum one that I made and swapped out the stock gauges for AutoMeter Ultra-Lite's. The stock shifter was scraped in favor of a B&M Quicksilver, and I had a custom lighted shift knob made (It has a grim Reaper in it). I trashed the old jute padding under the carpet and installed Peel N Seal and Fat Matt sound deadener/heat insulation, and replaced the carpet. Next was to get the rear seats re-ulphostered but I found a freshly ulphostered set form a friend over at WWW.NASTYZ28.COM. I also took out the stock front seats and bought some cheap racing ones off screw-bay but they are already getting worn so it looks like im going to have to pony up the dough for a quality set in the near future. Lastly was a new package tray and a new stereo system.
The stereo consists of a Panasonic head unit, Kenwood Excelon 6.5" component speakers with tweets in the doors, Kenwood 3-way 6x9's in the package tray, and a 4 channel Kenwood X600f Excelon amp in the trunk.
Now it was time forthe powerplant! I have had 3 different engine combos in this car. First up was a warmed over 357. Next up was a warmed over aluminum headed 375hp 383 stroker, and that turned into the monster thats in it now; a fully forged, roller cam 383 thats close to 500hp/tq. Scrolll down for the engine specs. I kept the th400 trans in the car that it came with when I bought it. I did however, do a stock rebuild on it with the exception of a heavy duty sprag, TransGo reprogramming kit and a Coan 3000 stall converter.
The last thing I did mechanically was to rebuild the stock rearend. I reused the stock 3.73 gears because they were still in good shape and showed minimal wear. I installed an Eaton Posi and a rebuild kit from Randy's Ring and Pinion. Next were axles to upgrade the worn out ones. I choose Alloy USA axles for that task. Last for the build was a Jegs girdle cover.
I have also had several wheel and tire combos on the car over the years as well. I also purchased a steel cowl induction hood about 5yrs ago.
And 7yrs later thats where its at now. Im tihnking of painting the car a very dark metallic green with medium silver metallic racing stripes like the 70-73 camaros had.
ENGINE:
383sbc, 10:1 compression
Scat forged crank
Scat 5.7" forged H-beam rods,
ARP bolts
SRP -16cc forgd pistons
Total Seal rings
Melling high volume oil pump
Moroso 7qt. street/strip oil pan
Moroso windage tray
Aluminum AFR Eliminator 195 heads with milled 60cc chambers,
Comp Cams hydraulic roller cam with .510/.520 lift,
Howards retro-fit roller lifters,
Comp Cams Magnum pushrods,
Comp Cams Pro Magnum roller rockers 1.52 ratio
Hedman Headers, Ceramic coated, 1 3/4" primaries,
Pypes 2.5" stainless steel exhaust with X pipe and Street Pro mufflers
Tweaked Holley 770 Street Avenger carb,
Edelbrock rpm air-gap intake w/ 1/2" pneumonic spacer
Mallory distributor with GM Performance Parts shaft and bushings
MSD Soft Touch rev limiter
Timing is currently set at 16 initial and 36 total all in by 2800rpm.
Stewart Components stage 2 waterpump,
March pulleys,
Summit aluminum radiator
Lincoln Mark8 electric fan setup with SPAL fan controller
WHEELS AND TIRES:
18" American Racing Torqlite wheels
18x7 front
18x8 rear
Hankook Ventus V12 Evo tires.
Old 17" American Racing Torque Thrust 2 wheels
^old picture
MISC:
Hotchkis front and back sway bars
Global West solid body bushings
Global West tubular subframe connectors
Moog steering components with rubber bushings
Moog coils
Tokico shocks in rear and Sensatrack shocks up front
INTERIOR:
For some reason, the left door panel looks messed up, but its just the camera.
Page 1: My 78Z28
