I've always liked cars, but never had the chance to really work on them beyond more than just like an oil change and tire rotation. Now that I've got both a little bit of money, time and place to work on one, and a roommate/friends who are all fairly seasoned with this kind of stuff, looking to start my first project car.
I am leaning towards a 3rd gen Camaro/Firebird and want to do a 350 swap with a t5 trans. Hoping I would be able to get all of that done around $3000 USD. After that would wan't to do some other mods to try and make it better.

Just wondering what other good, inexpensive things would be that you can notice after they are done, both in terms of power and handling.

Turd gens benefit from the routine chassis stuff. If you want to enjoy the car better springs/shocks are a huge improvement as are aftermarket sway bars. The 350 will be pretty basic. If you are staying carb there are a host of newer cylinder heads that can be had in a junk yard for cheap that will make gains. It all depends on how much money you want to spend.

FMX is your go to guy for firebirds

tl;dr

Nissan Sentra will fit all of your needs

Not third gens. It's the same unibody but that's about it.

i have a 3rd gen trans am with a 350sb

the swap is fairly easy, just get shorty style headers or they wont fit and you have to relocate frame, theres one other style, cant remember the name.

you could do it for $3,000 aside from the car fairly easily

just plan everything out good and dont build certain parts of the motor better than other cause the weakest link will always break. the weakest link for my first build was my stock rods from a 350 4 bolt

find the right small block, try to find ones thats orange and non tampered with, hopefully it will be stock bore, you can get one with smogger heads down to the pan for about $100-300 from the right guy

but like fmx said

3rd gens mostly improve on suspension, they are really loose, the swap, if you remove your A/C and heater core, will lift up the front about 2-3" just from weight on stock suspension, which makes it look funny, and ride funny.



this is my 350 on its current build, bored 0.06 over all forged internals, 488 lift cam, hooked up to a t400 w/ trans brake

3rd motor to go in this car, havent even gotten to the suspension work yet but i have all the parts in my shed waiting for the day


basically everything from the stock 305 to the 350 are the same, if you want serpentine, you can keep serpentive, i dont suggest it, but you can

the tranny should bolt right up to a 350 no problem with the right bell housing ( the one that comes on it should be the right one )

i really cant think of anything i had alot of trouble with besides getting the headers to fit the first time.

its really a simple swap just take the motor out and drop the new one in

This post was edited by t9x on Apr 17 2015 07:19am

Yea, my roommate and his friend both have a good history in cars (my roommate is an AET major) so I can have them to go to guidance for, but they both said that either third gen camaros or mustangs are the best to go for on a first car for budget because of the ability to get parts since its so common/universal for both of them.