My personal opinion: potentially make him an offer on the parts you need or simply buy exactly what you want new.

The problem is you need to determine a used market value for the bits you want. If you need to pull the parts, you will need to factor your time and labour as well as part of the expense.

If the parts you require are still available new what is the cost difference of purchasing exactly what you want / need vs. acquiring these used parts that may only be close to what you want. New parts also are a known quantity, used parts are... used and potentially abused.

Finally, I'm not a fan of trying to flip stuff. As clearly evidenced by the ad you are mentioning, used speed parts for sale don't exactly fly out of people's garages without help or a bit of luck.

I'm not saying you can't potentially score a great deal, I'm just saying keep your head above water and don't get too excited on what appears to be a good deal.

Thanks for the tips... I'm in agreement that these sort of deals always seem like a good idea on paper but never really work out. I think I'll stick with what I have for now, it's hard enough finding time to work on one car!

Made some more good progress this weekend. I think I am pretty much done with disconnecting all of the wiring, removed the wiper motor, power steering hoses and the driveshaft. Couple things came up along the way:

My wiper motor was modified by the previous owner to fit the Super Ram intake. They had to cut out the small pump for the washer spray which leaves me with no windshield washers... something that I'd like to have on longer road trips. I have a used wiper motor/washer pump to replace it though and I think I can make it fit by modifying the bushing a bit:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4596/...085bcfa6_c.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4685/...9cdde0bd_c.jpg

My driveshaft was showing a bit of wear in some areas so I'll have to check out if it's been rubbing somewhere. I've also been having a vibration at high RPM so I am going to send it out to check the balance and maybe get new U-joints while it's there. I'd love to upgrade to an aluminum one, but not sure it's in the budget at the moment.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4679/...04593e8d_c.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4642/...a162c93e_c.jpg

The good ole Super Ram intake... that thing so was cool in its day.

Getting closer to being able to pull the motor out. 90% of the wiring is disconnected and I'm working on taking apart the intake to get at the fuel rails and a couple of electrical and vacuum connectors underneath the plenum (man this Super Ram has a lot of pieces and bolts!)

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4596/...cd5eb1bb_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4691/...62845edd_c.jpg

One issue I need some help with is my transmission crossmember. The bolt holding the torque arm to the crossmember is interfering with the tailshaft on the T56... whoever installed it just cut a piece of the bolt head off to make it work. I'd like to do a better job when this stuff goes back in. If there are any third gen Camaro guys on here who can help me ID this crossmember and what needs to be done to make it work that would be awesome. I'll ask around on the third gen specific forums as well.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4644/...5e8fba2c_c.jpg

Here's the best picture I could get of the bolt hitting the tailshaft:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4686/...fa92502b_c.jpg

4th gen drive shaft fit 3rd gens? Should be able to pick one up cheap if so.

You need to be on frrax.com if you're not already. Great site for making fbodies handle.

That looks like a de-coupled TA. That's a serious piece if so. My guess is it was never designed for a T56 only the T5 and 700R4 found in 3rd gens. Honestly, I'd cut the rearward mount off the bottom of the tail housing. Those mounts are were the 4th gen TA mounted to the trans. You could probably slice it at an angle from the side so it doesn't hit the bolt any more and call it done.

LS swap would be my 1st thing to tackle. :knock:

I agree but I'm not the best for an unbiased opinion since all my vehicles use an engine from the same engine family... :lostmarbles:

However IF the current power plant is running well and meeting your needs...

I'm thinking the same thing Trey. I think I can trim off the bolt hole there and make some room for the bolt head. I believe Spohn makes a T56 crossmember but if I can make this one work then I can save some cash.
I'm also on frrax.com but don't have a build thread.. just using it for research right now. Thanks for the tip though.

I know an LS definitetly would make a ton of sense on this car! It would be easy to do since it's already set up for fuel injection and the motor mounts, headers, etc are all readily available. I tossed the idea around for a bit but in the end I decided to stick with the ol' small block for a couple of reasons though:

1. Price - I know LS's can be had for pretty cheap but the motor I have is running well and I can save some money but sticking with it. Not saying I can't build a nice LS in the future though!

2 . Uniqueness - I wanted to stick with the small block for now to have something a little different. You don't see too many small blocks anymore, especially with the cool looking Super Ram intake! Once I get it out of the car, resealed and checked over I'm hoping she should run nice and smooth for a while.