last night, i was helping my cousin work on the 83 crossfire Z he got for next to nothing. we got the motor running pretty good- the temp sensor wires were frayed thru the insulation at the plug, and the wires were crossed making the computer think it was dead cold and making it run rich. that, and the gas that was in it didn't smell like gas anymore and would barely burn..
anyways, we were trying to figure out a gas leak at the tank after we got it running, and we got to looking at the exhaust setup. it looks pretty oem ,but really poorly designed. it has a single 2.5" pipe coming back from the cat to right in front of the rearend, which splits off into a pair of 1 3/4" or so dual pipes with crush bent bends that run right next to each other to right behind the rear end, where they go straight into the side of another 2.5" pipe that goes off to the left and right to 2 small turbo style mufflers and dual 2.5" tail pipes. it sounds alright- not dead quiet, but not overly loud, either. both of the mufflers have what appear to be GM part numbers stamped into them.
is this the stock setup? if so, it goes a long ways towards explaining why mid 80's Camaros were so damn slow.
but it seems to have pretty good power and throttle response- he's thinking Flowmaster cat back system and headers to wake the thing up a bit.

Yes, OE set-up. Money would be better spent in replacing the whole system from manifolds back, if not replace the manifolds with shorty headers. A cat-back won't hurt, but the cat may need changing after running dirty gas through it. Hit it with a temp gun, usually runs 600*-650*F.

All the manf needed to do was to provide a piping system to remove exhaust gases with the least amount of weight & material.

believe me- i know how crappy stock setups are, but i've never seen anything so poorly designed in my life. if he does the Flowmaster cat back, the cat is going in the dumpster (well, ok, the recycler. those things are worth money), and headers are on the list of things to get. the smog pump has already been removed- it was locked up and just getting in the way...
i was just curious if that was an oem exhaust setup- since it looks far more complex and heavy (and thus more expensive) and restrictive than a single bigger pipe like in the newer cars.

but after driving it after we put the fresh gas in it and fixed the temp sender, i don't get why people dump on the crossfire cars so much- it has great throttle response and does a wicked burnout. starts up real nice, too. it's like my 84 turbo Regal- it's not fast compared to what's out there today, but for the mid 80's, it's pretty damn good. and it has a lot of room to grow, since one of my other cousins is starting an IROC graveyard..

Good luck with the science project. Keep the story going. X-fire's are considered the Red-headed stepchild. But yes, a tuned one does run good considering.

"cease fire injection", lol.

Is this 83 a 305?

yup- 305 with crossfire injection. two single barrel throttle bodies setup like the old crossram intake setups that were available from GM over the counter for 69 Z/28's. it looks cool, but ultimately doesn't flow much air.

yup- 305 with crossfire injection. two single barrel throttle bodies setup like the old crossram intake setups that were available from GM over the counter for 69 Z/28's. it looks cool, but ultimately doesn't flow much air.


I am getting skeered here. Don't expect one of these 305 motors to outperform a 283 with single carb. They were not meant to do that but with some minor mods , they will run better. I never could understand why GM added all that terror wording into a motor description to really get public excited about a car or motor. IMO , thats one thing wrong with GM now.
Same goes for the HEMI! new cars. They are not Hemi's as I knew them. If it does not have cubic inches, its not a 426 hemi. Thats all I got to say about that.

My first car was an '83 Z28 with cross-fire injection. It ran great for 100K+ miles. It ran consistent 16.20's at Gainesville Dragway back in the day. I was really bummed I didn't have the 5 liter H.O. 4-barrel car as they were about a second quicker.

I'll just add that my buddy had an '84 Corvette with the 350 cross-fire motor. Even though it only ran 15.00's in the 1/4 mile, nothing could touch it stoplight-to-stoplight. It would just hook and scoot. I distinctly remember him running a 350/350 '68 Corvette and the '84 won.