Hi all, forum noob here. I just bought my first corvette this weekend. It's a '84 project with an auto trans. It's been swapped to a SB350 and the previous owner seized it up. I'm struggling with what direction to take the car and thought I would ask for some ideas or perspective from you all. I'm not sure I want to dump a ton of $$ into this thing since I don't think the C3 is a very desirable year and I would lose a lot on resale value. So I'm debating on dropping in a 383 and flipping it in a couple years for a newer Vette, or going all in with an LS swap and keeping it long-term. One thing that would help me decide is since I've not driven a C4 is how does it handle compared to say a C6? I have some tracks near me and I would like to track and occasionally drag race it. Is the C4 fun to drive if you refresh all the suspension components? Do you think I should sink over $10k into this thing with an LS or try and keep it to 5k with another SB350 swap?
Appreciate your time and welcome your completely biased opinion.

 

Welcome to the forum. First unless you plan to become a collector, don't worry about losing money on a resale.Decide what you want to do w/ the car and then modify to satisfy your needs. The '84 model mark a big increase in handling but at the expense of ride. Personally if you want to both have a daily driver and occasional track car, I'd rebuild the suspension using parts either from a later model C4 (Chevy did improve the handling in the later years) or the aftermarket. Is the current engine not rebuildable? If not, then there are lots of options for swaps and depend on how much money you want to spend. I'm guessing that you would probably trash the Cross-Fire induction system in favor of the TPI system or my favorite, Quadrajet carb.
Good luck w/ your project and let us know how it works out.

 

Welcome! I have an 84 that I'm in the process of rebuilding. I am keeping everything stock. It is a very fun car to drive. I have the crossfire injection, and it works well. I didn't buy this car to hotrod as it only produces about 205 hp. These cars may or may not increase in value so just have fun with it and build it how you like it.

 

Had a new 1984 Z51. I traded an 81 in on it. What a great ride. I loved it. I could run over a quarter and feel if it was heads or tails, lol. Restore the suspension it is great.

 

! have an 84 with the hd suspension so yes it rides stiff AND turns in better than most! OF COURSE you can add more ponies, I'd try it during a track day THEN see what you'd like to improve. My Crossflow seems to work well but of course will be better with many hours of cleaning the ports up and matching to the heads--someday. If you want a racer--then go that direction, a sled it ain't. I'm used to Brit's so stiff is fine