I have a chance of picking up a 1986 Z-28 Camaro
It has the 5.7 350, and T-top.

Now to my knowledge is that only about 50 of these cars were made, and were strictly for testing purposes only, and they were not released untill 1987 for these options.

But the guy im looking at getting it from says its all original.
The 350 came with the car, no ac, t-tops, LSD, and he has a bunch of spare parts.

What we are talking about is doing a straight title swap for my 85 Bert.
Because he doesnt have the time to put this car back together..

Now my question is, were these 50 test cars acually sold? Because there is 110k on the odo. and I did a report and everything matches up. From the date it was purchased untill now regarding smog checks, tune ups, registration, etc.

So did I find my dream 3rd gen by any chance??

Everything looks stock, (350, 700R4, LSD etc)

 

its impos. unless you found a dream car..

 

Thats what i was thinking...
So i guess he just swapped the original 305 for a stock 350 from another one?
Thats the only thing I can think of.. Unless you guys have any other ideas

 

He said 350, but have you actually run a check on the engine number to see if it is a 350? Alot of people see a SBC and assume it's a 350.

 

I havent checked it yet, im gunna acually go look at the car tomorrow in the AM. What should I be looking for?

 

8th digit in the VIN will be an 8 if its a 350 which would be for a TPI and thats not possible. if it were a 305 carbed car (which is highly likely) it will be an H code. if it were a TPI car it it will be an F in the 8th postion. the VIN is the tell all.

 

The VIN will only tell you what the car left the factory with, not what it has in it now.

 

Am I misreading your post?

"8th digit in the VIN will be an 8 if its a 350 which would be for a TPI"

"f it were a TPI car it it will be an F in the 8th postion"

You say '8', then you say 'F'...

 

yea you misread it. if it is an F it came with a 305 TPI if it was an 8 it was an L98 (or B2L on the RPO list...) Check that too, to be sure. also check it for the G92(i think ???) which is for LSD, then followed by a GU2, gu3 gu4 gu5 for the final drive ratio...

 

I'm guessing then, you meant 305 for F? You just said TPI but not 305 or 350.

 

lol, boldguy... you mis-typed it. Read over your original post and you'll see why he was confused. For the original poster, please post a picture of the engine compartment of the car for sale and the 8th digit of the vin tag, and your question will likely be answered almost immediately.

 

I have heard there were a handful of 350 TPI cars built in 1986. If memory serves, a couple of car magazines actually got their hands on them in the spring of 1986 to test. But the cars were all preproduction and I don't think that any of them were ever sold to the public. I would imagine they were destroyed by GM.

If this car truly is a 1986 model with an "8" in the VIN, you have found one of the proverbial Holy Grails of the IROC world.

 

YES there were several 350 cars made in 1986, none of them exist, NOR were they originaly made as 350 cars. If you read the White book it has a total of 192,219 cars made in 1986, if you add the 4 Engine options LB8, LG4, LB9 & L69 (none were the L98) you get 192,219. The car is either a Fraud, or someone transposed the numbers...

Its apparently a pretty common occurrance...

John

 

What quickchicken wrote is correct. You guys need to reread it.

If the car is a factory 350 TPI, then the 8th digit will be an 8. But then he tells us that that is not possible for 86. He then explains what the possible codes are for an 86, H for 305 carb, or F for TPI (305 only since 35 is not possible in 86). Makes plenty of sense to me!!

Lastly, G80 denotes posi or LSD, not G92

 

yeah, it could have been more clearly written but I follow it now. Sorry Boldguy, not only did I incorrectly believe that you posted what Quickchicken wrote, but it wasn't really wrong either. <--to myself on this one.

 

no biggie bro, were all human here.

 

Wasn't the L69 available in 86 as well? Or is that an urban myth?

 

Yes, 1986 was the last year for the L69.

 

Kinda funny but in the 86 camaro gm shop manual in the engine section it lists 4 choices for the V8 engines and one of them is the 5.7 Vin code 8 L98

 

I'm going to get creamed for this, but I actually saw a 1986 Camaro with a factory 350TPI and a standard tranny. When I bought my 85 Iroc-Z new in the spring of 86, I was invited by a Chevy rep to bring my car to a SCCA meet at Northline Mall in Houston. They raced on weekends in the parking lot. I had waited for my car for about 5 months due to a engine plant strike in Canada and the Chevy rep wanted to have some Iroc's there for show. I also got a free Chevy Jacket and hat.I spent a considerable amount of time asking them why I could not have the 350TPI with a 5-speed and they gave the same old answer, too much torque for the trans. The car had no A/C,radio delete, and was black with black/grey interior. I have been called a liar, a drunk, and various other things because everyone claims this car never existed. It was a prototype to be sure, and never produced for sale. What happened to it after that, who knows? There was a writeup in the local SCCA news about it, and I wish I had a copy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, because I was there.

 

Hmm in Houston? seems an awful long way away from detroit.

 

Badman's story is perfectly plausible. The 50 86 L98 cars were test mules and demo cars for the media.

 

I also brought along a co-worker who had just bought a 85 Mustang SVO with the 4-cyl./turbo setup, I believe that was the combo he had. Much ooing and awing over both cars.

 

I think their current existance is possible but not probable, but strange things do happen and the numbers wont always add up. Like with the TTA's, Pontiac says 8470 GTA's in 1989 with three engine options. 6554 L98's plus 366 LB9's plus 1550 LC2's equals 8470 cars yet we know there were five additional TTA's built and at least two of them are still around (one of them being #3 which was turned into a convertible later in life). While I have never seen this, I'm told these cars were revined by GM with the correct first 8 digits (first 8 for TTA's is 1G5FW217).

So I guess anything is possible, but I would doubt everything without lots and lots of documentation.

Steve

 

Well... The 5 Test cars made by GM would have been probably had a VIN that indicated an L98 or more plausable a LB9. They were in turn converted to the Turbo setup for testing, Or show purposes, whatever... It may be possible that theu RE-VIN'd them BUT i doubt it. Of course if you look at the VIN designations for Pontiac they are all "1G2" the TTA were all designated "1G5" If you do some research in GM's Books they call the "2" just "Pontiac" and the "5" a "Pontac Special". I am sure the cars recieved the standard build sequence number, Where the VIN Plate was installed may have been at the factory OR where the conversion was taking place. ( I forget where they did the conversion). OR they may have put a the VIN plate on at the facotry, it was removed and then a NEW VIN plate was installed to reflect the special nature of the car.

I am really skeptical that they would have changed the VIN... I admit it may be possible but my understanding is there are some legality issues with doing this... To my knowledge it had not been done before, and they would have had to change the Check digit, AND the Engine Designation digit from a F or 8 to a 7...

Anything is possible however, as I am shooting off the hip.

John

 

Once more what is more ironic is if you look in the Parts & Illustration catalogs there is several instances of parts for a 350 or "8" for 1985 too... It does not prove anything, BUT it is interesting nonetheless...


John

 

While you looked a little too far into what I was saying, your last sentence is exactly my point

But on cars like that documentation is the key

 

The test cars never made it out for public sale.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...0-tpi-l98.html