I was thinking about this after driving my Trans Am the other night...an all original '86 LB9/2.73. I hadn't driven it for awhile since buying my '88 IROC L98/2.73 a month ago. I am completely shocked at how lethargic it feels when driven back-to-back with a 350 car. It honestly feels like its more than the 40hp difference GM claimed.

Its been well documented on here that the '86s lack the better cam and 3.42 gears of the '85 TPI cars...but WHY was this? Was it for gas mileage? Emissions? Both? I know the '85s were rated at 16/22 versus 17/25 in '86, so I imagine that's a big part of it.

Is anything else different in the 2 years besides the cam and PROM? I'm considering, in the interest of keeping my Trans Am more or less stock, converting it to '85 specs with a better cam, PROM and gears. Is anything else different?

 

If I remember correctly, it was a EPA/emissions issue. The small cam isn't killing the car as much as the 2.73 or 2.77 gears do. A cam and gear change would do a world of good.

 

What drew said. Also the computer on the 85 cars was completely different than that of the 86 and onward TPI cars. It would actually be taking a step backwards to go to the 85 computer. If i were you i would put a nicer cam in it ( i have a stock LT4 cam in mine), and throw a set of 3.27s/3.42s in it and it will wake right up. That with a set of headers and it will feel like your 350 stock. With a cam swap though you will be looking at tuning.

 

Interesting about the computer....what's different about it? I assume then I cannot simply put an 85 PROM in my 86 computer? Can I even put an 85 computer in my 86 vehicle? It sounds like no...which yes, indeed means that to do it right, I need to tune. I'm still trying to learn tuning for my TBI RS. Part of the appeal of keeping it with a GM cam was I assumed I could use a GM PROM...but that doesn't sound possible here.

I thought I did read of someone else that put an 85 cam in an 86 car, and didn't need to tune. Interesting thoughts...thanks for the info, and any other info anyone else can add. I drove both cars again tonight just for a few miles each, and definitely feel that the 305 will need a little help down the road. Far larger priorities are a paint job and a few interior odds and ends (steering wheel and radio are both bad)...but thankfully, other than the A/C compressor giving up last week, the TA is 100% perfect mechanically. I love having a low mileage original...makes life easier!

 

There's no point. The 85 ecm is completely different and is really a terrible ecm to start with. Keep everything you have, even the stock programming isnt going to create any issues if all you were to do is swap to the 85 cam. However, I would not do that. If you are going to go to the trouble to change the cam, there are a lot better choices out there these days.

 

One word CAFE (Coorporate Average Fuel Economy).

 

As far as I recall, and many members have said it before, it was a bad decade for "Muscle Cars". Everyone was scrambling for fuel economy which meant sacrificing HP. I think the 86 Z28 model was one of the lab rats. Look at how things turned around! Now we have 300+hp V-6's.

 

yeah 86's where a step backward. i mean 85 great start, 86 kinda stumbled, then 87 on up went back up. But trust me i'd still take a 86 iroc stock t.p.i, i love'em all.
But unless you wanna switch the whole motor or do sum heavy modding w/rear gear change, i would just drive it as is and enjoy it bro. just my 2cents....

 

Thanks to everyone for input. madmax, I'm glad you backed up the theory that a stock 85 cam would not need a custom tune. I agree there are far better choices out there in the aftermarket cam world...all of which, I'm sure, require me tuning. After reading countless threads on the matter of tuning, I'm still not sure what the best way is to dive right in.

With that said, I've always been far more interested in originality with these cars than all-out performance. While the IROC will always remain 100% stock, I can see where the Trans Am, being from a compromised year, could benefit from gears and some sort of cam bump. At least the 86 TPIs don't have the garbage exhaust system that the LG4 and TBI cars had as well!

 

You just need to decide what you want. Change the cam, upgrade to later electronics, dump the CSI, change the intake ducting (the 85-87 Firebird TPI intake ducting is TERRIBLE), etc... But then where do you stop? You can only do so much while keeping the stock look, and at some point it's just not worth the hassle. If the car is mostly original, and it doesn't meet your needs, you might be further ahead just to sell it and buy a faster car. By the time you modify it to be faster, it'll stop feeding your 'stock' desire anyway.

If you think it's bad comparing your 86 to your 88, you should go pick up a clean 89-92 L98 car with G92 or R6P. It'll make your other cars feel gutless.

 

before doing anything. Be sure the 86 is in good tune. Plugs, wires, ignition. Also things like the TPS and IAC sensor can make a car feel sluggish if not working at par. Even the tranny cable being our of adjustment can do it. Id check all those things first. And Most importantly Injectors. Even with low mile original survivors id say 90% of the time injectors are not working properly in these cars. Either with a 13k mile car, or a 200k mile car. The original multecs are likely shot. Clogged and not ohm'ing correctly. Injectors make a hug diff in these cars, And so do the other basics i mentioned above.

 

I'm trying to figure out what direction to take with it. Honestly, I have my LT1 Z28 when I feel the need for speed Also, I'm very happy overall with the acceleration of my IROC. Indeed, you can feel the lug of the 2.77s every now and then, depending on the situation. A gear upgrade may be worthwhile on that car down the road...but seeing as how I'll drive it less than 1,000 miles a year, and I bought it for its stock, beautiful splendor, modding it is the last thing on my mind. The 350 torque is making me quite happy

I've considered with the Trans Am putting a K&N filter in an '88-'89 intake, adding a TB air foil, trying an L69/L98 cam, and throwing 3.42s in it. At that point, I'm probably around 210-215hp with better gears...I might be happy then At the same point, I'm not racing this car by any stretch, and it'll only get driven 2,000 miles a year, probably. I simply have so much fun driving the IROC, it'd be nice to get a taste of that in the Trans Am.

I've done several bolt ons to my '91...all the intake mods you can do, all the exhaust mods possible...and all was well worth it. I have a 3.73 rear from an aborted '83 L69 project that is going in the RS this winter...should wake it up nice

When I have a quick stock third gen, and a reasonably quick slightly modded third gen, maybe the Trans Am should just be left alone, and enjoyed as-is?? I do know one thing...it'll sure be pretty when its finished

 

Repin harness for a speed density conversion, put a mild cam in it, a set of gears, tune ECM after SD swap, and then you'll probably outrun your 350 car.

 

Yeah, I've already thought of the injector issue. Over the winter, I'll probably pull a couple and see what kind of shape they are in. I've purchased both the IROC and TA in the last 4 months...both are the first TPI cars I've owned since a brief stint I had owning an '89 Formula back in 2002. I have a lot to learn, for sure...

The maintenance of it however is perfect. My uncle, a 50 year GM mechanic, tuned it all up in his spare time over the past 6 weeks. Between myself and the previous owner, in the last 2,000 miles every fluid has been changed, its had new plugs, wires, cap & rotor, ECM, MAF, etc. The TPS was fine...the IAC he cleaned up and re-installed. Honestly, for a 190hp, 3,400 lb car, the performance I'm getting makes sense.

Its simply that the cam kills it over 4k, and the gears kill it down low. What's in the middle is pretty sweet though

 

Now, let me ask you this...why do a SD swap? I thought SD systems were harder to tune than MAF systems...no? That seems to be what all the guys b!tch about on the TBI board because TBI is SD based...

 

You do not need to retune even with a midsized cam. Theres a lot of mis-info in here. These are very basic FI systems and as long as you don't change to bigger injectors, an adjustable fuel pressure regulator will do just fine at getting the cam the fuel it needs. I had a .464/.470 lift cam in my 86 TA and just by upping fuel pressure I got the A/F ratio spot on on the dyno. There is a certain point with a large enough cam that you will need bigger injectors and possibly a tune but MAF systems are pretty forgiving with mods.

That said, I'm sure if you wanted some more umph, you could have comp cams spec you out something that added good power and retained the stock idle and you would not need a tune. Good luck!

 

Forget a SD swap. Too much work for no gain. Additionally, forget worrying about the injectors. You do not have Multec injectors in there, unless a someone swapped out the OE ones which are Rochester injectors almost identical to the Bosch and other than typical clogging that may occur with a pintle style injector they'll be fine. I would not worry about a tune helping it either, having owned an 86 for many many years its just a sluggish dog the way it was sold new. The cam is a major component in the issue of why the power curve sucks, but its a lot of work to change. That is what I did to mine, but having been down the path it would make more sense to do the typical mods outside of that such as headers, catback, rocker arms, then a ported intake, and maybe some better valve springs to get more out of it without digging the cam out of the block. You can tune the car just fine with what it has, which is $32B, or swap to the 89 $6E (this is just a code change you can use your PROM and just erase it and reprogram it with the later code) that is probably a little easier to deal with and more widely used on MAF cars. And certainly if you have not already, ditch that factory air inlet box mounted to the radiator and put some 3" ABS tubing in its place and you'll pick up more power than you'd expect from that alone. The air filter can and pulling air from the side of the can leaves something to be desired as well but the car is going to argue with you about swapping in the 88-up ducting although that would be the ideal thing to do.

 

"bolt ons" such as exhaust, shorty headers, air intake really don't add much power at all to a 305. The way it comes from the factory with the tiny heads, garbage cam, and restrictive intake mean that bolt ons will only add so much. I made 160 RWHP on my 305 with a 3" custom cold air intake, shorty headers, and 3" exhaust. That sucks!

I tossed in the cam I mentioned above and an adjustable FPR and I got 225 RWHP....WORLD of difference. If it was me, I would do it the opposite way and do the cam first in the list since that is one of the 305's biggest downfalls. You can only get so much air into a motor if the cam is a stock baby one. Open the valves more though and amazingly all those bolt ons will work much better.

And I will agree a cam swap is not a small job, but I had mine in in a weekend. It's not easy for your average joe, but I didn't find it too difficult, as long as you have some engine experience.

Another thing a lot of people overlook is a 5 speed swap. If you like driving stick, you can keep the car 100% original looking and wake it up quite a bit just by going from the auto to a manual.

 

See how things get carried away? lol

 

You're telling me!!

This is not a car that's going to get modded to the hilt. I want a nice, clean, original Trans Am with a couple things to help it get down the road a little bit sprightlier. If I can get this car to get itself to cut a 14.9 and 0-60 in under 7 seconds, I'd be content...which is more or less what an '85 car did.

Its good to hear from 2 '86 owners that I don't need to do a tune if I do a mild enough cam. That was one thing I'd always heard about with TPI...that it was a simpler system to work with than TBI for adding bolt ons and mild cams.

I really appreciate everyone's input...I'll be doing more research on the TPI board as to how I can massage this thing a little bit while still keeping the original flavor. One quick question: peanut cammed TPIs still utilize the 3" in/out cat and better manifolds that all TPI cars used, correct? I know TBI cars got strangled with crappy manifolds and a 2 1/4" in/out cat and a smaller catback. I put "TPI" headers on my RS when I re-did it to correct that flaw

 

I'm going to have to disagree with you guys.

I've been tuning cars for several years and for me, I'd rather tune a SD car. There's alot more you can do with speed density, you eliminate the restriction in airflow by ditching the MAF and you dont have to jack with the MAF scalar tables. You can use VE master to fine tune your VE tables, make a few adjustments to PE and then you'd have a pretty decent tune that WILL yield more power than the MAF setup. Of course their are many other adjustments to be made in either style PROM in order to properly tune, but that's not relevant to this thread. I've picked up power with every SD swap I have done.

Any car with 2.73's will benefit from a 3 series carrier fitted with a bigger set of gears.

Any motor, MAF or SD will benefit from a bigger cam (once it's tuned). You'll have to tune it anyways for the SD swap, so might as well tune it once after the cam is put in to maximize power from your new parts.

If you dont want to do any of this, then OHM your injectors to make sure they are in spec. and all closely matched. Injectors that old can give you problems. I blew up my stock motor because of 1 bad injector. Eventhough all my injectors ohm'd out good, number 7 was mechanically stuck open dumping large amounts of fuel into that cylinder, getting passed the rings and into the oil, thinning it, and the motor spun a bearing or two, giving it the knock of death.

If the injectors ohm out low or out of range, replace them with 19 lb. SVO, or 19 lb. Venom injectors (which ever is cheaper), and the motor should run alot better.

 

About the injectors.

And im sorry "Mad Max" Either Multec or Rochester Injectors that are 25Yr's old. Have had gas sitting in them for 25 yrs. And although the car may appear to run Ok. In terms of performance they are likely inadequate. And this post is about squeezing the 86LB9 to its fullest potential, and staying relatively stock.

 

If you want a cam that matches the '85 specs, here ya go: http://www.competitionproducts.com/E...ctinfo/E860SM/

 

So that's it, eh? So, according to GM's own specs, I'd get 15 more HP, and no tuning required..intriguing. I wonder how much harder I could push the cam before needing to tune...that may be the way to go.

Thanks for finding that for me! Bookmarking it now. I know for some of you it doesn't seem like its worth it for only 15hp, but combined with a few other things like gears, a gutted '88-'89 intake with a K&N, and maybe RRs, I'd be making the car far less sleepy.

Maybe I end up doing the injector swap as well, simply because the car is so old. Looks like I'm starting to get a plan developed. I wonder if there's a good shop near me that'd be reasonable for a cam swap. About how many hours would it take a pro to do this?

Does anyone still know what I have for manifolds and cat for an '86? Thanks again...you guys have been great, as always.

 

I mentioned about clogging, if you read my whole post. Its still unlikely to be the cause of a lack of power, there was little power to begin with. I'm guessing the slight lack of power the OP is feeling is entirely because of the motor having no power to begin with. But they are not Multec injectors that IMO are the first thing you should throw into a trashcan the moment you take ownership of one of these cars. Those short out constantly, an issue I've rarely if ever seen on the earlier RP injectors. Multecs were not around until 1989.

I ran two different cams in my 86 block, and now there's a stock 91 LB9 in there. Between all three of those, no real significant power difference. The stock 86 cam it would run mid-high 15's all day long. Extremely consistent. With the others, the best I have a timeslip for is I think 15.2 with a Melling cam that has specs everyone sells, its 204/214 .420/.443. I also ran a Comp Cams 212/212 .444/.444 that ran and idled better than the prior cam but never could get the car to hook up very well and it was a track at a higher altitude. Both of those, the car was faster on the stock tune than the aftermarket proms I had for it. The motor in there now didnt make much difference (idled a little better, maybe a tad slower), but after putting in a catback because the I-pipe was rusted through and throwing on a set of SLP headers I had really made a difference... as it does with any other thirdgen if you read peoples posts. Sure a cam is going to help and the right cam can add quite a bit of power all by itself, but wait till you get a quote from a shop to swap that thing out. You might rethink that idea, and stick to bolt ons and making sure the car is running as good as it can ie:getting rid of any worn out parts.

As far as the SD thing, rather than claim more power how about putting up some dyno sheets with that as the only change as proof of said gain.

 

I'm not quite sure why you would spend all the money on having a shop put in a cam for a measily 15 HP. As I said, my cam was .464/.470 lift and required no tuning at all. Car made 225 RWHP & 286 RWTQ and did a best 0f 14.2 @ 96 mph on that cam with 3.42 gears and a 5 speed manual. At idle you could tell it was cammed, but it drove perfect even at very low RPM and I still averaged 18 mpg around town.

Just my .02 cents.....a cam swap is not worth it for 15 HP. If you really want to leave it stock-ish, why don't you just leave it alone? I mean, if you don't care to add much HP, I would just enjoy it being a low mileage all original car. Or sell it and use the money to buy a G92 optioned car.

Any way you go, just be happy with it.

 

To actually answer the initial question. Yes to all of you who guessed it was Emissions was correct. CAFE is partially correct. 1986 was to mark new emissions standards with lower emissions, so in effect they had to de-tune the car as they also had to keep the Average of 22.5Mpg which was the CAFE standard ...

John

 

Exactly. If you are going to go to the expense of swapping the cam, dont put a stock/near stock cam back in there. I'd find something in the mid 210's for intake duration and .450+ lift. There is, for example, a Lunati that IIRC is 213/219 .45x/.4?? I saw in the summit catalog that would be more along the lines of what I'd do if I was going to lay out the cash to swap the cam only.

 

If indeed I can go more radical and not have to tune, as you say? Sweet I guess I'm neurotic about keeping a stock tune after modding TBI with my '91 for the past 4 years. Put it this way...TBI is so sensitive, after changing the intake gasket and installing a lousy PERFORMER TBI intake, the damn car stalled at idle 3 times just on the way home! The extra airflow was literally screwing with the SD TBI computer. When I put headers on it, it did the same thing...both times it eventually learned to alter the curves enough so that it runs ok.

This seems to be a major advantage to modding MAF based TPI. More air in = more fuel to mix with it = less headaches than SD based TBI. I'm simply afraid to go too radical and then be stuck with something I need a crash course on tuning with just to drive. I WANT to learn to tune, as the real car I intend to mod (my '91) is CRYING for a Vortec head/LT1 cam swap after I swap in my 3.73 rear over the winter. But, admittedly I have a long way to go before I am close to being proficient at tuning. I just downloaded WinALDL last week to start trying to play with it.

At this point, I definitely love the car for what it is...a low mileage TPI TA that with a fresh paint job will be a beautiful example of an 80s third gen. I think I will likely add gears, a CAI, RRs, a catback and some type of cam after doing more research. None of that, in my opinion, will wreck the original flavor of the car like adding headers, lowering it etc. would do.

Again, thanks to everyone for their opinions and thoughts. I should probably post some pics of this thing sometime soon. The inside and the mechanics of this car are awesome...too bad it sat outside in a driveway for almost 20 years It drives like 31k miles, but looks like 131k miles

 

I was in the market for a new car in fall of 1985. Test drove several 85's & 86's. The 85 Z28 w/L69 sold shortly after I test drove it. I wasted a lot of time looking for a stripped L69 on a dealers lot with no A/C. The L69 I found was red and red is a fine color for someone else's car but I really dislike ticket collecting red. By the time I realized I'd better get the red L69 and deal with it because a red L69 is better than no L69 at all...but the car had sold as had all the other L69's in the area.

I thought oh well, I'll just get an new 86 Z28 instead of a 85 other than the silly brake light it will be the same car...was that ever wrong...no L69 86's to be found where I was at. The 86 Z28 didn't feel as quick as 85 L69 Z28. In short, the 85's Z28's sold out and all left to pick from was 86's.

This is harsh but it felt just slightly faster than a v6 car. In fact it, I decided to get the v6 because I didn't think the 86 Z28 was worth the money. The 86's Z felt like dogs after the 85's. The dealers would rant about but the 86 is fuel injected & has TPI or you can get a LG4 if you want a carb. The 86 was going to get dirt kicked in it's face by Mustang 5.0 GT's. I never regreted picking the 86 v6 over any of the 86 v8's. The v6 felt more nimble and was a most agile car.

The word at the time as others have mentioned was the 85 L69 barely scrapped thru emissions and didn't make it for 86.

I still have a soft spot for L69 Z28's, most of all if they are red.

 

Not sure what you were looking for in 1985, but the 1LE wasn't available or even mentioned until 1988. Not trying to be a jerk, but I thought I would state that so years from now, someone doesn't say that I read on TGO that the 1LE was available in 85.

I had an 83 Z28 w/LG4 and an 82 Z28 with CFI during high school. I didn't test drive any TPI cars until 1988. I still have not driven an 86 to see how tame they are.

 

86s are getting too bad of a rap here. Stock 86 LB9 cars run mid-high 15s in good condition. They are just as slow as a 205hp SD LB9 auto/2.73 geared car. A stock 86 LB9 car will still pound a stock L03 RS.

My IROC ran decent stock, it was not a horrible turd, and it destroyed by buslengths any v6 f-body i raced in high school.

 

I don't think your problem is a 86 problem. It's because it's a Pontiac. They are real dogs compared to a real Camaro. My uncle said they put all the reject parts in Pontiacs that don't pass Quality Inspection. All the Pontiac engineers are new guys straight out of college, still wet behind the ears. Also the guys on the Pontiac assembly line were all the flunkys, screw-ups and neer-do-wells not fit enough for the Camaro line. This is just what my uncle told me and he heard it from his friend who knows somebody that was dating this girl who's father's aunts husband worked there for a week before he got put in prison. So I guess its pretty reliable.

 

I dunno, that depends. What did he go to prison for?

I drove a brand new 86 Camaro with a V6 and there is no comparison to the LB9 that year. THAT car was slow. Not as slow as a 2.3 Mustang, but still pretty slow.

 

Your right and my 25 year old memory was fuzzy. Sorry.

So much of that buying that 86 Sport Coupe I remeber very accurately like it was yesterday but apparently not all of it.

I was trying to find a car stripped of A/C, no power windows, performance axle, top suspension etc that would be similar or sort of like 1LE which came out much later. It was in 1990 before I got my RS, I first heard of the 1LE package, I recall thinking...that's what I wanted but couldn't find because they didn't make it back in the mid-80's!

I will edit my prior post to avoid causing confusion. My apologies.

 

86 de-Tuned Ports were a joke. The 85 TPI and 85 GT cars were very close in comparison. 87 and they were back close again, for the most part. The ugly 3rd brake light was also laughable back then.

As far as tuning, I like SD also. To do tuning right, you should tune in SD even if you are going to run a MAF. Get the VE and timing spot on, then hook up the MAF and rescale that to match what it did in SD. As far as more power, its a toss up. Properly tuned MAF will match a SD tuned car. I like the throttle response of a SD car over a MAF car, but that's just me. IMHO, of course...

 

Whatever about the brake light, but I cannnot see (and the numbers do not substantiate) that in '87 the LB9/A4 cars magically gained HP and ran with the big boys again. They did not. They made a measily 195hp in Camaro form, 190hp in Firebird form, through the changeover to SD. Period. From what I can see, they were castrated from '86-on.

With that said, I've probably put about 100 miles on my car since I started this post, and its funny...its the only car I've ever owned or driven that feels strong at part throttle, and is less impressive WOT. From 2,400-4,000, with your foot in it, it feels great. Its when you bury it and the revs are just breathless from 4-5k that it feels awful.

Other than an intermittent SES light (and now a seized a/c compressor!!!), the car runs beautifully. It is what it is, I guess...I really do enjoy driving it.

 

The reason you feel good at part throttle is because the cam sucks so badly that by the time you get above 75% throttle opening, the TB is moving enough air to feed the engine at redline. So you get WOT airflow without a high rpm upshift. The peanut cam also did raise the torque output rating by something like 10lbsft so that helps numb the sting from the 25hp loss.

 

87 saw a 215hp M5 TPI, IIRC. That is what I meant by back. If you wanted a A4/TPI car in 87, you got the 5.7.

 

you didnt get the 350 automatically when you picked the auto trans which you are seeming to suggest here. The 350 was the OPTIONAL engine, so you had to order it.

 

Mixing things here, but if you opted for the GTA, the 350/auto was standard. You could downgrade to the 305 for a credit.

 

Correct...but the vast majority of 305 TPI cars were 190-195hp A4 cars...these are what I'm comparing mine to.

Indeed, one positive side effect of the peanut cam was an extra 10 lb/ft of torque!

 

Yes, I know it was optional. I was saying that everybody I knew back then that wanted an automatic, stepped up to the 5.7. Nobody wanted a 305 TPI unless it was a 5 speed. Maybe that's the crowd I was in?

 

I think that is a misnomer to say that everyone that wanted a TPI Auto went with the 350... There were more 350's than LB9/A4's but it was not an overwhelming ratio.

There were more LB9/A4's than LB9/M5's by far...

There is some validity to your statement insofar as used cars... As far as I am concerned from 87-92 A LB9/A4 is darned near a drug on the market, not as bad as a L03 or LG4, but close...

John

 

What do you mean by "drug on the market"?

As for the comment about comparing a 2.8 to a TPI, there is no comparison. A car that did 0-60 in 11 seconds compared to one in under 8 seconds is NO COMPARISON. I drove a 2.8 '89 for 4 years...the car was painfully slow. My 86 is nowhere near painfully slow...it just isn't fast.

Pleasantly quick may be the best way to describe it

 

Since most of you were not even born at this time check your history before complaining about these early 3rd gen cars.

First... These cars were not cheap & options made the toal add up fairly fast & 18% car loans did not help.
Second...Engine options for a IROC-Z28.
LG4...Standard no extra cost
LB9...$696 extra
L98...$1096 extra + a number of additional required extra cost options.

So don't complaim about these original owners and how they optioned their purchases.

 

I said DARN NEAR. When looking at an 87 - 92. However If I look at a 85-86 I would definitely take a LB9/A4, it is the later years, that if given a choice I would not look twice at a LB9/A4... its not to bash or say that they are inferior, Ultimately I do not see them as really having a huge following. The way I see it there is only one benefit to owning one, as the ONLY up side is some years you could not get an L98 with T-tops, With the LB9/A4 the Fuel mileage is comparable to a L98, they are slower than a L98... They are more uncommon than an L98...

I did not mean to twist your tail, but they are a REALLY hard sale. I have seen too many really really nice cars just sit without a sale just because it was the LB9/A4... If it was a L98 or LB9/M5 it would have sold for more than what they were asking... There has been one in California that would make a nice show car, the guy was asking something like $6K or $8K and it just never sells... It looks perfect too...

Keep in mind, I own one too...

John

 

I have a 88 LB9/A4 and I have installed a free flow Magnaflow exhaust, 3.27 rear, coolant bypass, 160 thermostat, CAI & a retune of my computer and she runs great. She isn't quite up to the L98 I have in my IROC but she isn't far behind.

 

I think one of the biggest best additions anyone can do to an LB9/A4 car would be to upgrade to a 3.23 or 3.27 gear and a mild cam and you would actually perform pretty well... Honestly if you did those, from car to car it would not surprise me that some LB9/A4 cars might challenge SOME L98's

I turned a 14.8 or 14.6 with my LB9/A4 at the track, but thats with a bunch of stuff added to it... more money into it than if I would have just started with a L98...

John

 

John,

No offense taken...I understand fully what you mean. An LB9/A4 car is the last on my list of the 3 TPI powertrains I'd want to own...with an L98 being #1. Now that I've owned both for a mere 2 months, it simply reconfirms why I've wanted an L98 all along

I've been wanting an IROC since I was a kid...and have looked for one on and off since 1998. LB9/A4 cars were always last on the list of ones I'd want to look at, so I know what you mean. The reason I bought my TA is because it was the "hot" setup for '86, and it was an absolute steal IMO. To get a 30k mile, unmolested Trans Am that needs paint and a tune up is awesome for $3,000. When I bought this one, I never thought my IROC would be around the corner literally 2 months later.

Now, I'm psyched to have both to go along with my RS. I will say though that in my mind, an LB9 is significantly more desireable than an LG4 or LO3. I would never buy an LG4 car, no matter what the deal was (when I see low mileage ones to big money on eBay, I chuckle to myself over how poor the performance is for what they paid), and after owning an LO3 for 4 years, I can see why one normally didn't cross my mind for the past 12 years

Indeed, if my IROC was another LB9, I never would've bought it...