Hey guys im 17 and bought a 1990 firebird. its a 5 speed manual and im not sure how rare it is. i cant exactly find out what it really is worth. it doesnt have any labels of a trans am or anything, but then it has things that the normal firebird doesent?? so here is some of the stats. thanks!

1)1990, black firebird
2) 5.0 tune port
3)upgraded performance suspention ?ws6 or something?
4)auto door locks and window
5) air conditioning
6) 4 speed with 5th gear overdrive
p.s. Ask any qustions about the car and i can answer them, i just really would like to know

 

There's nothing rare about it, but it's the one you own and that's what makes it special to you.

 

i just cant find any certain specifications, especially on this sight which is surprising. there is the option for the 305 tune port but it was only listed under the higher models and not for a firebird

 

overdrive is not a 5th gear. its 4th.

 

sounds like a trans am to me. Only thing you can really look at is that 1990 was only a half a production year, and it was the lowest production of the f body ever. You get the best of both worlds, you get the 85-90 body, with the newer stuff for the 91 model year in your 90, such as cup holders on the doors, the year they switched over the MAP sensor (speed density) over the MAF system, first year for the Air bag etc.... so the 1990 f body with the 5 speed LB9 is some what rare, but not at the same time. If they only made a select few with the same options other than several hundred in the combo pack it would be rare, but its truely not. i believe they only made a little over 1,000 trans ams in 1990 but most of them were porbably LB9's over the L98.

 

 

Or a Formula, but nothing to get too excited about either way.

 

Why say that? If its a '90 TPI car, its certainly something you don't see often, and after 30 years of third gens being on the road, they still tend to excite me...

 

ok nevermind, i just noticed it was manual. sorry

 

thanks for the info guys, im really hoping it is a trans am or formula theres just really no for sure distinction ive discovered between the two

 

There is an external distinction between a Trans AM and Formula. Formulas won't have ground effects while the Trans AM will (if stock).

The LB9 (305 TPI) was not available on the base 1990 Firebird, but standard on the Trans AM and optional on the Formula.

Look at the VIN and/or SPID sticker. The SPID sticker should be located on the inside wall of the center console. Does the VIN start with 1G2FW? If so, it's a Trans AM or GTA. If the VIN starts with 1G2FS it's a Formula or Firebird.

 

the vin was a 1G2FS so its either a formula or firebird! so im going to assume its a formula if firebirds didnt have the tpi option. that or its unheard of firebird

 

Look for the SPID sticker on the inside wall of the center console and look for W66. That's the Formula code. WS6 is standard on the Formula. Note the "Performance Suspension" badge alone is not an indication of WS6 because that badge was also used on the non-WS6 suspension as well.

Without posting some pictures and providing other information (such as mileage), you won't really get a great estimate on what it's worth.

 

well i know it has the 16 inch rims and all, and the hub caps say ws6. i havent got total milage yet but seems like i can get 350 miles outa of a tank

 

What JT ment was how many miles are showing on the odometer.

 

HOLY CRAP that is good, wish my car did that well. Try close to 200 miles a tank for me lol

 

Wouldn't a 5 speed manual tranny be an RPO MM5 and I thought the MM5 was only good with an RPO LB9 engine and an RPO GM3 3:45 rear gear?

 

lb9 is 305tpi

 

there could be a different tank size and being a standardtechnically it should get better, but i also think theres some things engine wise wrong with the car cause it seems like it doesnt have as much power as it should

 

350 miles to a tank is about 22.5 mpg. You must have a pretty accurate fuel gauge as I drive my car about 225 miles and get a fill up because it shows I'm at 1/4 tank. My fill ups usually only take about 10 gallons though, which equates to 22.5 mpg. I don't think I will trust my gauges to go that far!

 

The fuel gauges are pretty accurate IME. The lack of tank baffles sucks, and when it says E you are empty as there is no reserve, but you can run it down to the very tip of the empty line and still pull into the station on fumes...I've had a couple close calls where I've had to do that.

 

Thats mainly just because its a TBI. the tune port gauges dont move from brake to gas constantly like TBI does. Ive ran my car to E only once and still made it 5 miles to a gas station so i feel confident in my gauge.

 

Really, that's a TBI only thing? I always assumed it was just due to an unnecessarily constant pulse from the sending unit...it's the only car I've ever seen that had a gas gauge that went all over the place. One time I got so close to E that the car stalled at a light on a slight incline when I came to a stop...luckily it started back up right away and I made it to the gas station in time.

It sure is annoying, go around a corner and it goes down a quarter tank until you level out, then it comes back up.

 

FWIW, my 85 TPI gauge moves around just like formulakid and puma say theirs do. I dont think its just a TBI thing.

I think its just a side effect of old technology. My old 88 Cherokee did the same thing. Floated the gauge everywhere depending on how you used the gas, brake, etc.

The new cars have resistors in the gauge so it takes a few seconds from the time the float to move to register on the gauge. After driving that old Jeep for 6 years Im used to the floating gauge. Its something we all have to get used to.

 

no my gauge doesnt move at all. it only moves once it uses up a gallon. Every other TPI car ive been in they dont move. The TBI act all the same, my 94 Silverado with the 350 TBI stock the gauge moved up and down like crazy on and off the gas and brake. It always moves to the left on the brakes and back up to the right once on the gas. I think its how the fuel is delivered into the throttle body or returned for that matter. But my L98 stop and go from lights it doesnt move, and yes its accurate. It drives my co worker nuts because he has a 91 RS 5.0 TBI and from sitting from the passenger side i can see the gauge move constantly. Its really annoying

 

my 87 5.7 tpi does that as well.

 

OK, for the record...

I've owned 6 third gens...4 TPIs, a TBI and a 2.8. ALL the gas gages suck. Period. All bounced all over the place, my IROC claims its on E when I can only fit 11 gallons in it, etc.

All suck. Period.

 

It may move, but it doesnt move extremely constant like TBI cars do. Idk i may just have a really good sending unit, idk my car and previous TPI cars ive driven usual act the same though

 

5.7 TPI here and my gas gauge moves just as much as everyone with the TBI guys are saying. If I stop real hard I can watch the gauge literally drop a whole quarter of a tank, but if I accelerate real hard directly after that, I'll watch the needle rise right back up. My has quite a bit of moving around going on. My assumption is it's not something limited to TBI only because of my TPI doing it.

 

Strange my gauge doesnt hardly move, only time it moves more than normally up and down is when i get to about a 1/8 of tank left but its not that bad other than it getting real low my gauge hardly moves around a lot while driving. Ill even take a vid for it cause maybe mine is just slow? But its accurate i know that much.

 

Yea I'm not sure why. It happens no matter how full or how empty the tank is too. I'll also have to take a vid. The funny thing is, the gauge is actually accurate though once it levels out.

 

every time i come to a stop sign/light, my gas needle goes down to E; however once i'm driving it goes back up. often times goes higher than how much gas it actually has.

 

Same here, I put 14 Gal in my tank the other day, it filled it up past the F, even turning out of the gas station it went down a quarter of a tank, but then leveled out at the stop light.

 

Alright guys i have 3 short vids of my fuel gauge.

First vid is start up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upj9n...el_video_title

2nd vid is around 4 or so miles of driving i turn into a neighborhood http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUnVg...el_video_title

3rd vid i drove about another 4 miles, left sonic drove back another 4 miles i recorded the last bit of the drive back from sonic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6t_O...el_video_title

I used about a gallon of gas or close to it anyway, my gauge doesnt move hardly under brake or acceleration. so......??? is it just my car?

 

At least in the Firebirds, the gauges seem to improve in the later years. My 1989 V-6 and 1988 TPI Trans Am had a bouncy gas needle, but my 90 V-6s and 91 TPI cars don't.

 

Yep. Oh and if anyone's wondering if they made them better for the 4th gen...they didn't. I bought my car new, and it's NEVER read correctly. Says I am completely out of gas every time I start the car no matter how much gas is in it. Usually takes about 15 min of driving, and then it reads correctly. Shut it off, and it's immediately wrong again.

 

4th gear is direct drive and 5th is od

 

It did that on day one?...

 

Odd, my 00 Trans Am doesn't do that at all...

 

I wouldn't say it's "RARE", but I would say rare. Low production year, 305 TPI, 5 speed manual, maybe a formula, I can def say I don't see allot of those. I can'r even remember the last time I say a thirdgen T/A or fire bird around. I usually see camaros if anything. Anyway, If I'm correct, the 305 TBI 5 speed is a fairly desirable car. What condition is the car in? How many Miles? Pics?

 

As a response

Startup: http://youtu.be/SrRk0JNrZO4

After 2-4 miles of driving (best demonstration of it moving around): http://youtu.be/qo_bd5-AV4s

Not trying to steal the thread, I just found it funny how alot of people said TPI's don't have the dancing fuel gauges.

 

It odd man, as you could tell in my vids my gauge doesnt do that. But from AmorgetRS post maybe true? The 90 up firebirds were maybe just better? IDK HOW lol but something weird going on there. My gauge doesnt move back and forth.

 

It's not bad though, the reading is usually never too far from accurate. Just funny to see it dance around.