theCure

i found an 86 iroc this w/e for $1000 it'll take about $2000 just to make it look good again and thats not including the paint, but what i'm wondering is how can i find out if its the original motor? from a little research i found out that 86 iroc w/350 tpi is extremely rare. its white w/blue iroc stripes. i'm pretty sure its been wrecked before its got an 86 sc nose on and beat up fenders w/ alot of bondo and the doors have some bondo, but the rest of the body is respectable and looks to be original, but it has some power i drove it and it was chirping gears everytime it shifted and its auto. sorry to be babbling, but what do ya'll think?

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

Check the VIN. If the 8th digit is 8 its an L98. Also, check the RPO's for B2L and L98, and look on the identification stickers on the hood, and if the car say 5.7 Tuned Port Injection on it.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Hmm... $1000 for an 86 Iroc, one of 50,000 other 86 Irocs...
Rather serious body damage... and the owner says its a 350.

I don't believe in the 50 86 Irocs with 350TPI. I believe that GM cobbled together a short run of Irocs in 86 for testing. I believe they sent them to car mags for rave reviews and to feel out the market. And I believe that GM shortly there after scrapped the cars because they were test vehicals, not approved for street use.

Every uneducated seller says his 305 is a 350. 5.7L badging is and has been available from the dealership and other sources since 1987 or earlier. Ask yourself how many 305 owners bought 350 badging... How many honda owners have Type R stickers on their Honda?

Considering its most likely just a beat to hell 86 Iroc, I would think you could find one of the other 50,000 in better condition for the $3000 you'd have invested by the time you put this car back together. AND once a cars been wrecked, it'll never be right again.

theCure

drew, thats what i was considering, just saving up and getting about an 89-90 iroc or 91-92 z28. i know for a fact its a 350, i just didnt know if it was original or not and if it was i figured it might be worth restoring

Drew

iTrader: (58)

if its an honest to *** 1986 L98 Iroc, then it would be worth restoring. BUT you better be able to prove it... meaning documentation. The VIN better show its an L98 and an 86, the RPO sheet better show L98 and B2L, and the VIN on the RPO sheet better match the VIN on the cowl. Also it shouldn't have A/C, at least not factory a/c and it should have the vent levers under the steering column.

Check it over thoroughly. In the 6+ years I've been on this site I've never seen any proof of an 86 L98 fbody.

theCure

cool, thanks.....i'm gonna write down the stuff you just said and when i go back in the next day i'm gonna check, but i seriously doubt its a real one too

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, it won't have T-Tops either.

theCure

no t-tops.....guess that proves its not the original then, its got t-tops and its an auto........thanks for the help ya'll, glad i didn't let myself get jipped

Willie

iTrader: (1)

I don't believe in the 50 86 Irocs with 350TPI. I believe that GM cobbled together a short run of Irocs in 86 for testing. I believe they sent them to car mags for rave reviews and to feel out the market.

This we know is fact. I have documentation on this.

And I believe that GM shortly there after scrapped the cars because they were test vehicals, not approved for street use.

I too have never seen documentation on the disposition of these cars and have never seen proof that one exists today. Drew is probably right.

I can't help but wonder if these 50 cars displayed an engine code "8" in the VIN. They were probably originally 305's that were "pulled from production", displaying an "F". As long as I'm speculating, GM may have even reinstalled the 305 into these cars and sold them to the public!! But who knows for sure.

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

You'd have to ask S.S.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

I'd put my money on GM building the cars to see if the 350 would trash the car, and for mag testing, advertising, feasability type garbage, etc... I'd take a guess that they didn't even have VIN numbers. I'd also be willing to put money on the table that GM stripped the cars and reused the bodies multiple times. An example of this is the limited edition Heritage cars that they built for 92, 350HO, with the ZF6, crosslace wheels, etc... At least one of the cars was repainted red, had louvers, and firehawk rims (on the cover of the how to tune and modify your camaro book) and at least one other was givin an LT1 and sent to the magazine people... It may have even been the same car. One of the two was the Yellow Camaro that got the Ramjet 350 when GMPP started pushing them. Now whether these cars were just updated cars that GM has been using as mules since 1986 or maybe even 82 is open to speculation. But GMPP also installed carbed 454's, MPFI 454's, LT5's, etc in thirdgens to see if it could be done. Pics of these engine installs can be seen in the book I mentioned before and David Shelbys guide to thirdgen modding. I can't see GM pulling a car off the assembly line to hack up for a conversion when they could take one of these Camaro's that couldn't be resold off the backlot and hack it up.

My guess is that those 50 (if it was even 50, probably closer to 5) never left GM after testing.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

There's a never-ending debate going on over at gmforums.com in the thirdgen section about the 86 350. Now somebody insists that he's seen a factory 88 GTA L98 5-speed.

Thank G0d for this Forum. If that bunch of ***** was the only source for thirdgen information I'd still be trying to figure out how to change my plugs. :sillylol:

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Don't laugh too hard jim... I did the plugs in the Iroc last weekend and I gotta be honest... I've got a hankerin to go find the bastard that decided that the brake lines should be the way they are, and the AIR injection manifold lines should be the way they are, etc... Whoever he was he was fired by 1991. On the 87 you can't get at the plug just in front of the downpipe on the drivers side manifold from the top or the bottom... It takes a contortionist with tiny tiny tiny hands... Every other plug on the car was replaced with only the spark plug socket and a rachet, that one plug required a universal joint, 2 extensions, and a full vocabulary of fowl language. BTW I say he was fired by 91 cause on the Formula changing that plug (and the 02 sensor that's equally obscured on the Iroc) takes under 5 minutes.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

WOW! no joke Jim, I'm about to page three of http://discussions.gmforums.com/show...0&pagenumber=1

And I'm shocked... Funny how people quote the technical database... I mean come on, its about 5th hand info. It was hijacked from another site, that hijacked it from another site, and who knows where they got it... I was the last person to edit it and I thought I made it pretty clear that the L98 86 Iroc's never hit the streets... Oh well... That thread is a joke, its even worse then the one that was posted here.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

HEHEHE just for fun I did a little search in yahoo... There are at least 5 different sites that use variations of the 'Camaro Technical Database' or 'Camaro Technical Reference'. They can be seen at http://www.f-body.org/tech/tech.htm
http://www.hotrodding.org/misctech8.html
http://www.kong.net/VidSat/burncycle/cartest(1).html
http://www.faribault.k12.mn.us/brian/camaro/specs.htm
and of course
https://www.thirdgen.org/tech/techdb.shtml

Its funny cause ours is the only one that doesn't credit the original author. Oh well... Ours is also the only one that shows any kind of accurate information for the Firebirds since all the others are only concerned with the Camaro. I'm sure I'm not the only one that remembers first reading the technical reference back in 1996, most of the above use the same version.

Can't help but wonder who came up with the magical number of 50 L98 86 Iroc's was... We may never know...

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

That's the damned truth! I've got my 85 down to 25 minute plug swaps including jacking time. My GTA took me 4 HOURS!!!!!!!!!! 2 1/2 of them were spent on the #5 plug that you're talking about. To make matters worse, when I finally found a way to get a socket on it, I broke the damned plug off in the hole.

4 frieking hours for plugs, wires cap & rotor.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Hmm.. not sure it took me four hours... it was kind of a clusterfuk... First the parts store gave me the wrong plugs. Bosch seems to think that some 87 350's had aluminum heads... So after straightening that out I think I started working on the car about 6:00PM... I came in to watch 6 ft under at about 9pm I wanna say, and missed the first minute or two cause I was running the car to make sure I got the wires back on the cap in the right order...

camaro6spd

THERE ARE NO FACTORY 350 AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC BEFORE 87. PERIOD.......PERIOD..................NO......I DON'T CARE, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SAID END OF STORY.

Edit: those guys over at that other board are really full of it huh....I saw it with my own eyes.....but i did not know what i was looking at? UMMMM then the guy could be B/Sing seeing that as a little kid you are not likely to know the difference between a 305/350 let along be able to tell them apart while in the engine bay...it has been known to happen.

camaro6spd

This could be one huge joke from the original author of the tech data because everyone was stealing his info.....i bet he is just sitting back laughing his a$$ off at the people who took his word as the end all be all.



I am a post *****...I have more then Wille....LOL

super83Z

Well I think I know of one to exist. IT is two towns over and now with all this talk about them not existing I am going to go get the VIN off it. I want to know for sure. They say it is an original L98 car.

iroc22

I seriously doubt that any 86 L98 cars made it to the public. Yes they were assembled, but they were mules. 95% of the GM test mules that were sent to magazines and for GM use, were destroyed. Lets face it, the test vehicles that GM assembled were not EPA certified and were not able to be released to the public.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

This is the key. Those numb-nuts on the other site have no idea how expensive it is to get *any* car EPA certified. They're sure as hell not going to pay that expense for 50 lousy cars.