My 88 IROC runs fine now -- typical valve seal / blue smoke on startup, about 180K miles.

When would you suggest planning for a rebuild? Being on a budget, is there any downside of waiting until there is a catastrophic failure?

Also, I have an LB9/5-speed combo. Any ideas on the most cost effective way of upgrading to a smog-legal 350 or 355?

Thanks for your input.

 

well teh best thing to do is get a 350 built, bigger injectors, better cam, good heads put together by DynoDon. There's just a bit of a line. I say drive it til it dies but dont put any money to fix it.

 

Thanks, b's90cam. I was thinking along those lines.

I'd appreciate anyone else's ideas also, especially about the additional cost of a 350.

 

You can save up for a crate motor. What ever you do expect to be out of at least $3500.00 not including labor.

 

yeah if it's a neccesity and you need a motor bad you should get a crate, but if you're willing to wait a few months and you get in line quick, it would be cheaper and better for performance to hook up with Don. A 350, zz9 cam, trickflow heads, edelbrock base, and siamesed slp runners should be able to pull on an ls1 car, granted your car's suspension can handle it. Plus you'll definetely need full exhaust to get anything out of that thing.