I recently purchased a 1986 IROC with the LB9 305 and a 700R4 auto transmission. Petty good example of an unmolested survivor. I bought from the second owner who owned it since 1999 and the plates that were on it expired 16 years ago. But it slept in a heated shop during its down time so overall a nice car.

I live in South Dakota so I have no emissions testing to worry about.

The EGR valve was bad, so I ordered a new one and a VS25 EGR Solenoid that was recommended on here to use while I was at it. While replacing that I broke the ceramic part of the EGR Temperature Switch. With a multimeter and a lighter it seems to test out ok, I could probably figure out a way to add some temp protection on the exposed part of the probe that was covered by the ceramic part but instead ordered a replacement for a C4 Corvette that I can make work.

I did all this because I read on here that getting rid of all that stuff can cause issues with the exhaust valves and really no gain in deleting it all anyway.

I bought the car for nostalgic reasons. I don't expect it to be a go fast car. I could care less if deleting all that stuff lowers my 1/4 mile times a few tenths, because I'll never race it. Point being I don't care about performance. On a side note lets say I "know a guy" who also owns a late model 2500HD diesel truck who deleted it. Not because he cares about rolling coal and having power, but because he has read/heard that the particulate filter will go bad around 40-50k miles and the cost to replace it is more than to delete the truck. Same mentality with this car.

So I'll ask the question in 2023. I've read a lot of older posts and it seems that the advice goes both ways but then again the OP of those posts might be asking for different reasons than I am about deleting so I'll ask on my own post.

Is there really any reason to delete the pollution stuff? I've read that the pollution pump won't throw codes if it disappears, but what harm is having it? I thought about the EGR valve delete instead of replacing it but sounds like you need to do a PROM burn then. On and on and on. I just want a car that I can drive on the weekends now and again and when I drive it, it runs well.

So again my question is to those who have a lot more experience than I do since this is my first Gen 3, is it worth it? I've always been a Gen 1 & 2 guy, but wanted to give this Gen a try since when I was in high school the IROC was the car I'd have loved to own. I'll skip Gen 4, just not my cup of tea. Gen 5-6 are bring more money than I'd like to spend for something that will sit more than it won't so here I am.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

I wouldn't go out of my way to delete a working system, and I'd be tempted to keep a nice stock car in stock condition. There's nothing to gain by removing emissions stuff; it isn't going to make your car faster or live longer.

My air pump was seized and the cat was deleted when I got my car so I pulled out that system, but I did fix the EGR because I didn't want to tune it out.

 

If it works, leave it alone. You already stated that you don't care about performance. Removing the smog stuff would increase performance only slightly, and probably not enough to matter...

 

keep it factory!

 

Thanks for the responses! From what I've read on here there doesn't seem to be a real compelling reason to get rid of all of it.

On a side note, if you need to replace your EGR Temperature Switch the C4 Corvette one works fine. I was guessing I'd have to splice the old harness on to the new part since the new harness is so much shorter but it makes it to the connector just fine if you take a direct route to it.

 

Yeah the days of "ripping all the smog junk out" is a thing of the past. This isn't the 70s any more...lol

 

Great topic Carbon_Summit. Thanks to all for comments. I'm at that stage my 1991 LB9 has a EGR code and I just got the new valve to install.

 

Pretty straight forward job actually. When I put the plenum back on I took the hose off the back because it was a pain to get the plenum back in place. Then forgot about it. When to test drive it and my brakes were like rocks. That goes to the brake booster... lol. Hopefully save you that mistake.