how many miles is a typical 350 tpi good for? Do they make a good daily driver? What should I expect to pay for a reasonalbe mileage third generation camaro?

Thanks a lot

 

American cars hardly make good daily drivers compared to the 200,000 mile toyotas, especially a "performance" vehicle.

Unless you do something horrible wrong a L98 should make it well passed 100k miles, some to and beyond 200k (Granted they smoke like an SOB) but it alllllllllllll depends on the owner.

 

283,845.6 miles on the odometer until it stopped working about 2 years ago, kept rounding the driven gear in the tranny after the rebuild. I imagine it is well over 300,000 now, as it was my daily driver until about a month ago. Smokes a bit, still stock motor. My Vortec heads should take care of the smokey startup

 

mine's at 140,000 and I'm getting about 21 mpg. 350 TPI automatic GTA

 

I have 117k on my 350

 

138,200'ish miles. Averages 20 mpg, 25 highway, performs like new. No smoke at all.

 

174,000 ran 14.21 @ 95 mph gets 20+ MPG
all stock as far as the engine goes, no rebuilds. Slight smoke at start up occasionally.

 

14.9 @ 94 mph.

I have a 305 5 speed spd, there almost the same thing, apart from 45ci .

I have 175,000+ miles on my ride and it drives like a dream.

 

140,000 here. Baught car 2 years ago. Still havent tuned it up. Tune up on the way next week. Runs like a dream and very reliable. Still havent had any engine problems. 'knock on wood' No smoke, doesnt drip any oil, and I assasinate 5.0s. ::evillaugh::

 

about 15 miles on my 350, TPI Iroc Z28
(just dropped the rebuilt in)
the old 305 gave up the ghost (broken pushrod), the odomoter read 27,000, so i dont know if it was 1 or 2 hundred thousand.

 

I'll be the opposite extreme here. Stock engine spun a rod bearing at 100,672 miles. And the tranny had died at 99,xxx miles. And the headlights stopped coming up about then.

 

Engine life is depended on usage and how well you take care of it.

 

my od reads 142,000 but it has over 200,000 because the spedo is off about 15 mph at 65mph, and gets worse the faster i go.

yea it smokes, but just a little, and drivability, lets just say that 2 weeks after i bought the car 4 months ago the damn oil sump fell off. just fixed that about 2 weeks ago, then a last tues. it stoped running because of low fuel press. so i have had sh!tty luck with this one, but i have a built 355 tpi in an 87 iroc (rest in peice) that i paid 500 for, and never had any fatal problems like my 89 iroc.

so it depends on the type of use the car got (ie: highway, city, county) for longevity.

good luck
anthony

 

1988 iroc-z stock orginal 5.7 110,000 miles, about 19 mpg, i ran 14.7 at the track. smoked on startup. i wrecked the car.

1988 formula 350, 115,000 miles stock original, about 20mpg, ran 14.5 at track. smoked on startup. car was wrecked in the rear end by some girl.

now my new car, 69,200 miles stock original, about 21 mpg, ran 14.3 at track. does not smoke or burn any oil. still have it


i would expect that the motor would last well over 150,000 miles if driven daily and not hard.

in the my family the stock original 4.3 liter 1989 chevy astro van, has 263,000 miles on it, about 18 mpg and smokes on startup.
still running strong oil change every 3,000 miles..

 

Stock tpi is good for over 200,000 if taken care of(regular oil changes, no overheating) I have heard they will last longer with a 180', or 160' thermostat.

 

I had a '87 Formula 350 that was pushing 166,000. That thing drank oil too. I beat it like a red headed stepchild until I sold it.

 

If you use synthetic oil (preferrably Mobile 1) you could get a lot more miles out of the motor than with regular 'ole "dino" oil. I pulled the L98 out of my Camaro with 160,XXX on it and put in a 383. To my surprise there was no visible and almost no measurable wear on any of the vital parts in the old motor, i.e. rod and main journals, cylinder walls, cam lobes and journals, etc.

In short; USE SYNTHETIC! It will definitely pay off in the end.