A few quick specs on the car:

'87 IROC-Z
305 TPI
700-R4
power EVERYTHING, seats, windows, mirrors, locks, hatch
Ttops
G92 w/rear disc
145mph speedo

I first saw this car here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6161

I asked the seller what he'd sell it for, he emailed me back with the price... I found the funds, sent him a deposit, and the next Saturday, I was driving it.

Here's how the trip went... Quite interesting.

Left Friday night from Idaho Falls, ID and drove all the way through the night to get to Tacoma, WA.

I picked up the car and went STRAIGHT to the gas station as the owner didn't leave me with any. 12 gallons or so later and she was filled... and leaking coolant.

We then went to Les Schwab and got 4 new tires, a new battery, and some lug nuts.

After that, we went directly to a Grease Monkey and had them flush the tranny, cooling system, replace air filters, and change oil.

From there, we went to the hotel in Bellevue, WA and the car started to overheat.... GREAT I thought...

We got to the hotel and she sat for the rest of the night. We went into Seattle and had a blast being tourists.

When we got back, I thought that maybe the cooling system needed a "burp" and so I opened the cap and sure enough, air came out before the coolant.

The next morning, she fired right up, no smoke at all! We headed towards Spokane and going through the Snoqualmie Pass area, she started to get HOT again.

I saw an exit with a few services in North Bend, WA and we stopped. Just so you know, my parents were following us back in their Jimmy, so we weren't STUCK, just in a position.

We saw a Schucks auto parts, thank g0d. I decided that I was going to change the thermostat and the radiator cap and see if that would help. It was kinda funny... The guy at Schucks had a REALLY nice '92 RS.

I changed the thermo from the 195 to a 180 and changed the cap as well... No luck, got back on the interstate and boom - OVERHEATing...

I was beginning to think that maybe the engine was having gasket failure but the car didn't overheat right away, it was only at highway speeds and only really going up a grade. I was getting ticked but I tried to keep my cool.

I let it cool down and then flew back to the Schucks as quick as I could. I talked with the guy down there and he made me realize something. I had no lower air deflector thing underneath the car. It'd be taken off. We decided to see if the cooling fans were working. I tried the paperclip trick in the ALDL connector anbd sure enough, one of the two fans kicked on. Later on I found out that the first fan was in fact working to TRY and cool her down.

I decided to splice into my hot wire to the second fan and give it some juice. I did, and with a little switch, I was able to turn it on and off. It appeared to be working.

I had to drive the final 750 miles home with one fan permanently running and the other fan as a backup.

Going through some of the mountain ranges and passes that we had to was scary, seeing the temp climb, but I couldn't do much about it. We stopped occasionally to let it cool, but she rode the entire way home running at 220+ temps...

I know, I know - BAD. I had no other choice though. We looked into towing the car, but my dad's 2000 Jimmy didn't have the towing capacity to tow the car and the 2000 pound trailer that was available. In retrospect, we should've taken our '96 Yukon SLT.

Anyway. We stopped in Spokane, WA and stayed the night - We were all tired from the long day and the few miles we actually travelled...

The next day, yesterday, we made it home VERY late... We took I-90 EAST until Butte, MT and then we went down I-15 home...

I'm glad that trip is over.

First thing this car is getting is one of those air deflector things underneath the car and a new water pump.

UGH. What a trip, but now I'm the proud owner of a VERY strong running '87 IROC-Z.

Almost forgot... The gas MPG REALLY impressed me. At lowest, we got 20mpg. At highest, we got 26 mpg!! I didn't believe it until I did the math like 5 times.