I am looking into buying a 87 iroc with 135,000. The car has a 350 tpi and was taking care of pretty good. Do you think that it would last for a good 2 years until i have enough money for a rebuild? I have a 92 cavalier z24 now with only 75,000 miles so i am hoping that the iroc will be as reliable as my cavy b/c i need to get to school. Also what does a stock 87 iroc with a 350 tpi run in the 1/4 mile? Anything to look for when buying third gens? Its $2500 is that a good deal? thanks

 

if the car truely has been maintenanced well, 135,000 miles is NOTHING to worry about. i have a 305 TPI with 185,000 miles (well, was a L03 TBI, but converted to TPI) that runs great, and i still race people and rod it around on the weekends quite a bit. i can't really brag on it much more, since i more or less rebuilt it putting the cam and heads in. so if you only plan on putting 5-10K miles on it yearly, i'd say it's probably good for 3 or years more at least, if you take good care of it and have high mileage maintenance repairs done to it (timing chain, valve springs, etc.).

as far as value, if the car is in great or mint condition, i'd think $2,500 would be an AWESOME deal. my car (1991 RS) was in mint condition when i bought it with 176,000 and i checked the bluebook on it, and it was $3,100 (and mine is an RS!), and i paid about $3000. so i'd assume that an '87 IROC with about 50K less miles would be worth much more, IF it's in mint condition.

ever looked into souping up that z24? lol. i had a friend with one of those that was FAST. they only weigh like 2200 lbs! a good turbo with a mild build would make that INSANE (like his).

anyways, i'd take the IROC over any fast z24 (lol), and if that thing is in nice shape (have it checked out by a mechanic, obviously), i'd get that, definitely. that may be a heck of a deal!

p.s. depending on the tuning, i'd imagine a stock L89 would run mid 14's at least, depending on altitude and tuning.

 

well i just looked at the car today. It looks good far away but up close it is in bad shape. I know there is alot to make older cavaliers fast. If i put new heads from a 3400 grand am and put a turbo i would be well in the 13's on a stock lowere end but it would still but a cavalier. I was a third gen. So i am still looking. I found 2 other camaros. One is a 1992 25th anniversery rs but the guy just put in a newer stock 350,and the body has 90,000miles and he wants $3300. The other one is 1992 rs with a newer 350 from a truck with vortec heads, new tranny with 2800 stall and new 3.73 posi and he wants $3500. Does either of these sound like a good deal??

 

The 92RS with the 350 Vortec engine is what I would take.

That stall speed will make it launch hard - as long as you got traction worked out. Plus - vortec heads make great torque when complimented with the right cam and intake.

 

ditto to what D Stroy said. if that 350 w/vortec has a good cam, that'll be pretty mean, depending on what intake and cam he's got. The 3.73's will make you a lot quicker than the stock 2.73's that went into most RS's, but as you probably know will kill your gas mileage. you'll suprise a lot of people on the street who think you've got an L03 (305 TBI....170 HP ) just cause you have the RS badges. $3500 doesn't seem too bad. is the new tranny an auto? i dunno....just having both a new engine and tranny in a '92 RS seems a bit suspicious. if the setup was originally a v6/v8 with a 700-R4, there really wouldn't be much of a reason to replace the 700-R4 when he swapped the 350. if he had a T-5 originally, on the other hand, then it's pretty understandable why he would ditch it (the 350 would rip it to shreds). i'd just check up on the history a bit. i guess if the guy took the time/money to put on a 3.73 posi and a 2800 stall, then more than likely he took good care of the car. obviously, it's your call. that's just my $.02