I recently carfaxed my car, its an 1987 GTA, the car fax said it came with a TBI motor. The man i bought the car from told me he put in a 350 and took out the 305. The motor in it now is TPI, but someone told me GTA's never came with TBI, is that true?

 

Honestly, CarFax isn't 100% accurate, from what I have heard from people they are more like 50/50. Most of the people that I talk said that the car fax info on thier car was inaccurate. I don't think GTA's came with TBI. I thought they were all TPI, but I am not sure about this.

Barry

 

GTA never came with tbi,, they all had tpi. it might be possible that your car isnt a GTA, check the rpo codes, i believe the GTA code is Y84.
good luck

 

I already checked to make sure my car was a GTA.

 

What does your 8th digit of your VIN# say? If it is an "F" then you had the LB9 305 TPI, if is says "8" then it is the L98 350 TPI. That would be the original engine.

 

I know the car came with a 305 stock because it's a 5 speed and i don't think the GTA had a 350 in 1987. but either way i know it was a stock 305 with a borg warner 9 bolt 3.45 rear end. The guy i bought it from said he put a 350 in it and some of my buddies like to tease me about it and say its a 305 still and that i got lied too. So i had my mechanic and good friend drive it and he said it was a 350 because it ran good. It ran a 13.5 1/4.

 

Your original question was TBI or TPI. If it was a TPI 305, it would have the "F" in the 8th digit of the VIN#. Just letting you know how to tell what your original engine was. To confirm what your current engine is, you need the engine code.

 

All '87 GTAs were available with the B2L/L98 (350) from the factory. In fact, the 350 was standard equipment unless you specified the 5-sp manual trans which gave you the LB9 (305) engine. There was also the LB9/4-sp auto combo as a factory engine credit option.

More specifically, the only Firebirds available with the TBI V8 were base, Formula and Trans Am. However, I believe the TBI (L03) V8 wasn't available until the 1988 model year.

Unfortunately, someone may have quite possibly swapped out your original LB9 TPI to put into their LO3 equipped '88+ Firebird or Camaro.




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1989 Firebird GTA: black on black 5.7 liter (N10 dual exhaust) with T-tops and leather.

 

As far as whether you have a 305 or a 350 in it right now, I'd definitely check the casting # on the back of the block. Your mechanic's butt dyno opinion means nothing. The casting #'s will tell you for sure. Once you write the #'s down, go to www.mortec.com to look them up.



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89RS w/350 TPI; 69RS/SS w/450 HP 350/Muncie 4-Speed "Too weird to live, too rare to die."

 

just to clear some things up....the GTA never came with an LO3(TBI) Check your RPO code list for Y84 thats the GTA option and yes the 350 TPI(L98/B2L) option started in '87 There is no doubt your car from the factory came with the LB9/5-speed combo especially since it has a 3.45 9-bolt rear....check the block to make sure its a 350 though

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89 GTA
Originating memeber of the SJNEP crew
Rice....it's whats for dinner
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Tony