Im a newbie to this V6 board, i've never actually looked in it before. I have an 85 Z28 with a rebuilt and modified 305. Im spending upwards of 40 bucks a week on gas driving to college every day and other regular driving duties. I decided that i want to get another car to use as a daily driver next semester. My friend has an 89 RS V6 for sale. He's selling it cause he got a 350 IROC and doesn't want the V6 anymore. He says it a MPFI V6, is that the 2.8 or a 3.1? It an auto if it matters.

My real question is, how would you rate the dependability or durability of these cars. What kind of mileage do you guys get. Any thing i should be looking for? Thanks for all the help you can give me.

 

it's a 2.8. as long as it doesn't have a cracked block, I hear they're pretty good. Milage appears to be awight for those w/running cars.

 

Aslong as it was reasonably well treated before, and some basic tune up stuff it will be quite reliable, and should get a tad bit better mpg then a v8

On last minute notice, I took the mrs 91rs 3.1l from Central Arkansas to Central Iowa on 1.5 tanks of gas, and a kick of the tires, quick check on lights, and open hood, has anti-freeze and washer fluid, lets roll. Forgot to check oil

Did good, no probs.

I recived the car after it sitting for a year, and driven buy a 18yo male for two rears. Did major tune up on it, and new tranny, and thats what the mrs drives today.

 

Reliablilty:
If you look after your car, it will generally repay you with reliable trips.

As far as milage, I saw an average of about 25mpg and got 33 once on a long trip, and the worst I ever saw was 19mpg with a leaky line. I am sure if you drive with a really heavy foot your milage will be much lower, but if you drive normally, it will give pretty good milage.

 

yeah, all i want is something i can drive to school everyday, 98% freeway miles. And ocassionally take on road trips. I got my Z28 to have fun with.

Is there anything i should check for when i go take a look at it. (other than the typical stuff, like oil etc,)

 

Reliability is directly related to the general maintance schedule of the car. I check all of my fluids, parts, etc every 2 months since I only travel 200 miles in a month. If the car has been taken car of, it should last awhile. To date, I haven't had a single mechanical part fail or break. Electronics are a whole other story.

 

I only have 243,000 miles on my '86 2.8 but forget about it being cheaper on gas. Around town, going to work and college, I spend more than $40/week.. more like $60. But then again, I get 93 octane (about $1.58 around Jersey), don't know if that matters. The v6's gotta work a bit harder to get up to speed than a v8 would, so they pretty much even out with gas mileage.

The car of your friends already has one advantage, v6 or no v6, as far as it's year. In '87, GM made a lot of revisions to the 4 speed automatic transmission (700r4). 'Fact as the years went on, GM kept redesigning it until in a new car, now, 2002, the trans is basically bulletproof. I'm on my third '86 trans; first one died because of the "common" failure with the 82-86 fluid pumps, second one died because Lee Myles is a bunch of crooks, and this third one is ready to crap out, too; but I don't think this was rebuilt well, either. Next trans will be one that I rebuild- I can't do much worse. But your friend should have been changing that trans fluid yearly; the 700r4 runs hotter than other GM automatics (by design!!), and that extra heat kills the fluid faster than other GM trannies, so the fluid should be changed yearly to keep the trans happy.

Honestly I'd ask you when the last time was that you gave your Z a major tuneup- and I don't mean just plugs and wires and air filter. Here's a link to my major tuneup post, if you take care of all of it, your gas mileage around town should improve. https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=62882 Good luck, let us know how it goes!

 

Ummm lets see! I guess last time i gave it a "tune up" was about 4-5 months ago when i finished rebuilding the 305. The original motor dropped a valve and it punched a hole in the piston. Here's the specs on the motor now. Summit cam (can't think of the specs right now, but its a fairly big one). Since i messed up one of the original head, i got two from a TPI 305 the shop had laying around, i got those slighty ported and polished. I got a new Edelbrock Performer manifold as well as a new Edelbrock 600cfm carb. I also got some FlowTech headers to go with my existing 3in cat-back. I used an Accel distributor with the super coil and new 8.8 wires along with some Accel shorty header plugs. Oh and i made sure i changed all of the filters and oils, including the tranny because some of it leaked in the rebuilding process. The rearend oil got changed when i had my 3:73 gears put in.

.....well anyhooo!! Can you tell im really happy with how my car is running?? My main reason why i want another car is because i want to relieve my Z from daily driver duties. Im fairly sure any six can get better mileage than mine right now.
I think this weekend im going to ask my friend to let me drive it for a while, that way i can see for myself how big if any the difference is. Thanks to everyone who responded, i'll let you know what happend.