Thinking about buying this POS:lol:

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

Damn that’s a beautiful build! Those under carriage shots are bad ass. To me it’s something of a work of art to have a car built up like that underneath that the world will never see. True sleeper material.

I have absolutely no intention to part this one out. I fully intend to build this car. Not sure what I’ll do paint wise but I want to make it run and handle excellent. If it gets paint it will be in the original blue.

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

Look at this bad boy. This car is a heavy hitter for options. Factory 3:27, G80, disk rear. Iroc 3 package. All it’s missing is the Factory TPI 350 and 5 speed to about as bad as they came in ‘87. The interior is all their and in pretty good shape. No visual evidence of any massive t top leaks. No water spots on the interior and the head liner is pristine.

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

I would definitely buy it. The aftermarket makes any and all parts for that car nowadays, for a fair price. Fun to build, fun to drive...I say do it!

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

True. It’s actually already done. Traded some mechanic work for it. Gotta get it home over the next few weeks. Gonna need a roll back.

[blackgloves]

Originally Posted by Aqua Blue RS/SS

True. It’s actually already done. Traded some mechanic work for it. Gotta get it home over the next few weeks. Gonna need a roll back.

Keep us updated. My IROC could've easily taken a dirt nap more than once since I've owned it but I've held on. Its currently in the middle of an LS3 swap.

I love these cars

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

Nice! I wish I could swing an LS3 swap in mine right now. My 3 kids are still young so the funds have to go elsewhere but I’ll get there one day. I’ve been thinking about putting the 402ci stroked LY6 6.0 that I’ve been building for my ‘72 Chevy K20 into this IROC. I haven’t decided on it for sure yet as that motor will be well over 500 Hp at the flywheel and that opens up a whole other can of worms. I’m definitely going to keep the TPI in it for the short term and see how everything plays out long term. I intend to keep this car for the long haul.

In a nutshell it has ended up being a one owner car with a legitimate and verified accurate 50,000 mile odometer. The interior is in excellent shape and shows very very little wear. It’s a shame the sun ate the paint the way it did but I’ll get it back to IROC blue in the future. The T-tops don’t seem to leak hardly at all so this car is legitimately rust free. I’ve been all over it and have found nothing rust wise. Not even any notable rust in the center Ttop bar. I would consider this car a survivor as it is all original and other than the fuel pump area of the rear floor unmolested.

Before I unloaded it I power washed the whole car. It’s amazing how original it is under the hood. A true survivor. Note the original hoses everywhere under the hood. Especially easy to see is the original radiator hose, and fuel injection hoses.

Once I got it home, I started out with putting a battery in it and seeing what I had. Most everything including the factory radio, speakers, and power mirrors still work. The power locks, Windows, and tach will need some work but I’ll get them going soon enough. I didn’t try the starter at this point. I jumped the fuel pump relay with the ALDL connector but the fuel pump was dead and the fuel gauge stuck at 3/4 full-more on the gauge in a bit.

Next I pulled the spark plugs, and tried to break it over with the balancer bolt. It wasn’t budging so I fogged all the cylinders with marvel mystery oil, and penetrating oil, thru some clean vinyl tubing with a low psi blast of compressed air to make sure I got it all forced in there. I then let it sit for a day or two. When I got back to it, it broke free pretty quickly and I was able to hit it with the starter with no issues, oil psi came up pretty quick once I cranked it over.

Next I changed the oil and filter. Nothing scary here at all. Everything looked good no metal or coolant in the oil. (radiator is still more than half full) I filled it back up with 3 quarts of rotella 15w40, and 2.5 quarts of marvel mystery oil. This will help big time in cleaning up any sludge or other trash in there, as well as help those old dry seals come back to life. I’ll change it out in pretty short order once it’s running.

After all this I dropped the rear end all but out, removed the rear portion of the exhaust and pulled the tank. Unfortunately after I got it out I quickly learned some hack beat me to it with a cut off wheel to the floor at some point in the past. I don’t care for cut floor boards and trap doors for replacing fuel pumps. Completely tasteless and half assed in my opinion. I’m going to get a donor section from another car to fix that BS permanently.

Upon getting the tank out it was immediately evident that the tank and pump were no good. The tank rusted thru from the inside out in a few spots and the sending unit/pump are in really nasty shape. The gauge was stuck because the sending unit float arm was seized. I’ve got the gauge to work as it should with the sending unit unhooked. Sooo now came decision time, new 3rd Gen tank and sending unit/pump? Nope not a chance in hell. 99-02 Camaro plastic tank and pump??? Absolutely, The first step in prepping for a possible LS swap, as well as a few extra gallons of capacity, a removable filler neck, and a better evap setup even though I’m not going to go thru the trouble to do the 4th Gen ecm and gauge cluster swap to make it work 100% as designed.

I got the tank assembly picked up actually this past week from the local wrecking yard. Waiting on the parts to mod the fuel lines, the new 4th Gen V6 fuel pump(no built in regulator) and 0-90 ohm sending unit to come in so I can get it back in. I also pulled the OE fuel filter and blew all of the old shitty gas out of the lines with compressed air as well as the supply and return on the intake. Man that old gas stunk to high hell. I did blow some old crud out of the lines as well so hopefully they are good to go.
After the tank I pulled the pan on the 700r4 and the fluid was still blood red. I’m 100% sure it was the first time the pan had ever been off. It still had the GM filter on it and what I would say was 50K miles of wear, as well as no scratches on the pan or case from scraping the pan gasket off in the past. I’m optimistic that it will still function once I get it running.

I then started to focus on the rear end. While doing the transmission fluid and filter I noticed the tail shaft seal and pinion yoke both appeared to be leaking when it was still on the road. I pulled the cover and drained and flushed the gears with brake kleen. It’s got the factory auburn Posi which seems like a pile of junk according to thirdgen.org and others. There wasn’t a ton of metal in the oil so that’s maybe a good sign that the Posi might still work half decent. Time will tell. Again I’m confident this is the first time the cover had been off, no silicone in sight, just the factory gasket.

Check out that original Posi oil tag after a little cleaning. Upon further investigating the tail shaft and pinion leaks I noticed the tail shaft bushing has some minor play in it. The tail shaft looks fine so I ordered both the pinion and tail shaft housing seals as well as the bushing. I should have them delivered sometime this week then I’ll work on tearing it apart further and fixing those leaks. In the near future I’m going to attempt to flush the coolant and power steering fluid as well as get everything I’ve started to this point finished 100%. Then I’m going to tear into the injectors and replace them as well as the fuel pressure regulator. After that it should be ready to run. I fully expect it to leak from every seal and gasket in the engine and at least the pump seal on the transmission but I’m hoping it won’t. I cross those bridges when they come.
Pictures of everything to come.

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

More

Check out the nasty ass OE sending unit and fuel pump.
The Original Ttop bags are still in the luggage compartment in good condition.
The last two are the new fuel tank minus the pump(still waiting on the new V6 4th Gen pump to come in) and the charcoal canister which I still need to install. And the car as it sits currently waiting for parts to come in.

[Tajefe Couple]

Thats pretty cool to see you bringing the survivor back to life. Keep the post coming and best of luck!

[The SS Godfather]

LEGEND !! Glad it is all happening and can't wait to see the finished photos too!!! " Well DONE"

[102SS]

RoadKill FTW

Awesome stuff thanks for keeping us updated

[0stones0]

Amazed on how all the hoses, rubberized stuff held up! Best of luck!

[blackgloves]

I'm not sure where you're located but with my swap I have a TPI for sale and I'm willing to part it out. Its a low milage 5.7L that has a list of parts that were installed and have low milage on them too.

Dart iron eagle heads
Cam
Stealth intake
Fuel rails
Serpentine system
Throttle body

Unfortunately I haven't drove this car much in the 9 or so years I've owned it. I do a round of upgrades... the transmission went out. The transmission was built completely through with upgraded parts and I moved for my career leaving the car at my parents ranch. Id finally move the car to my home, the paint went to hell in a hand basket. Then a paint job... then another round of upgrades. I'm either waiting on the car or its not with me.

Ive babbled enough. If you or anyone else is interested, just send me a PM to my inbox. The motor and transmission could help out a lot of these old cars that need help

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

blackgloves, you must not get one state to the west very often lottaburger is the burger joint of NM! I think there’s one in Amarillo now. I’m in northwest NM. I appreciate the offer, but I think at this point I’m going to keep the original 305 for now and when the reason to swap it Comes along I’d like to go LS because of the ease of ECU tuning and the ability they have to make pretty cheap, reliable HP.

Another update. Getting close to firing it up.

4th Gen tank swap my way: gas gauge works correctly, and the 4th Gen V6 pump runs fine on prime and when jumped at the ALDL. I’m going to just integrate the 4th Gen vapor line at the tank to the 3rd Gen vapor line at the body and use the third Gen canister. I would have run the 4th Gen canister vented to atmosphere like most but upon further inspection it wasn’t in great shape so I returned it to the junk yard.

Someone cut the feed line from the tank to the canister on this tank to remove the canister. I found the tank in the back of one car, the filler bolted to another car with the tank already gone, the lock ring was in the back of yet another car. Took me some time to round it all up as there were no complete setups. They had the charcoal canister already pulled and on a shelf from another customer who backed out. (because it was no good) I grabbed the 4th Gen plastic lines but they were with the tank out in the New Mexico sun for who knows how long so I opted to go a more reliable route (in my opinion) with -AN stuff. I read a lot of Plastic tank swap threads on thirdgen.org, and I didn’t see anyone go the -AN route which surprised me as it’s proven, reliable, and simple. It went way easier than the confusing mess of 4th Gen lines grafted to 3rd Gen lines and the seemingly endless contradictions from some of the older swap threads there. Maybe I missed some along the way. I’m sure I can’t be the only one.

I used the herko 90 ohm sending unit. Of course using an aftermarket sender and an aftermarket pump I couldn’t swap the whole sender over because they mounted different. I got crafty and did it without cutting or splicing, but it was a bit of a pain in the butt. I’m hoping to try and start the engine up this weekend, I haven’t got injectors here yet but I’m thinking I will try it on the oe stuff and see what happens. I’m going to dump a gallon of marvel mystery oil into the fuel tank and add a few gallons of gas on top of it. That should help clean the lines rail and injectors out. All I need to do other than that is flush the coolant and change the plugs and wires and it’ll be ready to try to fire. Here’s a few more pictures. I didn’t get one of the exhaust back on, or the filler neck, fuel door and such but it is all there. I need to drill the hole to mount the filler neck still but that’s going to be easy.

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

Another cool pic from yesterday…