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Glad to see this build. Looks clean and mean! Sorry about your back...but are you going to get some hp tests anytime soon?
Probably not for a while since it's freezing here in Nebraska and I'm a big baby lol. I'll start back up on it probably in mid to late March and should have it running by mid April.
Life seems to always get in my way when it comes to this car...
Back in 1998 I had a black/gold w/ tan int. 1985 Z28 5.0 4bbl 5 speed w/ low miles. Coming home from work one Friday a guy in an S10 was nice enough to park his truck in my back seat at 55mph while I was sitting at a stop light. That was one of the saddest days in my life.
It never failed that when I had extra cash no cars could be found, but as soon as the bank account was low something would show up. So fast forward 12 years and one craigslist add. Happiness is mine again. i am now the proud owner of a black/gold w/ tan int. 1986 IROC 5.0 4bbl auto.
She is a little rusty on the surface and the interior is a little dirty, but she is a solid runner. Now to fix her up and relive the glory days! It will be a long process but I don't care.
So two years has past since the last time I updated this thread and to say a lot has happened is an understatement...
From Feb 2018 until today I have lost both my parents, taken on a new position at work, was "asked to leave" by my partner of six years whom I owned a house with, and bought a new place. I have been to the real dark places in my head and been brought back a couple of times by really good freinds, but in the end I'm still chugging along and I still have the '87!
Now lets catch everyone up... Now have a 24'x30' heated and cooled garage. Upgraded my tool box situation thanks to Home Depot getting out of the "Fancy Box" game Bought and refinished a 20'+2" trailer with a 12k winch. Bought and flipped a '89 IROC Bought and flipped a '99 Jaguar XJ-8 L (biggest pile of **** I've ever owned lol) Picked me up a new shop helper named Trace!
I also worked on the IROC a bit, but I'll catch that one up in the next post!
Last edited by jharrison5; 06-18-2020 at 08:29 PM.
Ok as for the progress on the IROC it has been slow since I've been really busy having life beat me down, but here is whats new... Modified the vortec coil holder to house the new coil and mounted it to the intake. Buttoned up the last of the engine wiring and plumbing. Added two posts to run all the new FAST wiring to.
Got it all buttoned up, tuner set up, and when I filled the radiator up I found out the intake didn't seat right due to a bent bolt and it leaked coolant...
next up I pulled the intake off to re-seal it and found out a mouse thought it would be fun to leave a peanut in my motor and pee and poop at will. Figured since I had the intake off I would paint it gold to add some flare to the 'ol engine bay.
Cleaned and scuffed everything up, taped off the bits, and then sprayed on a few coats of VHT SP132 Universal Gold high temp engine enamel.
Sometimes my OCD makes me open up a can of worms and tuns my "quick projects" into something completely different. Case in point is my buddy commenting that its too bad the fuel injection setup won't look as nice as the newly painted intake... Next thing I know I'm buying a Harbor Freight blast cabinet and modifying it because YouTube told me I should lol! First issue was that my Craftsman 6hp 33 gallon 115v oil less compressor can't keep up with and I can get about four solid minutes of good blasting before I have to stop and let it catch up. Issue two is that the compressor runs so much that after 40 minutes I start to get moisture in the air lines.
It took me three days of tinkering with the cabinet to get the fuel rails and valve covers stripped, and at that rate I was going to be at it for a while. My solution to all of this was to sell my 33 gallon Craftsman and buy an 80 Gallon Masterforce 220v single stage compressor lol. Oddly enough it was cheaper then buying a 60 gallon due to it being on sale and the 11% rebate. I ordered it on May 29th and am hoping it'll be here this week.
What the new guy looks like... Stripped with 70 grit Aluminum Oxide at 60psi Stripped with crushed glass at 60psi
Sometimes my OCD makes me open up a can of worms and tuns my "quick projects" into something completely different. Case in point is my buddy commenting that its too bad the fuel injection setup won't look as nice as the newly painted intake... Next thing I know I'm buying a Harbor Freight blast cabinet and modifying it because YouTube told me I should lol! First issue was that my Craftsman 6hp 33 gallon 115v oil less compressor can't keep up with and I can get about four solid minutes of good blasting before I have to stop and let it catch up. Issue two is that the compressor runs so much that after 40 minutes I start to get moisture in the air lines.
It took me three days of tinkering with the cabinet to get the fuel rails and valve covers stripped, and at that rate I was going to be at it for a while. My solution to all of this was to sell my 33 gallon Craftsman and buy an 80 Gallon Masterforce 220v single stage compressor lol. Oddly enough it was cheaper then buying a 60 gallon due to it being on sale and the 11% rebate. I ordered it on May 29th and am hoping it'll be here this week.
What the new guy looks like... Stripped with 70 grit Aluminum Oxide at 60psi Stripped with crushed glass at 60psi
Wow, your life sounds a lot like mine! Bad back and all. I too, also got sick of waiting on my old compressor and just upgraded to a 80 gal 220v compressor. Life is good now, lol. With the fast system, you should have sequential fuel injection. Way better than the batch fire that the factory system used.
Looking good, and LOVE your shop!
DR.K.
Wow, your life sounds a lot like mine! Bad back and all. I too, also got sick of waiting on my old compressor and just upgraded to a 80 gal 220v compressor. Life is good now, lol. With the fast system, you should have sequential fuel injection. Way better than the batch fire that the factory system used.
Looking good, and LOVE your shop!
DR.K.
I'm absolutely going nuts waiting for this stupid compressor to show up lol! I check my email constantly to see if it's arrived yet, but it still says that it is "in transit" to the store. The distribution center is 91.9 miles from me and its been "in transit" since Friday the 12th, so I checked to see who is hauling it. Well it's being hauled by "Martin's Bulk Milk Service", so the guys in my office are trying to convince me it's in the back of a covered wagon being pulled down I-80 by oxen...
So yeah now my compressor is stuck in the middle of a game of "Oregon Trail"...
I'm absolutely going nuts waiting for this stupid compressor to show up lol! I check my email constantly to see if it's arrived yet, but it still says that it is "in transit" to the store. The distribution center is 91.9 miles from me and its been "in transit" since Friday the 12th, so I checked to see who is hauling it. Well it's being hauled by "Martin's Bulk Milk Service", so the guys in my office are trying to convince me it's in the back of a covered wagon being pulled down I-80 by oxen...
So yeah now my compressor is stuck in the middle of a game of "Oregon Trail"...
Lol, I just recently bought some much needed new body tools, and they took something like 3 weeks to arrive here (Phoenix, AZ) from Pennsylvania. I kept telling my wife that they have obviously given the package to a drunken, railroad-riding, hobo, who forgot where he was supposed to be going.
DR.K.
The compressor was located and is now in the garage where it belongs! Finally got fed up with the never changing status on the Menards website and called the shipper. They had no clue what I was talking about and said that they don't run shipments out of that distribution center, so I went to Menards and found out my compressor had been there for four days. They forgot to receive it in when it was dropped off... Idiots.
Per my normal luck it started to downpour when I picked it up and by the time I got it home I was soaked to my underwear. This weekend I'll get it plumbed in and wired up, so I can get the rest of the injection parts blasted and ready for finish.
Also if you're wondering the compressor was on sale for $749 and with the rebates it came out to be $659 before tax. Reason I went with a single stage over a two stage, is I need high volume not high pressure.
Well, if that's where it's going, then at least it'll be close to your breaker panel or sub-panel. I built a small 10X12' shed for mine, as I don't want to listen to it. In doing so, I located it about 12' from my sheds sub-panel. Not a bad wire run.
DR.K.
Yeah that's the wall that is going to work the best for now. I'm in the process of getting the permits to add a 10' x 24' lean to shed onto the back of my garage that will house all the crap I don't use that often, and it will also house a kennel for my dog. If the compressor is too loud I will add a room for it also. The shed will be insulated and run off of the same HVAC system in the garage.
Yeah that's the wall that is going to work the best for now. I'm in the process of getting the permits to add a 10' x 24' lean to shed onto the back of my garage that will house all the crap I don't use that often, and it will also house a kennel for my dog. If the compressor is too loud I will add a room for it also. The shed will be insulated and run off of the same HVAC system in the garage.
That sounds good. It shouldn't be as noisy as your oilless compressor was. I don't think it bothers most people. That's one of the things I need next; A place to put the stuff I don't use too much.
DR.K.
Small update on my progress. Got the compressor all situated, bolted down, and after cooler setup fitted. For those of you not familiar with this sort of setup I basically diverted the pump output through a transmission cooler and then through a water separator before the air reaches the main tank. I also have another filter setup down stream to catch what makes it out of the compressor. The water vapor auto drains when the compressor cycles off and bleeds out. I will also plumb in hard lines when I figure out what style I want to run.
Derale 15300 cooler $60 from Amazon High temp (350*) 300psi silicone heater hose $30 for 10' off of Amazon UPE 1/2" particulate and water filter I picked up off amazon a while back.
great progress! i am doing a vortec 350 t56 for my lg4 nwc t5 did you go for the tpi base over a different FI intake for hood clearance?
Yes and no.
First off I'm a big fan of the look of a TPI engine, and I can't stand the look of cowl hoods on these cars. Secondly I already had four TPI uppers in my garage and all I needed was a lower base to fit the Vortec heads. When I owned my '86 someone had put an Edelbrock 4bbl on the 305 with a cheap chrome air cleaner that rubbed on the hood. When I was looking into vortec bases for the '87 every carb style FI combo I found was going to make the air cleaner hit the hood. So knowing that a TPI system would fit with out hitting, that a Vortec TPI base could be had for $400, it just made sense to me to go with that setup.
In the end I want a stock looking car that doesn't have the anemic engine that came in the car!
So after dealing with some subpar hose on the new compressor I am finally back to making progress on the IROC. Blasted the fuel rails with glass bead and after a good cleaning I installed new o-rings and got them all bolted back together. Since I'm an idiot and never had the injectors tested the first time I installed the TPI I had them tested and five of the eight were bad, so $360 later I'm now the proud owner of a new set of 30lbs/hr Accel injectors courtesy of Summit. Put the newly purchased bits into the newly cleaned bits and then installed all those bits onto the engine tonight after work. It only took me 3 hours and four beers to get it all bolted back on lol!
Blast quality was poor with the old compressor. POS Python mystery injectors New injectors with the harness adapters installed. Newly blasted rail installed. Plenum bolted back on.
Next up was cleaning the gross looking alternator off using a nylon cup brush mounted on my drill. It did an ok job and will work fine until it dies and has to be replaced.
Wiped it down with de-greaser and then hit it with the nylon cup brush on the drill. Finished product installed
Tomorrow I'm going to re-sync the distributor, install the coil, and then run the plug wires.
Well tonight I finished painting the valve covers VHT SP405 Black Pearl and got them back on the car. Synced the distributor, ran the plug wires, filled the radiator, and basically buttoned up the little things that were keeping me from starting the car. Once all of that was done I realized that the only thing left to do was to run the setup wizard on the tuner and see if this puppy would start. After cranking over a few times I gave it the slightest peddle and after SEVEN f'ing years it actually started! And then promptly died because my IAC isn't working properly...
I don't have gauges in the car, so I just used the handheld to watch all the stats and kept it at 800 RPM by hand until it reached temp. By that time the headers were seasoned and I started to notice an odd sound so I shut it down and noticed a small puddle of coolant on the driver's side. I checked the coolant and it looked good, so then I checked the oil and found a lovely milkshake.
Looks like I'll be pulling this engine once again, but I'm not too sure what my next step will be. Lesson of the day is never trust a used engine even if you've "seen" it run, and go through the damn thing before you drop it in the car.
After cooling off a bit I decided to buy a radiator pressure test kit and see exactly where this pig is leaking from. It showed up at around 8pm last night, so I will test either tonight or some time this weekend.
Pressurized the radiator and it revealed a leak on the rear driver's side of the engine. With all the stuff crammed in the bay I couldn't tell if it was coming out of the head or the intake to I took off the TPI plenum and runners and found out the intake is leaking from under the rear runner right where the coolant passage is. So either the guy I bought it from off of here sold me a cracked intake or it developed a crack when I installed it. Luckily Scoggin-Dickey still has them, so I placed a order for a new one...
Since I had such good results blasting the fuel rails I decided to toss the throttle body into the cabinet and clean it up a bit too. Used the crushed glass media already loaded in the hopper and it looks a lot cleaner then before and will work just fine. As always I plugged and taped up all the areas I didn't want media to get into and then blew and washed it off once it came out of the cabinet.
So I guess while I'm waiting for the new intake base to show up I'll focus on the interior a bit and see if I can remember how to put the dash back together lol!
Well the new intake showed up from Scoggin-Dickey so I got it painted up and installed on the car. Now I have a running car however now the timing needs to be set because the vortec motor timing marks were set to zero from the factory. Since I'm running the stock balancer I have no way to know when it's set to 20 degrees and at this time I'm not too sure if I can get the FAST computer to recognize that it's set at 0 currently. With that being said I have decided to take a break from messing with the motor and focus a bit of time on the interior.
Now that I have shifted to interior mode and it has been beautiful out it is time to clean and dye the interior plastics. If you have been following this thread for a while then you will know that this car was infested with mice and was absolutely disgusting inside. I have found that a little warm water with some Dawn dish soap, a Magic Eraser, some prep spray, and a no scratch sponge will really clean these these things up.
As for the process of applying the dye, I treat it just like I'm painting any other part. Clean with soap, wipe with prep spray, three light coats of adhesion promoter, and then three to four coats of the SEM saddle tan.
Before the magic eraser After the magic eraser What I'm using to complete the job Cleaned and ready for dye Left has been dyed and right is cleaned, but has not.
So Saturday night as I was laying on the couch drinking beer, thinking thirdgen thoughts, looking at Facebook Marketplace, and fending off kisses from the dog, I found an add for "pre 1987 small block parts" for $250 about an hour East of me in Omaha. Messaged the guy and setup a 2pm meeting on Sunday. Guy messages me Sunday morning asking if I was a serious buyer and if I could meet him at Noon instead. I agreed, we met, I handed over $250, and this is what I got for my money...
NOS blower motor, chrome timing cover, harness, ECU, extra PROM, distributor, extra cap, and misc hoses.
Once I had paid and was getting ready to leave he asked if there was something special about this setup because fifteen people were in line if I flaked or passed on the deal. I told him that if the runners are SLP then they are going for $400+ a set on eBay. He looked kind of bummed and asked if I was going to flip the setup and I told him no that I'm a hoarder and will put the runners on my IROC and stash the rest lol!
My dad taught me a valuable lesson when I was a kid. Back when ATM's weren't really a regular sight he had the chance to buy a '65 impala SS, but didn't have enough cash on hand to satisfy the sellers minimum deposit and lost out on the car. On the ride home he told me in a very frustrated tone that he would never let that happen again and that when an opportunity presents itself you should be willing to jump on it if you're able. I've taken that advice to heart and am always on the lookout for good deals for not just me, but my friends and family too. I also tend to latch on to the precious little parts like fasteners that get tossed aside and forgotten about until you need them and can't buy them easily.
A lot of the parts I have stored away I either sell cheap or flat out give to people who need them lol!
i also know that lesson,sadly the unemployment rate in my house is 75%.3 adult "unemployed" dependents,no liquid income.
a friend at work buys cars cheap(and immediately when they are cheap) and sells them sort of cheap,but about 25-40% higher in price.
he keeps about $15,000 cash around just for this purpose.i,on the other hand cant keep $15 around with the other three in the house .
Well I have finally after almost seven years finished dyeing and putting the carpet on the interior plastics. The kit from Denny at Thirdgen Ranch fit pretty good and didn't need too much trimming. I still have a few door trim pieces to dye black, but all of the major work is done. I also decided to use black carpet on the front kick panel speaker sections, but am having an issue finding carpet that has enough stretch to conform to the compound curves and lay down right. If I can't find some within the next week or so I will probably just have the interior people cover them when I have my steering wheel done.
All the major sections done rear lid all buttoned up the difference in the old color compared the the new SEM Saddle Tan I chose The old carpet compared to the stuff I got From Denny Bought the carpet set almost 7 years ago!
I have also been trying to get the SLP runners I bought blasted and painted gold, but the paint/powder coat does not want to come off... This stuff is on there!
Next up is a little wiring for the stereo and then I'm going to start working on getting the seats recovered.
How’s your vortec setup running? Looking great! I got my scoggin setup running last week but had to tear it down due to a rear manifold leak. Found out it wasn’t seated because of the oil sending unit, that cause the casting to crack. Looks identical to your issue and I wonder if the person that sold it to you did the same thing. I had it welding but have a feeling it’s too far bad, ready to buy a intake but not sure if I want to buy the scoggin intake again. Bought it 3 years ago just got it installed and never even got to run it, leaning more towards the stealth ram setup with mixed reviews of this baseplate. I had so many hopes for it I just set myself back 400 bucks and now thinking differently. I have all stock tpi intake parts but it is cammed with LS computer so I was hoping to get some good power
How’s your vortec setup running? Looking great! I got my scoggin setup running last week but had to tear it down due to a rear manifold leak. Found out it wasn’t seated because of the oil sending unit, that cause the casting to crack. Looks identical to your issue and I wonder if the person that sold it to you did the same thing. I had it welding but have a feeling it’s too far bad, ready to buy a intake but not sure if I want to buy the scoggin intake again. Bought it 3 years ago just got it installed and never even got to run it, leaning more towards the stealth ram setup with mixed reviews of this baseplate. I had so many hopes for it I just set myself back 400 bucks and now thinking differently. I have all stock tpi intake parts but it is cammed with LS computer so I was hoping to get some good power
Honestly it is being a real pain in the *** right now. I'm having a hell of a time getting it timed correctly since it still has the factory balancer installed. Also I just realized that the crank pully is too short and that's why I keep throwing belts. I must have put the wrong one on when i painted the motor like five years ago lol! Other then the project is moving along at the same pace it always has been, which is a game of tug-o-war!
Well after switching guns and adding a pedal to the blast cabinet, coating both runners in aircraft stripper, and blasting for three hours, the coating from hell has been removed from the SLP runners. My blast window needs to be replaced so I missed a few areas, but I should be able to paint these babies up this weekend! I still haven't found the box with the correct crank pulley, but once I do it and a new balancer with timing marks is going on and maybe this beast will run correctly for the first time in 10 years lol!
Well since there is 14" of snow outside I decided that there was no better time to paint the blasted SLP runners. It's nights like tonight that I'm so glad I finished off the inside of my garage and installed HVAC.
Work has been keeping me from spending quality time with the '87 lately due to the crazy snow and now pothole season in my neck of the woods, but I have made a little progress in the last few weeks.
Finally figured out that the reason for my belt shredding issue was because I didn't put the longer crank pulley on after I painted the engine. It still had the original 97 truck one installed which is about two ribs shorter then the correct one. So after digging through multiple boxes the correct one was found and installed.
Next up was getting the SLP runners I painted installed, but in typical fashion, I forgot that six of the bolts are longer then the stock set, so I ordered some stainless ones off of Amazon along with some new lug nuts. In the process of installing the SLPs I also realized that they are not going to fit with out clearancing the lower intake in a few spots along with a couple of spots on the runners so the fuel rail will seat properly. Figure I can get them clearanced in the next few days before the bolts get delivered.
Lastly I talked with the FAST techs and after a lengthy conversation found out the procedure I was using to set timing was wrong. I've been trying to set initial timing to 0*, but the FAST ECU locks it in at 20* and the timing gun I had wasn't the type you could dial in. Bought a new Bosch gun since my gun was given to me by my dad over twenty years ago and he bought it probably twenty years before that lol!
These cars are a labor of love, but it really seems like for every step forward I make, I take four backwards... My goal is to be on the road by memorial day!
Spent most of last week clearancing the the SLP Runners and intake base base using some carbide burrs, Roloc discs, and my electric bandfile sander. I took my sweet time since I only wanted to remove the minimum amount necessary to get the fit right and keep the metal shavings out of the intake. In the end the runners needed material removed from the top where the fuel rail was hitting and on the bottom where it was hitting the intake and a few of the lower intake bolts, while the only place on the base was on the rear driver's side.
Overall these runners fought me almost every step of the way, but I really like the way they look.
After finishing up the SLP runner install on Saturday I decided to head about an hour and a half Northwest of me on Sunday in Dodge, NE. to look at an '85 IROC a guy posted up for $1200. Figured since it had a title and the guy stated it was rust free that I would pick it up for a parts car, or possibly add one of my TPI setups to it and flip it. So after driving grabbing my trailer and putting eyes on this thing I decided to drag it home and add it to my collection because there was something really familiar about it.
Once I got home I jumped on my computer and looked for some pics of a car I tried to buy in January of 2017 located two hours West of where this car was sitting in Loop City. Sure enough this is the same car, but with different wheels and some body work done to it. If I remember correctly the guy wanted like $2k - $3k for it in 2017 as it sat and I paid a lot less then that on Sunday lol!
I asked the seller who he got it from, and he said a guy in Columbus a few years back, which is right in the middle of the last place I saw it and the seller's location.
Talk about small world and stuff coming full circle lol!
Pic from 2017 Pic from 2017 where you can clearly see that the windshield is broke in the exact same place. As it sits today.
You should do a build thread on the '85 too. You can call it "Second Chance after 4 not as long years"
Well if it would ever stop raining here for more then a few hours and I could dig into it a little more the thread might end up being called "The Bobby Labonte tribute-mobile" since I think he drove the yellow IROC in the 1985 series. I've always wanted a really loud and obnoxious race car and this one might be the perfect candidate!
The plan was once the SLP runners were installed that I would finally get the timing sorted out and maybe actually get to drive this thing, but per my luck it is fighting me every damn step of the way. The FAST system locks timing at 20* during the initial setup and you can adjust it 10* up or down using the handheld to dial it in while the timing gun is set at 20*. This is way different then that way I have done it in the past and it is driving me crazy. The mark is like a Mexican jumping bean and even after advancing the timing 10* it still isn't enough, so it looks like I'm going to have to do this old school and spin the dizzy by hand. This will be super fun since getting to the bolt is a huge pain in the butt...
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I had to take a step back for a while before I took a flamethrower to my car... I swear that this damn thing just flat out doesn't want to be driven.
After triple checking everything the timing still wasn't playing nice, so I to say I was frustrated was an understatement. However one night while enjoying a few beers one of my buddies tells me to fire it up and he'll "fix that baby right up!", so I figured why the hell not and let it rip. Fire it up he looks around the engine bay and within 30 seconds he tells me to shut it down and that he knew what the problem was. He goes on to ask me if the plenum I was using was the one off of my '88 GTA? Told him that it was and then like some drunk GM guru he goes on to tell me that with the older SLP runners I needed to run the older style plenum due to some passage being different on the driver's side and because it was wrong there is a vacuum leak on the passenger side making the car run lean.
I just stood there and looked at him like he had a horn growing out of his head and thought to myself that it couldn't be that simple. Well since I have a horde of parts we swapped in an older plenum and sure enough it fixed the issue. All it took was a fresh set of eyes and ears to hear the vacuum leak that I had gone deaf to. Needless to say I was elated and he just called me a dumb *** and stayed super humble about the whole thing.
So on the left is the older style that did the trick and on the right is the one that was giving me so much grief. The only difference is the extra passage and an additional vacuum port....
Next step is to go through the setup process on the FAST system again and get the timing dialed in and after that It will be time to put the interior back in and be one step closer to hitting the road!
02-05-2018, 08:07 PM
Glad to see this build. Looks clean and mean! Sorry about your back...but are you going to get some hp tests anytime soon? 
Sorry to see that. 
