is it possible to have a stock 350 86 iroc, my friend just bought one and says it is... it thought 350s werent until 87??

 

RUMOR sais there were 50 made, and it may be so, BUT there has never been ANY kind of PROOF. Get the VIN, post it, and someone can and will tell you if its legit.

Put it this way I know of more 91-92 Firehawks than 86 350 IROCS, and there were 25 less of them made.

chances are its another 305, or a 305 that has been converted to a 350.

John

 

Sure they exist, just not from the factory. You have to swap a 350 in were a 305 used to be. Your friend probably has a 305 that he thinks is a 350.

Later, Garrett

 

I know the '85's were pretty hot, and several people thought that they had a 350, but in fact they were 305's... I have a friend of a friend (yeah sure) really tho, a friend of a co-worker had a 85 IROC, and everyone thought it was a 350 because it was so fast, and it was stock. From what I understand in '86 the govt put new emission standards on cars and the 86 305 was not as hot as the 85's. I happen to have some original 86 TPI chips when I just need an emergency chip, and to be honest its a DOG!

Basically if its pretty peppy, then its probably a 350 swapped in.

IF its a 350, then its 99.999999999999999999999999% chance its not original.

hope that helps.

 

Lots of people confuse the 305 and the 350 when they are selling them... sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

 

Isnt this a daily issue?

 

I've owned both an 85 and an 86. The 85 was completely stock and would run circles around the 86 any day of the week.

There was an emissions requirement change for the 86MY (I forget what exactly it was, CAFE ratings come to mind) and as such the cam shrank. I cant say the chip is much better either, but the cam is the major change.

As for 86 350 Irocs....

 

I only know of one pre-production 350 IROC-Z and it was featured in a 1986 Hot Rod magazine that I have.

As for the supposedly 50 L98 cars that were produced in 1986, I haven't come across any significant documentation on their being 50 produced and I dont think anyone on this board has either.

 

The only place I have ever seen the number is printed in Car and Driver.

 

And as we all know magazines are always right...

John

 

The reason the 85 is faster than the 86 is in 86 emissions made chevy use the famous or should I say infamous peanut cam from the LG4 and I have heard the same rumors about the 350 in 86, I also heard that pontiac made a few 86 Trans Am's with 350's and closley optioned them like the 87 GTA as a test

 

Test vehicle, possibly, and very likely 86's, but I would be very surprised if any of them made it to the public. I know there was a local guy here that said he worked with the testing of the "50" and said they were all black, and he thought they were all crushed.

keep in mind I live reasonably close to the GM proving grounds...

John

 

The pre-production 350 IROC-Z in my mag is red in color.

 

the guy could have easliy been wrong, you know how hear-se is...

Of course he could just be blowing smoke or be remebering another project. I guess I should't have actually posted that because I was not there...

John

 

Well I have no idea either what color they were, but I'm just saying that the one that I have in the mag is red so I'm not so sure about them all being black...if they even existed.

 

Just judging from GM's history ther probably were 50 produced but they were probably beta test cars which means they never made it out the door at GM except for the rounds to magazines.

 

Chances are they all had the vin of "F" in that case...

John

 

When the 86's came out, we called them "detuned ports". They were dogs compared to anything except LG4's and cross fires. The HO ran circles around them but not many were built because of the Monte Carlo SS.

There were plenty of 350's built in '86. But they were for the '87 cars. I remember all the magazines testing the "limited" 350 cars but from what I remember, none were every sold.

Could have been beta cars. When I was working at Olds back in '86-'87, we got a 86 Calais with a pre production Quad 4. It was being passed around to all the dealerships to be "evaluated". We beat the living crap out of that car. Then GM took it apart to see what the problem areas were and destroyed the car. Probably the same with the 86 350 cars. Just preproduction prototypes like that
Calais.