just doing a little research here, how hard is it to come by a 350 w/ a stick? how about a stick,350,t-tops? dont care if its camaro or firebird

 

All 350 Irocs and Z28's came with automatics. None were equipped with 5 speeds...

Sorry

 

He is correct

 

im going to be a pain in the *** and point out the fact that there was one year where they made like a hundred with a 5 speed and then scrapped the idea but we all know youre not exactly going to find one of those on autotrader

 

The year was 86' and 50 pilot cars came out of it with 350 TPIs and the T-5 five speed. The problem was the the 5.7 had too much torque and was killing the trans. An adaptor had to be used to get the 5.7 to bolt to the T-5 bell housing. Your chances of getting one of these cars Slim to Zero chance.

 

you can find a 350/ Auto combo with T-tops from 87-89 & can find a few that came with that combo in 90-92 even though they are rare.

 

so basically i still need to be looking at 4th gens...bummer

 

Sorry, but that's wrong too. The 50 prototypes in 86 were strictly to test the 350 in the f-body. All 50 of them were automatics, not 5-speeds. Not much is known about those cars, but that IS one of the things we know. They were all automatic cars with no options... no air conditioning, no power anything, base interior, no t-tops, etc. it's also highly likely that all 50 wound up in a crusher. GM crushes all of their prototype vehicles. To actually get one of those into the general public would require going through so much red tape that they wouldn't even consider it.

There is also no adapter necessary to bolt a 5.7 to the T5 bellhousing. The 5.7 block is 100% identical to the 5.0 block on the outside including all transmission mounting schemes.

 

Well... there have been enough conversions done over the years that it's still possible to find one. Every once in a while you'll find a thirdgen that somebody swapped a T56 into, or even a T5. A T5 will hold up to a mild 350 if you don't beat it like a redheaded step child.

 

Sorry man not my info, Thats what i got from some book. Just offered it out there. I dont belive in it myself cause its not in the white book, and that is generally excepted as correct.

If i recall correctly the history part of thirdgen.org includes most of the details i listed above. If its not right, ohh well.

As far as testing the F-body with a 350, i think that is bs. they had a lot more potent engines in the fbody over time they knew that more power could be added to the third gen with out a problem.

As for the T-5 bolting to the 5.7, i dont think it bolts right up at all. One of my buddies works on them, and they always need adaptors to bolt the T-5 to the 350s.

 

Yup

 

If you know what you want keep looking. I found mine, '88 Camaro 5 speed and somebody had put a 350 crate motor in it. No, none were original, but that doesn't mean that they aren't out there. happy hunting

 

It's not BS. Whether there were powerful motors in the car previous to that, GM still built 50 prototypes in 86, most likely to work out any bugs and the like. Although the motor was quite similar to what was available in the 86 Vette, there were differences between the motors, and I'm sure GM needed to work out the little things, like PROM tuning, and the like. GM isn't going to just suddenly offer a new powertrain without desting the hell out of it, even if it's 95% identical to an existing platform.

I've got a video of one of the cars, and I've got information from "Camaro: The Third Generation" by Michael Lamm. This is the only book I've found that has information that's accurate enough for me to trust. The guy was there as they were being produced. That book was written from official GM documentation, and interviews with engineers directly associated with the project. It's a pretty fantastic book.

 

Alright there is no point in arguing over this issue anymore, we could both sit here and fight about the issue until the day we die. We could pull out sources left and right but the fact remains we wont actually know the truth. GM records dont properly indicate what actaully went on, and for all we know this guy claiming to have been there is just pissed off that he got Layed off from GM. Maybe in 15 or 20 years the actual truth will come out as it did with the 1555/1552 turbo trans am pace car issue of 1989. I have heard people fight for side and againest it. I personally have never heard of the cars being autos. I will get this book and see what i think. A lot of times two different sources vary on facts. On of the worst is Camaro the sandard catalog. There is mistakes all over it and many things that vary with two other sources. I'm not saying I'm Right and I'm Not saying your wrong. All i'm saying is that arguing this any further will waste both of our time.

 

Chevy did allow 50 IROCs out the door with the 220hp L98 350. Beware when somebody sells an 86 as a stock 350. CHECK THE VIN for accuracy. Chevy also let an undisclosed number of these cars out with the T5 five speed transmission as part of the 1LE racing option that also included air conditioning delete, radio delete, as well as the deletion of all power accessories. The 1LE option was not available with T-tops, but did come with specially calibrated springs, shocks and sway bars.