87' Iroc is a *ucker to work on....
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 672
From: New Jersey
87' Iroc is a *ucker to work on....
Hot damn....could you design the car ANY worse? I just spent 10 hours switching the cam out with my friend. My friend used all his tools and such to measure everything and make sure the cam was set up right etc. Still gotta put the best back together but the new cam is in (94 LT1 Vette cam)
First off, is it just me or did GM decide to use like, 20 bolts on EVERY bloody part of the engine, jesus, took 4 screws out of the runner, try to pull the bloody thing out, and it won't go, we're standing there like ARE THERE SERIOUSLY MORE SCREWS? Taking the valvecovers off the driver side was fun as well you know, with all the steel hardline gas lines running everywhere, crap OVER the back end of the covers, we couldn't unscrew the distributor until we had COMPLETELY taken the intake manifold off cause the screw was so far back and so damn tight. I mean, you unscrew 4 bolts off a pump or bracket, and there are 2 screws left BEHIND it bolted onto something else.....and it wasn't like the bolts were holding up heavy things, they just decided to use as many bolts as possible, no wonder my Iroc never rattles, they bolted everything in a million places
I like how they ran the oil lines at the bottom of the crankshaft cover, good lord, my buddy was like "dude, i gotta unscrew the oil pan to get some room", i was like "hell with that" and i just pulled the POS out even with the lines running, not to mention putting that bastid back on with the gasket on it ( my hands are covered in gasket sealer)
it seemed like EVERY time we went to remove another part, there was something else blocking the way, or it had 20 bolts on it, it took like 2 hours just to get out all the radiator components and crap in the front of the engine bay, they ran a softline AC line in front of the crank and on the right, but hardlined it on left so you couldn't just move the line to remove the cam, you had to drain the refrigerant. just stupid crap, easy stuff that could have been done to make the car easier to work on, putting it together is gonna be alot easier cause we don't have to work around crap, but taking it apart, hell my friend was like "we might have well as just pulled the engine at this rate" at least then i could have replaced my rear main seal thats leaking oil.....
everyone says how easy it is to modify these cars, i mean, we had all the tools we could ever need, hell my friend makes his own intakes and exhausts will his mill and equipment, even with every tool (hes the motorhead, i was just helping out and trying to learn) in his garage it took us 5+ hours before we got the car ready to put the cam in, the cam job only took like 1 hour to put it in and make sure it would run fine (he did something to measure and make sure the valves were opening correctly)
Whew.....you guys make it sound easy, man, youd think the designer of that car/engine was PAID to use as many bolts and vaccum lines as possible
i don't know, that was my first time taking a car apart, but from the way my friend was talking, he had never seen such a crappy layout for an engine....lets just hope when the car is completely reassembled that the cam gives me some more umph
First off, is it just me or did GM decide to use like, 20 bolts on EVERY bloody part of the engine, jesus, took 4 screws out of the runner, try to pull the bloody thing out, and it won't go, we're standing there like ARE THERE SERIOUSLY MORE SCREWS? Taking the valvecovers off the driver side was fun as well you know, with all the steel hardline gas lines running everywhere, crap OVER the back end of the covers, we couldn't unscrew the distributor until we had COMPLETELY taken the intake manifold off cause the screw was so far back and so damn tight. I mean, you unscrew 4 bolts off a pump or bracket, and there are 2 screws left BEHIND it bolted onto something else.....and it wasn't like the bolts were holding up heavy things, they just decided to use as many bolts as possible, no wonder my Iroc never rattles, they bolted everything in a million places
I like how they ran the oil lines at the bottom of the crankshaft cover, good lord, my buddy was like "dude, i gotta unscrew the oil pan to get some room", i was like "hell with that" and i just pulled the POS out even with the lines running, not to mention putting that bastid back on with the gasket on it ( my hands are covered in gasket sealer)
it seemed like EVERY time we went to remove another part, there was something else blocking the way, or it had 20 bolts on it, it took like 2 hours just to get out all the radiator components and crap in the front of the engine bay, they ran a softline AC line in front of the crank and on the right, but hardlined it on left so you couldn't just move the line to remove the cam, you had to drain the refrigerant. just stupid crap, easy stuff that could have been done to make the car easier to work on, putting it together is gonna be alot easier cause we don't have to work around crap, but taking it apart, hell my friend was like "we might have well as just pulled the engine at this rate" at least then i could have replaced my rear main seal thats leaking oil.....
everyone says how easy it is to modify these cars, i mean, we had all the tools we could ever need, hell my friend makes his own intakes and exhausts will his mill and equipment, even with every tool (hes the motorhead, i was just helping out and trying to learn) in his garage it took us 5+ hours before we got the car ready to put the cam in, the cam job only took like 1 hour to put it in and make sure it would run fine (he did something to measure and make sure the valves were opening correctly)
Whew.....you guys make it sound easy, man, youd think the designer of that car/engine was PAID to use as many bolts and vaccum lines as possible
i don't know, that was my first time taking a car apart, but from the way my friend was talking, he had never seen such a crappy layout for an engine....lets just hope when the car is completely reassembled that the cam gives me some more umph
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 42
From: Duncan, OK USA
Back when my daughter had an 87 with the 305 TPI, I looked at it quite a bit while checking it out, & even though I love the throttle response of the injected engines, when I replace my LG-4 carb in my 1987, I plan on going with a computer less carb 350 so that it can be worked on without so much hassle!
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 672
From: New Jersey
Really, the TPI is ridiculous...the whole setup is just not happy for modification.....I guess it's a pain in the *** for me cause I did it at my friends house and so I really wanted to it all in one day. Now I gotta wait till next saturday to finish the work and I'm w/o a car til then (plus my car is parked in his garage in pieces). If it was in my garage and I could do it on my own at my own pace it wouldn't be a big deal....nothing's fun when your trying to hit a deadline...but still....the stock setup is not very user friendly. I mean....after all the work needed to replace the cam, I don't want to even go near headers or heads. The work needed to screw with the engine or pulling the engine is just too much when you dont' have the resources to do it in your own garage. My friend has a carbed 86 Grand Prix, his engine bay is EMPTY, no emissions crap, it's not cluttered with wires and vaccums and pumps. Just much more room to work with and less to take apart. He did his cam in like 5 hours complete turnaround him and his dad. I was HOPING I'd be able to do it in like 6-8. We started at 7am, by 9am I knew it wasn't gonna happen. We didn't even get to the engine until 10am, and once we hit the intake manifold I knew it was not gonna be a happy afternoon. We didn't pull the cam till like 2. By 3 we had the new cam in and had all the rockers/pistons happy, valve lash set, everything set). We went pep boys at 3, bought 100$ in gaskets and sealer etc. 3:30-5-30 was just cleaning off all the old gaskets and prepping it for assembly and putting the crankshaft cover back on (my god, tell me that that goddamn oil line that runs under the bevel below the cam isn't the dumbest thing ever, takes so much more effort to get the cover on/off)
I don't know, it was my first of what I hope to be many journies into the belly of chevy engines. I know the fact we were trying to finish it in one day really made it worse. But it just seemed like common sense for some of the things that were not done on the car. Little things that would have made it much easier to do work, it's obvious that the car was designed to be built, not disassembled for any type of work. My friend who helped me has a 67 Gran Fury, he was telling me how he can take apart 90% of what is in his engine bay with the same 3 tools. (Then again his engine bay is empty also) The Iroc was crazy, metric on some bolts, english on others, then you needed a complete other set (forget what they are called, they have a wierd face, not wrenches, but they hold the runners on)...
When I took my car to my mechanic when I first bought it (family friend) a couple of the other mechanics there were saying how they love the TPI's and how easy there are to modify. Well it didn't seem that easy to me....I mean, technically it wasn't like it was hard to figure out HOW to work on the car, but actually disassembling most of the components took forever because of how it was built. I guess I was expecting a very straightforward project. 3 hours in, 2 hours for cam, 3 hours rebuilt.
Radar, yea I know what you mean about the newer cars, most of the new cars are like that....I was expecting my 87 to be alot friendlier tho...all in all it was fun and I'm still really interested in learning to build engines. Maybe in a year or so I'll have the tools to do it in my own garage.
I don't know, it was my first of what I hope to be many journies into the belly of chevy engines. I know the fact we were trying to finish it in one day really made it worse. But it just seemed like common sense for some of the things that were not done on the car. Little things that would have made it much easier to do work, it's obvious that the car was designed to be built, not disassembled for any type of work. My friend who helped me has a 67 Gran Fury, he was telling me how he can take apart 90% of what is in his engine bay with the same 3 tools. (Then again his engine bay is empty also) The Iroc was crazy, metric on some bolts, english on others, then you needed a complete other set (forget what they are called, they have a wierd face, not wrenches, but they hold the runners on)...
When I took my car to my mechanic when I first bought it (family friend) a couple of the other mechanics there were saying how they love the TPI's and how easy there are to modify. Well it didn't seem that easy to me....I mean, technically it wasn't like it was hard to figure out HOW to work on the car, but actually disassembling most of the components took forever because of how it was built. I guess I was expecting a very straightforward project. 3 hours in, 2 hours for cam, 3 hours rebuilt.
Radar, yea I know what you mean about the newer cars, most of the new cars are like that....I was expecting my 87 to be alot friendlier tho...all in all it was fun and I'm still really interested in learning to build engines. Maybe in a year or so I'll have the tools to do it in my own garage.
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 878
From: Clovis, NM
On the 85' IROC Z the guy that had it before me caned the q jet and now thers about enough wires to shoe box that do nothing but hang there, If I hoe'd them out there would be a lot more room. The older they are the better they are to work on.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post