Questions/Help on buying a ZR1

[msorenso]

[QUOTE=cvette98pacecar;201977]Clint, I can answer that question. The big fat azz and LT5 engine.


Peferctly said!!!!

[J-Bonez]

Car has a B&B exhaust, color is black it was repainted due to pin striping or moldings that looked like crap (owner said). I did not want to drop over 20K on a car which eliminated all the 20 and 30k mile ones, and I found this one for 18k and talked him down a little. I like the car, and the restoration he put into it like starter, weatherstrips, gaskets, powdercoated engine etc. Hopefully it will save me $$$$ down the road it i purchase it.

[Blue Flame Restorations]

J-Bonez, I truly hope you find the right car soon so you can enjoy the LT5 Premagrin experience.

Welcome to the Brotherhood!

[KILLSHOTS]

Oh yeah, Brett's telling you the absolute truth about the PermaGrin, J-Bonez...first time that thing crosses the 4000RPM threshold with the hammer down, your eyes are gonna get REALLY WIDE!!

[RICKYRJ1]

Hey Bonez, where in NJ are you?

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by efnfast

The timing chains on these tend to rattle on start up, this is normal. It sounds like a rod knock, it will quite in a couple seconds.

To check for secondary operation, floor it. Under load, not sitting still. If the motor falls on it's face at 5000 rpm, secondaries are not opening. The engine should fly to 7K, rev limiter is at 7250. In third, this will put you around 100, so you may want to do it in second, if everything is working properly, hang on.

Good luck.

J-Bonez,

Yep. IF the secondaries are not opening, it will die @ or near 5000 rpm, but so it will if the intake accordion "snorkel" collapses, BTW. But, NEITHER of these are difficult to remedy, in and of themselves - but if there is an Service Engine Soon light (SES), the secondaries will not come on and rpm may be curtailed until the cause of the SES light is corrected. So, when you turn the key to "ON", look for the SES light to come on (bulb test) for a couple seconds. If it does not come on, either the bulb is bad, OR removed...pretty rare (but it has happened).

This chart from Marc Haibeck's site will provide some more info, including clues about possible differential gear change, and/or tach calibration.

(Note: After 20 or so years, the tach calibration often drifts by some percentage - to error some % higher than it should. It is not a big deal to fix it; a Do It Yourself (DIY) kind of project actually. But, I mention it because the mph vs. tach value chart values might not agree, and tach cal can make one think the differential gear is not stock. )

I agree, the best bet is to recruit one of the members here to check it out - maybe before you spend the $$ for transportation to see it yourself, no? Just a thought.

[batchman]

Here's a couple pointers from my wife's adventure flying out and driving back an un-seen car.

When you turn on the key (not starting) make sure you see all the warning lights (look for missing bulbs - a clue somebody fixed something the easy way)

On test drive make sure you put some miles and start cycles on it, so a code comes back if happened to be freshly reset.

Know your emissions inspection needs, chipped LT5 may be trouble on roller/sniffer test.

Fill the tank and use the trip odo - the senders in these degrade with alcohol in fuel.

Speaking of alcohol in fuel it may have been mentioned above or in links but look for fresh fuel injectors in the recent work or paper trail as these degrade with alcohol too, of course it may not be a problem in the fuel mix where the car is.

Other than that it's really just normal used car stuff, but for sure a local ZR-1'er would be great to have looking/listening and rendering opinion on what's "normal".

on edit - the more I think about it you probably already know to look for jacking damage as that's pretty popular on C4s. Other C4 things to consider are condition of suspension bushings as they're all aging, and the usual door/window/latch stuff.

Good luck!
- Jeff

[BigJohn]

I got $3.30 would that help?

[Mystic ZR-1]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

I got $3.30 would that help?

You can put that $3.30 toward my breakfast on Saturday...

[phrogs]

The car is in Detroit? I'm somewhat close in Kalamazoo

I also hear I worked on this car but it's not ringing any bells with me. I have had my hands on Amit of 1990 ZR-1s and a few 91s but don't recall a 92