90 ZR-1 need some info

[Z06scentair]

New to this forum but not to corvette's.

Does anyone know anything about car number 758 which is a 1990

Car is located in CA. Will be purchasing on Monday and shipping it to NC. West coast to East Coast.

Thanks in advance.

[We Gone]

You will need to include year.

[BigJohn]

What color?

[Z06scentair]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

What color?

car is red on red, according to the car fax it was originally from KS.

[Z06scentair]

Really need some help here ladies and gentlemen, that is if anyone can.

Anyone know anything about this car. Appears to have never had much done to it other than tires and a chip?

With 16k miles what kind of maintenence is it going to take to get the beast roadworthy again?

The current owner has had for about a year and doesnt really have any informational history on the car. Only driven the car maybe 100 miles.

Want to make 100% sure this purchase is the right move?

[GTOger]

Originally Posted by Z06scentair

Really need some help here ladies and gentlemen, that is if anyone can.

Anyone know anything about this car. Appears to have never had much done to it other than tires and a chip?

With 16k miles what kind of maintenence is it going to take to get the beast roadworthy again?

The current owner has had for about a year and doesnt really have any informational history on the car. Only driven the car maybe 100 miles.

Want to make 100% sure this purchase is the right move?

Wow, well that's a big question with no easy answer. The LT5 engine is very bulletproof and tough to kill, but it can have a bit of a temper, especially if it has been abused or has not been exercised. 16k miles means this car has had less than 700 miles per year on average and that, in my opinion, is not enough to have much of a history at all. So even if the current owner said "oh yeah, it runs great", if it's been sitting then the seals could all be dried up, hoses dry-rotted, etc.

Your best bet is going to be to have a mechanic give it a look.

That said, be prepared to spend some money, or some time, or both. You are nearly 100% assured of needing new fuel injectors. If the original ones are on there, they'll be destroyed after the first several tanks of ethanol-laced gasoline. Is that a big deal? Not really. My wife and I changed ours out in the garage.

Other stuff you'll find is going to be all the stuff consistent with a car that has spent the vast majority of its life as a full-size model car.

That said, we just brought our 1992 Firehawk out of storage. Unfortunately I had allowed it to sit for far too long. 5 years, give or take. The car is 21 years old and has about 5600 miles on it, so you can see it isn't driven nearly enough. All the sway-bar bushings had dried out and cracked away, the differential fluid had turned, and of course all the fluids got drained, flushed and replaced. After that, the car is driving great. So it can be done.

Nobody here is going to have a crystal ball to tell you that you will need to spend $xyz in order to have this particular car road-worthy again. But as someone who took the plunge into a 1990 ZR-1 a few years ago, I can attest that if you do decide to get the car and you run into something tricky, there is no better community to get you through it than this one right here.

[Z06scentair]

Thanks.....I'm prepared to spend some money, just don't want to break the bank trying to get the car back roadworthy.

The owner just cranked the car and says it ran good with no flat spots or missing. Here in NC we have LOTS of ethanol in the gas so we'll see what happens about the injectors.

I've wanted one of these cars forever just never been in a financial position to make it happen until now.

Not scared to wrench and my brother wrenches daily so we have the ability to complete even major task.

So other than bushings and injectors what else can I count on having to replace?

[GTOger]

Not having seen the car, I'm not sure how to answer.

Count on the injectors. You'll either replace them proactively, or you'll be driving along and suddenly the car will feel like it's falling apart, the engine will quit, and you'll smell gasoline so strong you will swear you just bathed in it. If you think it sounds like I speak from experience, you're right.

Other than that, on my 1990 with ~37k miles we've replaced coil packs, removed the TPMS, changed out the belt tensioner and water pump, new tires, new sound system & GPS, and replaced a switch on one of the shock absorbers. The car has been very reliable other than that. We drive it around town, it goes to work with me on nice days, and we've taken a few road trips, including one to Las Vegas & back from Dallas. The a/c even blows ice cold.

I feel our car has done well for us. Your mileage may vary. Literally.

[mike100]

All the speaker amps could be suspect(the capacitors dry up). I did the injectors, leaky oil cooler lines replaced, and I lost the belt tensioner at 30k miles. The trans rebuild wasn't too fun either- i would probably not buy a car sight unseen ever again.

I spent most of my money during the first 18 months. I have taken it on 1000mile trips 3 times without any issue...you just have to put it into service long enough to break the weak links

[Z06scentair]

Maybe its time to rethink this car.