1989 iroc 5.7 tpi
 

Okay so here's the deal, i just bought one for really cheap.
it has a few problems that have me stumped.
the car came with no key for the trunk and the switch by the glovebox doesn't work. is there any other way to open the trunk? so i can replace the motor and wiring. and when the car is not running it has the most annoying beep. while I'm driving it'll beep until i latch my seatbelt. the switch for the parking lights and marker lights on the front don't turn off. so before i go inside i gotta disconnect my battery. other than that everything is immaculate. passed smog first try. no leaks. just these problems. so any help or tips are greatly appreciated thanks :)

try replacing the headlight switch, it isnt expensive. the key for the doors should be the same for the hatch. as for opening it, it wont if the motor doesnt work. there is a way of getting it open, however im not sure on that one. as for the beep, where is that comming from?

First, your seat belt should always be latched before you put the car in gear

as for the beep, it's probably because your lights are on as you mentioned that the switch is broken

Flip the rear license plate down and you should see the slot for the rear hatch....

And it does seem to sound like a switch has gone out on your instrument panel so toy around with that and you should be good. Check your fuses as well just in case. The annoying beep until you fasten your seat belt is a given dude.... Fasten your seatbelt.

But the one that car is turned off may be that you left the key in accessory on the ignition switch and you some how can pull the key out anyways. Ignition switches are bound to get broken and can do that. On my work truck, I can fire it up and then pull the key out and the truck is still running.

Good luck dude.

When I bought my 91, the mounting stud part of headlight switch was broken off the rest of the switch body. It's made of plastic, and that wasn't the first one I've seen like that (poor design). If your switch is flopping around, that's most likely what's going on, and you can't push the switch in far enough to turn all the lights off because you're also pushing the switch away. I was able to retro-fix mine by finding a steel threaded collar that still caught what threads were left on the switch.

Thanks for the replies, I was able to get the trunk open. had to rip that back panel off that covers the trunk locking mechanism and just played around in there until it opened with a screwdriver. should be getting a new one today. as for the that light switch and beeping sound, i fixed the light switch temporarily. i guess when i pushed the light switch in the mechanism was being pushed back with it. so i just push really hard and it turns off. now for the beeping, i always have my seat belt on. and the beeping only goes off when i pull my seat belt out far enough. i don't think it has anything to do with the ignition. but i appreciate the replies it helped me out a lot. :)

How were you able to get the plastic cover off without damaging it? I have a similar problem and haven't wanted to destroy that cover.

wasn't able to do it without damaging it. there are two screws on top of the panel that you can't get to unless the trunk is open. but if you do decide to go my route all i did was cut a square out of the panel where you can get to the trunk mechanism. i pulled the black wire to the left of the locking mechanism, and used a screwdriver to pry the lock open. maybe if you remove that trunk light you can pull that wire and fit a screwdriver in there not sure I'm really impatient and wanted to get that trunk open. :D and also those trunk rods that hold the trunk open on mine were bad and it was pretty heavy. good luck!

oh and also i had one more question. performance wise. what exactly can you do to these motors? I've seen twin turbos put on these TPI's i don't wanna do anything like that just wondering what can you do performance wise to these engines? is there a website that specializes in just this? thanks for the help.

First off, if you live in a state that does emission testing that will pretty much decide what you can and can't do to your car, its just reality.

Second, these motors were made for emission standards and back in the 80's technology wasn't there yet for performance and emissions compliance. The heads are restrictive and compression is not conducive to making power, also the cam is a power producing cam. Most people would say unless you do an engine swap, you are probobly at the limit of what your platform can give you. Sure, there are chips and things like that, but they do not give you the best bang for the buck.

head swap, cam, and an entire aftermarket intake, or porting the stock, will work. i also found a guy on youtube that turboed an entirely stock 350 and just ran a megasquirt efi controller and it works pretty well