I have a 1986 iroc z with a 5 speed manual & 305 qjet. The car is completely stock except for a holly contender intake, and msd hei dist. I was thinking of selling it but now Im having second thoughts. I'm attending college and it's about 20 miles there and 20 miles back. So about roughly 200 miles a week and with traffic about an hour on the freeway each way. I'm not driving my Camaro there and back I'm using a suburban with a 350, you could just imagine the mileage. I want to start taking my car it has never broken down except for popped hoses but they are all new now. It has 60,000 miles on it and I have only drove 3,000 since I got it. Will this car be reliable for this much usegae or am I better off getting rid of my baby iroc and getting something more reliable? So far the car has been running fine I just don't know how reliable carburated cars are for heavy driving. Im only 20 so i dont have mich experience with using carbureted cars for this type of driving so Hopefully some of you could help me out with some of your experiences. Thanks.

 

Their is not much difference with a vehical having a carb. They were used from the early days of driving untill the upgrade of EFI. I drive my bracket truck ever weekend to and from the track and enjoy the ride alot. Just be sure the choke is open when its warmed up. You might want to do the oil changes a little more often because its carbed rather then EFI. Enjoy the car thats what is for, I am sure you will get a lot of I WISH THAT WAS ME LOOKS as they chug along in their little soup can ride.

 

Yeah I drove my iroc for my last year of high school and it felt good getting those jealousy looks from everyone else that drove little riced out Hondas and I'll just rumble by haha. I just need to get back insured and a fresh oil change it will be good to go.

 

I used to work on these car when new. I have never seen any reason to think the carb is less reliable when new but there tends to be a lot of "Bandaids" on a carbs. This means there is more stuff aging. A stock mid 80's 305 with carb has a ton of add on emission stuff and a LOT of hoses to make it all work. To keep everything orginal there is more maintenance.

Common failures with age.
Choke
Choke Pull off
Purge valve
All vacuum hoses

Maintanance
Clean out side of carb with Carb cleaner (Carb cleaner has lubrication for the linage) (every year)

Fuel filter (every year)

Retorque top air horn and base of carb, Not over torque just retorque to original specs (every 3 years)

Check Choke angle (choke pull off adjustment) (3 years)

The one nice thing about Carbs is they tend to give you warnings something is not right and they will run poorly but still get you there.