85 Z49 from Michigan

[white 85 z49]

Hi everyone, I was glad to find this forum. Been looking for information about this generation of cars for a while. I have a white 85 z49 442 with factory t-tops, G80 rear axle with a grey interior. My parents bought it in June of 85 when I was 16. I'm working on getting it back on the road again as a tribute to my dad, this was the last new car he ever purchased, he loved Oldsmobile engines. I will be posting pics in the near future.

[Fader]

Welcome to this forum...That is awesome! What is the overall condition of the car now & does it still have the original drive train?

I had to google the z49? Canadian export... I've heard of them but didn't know the code...

Were there any differences between the z49 & the standard American sold 442s??

Your father picked one hell of a car To purchase new!!!:icon14::icon14:

[white 85 z49]

The car is in fairly good shape, the bottom of the doors are the worst with being rusty. Yes it does have the original drivetrain although I do need the factory D5 torque converter. I had to rebuild the tranny in 1992 and the trans shop convinced me to exchange for a "rebuilt" unit not knowing he scammed me with a standard 1800 stall speed converter. Where can I get the original converter. There are some differences for the Z49 cars. The temp gauge is in celcius and the oil pressure is in kpa instead of psi, the engine has a factory block heater for extreme cold weather startup, it uses a different heater core and the owners manual is in French as is the jacking instuctions decal on the inside of the trunk lid. My mother wanted a Monte SS but we couldn't get one so the dealer had this car on the used car lot because it had already been sold once at a dealer in Windsor ON. I don't kinow what happened to bring it across the border but the car had under 400 miles on it when we bought it as a "used" car during it's current modle year. I guess it was just fate the car found it's way to us. I had only had my drivers license for about 6 months when we got the car.....lots of fun back in the 80's crusin' Gratiot Ave, Telegraph rd and M-59 in Waterford.

[88hurstolds]

Cool car, I have a Z49 87 442.
Try turbobuick.com for a D5 converter.
Also check to see if you still have the original OZ code trans by looking at the trans tag at the tail shaft.

[Fader]

Hmmm....were the Z49 cars counted in the figures we've all seen for total 442s produced from 85-87???

[Fader]

I googled it....& this site popped up first!

http://www.78-88olds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=351

I assume the z49 exports came right out of the number of total 442s....Very Rare Cars! Just imagine how many could be left, I am guessing Salt & Sand have eaten their share, plus wrecks, & scavengers parting them out for the 8.5"s...

[Oldsca]

I have an `87 442 (made for Canada). There were only 350 of them exported to Canada for the `87 model year - got this right from GM Heritage.

[white 85 z49]

The Canadian export cars seem to be the rarest of the rare

[Fader]

Those are pretty dang rare! Now I want one! Add it to my t
First 29 cars "I will buy when I hit the lotto" list! Have you made any progress on getting her back roadworthy?

[white 85 z49]

I'm getting closer. I had to put bushings in the throttle shaft bores on the carb, it was worn out enough to create a significant vacuum leak and retune the carb for crap ethanol blend fuels we have now. I just located a D5 converter yesterday and I am going to be powdercoating the new oil pan tonight. I will be pulling the engine in the next few weeks to replace the oil pan and torque converter. After that it will be new tires, front end alignment and new mufflers (I think they are plugged up from sitting for 10 years) and an intermediate pipe. But for now it runs much better, been trying to figure out why it ran so bad at idle for the last 2 years and I finally got it figured out.

[Fader]

The Resurection Has Began! Was the car parked inside for 10 years? Im sure the muffler rusted out & is blocking the exhaust... where did you find the D5? Locally or online? I have a friend who just discovered one of his has a crack in it....Uh Oh!

[white 85 z49]

Fortunately the car was parked indoors. The exhaust was blowing out rust chunks every time I started it up but seems to have cleared up. I'm still going to replace them. I found the D5 at turbobuick.com as suggested by 88hurstolds (thanks for the tip by the way). The one I found is only about 15 miles from my house, if your buddy needs one there is another one available on that site. His screename was gn4u2c and he was asking $100.00 for it, said it had 62,000 miles on it and it was removed from the car on Monday morning.