Afternoon gents,

I have a buddy that is looking into his first corvette and wants to stay under $15K (i already had the conversation youre thinking of with him) and he wants my semi-knowledgeable opinion on it. I'm very familiar with C6's and C7's but when it comes to the C4 I dont know that much. Is there any advice you can shoot me prior to checking the vehicle out that I may not look for or common issues on used C4's?

It's a '92 with 67K on the clock- seller listed for $9800.

-clean title
-blemish on driver seat
-orig factory rims w/ saw blade design
-muffler delete

Thanks for reading.

 

Stick or auto? Prices for stick shift cars are way higher than autos for earlier cars -! Seems like c6 and C7's have less disparity in a lot of cases.

Is your friend mechanically inclined? C4's are sort of in that age where they're not quite yet classics, but they're also not modern. Finding good people to work on them can be challenging and frustrating, so if he isn't a diy guy, I would not recommend one.

Outside of that, the 92 is the first year of the LT1. It's a solid power plant that will run great as long as you recognize its needs. You can't get sloppy on water pump replacement, it sits directly over the optispark distributor which is the weakest link in these cars, mainly because it will no start you. You can't spray down the engine bay to clean it, you can't cover the thing in degreaser, and you don't want to get water near the connector on the opti. It likely still has the oem opti, and since it's a non vented unit, it's worthwhile to send it out for a rebuild. I would personally do the water pump immediately upon purchase unless there's records of recent replacement, and possibly send the opti out for a rebuild at that time just to remove any cap and rotor wear.

Outside of that, they're great cars. Lots of fun, easy to work on, pretty practical, and still do sports car stuff. Not the fastest car on the road, but fast enough to be fun and still hold its own.