Some of the tools and equipment that they were using didn't even exist till decades after the J-85 was 1st produced so to me it's a bit of waist of resources to put all that effort and equipment on such an outdated low thrust small diameter engine that compared to it's thrust is far less efficient than J79's in fact per thrust the difference between them in efficiency is almost the same as the difference between a J79 and an RD-33 Turbofan engine.
Fuel consumption per thrust(Max military thrust (dry)):
J85 at max military thrust ~0.96 lb/(lbf·h)
J79 at max military thrust ~0.85 lb/(lbf·h)
RD-33 at max military thrust ~0.77 lb/(lbf·h)
F404 at max military thrust ~0.81 lb/(lbf·h)
Which makes J-85's really bad engines in terms of thrust and consumption per thrust with little room to upgrade due to size while J79 leave a lot of room for upgrades. Fact is for fighter engines people put too much emphasis on the fan of Turbofan's and not enough emphasis on everything else like allowing for air breathing low by pass, higher turbine inlet temperatures, the design & materials of your compressors, turbines & combustion chamber, additional subsystems of your engine, ball brings,.....
FYI the difference in the turbine inlet temperature of a J79 compared to an RD-33 is over 800F so addressing that alone will allow you to improve your combustion chamber & turbines that will allow for a more efficient engine per thrust.
Fact is Iran should have moved passed the useless J85's and on to either J79's or AL-21's to improve upon