Tech / General EngineIs your car making a strange sound or won't start? Thinking of adding power with a new combination? Need other technical information or engine specific advice? Don't see another board for your problem? Post it here!
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any good power adders to a 1984 trans am 305 h.o. Right now it's pretty much stock besides a mallory hei distributor, edlebrock 600 cfm carb, holley intake manifold. Looking to keep the 5.0. gotta work with what I got. Need heads, cam,. But need to know what kinds to buy. Will the heads off a vortec blazer fit?? I have about a grand to do this. Thinkings about nitrious for the track. Is that a bad decision???
Agreed, headers and good exhaust are the first things to upgrade.
Vortec heads will physically bolt onto your engine but you'll need a different (Vortec-specific) intake manifold to bolt onto them. Also, you'll have compression issues to deal with as the chambers on 350 Vortec heads are larger than those on your original heads. Lastly, they require self-aligning rockers arms which your current motor doesn't use.
True duals were not something GM had it mind when they designed the 3rd gen. It's not really a cross-member issue but a combination of several things...
The floor pan on the driver's side sits lower than the passenger side and there's really not much room to put 2 individual mufflers under the rear seat floorpan. I've seen it done- sometimes decently, sometimes disasterously, but it's not really the best way to go, in my opinion.
And you don't really need that much exhaust for what you're doing. A set of Hooker shorties and the (included) 3" y-pipe will work fine with a 3" cat (the stock cat is 2-3/4" and will work OK if it's in good shape, as will a 3" straight pipe if emissions are not a concern) leading into a 3" cat-back system (Dynomax makes a good unit for very reasonable money, as do many others).