Hello. I'm new to this forum, I thought this would be very informative so I joined. I was wondering if anyone with some experience with the 2.8multi port FI motor would be able to give me some options to increase HP. I have flow masters on it already, it sounds really good...but I want it to have around 250 HP, if possible, without sacrificing reliability, and for under 1000$...if possible. Thanks.

Best bet for cheap HP is a shot of nitrous. 75-100 shot or along those lines. Maybe someone more experienced with NOS will chime in..

I mean permanent HP...Not temporary ;O

here is a good link to start you off...not to bash you man but flowmaster has been determined on here as not the master of flow at all, actually it doesnt flow very well at all...not trying to bash you in anyway just saying ppl have flow tested them on this site and they dont flow well...i have a spare flowmaster on the shelve and wont use it just cause of this...anyway go to that site first then go do a search on here and you will come up with thousands of threads about both the 2.8 and 3.1 motors.

http://thirdgenmods.firebirdv6.com/

Hey bro I would have to agree with mtwlkn122....

You might want to ditch the flowmaster and see whats out there. I do agree it does sound good but remember you want your camaro to have a good flow...check on here we we have for V6 exhaust.


Good luck bro

keep your muffler if you like it. get a $30 cut out and weld it in, free flow exhaust when you want it, and flowmaster any other time.

250hp with $1000 is a dream with this motor.

It has been done...but only with a turbo and all of the things that go along with putting a turbo in. Thats not even taking into consideration of $1000 limit. Not to discourage you man but the rule is "however much money you put into making hp and tq, you will need to spend the same amount to get all that power to hook up on the ground." Seriously man If you want to go REALLY fast for REALLY cheap you would have bought a car with a 350 already in it. But if your like alot of us sixers on here we happen to find a car we liked or could afford and it happen to have a six in it. Now were all looking to make it faster. Some people just want to have a fast six just to be different...some just as braggin rights to say ya i can beat your eight. In my case im just waiting till i have the money to build up a 350 and drop it in there. My only stopping point is the money and i need to check with local laws to make sure that is legal. Either way man 250 horse on a N/A 2.8l motor for under a grand is a long shot.

You'd be hard pressed to pull 250hp out of a n/a iron head 2.8 with $2K, let alone half that. The iron heads are just a roadblock. You can switch to 3x00 fwd heads for under $1k if you're comfortable with assembling your own motor. Just swapping the top end can net you another 50hp.

If you want to stick with the 2.8 there's a few things you can do to get more pep out of it. Trim the weight down first. Gut anything you feel isn't neccecary. Then put some better gears in the rear. I chose 3.73's for a noticeable improvement without cruising at a ridiculous rpm on the highway. Then you can help the motor breathe with headers, exhaust, opening up the filter box and ditching the stock intake piping ect. You won't get a ton of power out of it opening up the induction and exhaust, but it will rev freely and easily where you want it to go. These motors will respond with decent torq improvements to most of what you do.

If your REALLY serious about getting some power out of your 2.8 talk to this member. http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/member.php?u=79910 He has a sick v6 motor build...and hes got the numbers and videos to prove it. If your dead serious about making 250 hp your gonna have to drop your $1000 budget and shoot Project89 a PM. Good luck man. Let us know how your progress goes.


Hey bl85c ive seen you post around a couple times...i really like the look of your car...It has a "smoothed out" kind of look...its real sharp looking. What kind of rims are those?

Hey bl85c, you seem to know your stuff so I got a question for you.
I've seen the swap to the 3100 top end and I gotta say it's well beyond my reach. I don't have the money, time, tools, and mainly knowledge to to that. But I was wondering if with a good p&p job, some 1.6 rollers, and good pushrods could the iron heads not be a restriction? Could they flow as well as a 3x00 swap?

And how is it with the 3.73 gears in it? Stock auto is 3.23 I believe so 3.73 seems like it would be screaming above 80mph with a v6.

Not really. A massive porting of the iron heads by a professional will get them to flow almost as well as stock aluminum heads. Ours are that crappy and theirs are that good.

I know that you don't want to hear this... But the only way you are going to get anywhere near your goals is with Nitrous. I had a 75 HP nitrous shot on my 3.1 liter 1992 Firebird for a lot of years. It ran good and gave a good HP boost, and was a lot of fun. The kit cost me about $450 back in 1996. I still have it and will sell it to you for $200 if you are interested. It will really wake that thing up, and the exhaust mods you've done will help.

Seriously, dude, 250 HP out of this motor, normally aspirated, for $1000 ain't gonna happen. If you use the nitrous, it will get you pretty close, and for a lot less than $1000. You can fill the bottle up a lot of times for $500! The other good thing is that it won't affect your driveability or fuel mileage any at all. My car would still get nearly 30 MPG on the interstate.

Only other option would be a turbo setup, which I am not anywhere near an expert on. And you still probably won't come in anywhere near your $1000 goal unless you can use junkyard parts and do all your own fabrication and tuning work.

Other options like swapping to the later style aluminum FWD heads will also be difficult to do and require fabricating and tuning.

Swapping to a V8 will cost you WAAAAY over $1000.

mtwlkn122- the wheels are american racing venturas. I'm just starting to get the car the way I want it, but it really didn't take much to give it that soothed look. Covering up the holes on the nose, a little black paint for the 'eyeliner' look arount the headlights, removing the turnsignals (legal? LOL), and painting the taillights solid red really makes it stand out.

K-slice- Like jensen73110 said the stock heads are just plain crap. Even with full on race porting they only just flow on par with the stock aluminum heads, and you'll have some pretty thin port walls as well. In stock form the exhaust port on the aluminum heads can outflow the intake port of the iron heads. With the convertor locked in 4th at 55 (I rarely cruse above that) it's at about 1800rpm. At 80 it's clear up at 2400rpm or so, not sure where it's actually at because the tach's off and I haven't looked at it with my laptop yet. So yea it definately rips along at higher speed.

Ported heads, cam that MAYBE will idle at a stop light under 2k, tune, headers, exhaust, might see 200whp. Off the shelf stuff, tuning and a home port job, 150 has been done a million times.

With a Comp cam setup, double chain - non roller, springs locks and retainers lists for $385 at Summit.

Headers will run you another $300 or so unless you find a used set perhaps.

Don't forget gaskets, they'll be another $100 including the small parts that break during install (sometimes more).

Now you will need a tune (but you can get away with a 260h cam or so with stock tune). This will leave a little in the budget for things like an exhaust shop if you don't have a means to weld (and the other "oh craps").

You can modify s-10 hedman headers (only $165) to fit as well, but if you need to take it to a shop it might be worth it to just get the pacesetters so you don't get screwed on the extra labor for cutting up the headers to make them clear & work with a custom exhaust.