Ok, I bought a 91 v6 bird a couple of months ago, the interior is great, no cracks on the dash are and the headliner has no bubles. Very very nice interior. The exterior had crappy dead hunter green paint. I took care of that and got a black pearl paintjob. Now, the car is very nice but it has a lil 3.1 engine.
Should I sell it or should I buy a performance engine? I you think I should get an engine please give me options to pick from and tell me what would I need, like the type of tranny and all that. I found this http://www.gmpartsdepot.com/store/pr...Product_ID=978 but I don't know how to tell if this wil work on my car or if I should get something different.
Here are some pics of my car



BEFORE

 

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AFTER

 

Nice paint job! Looks like a diferent car. If I were you I would consider an LT1 swap.

 

A good basis for a street performance build.
mid to low 13's.... 12's with some power upgrades.

It will produce more power than GM rates it, on a dyno
about 350HP.

Mild enough to work well with a stock torque converter and mid 3.xx gear.

Complete it with a Performer RPM intake , 750cfm Edelbrock or holley 3310 VS carb, Vacuum advance GM HEI and a 7psi hi vol mechanical fuel pump.
Pull the fuel tank and remove the in tank V6 EFI pump and re do the tank pick up and fuel line.

Needs a old GM Corvette/ Camaro drop based 14x3" air cleaner to fit under the stock hood.

1 5/8" shorty or long tube heedman headers and a custom Y pipe into a 3"/ 4" exhaust.
Dual hiflow cats if nessessary.

Get the engine front accessories, brackets and pulleys from a 1985/86 305 carbed Fbody with the serpintine fan belt.
Including the rad, shroud, fan and water pump.
A new rad and water pump is advised but tthe rest you can get from the wreckers.

My V6 to 350 vortec motor swap was very simular to this,
except I built my own motor.

Very nice to drive and good power and fuel mileage.

Low emissions too.

You'll want to get some sticky rear tires.

 

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how about getting a used camaro/firebird 350 and just add headers and some performace stuff?

 

Or get a good old 350ci motor from a truck or....
and rebuild it with new vortec heads and a mild performance hyd cam, etc, like I did.

Cost will be less than a GM crate motor.

 

hey f-bird is that your engine build? im planning almost exactly the same thing with a 350 bored .030", vortec heads with (1.6?) roller rockers and a comp high energy 268H cam with performer RPM intake and probably a 650 holley dp. someone told me a guess on hp @ the crank to be around 380. do you have any more info on what your doing and what cam are you using? how about rockers? and about whats your compression? thanks!

Conner

 

The Cam is a Crane Blue Racer

214-224-.442-.465-112

The rockers are Crane stamped steel roller tipped 1.5:1 rockers. The compression ratio was 10.03:1

Seen a dyno test on the same combo 374HP and 400+ ft/lbs torque.

Based on the performance in the car I'd go along with that figure. 13.0's @104mph

A good street motor

 

Do you think i should stay with the 1.52 roller rockers or go with the 1.6 rr's? would the 1.6's work ok with the vortec heads and the 1.25" springs? the specs on my cam are: 218*/218*, .454/.454", 110* - should put out about the same numbers a your combo right? thanks

 

The comp HE 268H-10 should work very well too.
1.6's will increase the top end a bit, at the cost of a little low end torque. Just be sure to check that the springs and retainers can handle the extra lift.
The pushrod hole through the vortec heads may need to be elongated for 1.6:1 rockers.

 

Would the performer RPM intake work with the vortec heads? i hear people saying the vortecs require a special intake manifold.

 

Yes and there is a Vortec version of this manifold.

A Professional Products Crosswind (Vortec)
is a good manifold for this too.

Do not try to adapt or modifly a conventional bolt pattern manifold to fit on a vortec head. The ports are different.

 

Hey thanks for all the help one more question- did you port the heads at all or just leave them at 170cc? would it be benificial to port them while still using this HE 268 cam or no? thanks

 

why not just buy the goodwrich engine? 1300 brand new from GM 260 hp stock. no intake or injection so it leaves you open for carb or FI, you got a 2 year warrenty too. ive also seen the vortec heads 515 a pair for a quick 20-40 gain and that would be no problem since the motor doesnt come with an intake. then you could do like a crane cam or whatever before you pop the motor in. i should have bought it with all the money i spend on a used block and internals