Hey all. I just bought a 1992 Camaro RS 5.0 V8. I previously had a 1993 Dodge Intrepid 3.5L V6 and knew it in and out, but it had a small aftermarket. I did pretty much everything except a superchip (K&N filter, ignition and flowmaster exhaust are the things I moded). It was a fast sedan, but I just love how the camaro looked, and it has way more potential than my Intrepid ever did.

Here's what I've done so far:
K&N Air filter
Tornado Air System.

How much HP do you guys think I honestly gained? I bet I have around 175hp instead of 170. What are some relatively easy mods I can do? I want to get to at least 200HP (I had trouble getting around a riced out Civic the other day for *** sakes , but it was just passing him and we were doing 65mph and he decided to gun it, but I still got around him.)

I want to get a flowmaster 80 series for it with the bigger flowmaster tips. My friend has a 94 3.4L V6 and that thing sounds great, but its LOUD for a V6 and I'm almost afraid to put an 80 series on a 5.0 just because of the interior resonance.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hey, welcome to the board.

Check out the tech articles. There are two ultimate TBI links under the carb/FI section. They give a lot of free or near free mods.

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/

A good catback exhaust system will always give you noticable HP gains. I think that should be the first mod anyone should do to any car. To help the exhaust even more you could add headers and a free flow cat. If you want to get the full potential out of your TBI you'll need to look into more serious things like the heads, cam, and gears; the TBI lacks in those areas.

Welcome again,
Eric

 

Well, first of all, congratulations on your choice of a vehicle, and welcome to thirdgen.org. yay.

There's a lot of information to be found here on repairing, modifying, personalizing and beautifying your car. The first place you should look is in the Tech Articles section: www.thirdgen.org/tech will take you there. You can find the answers to most of your initial questions there, and it's organized to help you find what you're looking for quickly.

On your questions: 175 sounds like a pretty good guess. The first thing I would do is get rid of that Tornado Air System. Hopefully you can get your money back for it, because it's a waste of money, but if not, then I hope you can sell it to somebody else. The reason is that it honestly restricts more air than would pass without it there, even with the help of a fan. You shouldn't feel any loss whatsoever removing it.

Now getting an aftermarket muffler is a good start, but you should look into getting the full catback (exhaust system from the "cat"alytic converter on back). The exhaust is always a good place to start when it comes to freeing up horsepower. Headers are a good improvement if you don't mind some really hairy work installing them.

Your Camaro is also a good choice, because a wide variety of engine/transmission combinations are already researched and available for almost bolt-in installation in your car. Unlike Intrepids and many other FWD imports, Chevy engines have been around in almost exactly the same form since the 50s, so have half a century of knowledge and aftermarket parts behind them.

When you're ready, you can ditch the 5.0 in your car for a more powerful SBC (small block Chevy) or even a big-block if you're nuts. There's a million and a half different combinations you can run, and you can learn all about them here.

Anyway, on your vehicle, even though you've installed a K&N air filter, you might consider a cold-air setup or open-element setup. You can find examples and part numbers that will work for you all over this particular forum.

For more power, check out posts (or search for them) regarding gears, cam swaps (like LT1 cams), and heads.

Most of all, have fun, and just ignore the eventual immature comments about your Tornado Air System. (I know they're coming.... shame on you guys :nono: )

Feel free to post more questions, most of us are ready and willing to help and give advice.

 

only mods on my car right now is a k&n open element, hooker competition shorty headers no cat to a series 80...sounds damn good real deep at idle but LOUD at WOT i can tell you the car definetly feels alot faster even with my few mods....hopefully im getting a bigger cam and intake soon and possibly gasp going carb but im not sure yet...i may just start buring chips i dont know i hope you all dont hate me for that ill probably keep fuel injection but i would like to see someone do something with TBI that would make me feel much better about it...anyways even tho your motor is only a 305 there is still a massive amount of stuff that can be done...if it works for other SBC it will work for the 305 just remember that and the 305 does take to mods well

 

I to used to have the tornado air on my car. The quiker you remove it the better. I know they say it will help but in reality it hinders performance. So try to sell it or suck up the loss but remove it either way.

 

Ahhh the infamous lo3. Thats the engine code for your tbi 305, once you look around every one and their mother will be bad mouthing it but don't let that discourage you. Here's a quick combo of parts that workes well on my friends 92 rs.
k&N
hooker catback (200 bucks from advance auto)
3.42 gears
He runs a 15.4 quarter mile at 90 mph which is darn good for a l03. Drop the tornado it's pretty much choking you motor over 800 rpm's.

 

?? Its killing my RPM's? I noticed nothing with performance hindering or increase when I added it. The thing I did notice is that the car did idle MUCH smoother at stops when the radiator fan kicked it. Before it would kind of rattle, but now it idles smooth at the same rpms. I guess I'd have to ask my mechanic where I could dyno my car with it off and with it on to notice anything because I sure as hell didn't feel it.

Thanks for the warm welcome. The guys over at DI.net sure as hell aren't liking that I sold my intrepid and got a better car.

http://www.dodgeintrepid.net/forums/...5&pagenumber=2

*******s, but thats all behind me now.

Thanks again! I still would like some more opinions on the 80 series, because I plan to get a high flow cat and that first.

 

I'm not sure what gimmic you have its either the electric "blower" or just the metal vane insert. The electric blower will never supply enough air for even a weedwacker let alone a v-8. The metal vane while in theory is a good idea it will never work in the real world. It operates off the theory of turbulance. It basicaly gives the air a spin to help keep fuel atomised. GM did this in the swirl port heads when they put a small swirl inducing vane right behind the intake valve. In the real world this swirl doesn't last long. As soon as the air hits the throttl blades it stops the swirl. So all its really doing is restricting airflow. I think i saw a dyno test on this and you only lose 3 or 4 hp so the seat of the pants meter won't register anything. Sorry this is so long but i wanted to give you a detailed explanation of why it doesn't work instead of the usual "its rice tech" followed by howling laghter. Any one else want to add on to this theory of why the tornado sucks.

 

ohh and on the subject of the 80 series, it sounds bad *** on my friends 89 350 iroc but resonates like a biotch on the highway. Other friend with the RS loves his hooker.

 

Well, my opinion is that the Flowmasters sound good on someone elses' car. Basically, if I don't have to listen to it every day. I like a nice quiet exhaust, which is why I went with a Dynomax catback. There are a bunch of Hooker fans here, too.

Since you're in Florida, be sure to post on the Southeast Regional forum here on this site, as well as going over to www.fl-thirdgen.org and registering there.

 

Thats ridiculous, they have boards for just about every car now!

I can't believe Dodge Intrepid guys are bashing SBC V8's!! I have never seen an Intrepid break into the 15's for goodness sake. They do have 4 doors.

Haha I like the one "The Camaro wouldnt have TBI, it was dropped by GM in 1991" lol what a riot. And they think they have the right to bash Maros when they dont even know what's under the hood. What a joke.

 

Yeah, I like the post right after that.. "so and so is right..." I also like how he compares a low level L03 to a high-level R/T, then compares a high-level L98 to the base level Intrepid. That's what I dislike about a lot of the import crowd. They're all about how fast a car is, but never really make an even comparison. Well, he has a $13,000 car with $4,000 worth of parts in it and it runs about the same as my $3,000 car with $3,000 worth of parts, yet they don't see that. fŭck em

 

I've had a Dynomax system since 1995 and it still does not even have any rust on it unlike the Edelbrock TES system I have. The sound is good.

Full exhaust system and better breather where the 1st and best things done when my eng was stock and will help any later mod's to work better.