Hello,

I purchased a 91 firebird back in March.

I'm now looking to do some upgrades.

The car has 90 k on it and still runs great!! But I want MORE

Here's my question.

Engine is stock from what i can tell accept for the accel 8.8's and cap. Also has flowmaster type cat-back & K&N filter.

I also have a formula hood and air cleaner assebly I'd like to use.

I want to do simple some bolt-ons - coil, plugs, pulleys, as well as and intake and tbi.

I've read through the posts.

Lets say I have about $1,000.00 to spend.

Which intake, tbi and other bolt-ons should i go with?

NJ SPEEDER and PABLO seem to have extensive knowledge about the GM TBI - if you both or anyone else with the hands on could help.

thanks

 

Headers, complete 3" cat back with hi flow cat, LT1 cam, and an Edelbrock Performance TBI intake, That will be around 1000 bucks and will give you a pretty big power gain over stock.

 

to get the most for your money start with teh ultimate tbi mods and diy afpr. that will cost a total of about $2

then go to your local parts store or pick up your jegs catalog and get a 14x3inch flat base open element air cleaner. a paper filter will do just fine, the k&n is not worth the extra expense, especially on a limited budget. that will be about $15.

jack your car up and pull your tiny stock cat off and punch all the guts out of it to relieve the back pressure and reinstall it. costs nothing but will free up some mid to high rpm power

take soem useless weight out of your car. ditch teh spare tire adn jack(saves abotu 28lbs). do a smog pump delete on your car too, you need a shorter belt and a pair of 3/4 inch pipe caps to close off the a.i.r. fittings(saves about 7lbs). look aroudn the classifieds or go to your local junk yard and find gm mid and full size cars from teh 70's and 80's and look to see if they have alumin rear drums, you can usually get a set for under $50, that saves you approx 7-12 lbs from each side. since it is unsprung rotating mass, it counts liek triple when you figure how much weight you saved.

while you have the jegs catalog out order a set of 3.73 gears for a 3-series carrier(that is the 3.23 and higher carrier) teh jeg's brand gears(actually reboxed us gears) are 175 for the set.
then call up slp and order a take out torsen posi unit and teh speedo correction gears(they will know which ones you need)that will total about 125. then go to a local shop and have the stuff installed. most places will do the install for between 200-300 bucks. we will high ball it and say $600 total.

look aroudn for an edelbrock performer tbi intake. you can get them new for $215 or used for about $125, add a set of gaskets and an afternoon of your life to do the swap and you have a noticable power increase for $140 if you can find it used.

i fyou have a friend that can weld, go to home depot and get a piece of strap steel that is 1.5inches wide(i think they come in a 4ft length). then cut it and form it to fit in where teh rolled lip is on your rear control arms and weld it in place. total cost $5.49 + a beer for your buddy and now you have the same control arms that slp sells for $100..hehe

then click on the link above your post that says spohn and order a set of rear control arm relocators for $65 and go back to your buddy again and have them welded on too.

look around on the board to see who is near you and get your car data logged using winALDL adn let soemone burn you a chip. most of the nice folks will do a chip for 50-75+ shipping.

after all of this you can expect to have knocked off all of or most of a second from your cars et's and gained 5+mph in trap speeds.

this is a good start for you i think. if you are anywhere near the new jersey area you shoudl come out for our summer of tbi modding. we'll have you flyin on a budget.

later
tim

 

What he said but if you go with the SLP Zexel Torsen diff and the 3.73 gears, like I did and I like it, DO NOT order the speedo gear from them! It is cheaper to go to your GM dealer and order the gear for $6.00! On my car, I went from stock 2.73 to 3.73 and I just needed the driven gear, not the drive gear to correct me back to normal. Do a search on the sight for speedo gears and you will pull up an awesome post that lists the calcs and GM paert numbers for both the gears, if you can't find it let me know and I can email it to you.