tonight i was beaten by some lil' honda with a 5-spd. it really pissed me off seeing him 1 1/2 car lengths ahead... and you get that feeling its time to dump more money into your motor...

i was thinking i could get a port-job done on my vortec heads, a 4-bbl 'heavy breather' manifold w/adaper plate rather than this dual-plane GM-Vortec POS, and then add a hot cam.

been told that a hot-cam and decent flowing vortec heads could push over 350+hp. its breathing thu a 454TBI and the GM-Vortec TBI manifold. (bored to 2") this is why i think it would help to go with a higher flowing carb manifold in conjunction with the port/cam mods.

something like this could cost almost $1000 easy? any other ideas on how i could make more HP for a cheaper price?

would the TBI computer still be able to run such an agressive setup? (with reprogramming)

i'm currently running a stock crate GM-Vortec 350. (330hp?)

any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

I would take the heads and get them machined to run a bigger cam. I would port them as well and stab a bigger cam in there. I would seriously look into a custom tune. I would do the tune first because it sounds like you are running on the stock 350 tune. You are not getting all of the power that you could out of that. You already have a perfect setup with the 2" bores and 454 TBI. Now add a custom PROM to that and I think you will be surprised.

 

i jacked up the fuel pressure to 18PSI... surprizingly my stock fuel pump managed to keep up for a bit, then drops off to 15PSI in the middle of the run.

you wouldn't believe how much difference it made! burned the tires 3x longer than i ever could! :lala:

i'm considering a turbo city fuel pump so i can jack up the pressure even more. has anybody ever put one of these in... is it a PITA like i think it'll be?

 

You do not want to go to high now. You want to maintain 15psi at WOT at least. If your stock pump can handle that no need to replace it yet. You really need to data log your car to make sure that you have your pressure dialed in. You may actually be rich now.

 

cam that motor up, and get a custom tune.

 

yup

 

what gears do you have?

 

sorry about the ***** dude, hope it doesnt happen again!

 

look you have a full size truck! whatz it way around 4000 lbs.? most little 4 bangers weigh in under 3000 they don't need as much power to go fast because they are lighter.
not trying to knock v8's here but to go fast you want to be light and have lots of hp. for instance a 3000 pound car with 300 hp is about the same speed as a 2000 pound car with 200 hp most hondas run in the 8 sec 0-60 and about 16 in the quatrter!!!
my nissan 300zx with a v6, blows the doors of my modded lo3 just because it is a smaller engine doesn't mean it is slower. you need to put out lots more power.
my *** they have that yahoo stephen papadakis running 6's in the 1/4 with a civic he is running about 38 pounds of boost though.
with the 350 the mods are more noticeable they respond better.
most civics and hondas that aren't forced induction aren't that fast.
the tuner companies try to say there parts add "this much hp" when it really doenst add that much!! also if you ever look at dyno sheets on imports and there mods alot of times the parts just change the power band so they have more power up high than down low.
but if you want to beat some hondas loose some weight!!! even with forced induction civics only drop to a high 6 sec 0-60 unless it has been built for turbos or supers.
i have alot of import mags at home because of the 300z and most modded hondas run around mid to high 7's 0-60 unless the have nitrous or forced induct.
speaking of nos!!!
i have a gm mag where they took a junked gm 350 out of the yard set it up on a stand and started testing diffrent shots of nos on it!!! with stock internals they got out close to 600 hp i think b4 they goofed and shot the nos when they weren't at wot. they purged it at idle!!! and boom!!! i can't remember the #'s for sure the mag is at home but i have seen several trucks running with a nos plate under there tb's hope some of this helped and remember i am not trying to flame or anything i just wanted to point it out that the truck is heavy!!! so you need more power!!!

 

totaly agree, on everything you said.

 

thats the fun in beating those lil imports with a truck! its drastically underestimated

its a stripped work truck, long bed std. cab... for a full size truck its really light. with that motor in there i can get pushing more and more power...

yesterday i talked to CFMtech about their custom Vortech programming. he said the 55lb injectors are too small, and the 75lb injectors i've got are too large. so natrually i was screwed into purchasing new 65lb injectors... i bit the bullet and went with them because they really know what they're doing, and this would be my best bet to fix my idle problem and to restore lost power due to poor programming. they had already prefected a programming baseline for my crate motor... he said with a few tweaks for my setup it'll make an awesome overall difference.

when i told him that i had to jack up my fuel pressure to make WAY more horsepower he said its a sign that i need to reprogram. so in about a week and a half i'll have some new results with my new chip/injectors...

by the way.. i could probably keep up with that honda again just by jacking up my fuel pressure. at the time it was running 14PSI and running very doggy. i'm very confident this investment will be the end of a lot of performance problems.

 

oh... and believe i've got 3.72 gears... i know they're highway gears, but i like my gas miliage and enjoy the top end power on the highway

 

if you think those are highway gears you should try out my 2.73's, lol

 

my mistake... got the original window sticker right here... says:

'93 Fleetside Pickup W/T
wow, it says that old 4.3 was a vortec!
the 'totally stripped' package
3.42 axle ratio
$14,179 w/ AM radio! hehe3.42 axle ratio

so as far as axle ratios go... this is about 'medium'?

 

First I'd get a new fuel pump. If its bogging down under wot then its shot and performance aside, it'll leave you stranded on the road soon enough. Walbro 255 high volume is a good chice I do not know why they said 75's were too big, you can just turn down the pressure a little bit and it would be fine. The engine you're running is the same one JPrevost is running and his is real strong, you might see what he says but he doesnt post much anymore. I do know he'll tell you to program your own chips though

 

i just installed my Walbro255HP on thursday... it was a bitch... but i got it done. thanks anyways tho..

 

I should have told you before you installed it that, I found it easier to unbolt the box, and lift it off the frame, as oppossed to droping the tank.