I owned 3 3rd gens through HS and college, 88 2.8l bird, 92RS 305TBI 5spd, 89 iroc-z 350auto, in that order.

The bird was great but underpowered, loaded, the iroc was a beater that I never spent money on so I dumped it. The 92RS was a sleeper. I pulled the engine put in a ZZ4 cam, edlebrock twister heads 1.94 cc, 1.56 arms, ported throttle body and spacer, posi 3.77 rear, edel;brock headers, cold air intake, msd system, progressive NOS system.

It sounded so sweet but not onxoious and beat any stock c4 vette and just beat stock lt1 camaros, and hung with a stock c5 al with no NOS on nos it could pull on them.

1/8 drag times: Stock: 10.4+ at 86mph, No NOS low 9sec at 92mph, on NOS 8.3 at 96mph

1/4miles on street tires it was a 14.5-14.7 car at 100-102mph
traction was a problem and never got launching down and hookup was bad had lots of wheel jump, It would probably do 14.2 stock

on NOS I ran low 13sec passes rigth from launch at 108mph

The car was great only problem was it had no power options...

I am divorced with 3 car garage, a jetski toy, nice lincoln ls for dailydriver and want a 3rd gen convert back for weekend cruising. Do not want a total beater but as long as it has the v8 drivetrain and a manual with vert or possible and bosy and panels are straight I would strip clean, repair paint redo interior etc.

I want a solid perfomer but do not want a beast aqnd I know the mods I didi to the other TBI were not cheap, thru a speed shop thats why but a stock TBI was such a DOG. a focus could beat it

SO I see plenty of 91-92 TBI from $1600 trashed-3500 decent all seem a little high. If I could find a t top for 1200 or a vert for 1600 it would be a buy

Question: since I have been gone what is the consensus on the TBI mods etc? I know the TPI isa great street carbut even the 350 is a dog for todays standards and would require mods only with more gains so the TBI seems like a better value. But if I get a stock car 100% fix everything what kind of mods that I could do at home that would at least make this thing do low 14sec inthe 1/4 after that it is all gravy. just want a car that performs like it looks. I know from previous 305TBI that the 13sec side of the car was insane for me anyway it was defiently easy to get in trouble and hard to use onthe street for fun.

I see that crate motors have come down to $3000-$3500 (carbs I believe) great option will they just drop in? what else is needed? chip? carbs?if so I would not wnat to put a lot of money into a stock 305 or 350 compared to a crate so I would say 1000-2000

are carbs better over TBI is the swithc a PITA?

 

14's should be easy with a mild crate and some driveline mods, like gears, shiftkit for the auto, etc. Youll probably also need to at least burn your own chips. Most engines are so far away from the stock tune that the car will be nearly undrivable without tuning.

 

I know a crate would be easy 14 I guess what I wanted to know what is out there now for a stock TBI (heads,ca\m, headers) that I could swap myself and at what cost and what performance? if it is $3000 for head, cam headers I might as well just drop a crate

Other question is TBI worth keeping if I find a good car and just swap a crate. DO I keep the TBI or go carb? TBI seems good for better starting and MPG

what is a good crate engine , where? and will the stock t5 hold up to one.

 

My performance parts of choice for a 305 would be:

- TurboCity or CFM-Tech TBI
- Performer RPM (or similar style) manifold
- TrickFlow 56cc heads OR ported 601s with bigger valves (Gustaf Engines sells them for $450 assembled)
- Hyd roller cam with 205-210 degrees @ 0.05", 110-112 LCA and 0.48" lift
- SLP or Hooker Headers (1 5/8")

I think you could get 350 hp from that motor ...with the right tuning and attention to details. I was running a similar setup at one point ("smaller" manifold, smaller valves and 1.5" headers). From your description I'd guess it performed similarly to your previous 305 TBI.

It would cost about $1600 for the above parts (assuming you went with the Gustaf 601s), then you have to add in the misc cost that always pop up. If you're happy with that performance then that's what I'd go with. However, if you intend to make more of an all-out strip car I'd go with a larger engine and probably a carb.

For street use, I'd never ditch the TBI for a carb. For a strip car which might see more tinkering and doesn't need the conveniences of fuel injection, then I'd go carb.

So, in my opinion, for high-performance street-duty a 305 TBI with the above mods is a very respectable machine for a reasonable cost. For strip-duty you want to go bigger and probably carbed. For street-strip you'd have to make the decision whether the car is more of a daily driver or a track toy and decide from there. Bigger is always better, but in some cases, smaller can be enough.

 

thanks that is what I was looking for. I think heads, cam headers is solid and keep the tbi just burn a new chip.

Are there new prom burners that you can do yourself now?

300hp-330hp is more then enough and fun.

what is a good price for a t-top or vert 5spd 91-92 with 90k miles on it in less the average condition non rust or dented just needs new interior paint and rebuild engine. I was thinking less then $1500

 

Jeez yes! I got a laptop and "pocket programmer" on ebay. I made a cable to interface with the ALDL myself ...the instructions are on the 'net somewhere or you can buy them pre-made (I have access to University tech labs, so the parts were free ...but it would have been only a few bucks anyway). The necessary software is all free for download. The whole deal cost me less than $200 and I was burning my own chips.

A lot of people are going with DynamicEFI's EBL now, I don't know much about it yet (I'm still "old-school" in this regard), but apparently it has a lot more capacity than just the regular chip with look-up tables. I'll probably up-grade when my credit card recovers from the damage that I've done to it. On the other hand, I'm a researcher/instructor/PhD student in artificial intelligence for motor control, so if I ever get the time I might try to hack the code on the chip and re-write it with a neural network (i.e. artificial intelligence). I don't know if that's possible right now, but if so, that's what I'll do.

Anyway, for less than $200 you could start from scratch and be burning your own chips. You'll probably want a wide-band O2 sensor to get PE mode right ...that's something additional.

I don't have a clue about 3rd gen prices, I got mine in '88. Oddly enough, I had a choice between a TPI firebird and a TBI IROC-Z. I took the IROC because the TBI seemed easier to work with. Back then I didn't really have a clue what I was doing but I don't regret my decision now.

By the way, I divorced a few years ago and immediately started spending my free money on the car too. It's amazing how much money you discover you have when you get divorced.