I have a 1983 305 TBI Crossfire injection camaro. I think stock it has 190 HP and now it probably has 150 HP just from wear and tear on the engine. So what Is a Cheap way to get a considerable amount of HP. I don't want to rebuild the engine or anything major. My budget is like 700 Bucks, and I would be paying for someone to do it for me, seeing i'm only 17 I don't realy know how to build up motors. Thank you for the help!

 

a good tuneup will help....there are small upgrades u can do, open element, headers, catback exhaust.

 

I'm not looking to restore the HP, i want more. I have a cat back exhaust already. but not headers. Can a distributer get me more power?

 

highly unlikely...u can add a hei coil...but the horsepower gains with these methods are minimal

 

What else could I do?
Chip?

 

I have a chip installed. I bought it online. The guys on here will recommend you buy ur own burning gear and make ur own chip. I think it does add some quicker response and little hp a the rear wheels but you won't notice a "big" difference.

 

Well, I would be happy with 20 more horse, or atleast untill I break 200 HP. I can't belive this car only has 190 Stock

 

yessir that is all... I probably have broken the 200 hp mark, i don't have the exhaust or headers yet, but they are next on the list. ram air hood and induction would be another way to go but that way is costly.

 

Well my car is Crossfire injection, and it has the flaps that open up at full throttle so it is considered and ram air induction i guess... so. With Headers And true dual exhaust and a chip, how much hp do you think i would get and how much would it cost. I already have shorty headers that aren't installed on the car.

 

Id say you would notice a gain with that you could alos buy a tbi spacer, and injector spacer you could ask them here http://www.cfm-tech.com/

 

But is that stuff expensive, and expensive to have someone put on for me?

 

I put the website in the post you could email them and they will tell you how to install it, I am also 17 but i am gonna put a 350 and then paint it i think that enough hp for me

 

speed costs money

there arent really any "cheap" ways to get more power
and like someone else mentioned, if you do gain anything, it isnt something you will notice

 

stock HP on an '82 C/F is 165,'83 C/F has better flowing
cat and was rated 175 HP.since you would have to"farm
out"the work,that kinda limits the mods that can be
done-a good free flowing exhaust with 3"super single
and headers will help,as will some k&n air filters as the
stockers are quite small.You could also advance the
timing a bit from stock setting to see if that helps.
Major HP increase can be done with a C/F,but the mods
needed are not practical to "farm out"at reasonable cost
and the person doing it would have to know what they
were doing

 

Welcome,
1) Definitely the best bang for the buck is a set of FULL LENGTH HEADERS that are designed for your specific car and engine.
You can put these on yourself and save yourself some more money to put into some other parts later on.
2) First put a can of carb cleaner in the filled fuel tank according to the instructions on the can, then put a few ounces extra in there just to make sure. Then run the car almost empty of gas.
3) Change your fuel filters.
4) Change your oil, oil filter and air filter.
5) Get a full tune-up.
That will be a good start. Then you can go from there. Start small and work up as you learn about your car.
Best of luck.
Robert

 

hmm well you could try advancing the timing a bit, this will usually get you between 10 to 15 horse.

 

Yeah if I was you, I'd put the headers on with a cat back exhaust, put an open element on it, did with my tbi and it made a noticable difference. An definataly chip it, it made a significant difference on how the engine runs in my camaro. Mine has a hypertech chip in it. Then you can buy a underdrive pulley which will add about 10-15 horses. Then unless u wanna take it all apart thats about it for bolt ons and easy horsepower. SNFLUPIGUS has a technical article on here that goes through the whole installing an open element process. Here's the link: http://snflupigus.tripod.com/tech/op...tep1/step1.htm
I know it wont increase horsepower but u might also wanna look into a shift kit for your transmission.
I just put the open element on my camaro about a week ago and plan on putting a pulley on it in the next week er so, so ill let u know how it goes.

 

Yeah RAD's got the right idea, you wanna clean the engine up first and then go from there

 

If you go underdrive don't you have to take the alternator into consideration? I think you can swap the alternator to overdrive so it'll still spin faster. From what I always read though, our rides usually only get that for chromed out sexiness as opposed to performance gains. The tune up should definitely be your starting point though. Get a can of Seafoam and follow the directions. You can put into the crank case as rads racer was talking about, just remember that it'll clean it out REALLY well. Sometimes, so well that it'll get rid of old sludge that was working as a gasket(always a possibility). Plugs, wires, cap/rotor, coil, oil, fuel filter. There's always plenty to keep you busy for a weekend. After that, then consider all the 'bolt-ons'. Upgrading the exhaust is always good for a few. Open element will also free restriction of air flow and should help you run cooler temps. There's also h/c/i swaps that you can consider.

 

I would say some rear gears to better utilize what power you do have. You will definitely feel it when you step on the throttle.

Dave

 

You could get something like 3.73 or even in the 4's....depending on what u want, she would get up and go faster.

 

with gears that tall, you should want something that can put them to use first wouldn't you?

 

3:23's are probably the cheapest and best upgrade.

 

This is a link to a crossfire specific forum, lots of good info, and how to, plus guys with the hands on know how.

http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/index.php

this is a link to a place that makes an aftermarket intake for CFI cars, suppoed to be pretty good. they also repair throttle bodies IIRC.

http://www.crossfireinjection.net/


Good luck with it-

Eric

 

Can anyone back these guy's claims up suggesting that advancing timing will gain "10-15" horses, along with underdrive pulley's gaining 10-15 also.

That sounds like a very high amount for the little amount of money going in.

Especially considering that I've heard that swapping in an LT1 cam with a good tune will gain 25-35 horses.

So you guys are saying that with the timing advanced and underdrive pulley's it is possible to gain 20-30 horsepower? Sounds a bit exaggerated.

 

No the the poster up above is full of shiat!!!

i would say the best for your money power increase would be having your headers installed (estimate this would cost you 250$).

then buy a set of 1.6 ratio full roller rocker arms. that will cost you anywhere from 90$ on up to 400$ depending on how snazzy you want (save your pennies for that build and buy a set of fairly cheap aluminum bodied roller rockers).

I would expect a shop would remove your old rocker arms and reinstall your new ones for no more than 150$.

so with my guestimate estimates you are currently at lets say 150$ for rockers 150$ for rocker install, 250$ for headers install.

so far at 550$

with the last 150$ i would start off by, buying myself a can of seafoam and run that through a vaccumm port on the engine (the big 3/8 vaccumm hose going to the brake booster behind your master cylinder is optimal for this)

thats 10$

i'd buy ac delco rapid fire spark plugs which will run you 5 bux a pop (40$ total). a set of spark plug wires 80$ i highly reccomend msd superconductors.

so that is 130$

the tune up you can do yourself just do a little research. i was rebuilding and tuning up my first car at 14 years old you are surely quite capable of doing the same any questions pm me and i would be glad to give you a walk through on most anything you will need help on.

 

how would 1.6 rockers give u horses?

 

I'm surprised no one mentioned nitrous, I saw a kit for crossfire once.

 

ok well my response is pretty obvious and if you don't understand why that would help this may be useless to describe ,but heres my first attempt.

your factory rockers are just plain old nothing fancy rocker arms. they dont have a roller bearing on the fulcrum or the tips..... thats your first fraction of a hp gain. Less internal friction = more free hp. that might gain you a hp lol.....

as for the main difference in hp added from the rocker arms, your factory rocker arms are 1.5 ratio. what this means is whatever your camshaft lobe lift is will be multiplied by 1.5 for actual valve lift. in other words say your camshaft lobe lift is .250 (1/4 inch) you multiply that at the rocker arms by whatever your ratio is and gain .125 lift(1/8 in) with 1.5 rocker arms. in essence your effective valve lift would be .375 (3/8 in) valve lift at the heads. So take that same camshaft lobe lift of .250(1/4 in) and multiply it buy 1.6 you get .400 valve lift. so you inevitably gain an ever so slight difference in camshaft duration and camshaft lift. (this is what decides how much air can come in to your engine and when).

so basically your doing the cheap short version of adding a very small camshaft and lowering oil temps and internal wear and friction at the same time. its 100% win win.

as for the headers thats pretty obvious, since you are sucking in more air you need to be able to push more combusted particulate out.... (no bottle neck on the exhaust side).

you will gain a true 25hp i would say from adding your headers, and adding 1.6 roller rockers....

btw the 25 hp i'm mentioning will be seen throughout the curve not just a t a topend

any more questions or confusion just pm me and ill explain it more thoroughly

 

oh ok... i get what ur saying. I can just swap those 1.6 rollers in without any modification, correct? Are there any particular rockers most ppl prefer ie:brandname?

 

if his camaro already had the limited-slip rear, he would be running 3.23 already.....and i don't think having something like 3.73 would be too bad for a auto. Heck he could run 3.55 or 3.42 if wanted sumthin more cruisable. He has an overdrive tranny, and to feel more of pick-up he could run a lower gear. idk...just my . If he did have a limited slip rear the swap would even be cheaper for him, and would leave him with extra money. I think he probably would benifit from this more than spending $400-$500 on 20-25 hp.....headers, rocker arms...etc.....like i said maybe u guys think this is stupid but just my opinion....

 

well i've used them in the past on 2 different camaros along with my current car..... they work great for a cheap and easy 1 hour upgrade...... biggest sotp difference i've noticed over headers, catback ,air foil, filters, underdrive pulleys, aftermarket ignition so on.....

by far the highest gain, easy bolt on i've done........ you can research it left and right and find dyno info on these boards supporting my info........

as for gears thats an easy 200$ for gears and install kit, even if you got gears cheap. then you have to factory in about 400$ to install them at a reputable shop.......

sorry, but adding headers and rockers, then bumping timing and fuel pressure to best suit your new needs is definetly going to outweigh the gain of a different gear ratio You might gain .2 with your gear swap i could gain .4 with the above.....

plus if you swap gears you have to compensate by switching the speedometer gear, or your speed is off and your going to lose gas milage in the long run......

so rockers and headers/increase volumetric efficiency, reduce internal parasitic loss, reduce oil temperature, increase hp...... they are all win win........

as for the gear swap it costs more, and has downsides.....

as for rockers i've had jegs aluminum bodied rockers on my last couple cars with no issues.... personally for our low rev range and low power output, i wouldnt worry what you put on them. cheap pro forms would even do the trick....

there are no modifications to adding the rockers btw.

 

How much would a throttle body spacer help? Is it worth the $100 pricetag.

 

definetly not........

 

The spacers are not worth buying then i was thinking of buying the injector and throttle body spacer for my car

 

if u add a injector and throttle body spacer along with the headers and exhaust would it then make a difference or is it just alot of hype?

 

 

it's just hype, a waste of time and money. Especially with this manifold design, sometimes having a bigger plenum is a good thing, but our plenum is already overly large and would probably actually hinder the overall design.

 

Thanks i was gonna but those 2 things now i will spend that money on some better headers

 

You've got shorties but dont have them installed? Get in gear and get those on. Installing short headers is pretty simple even without a lift so long as the flanges are the same on the headers as they are on the manifolds.

Also if really defeats the purpose of modifying it if you have to have someone else put the upgrades on for you and do all the tuning. See here is the problem if you have a minor issue like the water pump died and you've worked on your car before chances of you fixing it right away increase because knowledge is power and you gain it for every bit of work you perform yourself aka DIY. If you paid someone else to do it all-well you are sort of stuck and waiting at a garage to get it fixed is time waisted.
You spend twice (once to buy the part and again to have some1 install it), saving that money can get you other parts instead.

I'd say given what other Members have suggested for add-on parts is pretty basic, really easy and considerably cheap given the manufacturers claims for increases in the hp/tq ratings. Skip the TB spacers those are $100 paper weights.
Got a Chilton & Haynes manual yet? If not, get one or both & read.

Also if you go chip route, you will need to data log and send it to the prom guy to get the best tune for the buck.

LT1 or equiv. cam swap. Get some knowledgeable 3rdgen guys to help take it apart and a 12 pack of favorite drinks & some snacks and go to town. Here would be the time to install better rockers, this can be done in an afternoon. Or ditch the stock heads for something better if so inclined.

 

I agree with Z28GEN3, if you really want performance, the best way to get it is to get your hands dirty and to learn what makes things tick(and how to make them tick better!) this is espesially true because you have a crossfire car, which, unfortunatly has a very limited aftermarket.

like I said in an earlier post, check out these two sites, they have a wealth of CFI specific info.

http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/index.php

http://www.crossfireinjection.net/

another thing you could do is get EBL or the late model TBI PCM that Fast355 reccommends, those ECMs have higher resolution and better fuel and spark tables.

I think you need to start with the little things on your car, vacuum lines, gaskets, clean-ups, the basics, learn the ins and outs of it, and you will grow to enjoy it much more.

Best of luck to you-

Eric

Edit;

Here is an artical on how to port your intake,

http://www.technovelocity.com/chevyh...rt_polish.html

Less the cost of gaskets, (assuming you have a dremel and cutting bits) this is free power! thats right free!


but remeber, all the mods in the world are worth nothing if you don't dial in a tune that matches your mods.

Best of luck-

Eric

Edit(again)

Pics of modified crossfire parts;

http://users.swko.net/~lionsden/crossfire.htm