Alright, I know the 305 is not the best motor to build up, but I'm not currently looking for a powerhouse, just more efficiency here and there and trying to squeeze some MPGs out of it. I've done a lot of searching but haven't seen too much on intakes (maybe because it's a waste on the 305s?)

Currently, I have a 91 305 TBI stock motor besides

Exhaust:
Full new exhaust, hooker 2055 headers/y-pipe, hi flow cat with 3" pipe to muffler.

Intake:
Drop in open air element filter and TBI spacer

Computer:
I have the EBL tuning setup, but know NOTHING about tuning. I'm trying to learn, but I really understand nothing about it yet. I may look to see if there is a tuning for dummies book because I don't understand what to change and why etc (I don't have a WB o2 sensor, but I wouldn't understand what it would tell me if I had one so I'll hold off getting one for now)


I have semi new plugs, new distributor, ignition coil, and bought summit racing wires I need to install tomorrow since my other ones are all burned up from the headers. I've used the camaro as a daily driver the past few months and it runs great (when the plug wires aren't arcing on the headers)



My eventual goal for this car (with this current engine) is to get about 300 flywheel horsepower and keep the MPG as is or higher.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACK TO TOPIC
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, back to the thread title, the two reasons I am considering a new intake now are:

First Reason: I'm trying to clean up my engine bay to make it prettier (I'm getting close to having this car fully restored from junk yard status) and the intake manifold is DISGUSTINGLY dirty. There are still some pack rat turds sitting on it, and it's got some grime and dirt that can't really be cleaned up unless I remove the whole thing.

I figure, it may be better just to purchase a new manifold, then to take this one off, then try and clean it up and polish it or powder coat it. A new manifold will not only be nice and clean, but potentially give me better performance.

Second Reason: I may have a potential coolant leak on the driver side near the alternator/engine hoist mount. I see a bunch of solidified/gummed up antifreeze that I don't remember being there. If there is a leak, I'll have to replace the gaskets so the intake has to come off.

This brings me back to the question, if I have it off, is it worth replacing?





Now a few questions regarding this:

With the current mods I have on my engine, can I expect a performance increase (either HP/TORQUE/MPG) with a new intake manifold (such as the edelbrock one that lets me retain EGR?

Would you guys rather spend money on powder-coating (or polishing depending on what color scheme I want) my old intake (and maybe doing some dremel tool porting or something) or buy a newer intake?

Do you have any other recommendations for what I should do?





Eventually, I may throw in a bigger engine, but I don't plan on that soon. I still have a semester left of engineering, then I owe the Air Force 2 years. Also, the previous owners left me with a V6 T5 tranny in there, so I don't think I can handle a tremendous amount of HP until I get a T56.

I don't plan on getting a different engine until I can get a T56, but I would like what I have now to be a littler more powerful (plus I'll probably keep the engine and throw it in a different project car when I do swap it out.) On top of that, I don't mind spending money on performance parts for this engine despite it being much more expensive than doing the same thing on a 350.




Anyways, let me know what you guys think/would do and thank you for your input!

 

While the intake manifold is off it would be a perfect time to put a small cam in it, but I would study up on tuning first and get a good feeling for how the tuning effects a stock engine. Even though Edelbrock claims the 3704 runs on a stock tune it still need some help to run 100% right. Even a mild cam throws the stock tune off pretty good.

I put this mild little Elgin cam in a 350 TBI roller cam engine I pulled from an old wrecked church van. I had a stock intake manifold bored to 50mm to match a stock 2" bore marine TBI unit. Backed to the TH400 from the van and running the stock TBI setup and stock TBI chip it fired up and ran well enough to tell me it wasn't happy about running the stock chip. The car has 1 5/8 primary Hooker long tube headers and a 2.5" Pypes exhaust system with 2.5" thunderbolt high flow cats. It started life as a 8.75:1 compression, 190 HP weakling with the TBI peanut roller cam. It put out about 200 RWHP through a TH400 and GM 8.5" 10 bolt. Thats about 265 HP at the crank or a 75 HP gain from the cam/long tube headers/exhaust/tuning. If the guy I built this for was not inept at watching his gauges I would put a Flexalite E-fan and an underdrive pulley I have sitting on the shelf in my garage in place of the flex fan and stock crank pulley and gain another 10-15 HP back. As it sits right now though, the car runs great and I am sure it runs circles around the ~130 HP LG4 that it had from the factory.

http://www.competitionproducts.com/E.../#.VTo4RpMYFtN

 

Awesome thank you for your input. I've read a lot of threads you posted on in the past few months and learned a lot from the input you've given over the years. Still, a lot of engine upgrading is newer to me, so I don't know what would work best.

I was highly considering putting a new camshaft in there, but I've seen a whole bunch of threads on people asking (almost the same questions but not quite what I as looking for) so I didn't want to start my own just yet. However if you believe that camshaft would work well with my setup then that's probably the one I'm going to get. I've read a lot about people getting an LT1 cam too, but I think mainly because it's usually found cheaper and doesn't require as much tuning.

Because I'll need the intake off when I change the cam, should I go ahead and get something like the Edelbrock 3704 also, or will that not make much a difference on my setup? I think it would be about 120 to powdercoat my intake so thats a little under half the price of this intake. However, If I can get noticeable gains with tuning from that intake, I'll get it, especially because I can always swap it to a 350 later down the road.

I know most people say the swirl port heads are junk for this motor and those are a big thing I should look at replacing, but I don't know if I want to go as far as replacing heads yet. Also, I hear the swirl ports are the BEST for MPG, and if that's the case I most likely will keep them.

As for learning about tuning, once summer break hits, which will be in like 2 weeks, I'll have a lot more time to spend learning about tuning. Senior year mechanical engineering classes take a bit of time so I haven't set aside time for learning to tune yet! I know there is a thread titled something like "tuning with EBL" and apparently has excellent information in it. I have looked it over briefly a few times, but a bit of the stuff I've seen doesn't quite make sense to me yet. I may look at amazon and see if they have a "tuning for dummies" book because I need things explained to me in simple terms first!

 

x2, great info

 

It is on the DIY_PROM board here. Long thread. It is helpful to read various even unrelated threads on the DIY_PROM board. It will help in getting a basis of how the ECMs do things along with being introduced to the lingo.

On our web site, under the Information drop down menu is various pages of, well, information. The Intro to Tuning Part 1 is a tutorial on using Tuner Pro and the WUD. Part 2 is setting up a starting calibration.

There is other information there that is helpful.

RBob.

 

Thanks RBob! I have looked over the introduction to tuning articles on your website and they seem very helpful. I still don't feel confident enough to know what to do with changing spark tables and whatnot, but I should learn over summer. I haven't look too in depth on the EBL tuning thread, but I will once school is over also. I don't want to get too caught up reading that thread when I have projects and stuff I have to finish. I just looked up the thread and it has over 3000 posts, so it will take a few days to read and digest I would think.

Maybe I'll try to compile a list to organize the thread when I read over it!