I have an 88 Camaro with a 305 w/ TBI, what would be some simple mods to do and add some Power i know its only a 305 but couldja help me out? thanks guys! :rockon:

 

Headers, yeah headers, definitely header.

 

underdrive pulley(s)
Open Element
3" cat-back exhaust
headers w/y-pipe

getting yourself a 3.73 posi rear-end would be a good SOTP upgrade also.

 

well i've already got a flowmaster cat back but what headers do you reccomend? there are no emmissions laws in my state

 

hedman 1 5/8" primary shorties

 

Good call

Pete

 

I dont see ann open element addind power, they look good but i think the only thing it does is put hot air in the engine. hot air = less power

 

spray it! heh, no go with the headers tho they are a PITA, it will be worth it.

 

Headers and a 4bbl.

 

headers, 4 barrel intake like a proformer, and a 600vs carb, and if ya got any money left over a decent cam

 

Soule88SC,

There are plenty of things you can do to improve the power of your car. The FIRST thing I would consider doing is getting a set of headers. It depends on how much money you want to spend. Edelbrock sells a nice set of headers for about $500 bucks. However, if you don't want to spend that much, you can get a COMPLETE set of FlowTECH headers and Y-Pipe with clamps, gaskets, etc... all for $210 dollars shipped to your house. FlowTECH is a subsidiary of Hooker. You can special order then from JC Whitney. JC Whitney has got a discount deal on them. Normally you'd pay about $300 or so for the set, but you can get them VERY cheap from JC Whitney, they'll need to special order the Y-pipe though.

Other things you can do would be a replacement intake manifold, possibly one from Holley or Edelbrock. They do sell replcement performance intake manifolds for the 4-bbl TBI unit.

I tend to disagree about the open element air filter not doing a good job. Sure... if you're sitting in stop and go traffic, you may have a slight loss of low end power with the heat, BUT... 90% of the time, you'll have an improvement in power. I know that even on my 1984 Fiero 2m4 SE... it has a dryer hose attached from the air cleaner to the snorkle.. (The Fiero has an air intake on the passenger side.. sort of like ram-air). I know that when I'm behind the car fiddling with the throttle body, I can actually see the effect the suction has on the dryer hose. You can see the insides where it's not supported by the dryer house wound wire.. that it's sucking in the insides of the hose.

The plastic flexible air hose that goes to the air cleaner of the f-body is NOT that much bigger (I know this, I've owned several cheaper 305 V8 cars). Imagine the difference, this is a V8.

Honestly, I really think that just swaping a totally stock motor with an open element air cleaner would make a difference.

Also, another item that a LOT of people overlook. Your catalytic converter. A lot of people remove them and gut them out, this is NOT what you want to do. It creates a disruption in the air flow because of the different pipe sizes... (with no element in the cat).
I guarantee that you will pick-up about ~5 horsepower by swapping your factory cat to an aftermarket FREE-FLOW catalytic converter. I don't know if they switched to the newer cats by the time the 88 year came around, but if it's anything like my 82 TransAm was.. it has a charcoal cat.. very restrictive. Get yourself a free-flow Ocelot cat or something. They're like $45 dollars from Summit Racing. You'll also do a LOT better in emissions testing too! I did this mod on my 1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6. I picked up a.. well, honestly.. it was a HUGE night and day difference between the old cat and the new one. And the old one wasn't clogged. When I went in for emissions testing (we had emissions in Florida at that time) the car was running cleaner than the cars did stock. The guy even said "This is the cleanest running car I've seen here all day." which really made me happy. I gotta find that old sheet.. the numbers were ridiculous. The car was running like a precision top... but.... about a month later.. my waterpump failed and the engine overheated like a madman... $2000 bucks later, I've got a performance rebuild and I'm fiddling with the fuel ratio.

Other than that, you can go a little deeper and get a set of roller rockers, higher ratio ones. A lighter flywheel.... lots of little things like that. I wouldn't really waste my money on underdrive pulleys. They'll probably cost you about $90 dollars for the kit, and you won't really see more than say a horsepower or two.. TOPS.

For $90 bucks, you could buy a new free-flow cat, and have a shop install it.

 

Damn... I also wanted to add...

When you really start to get more into it... you may want to consider going with an aftermarket camshaft as well. The thing is, I've built a few motors over the past year or two.. I've found that.. unless you're going to completely rebuild the entire motor so that all the parts match (heads compliment the camshaft, headers compliment the heads.. etc), the best thing to do with items like camshafts and stuff are to go with a cam that will improve what your car already does best. Like for an example... lets be honest here.. the 305 motor in your V8 isn't a high revving motor that produces gobs of power at the high end. MOST of the power that your motor produces is tons of power at the low end, and lots and lots of mid-rpm power. SO.. with that in mind, you would want to go with a camshaft that would compliment your existing components.. maybe something with a slightly higher lift than your stock cam, but that would improve upon your engines better assets... increased lower-end torque, and better mid-rpm power.

Once you start getting that far, you'll also want to change out your rear end gears.. you'll want to get something that will take advantage (and give you the traction) of your motor's new power. If I were you, I would want something realistic like a 3.08:1 with limited slip. If this is going to be a car that you drive to work everyday... the 3.08:1 will give you better performance than your 2.73:1 (which you probably have) but still give you decent highway fuel economy.

You'll definitely want the limited slip though.

By the way, once you've done that, you MAY be running lean. You can (and should) consider replacing your fuel injectors in your throttle body.. how many is it? 2 or 4? I forget.. but you can go up by 1 to 2 lbs of fuel /hr injectors. You'll want to get a fuel / air meter guage (they sell them at Summit Racing or JC Whitney for pretty cheap.

 

Cam, lifters, springs (cam kit). $300, and a lot more power than you'll get from any other $300 mod.

 

I'd say exhaust sytem first...

Ever look at the gardenhose pipes on a 305 TBI car? I think they are about a 1/4inch in diameter

 

headers and ypipe... you can get the hedmans for like 240$ to your door, theyre 1 5/8 instead of the flowtech;s 1 1/2 (?) and you can install them mostly yourself...

 

Nice cam upgrade would work wonders. The rest of the money could be spent on a nice used 3.42 rear end from the endless supply of V6 fbodys in the bone yard. Then when you have more money add the headers.

 

I would go with the headers and a real exhaust (not flowmaster). Vader is right with his suggestion but unless you are going to do it right I would bother doing just part of it. A cam alone isn't enough. If you are going to do the cam, you need to do the heads(World S/R 305's) and probably a better intake. I'm a TPI guy so I don't know that much about the flow on a TBI setup.

 

Full exhaust man. Headers, y pipe, cat delete (not a hollow cat) and catback.

 

can anyone reccomend a cam? or heads etc

 

$500 is more than enough to port and polish a set of 081 305 heads yourself. It will also allow you to enlarge the intake valve out to 1.94". Follow the link at the end of my sig.

With a decent cam (Crane PowerMax 260 or Comp Xtreme Energy 256) you'll have at least 60 more hp from these two mods. But ONLY if you already have a good exhaust from the heads to the tailpipe.

But it has been proven time and again that for a stock 305, the best mods by far are a set of 1 5/8" shorty headers and a 3" exhaust. Worth probably 30 more hp and the exhaust is the biggest bottleneck on any stock 305.

All the mods in my sig will work really well for you.

 

3.42 gears from a v6 will make more power in a v8? Thas too cool, im gonna search for some.

 

The only reason they make "more power" is due to the ratio. Most of them got 3.42's instead of 2.73's to compensate for the engines lack of power.