My friend is about to buy an 89 Firebird 305 TBI, 700R4 ,2.73 open rear. Its slow as hell right now, it lost to a dodge stealth V6. What can we do to make it faster?

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1983 Firebird
TH700R4 Auto
Small Block 400
LG4 ECM, Intake, Carb, Distributor, etc.
Soon to be non-computer.
Clarion Head Unit 45X4
2 Pioneer 400W 12" Subs
Third Gen Performance
"A four cylinder is half an engine."

 

just about anything you do will make it faster. a lot depends on your budget. first thing most people will say is get a 350. cam, heads, induction system, headers should all make you faster. do spome research after you figure out your budget and what you're wanting to do.

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ICON Motorsports

1st & 3rd
MM Black Diamond Lodge 538 F&AM

 

Go to the TBI board and post this


Check out my website

http://members.v3space.com/thirdgen/index.htm

 

Those cars have alot of the same situations as the LG4, which you no doubt have encountered...

I would start at the exhaust, from the heads to the street; Edelbrock TES for a 350 and a good cat & cat-back to match. The exhaust by itself won't do much but it lays the foundation for the rest. Then a cam; that one has the peanut cam in it like the LG4, something like a Comp 260HR is about right. Then gears; 3.23 or 3.42 plus the SLP posi. Hopefully it already has the 28 spline axles; that's the changeover year so it could go either way.

That's about as far as you can go for cheap. All that together should cost less than $1500.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

There's someone hear in Ohio that had a 91 RS with that POS TBI motor and here's what he did and his results.

Aluminum Corvette Heads, roller cam, 216 degreee intake at .05, and 226 degree exhuast at .05, SLP 1 3/4 inch headers, TPI system, accel baseplate, accel runners, 52mm throttle body, and a set of 3.73's. He run's 13.4's on the motor and 12.8's on only 80 HP of nitrous!

Good luck, because if he keeps that motor, complete with heads and intake, he'll never be fast. Basicly, the TBI camaro and firebirds aren't performance cars...they just look like them. You wanna go fast? Use a carb or TPI.

 

The dodge steath is a 3000GT. They are fast cars and newer then his so you have to expect to get beat, they probable have 225-250 hp and are lighter then the 3rd gen, much ligher. Some import car are actully nice.

 

depending on your budget, get some good headers and a good muffler for some easy horsepower, if you can afford it, swap in a 350 instead of a 305. i agree with slow iroc, its a newer car and ways probably 2/3 of what our camaros weigh, so beating it with a mostly stock 305 is more a fantasy.

 

camaro6spd, this is not a twin turbo stealth. Its a POS 94 V6 stealth (mitsu engine) with a slipping torque converter. my guess would be about 200 rwhp at the most. And they really aren't that much lighter than a thirdgen. They are about the same size, I would guess about 3300 lbs empty.

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1983 Firebird
TH700R4 Auto
Small Block 400
LG4 ECM, Intake, Carb, Distributor, etc.
Soon to be non-computer.
Clarion Head Unit 45X4
2 Pioneer 400W 12" Subs
Third Gen Performance
"A four cylinder is half an engine."

 

Curb weight is just a little above 3000 pounds, which, while not being a HUGE difference, is definately enough to give it an advantage.

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89 iroc-z 305 tbi
k&n filtercharger, open element air filter. nuffin' else

 

3000gts and dodge stealths weigh a hell of a lot, about 36-3700 pounds. The turbo ones are quick as hell, low 14 I think, but the non turbos are nothing to brag about; high 15s at best

 

Your friend will be alot happier w/ the car if he swaps in a good full exhaust w/ something like TES headers, and swaps on a good aftermarket intake. If he can do so at the time a cam swap is desperately needed for that engine but alot of people can't do it.

Take at look at the "Ultimate TBI Mods" tech articles on the base page of this site as some free/cheap places to start to get the motor running harder. You will have to spend a little money on the exhaust and intake to get anything that will make any good power with this engine though...

A Stealth base model has the dog slow 164hp SOHC motor, while the non-turbo R/T has the 222hp DOHC motor. Both are fairly slow because they're as heavy as a 3rdgen approx and make zilch for torque. Under 200 ft-lbs at it's at a pretty lofty rpm point. High 15s for even the 222hp model, sloooowwww. Of course your buddies TBI car is even slower...

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Ray87Z
-Vortec headed 350.
86 IROC w/ a cammed 305 TPI.
Formerly Ray86IROC.
www.inter-scape.com/Ray

 

not even going to waste my time telling you how to make that faster if you can't figure it out yourself you shouldn't even be working on it. i will point out though that you said dodge stealth v6. since that is the only way they came i'd say that was obvious. you forgot to mention his camaro had two doors and was rear wheel drive while you were at it.