i was told hypertech chips are a waste of money. so what is my best power upgrade path for 200-300 bucks? i thought maybe a better flowing muffler and performance chip would be the best route to go. what would give me the best bang for the buck? it's a stock L03 runs strong good oil pressure no knocks. im on a pretty resrictive budget but would like some more power out of my car.

 

if the car is otherwise stock, a good are filter like kn ect, start with headers and work your way back................. 300 bux will get you some headers.. dont waste your money on a chip...

 

i already did "open air cleaner" mod. next spring im going to think about exhaust. need headers that fit everything properly. car will remain with a/c. it works great and i do occasionally use it. if the car came with a/c from the factory im not going to do a delete

 

headers $250-300
Y-pipe $120
high flow cat $100
flowmaster catback $250
estimated horsepower gain? 25?-30?
hypertech chip claims 23+hp and 28ft/lbs of torque $100-120 bucks
i dont know if these claims hypertech makes are at all truthfull i dont know. but it seems like a good power increase/cost. granted stock L03 exhuast is crappy, but if you are going to do this job right than you are looking at almost 800 bucks. eventually im going to do all of this and more but i do have a budget. i still have to pay my half of rent 325, food 150, gas in the camaro to get to work 200(50 bucks a week at $3/gal still isnt too bad, prices are very very high) , payment on loan to buy camaro 100, other credit cards 100, high speed internet 30. i make 360 bucks a week ave. car insurance 130(camaro and 94 blazer both with full coverage)
total bills 1030/month
1400
that leaves me with 370/month left over
thats not much to do extras to my car im going to half to do the work as i can afford it. i might pick up overtime in the winter but not now, i enjoy my summers as much as i can. im going to hopefully have some money put together by spring for some real exhuast. im also going to keep my L03 becuase i gets 26 highway, and i need economy as well as some power. the engine in my car runs very strong 40 PSI of oil pressure at 1500 RPM. consumes very little oil, trans shifts good. maybe im into the wrong hobby but thats too bad i dont care, i love my camaro and i keeping no matter what. i might have to get my credit cards down so i could put some of this stuff on it.

 

Hypertech is full of crap, it's all BS. Your best bet for a stock L03 is an open air cleaner (which you have), followed by a good 3" catback (around 300 bucks tops) and then some nice headers and a y-pipe.

 

Dude you sound like me when I was in school. Put it all on the credit card, get a good job, and pay for it later. But when you are doing it, enjoy every last minute !

 

Headers, Y-pipe, high-flow cat and cat-back is an almost certain 30+ hp on an L03 ...and it won't screw the PROM up to any great degree. With your open element - and do the Ultimate TBI mods - you might get almost 40 hp.

Forget the aftermarket chips, all they do is fiddle with the timing and some things of lesser significance ...a few hp at the most.

Plus, keep in mind that the L03 is so restricted in the exhaust that any upgrades you do to the engine in the future will be severely limited by the stock exhaust. So headers and exhaust will not only give you 30-40 hp on your setup, they'll also give you the potential to make a lot more power down the road. With the chip you'd get a few hp and no potential to ever make any more.

 

If you want to chip your ride, check this out: TBI CHIPS

 

not bad for around 800 bucks. if i were to do the ultimate TBI mods which generally dont cost too much how much of an increase in CFM could i see? 40 hp would bring my L03 up to the 210 HP range, i think i could live with that for a while. i wish i could find a better job but i live in buffalo new york. all we are known for is bad jobs, wellfare, and being the "rust belt". my car is well and alive, its a north carolina car and i will never allow one grain of salt to ever touch her. everybody picks on the L03, call's it a dog. its not really too bad, i just need to cure my inferiority complex. I love the L03's gas millage, if i drive it easy its almost as good as some 4 cylinders(and it has far more power than any of those). do i need to use subframe connectors to do the suggested mods? ive read that once you install them you can no longer change exhuast components. is that true? i dont ever want this car so i cant make future changes. someday i plan on moving out of this dump. i hate living here ive lived here my entire life. everything is so expensive and jobs suck. and im sick and tired of buying crap cars to drive around in the winter. i wish i didnt have to waste my money like that, i could spend all of that money on my real car. but its the only way to keep my camaro solid and rust-free

 

The stock TBIs flow 480-490 CFM, but are further restricted by that horrible little tube that the air comes in through (which is why the open element style breather is better - especially in a cold climate). Based on comparisons to TBIs with the ultimate mods and larger bores (1 13/16), I'd estimate that the Ultimate TBI mods will bring the flow up to 550-565 CFM.

Hey! We're not alone!!!!

People pick on the L03 because there's been a lot of crap said about the 305 for many years ...the same with TBI. It's all BS. The 305 "suffers" only because it's smaller than the 350. With the right parts and skill the 305 will produce just as much torque and power, in proportion to its displacement, as any other street-driven small block (from idle to about 6000 RPM). The L03 can make 275 to 300 hp relatively cheaply. For a little more money (not much) you can get it up to 350 hp.

These cars are a little flimsy, so subframe connectors never hurt, but with those mods you'll still be under the output of the stock TPI 350s that came in these cars ...so you should be fine.

You should be able to work on the exhaust with the subframe connectors in place. Mine don't interfere with the exhaust. But, if you're concerned, check with the manufacturer or who you buy the connectors from.

If you ever get more adventurous you can get an LT1 cam for fairly cheap and put that in. You can also take the heads off and port them yourself. That should get you 275 hp. If you get an aftermarket aluminum intake mainfold and do a very good job porting your heads you could go a little above that. For 300 hp you'll probably need non-swirl heads.

But keep in mind that anything you do to the motor after the exhaust will require chip tuning. You can get a cheap laptop (I got one on ebay for $60) and download the necessary software for free. You can make the cable to connect the laptop to the ALDL on the car. You'll also need some chips and a cheap "burner". ...that's the cheapest route to go.

 

On the subframe connectors...

If you have a local speed shop that can cut and weld the box metal in, have them do that after you have bolted on the exhaust. They can make the connectors so they clear better that the bolt ons (since they are looking directly at the car). If you buy the weld on type, you will be probably going to a shop anyway

A local shop here does nice work.

 

do 305 internals really stand a chance at over 300 HP? i wouldnt want to kill it. how well does the 305 maintain fuel economy once you start building power? if you drive it with an easy foot can you still get 25+ MPG highway? its nice to have that "punch" when you stand on it, but this is my summer daily driver, and i wouldnt have that any other way. usually i drive it easy, there are times i'll step on it though. the 305 has to be one of the most understood small block in chevrolet history. it is not crap. in fact it has a good mix between performance and fuel economy. the days of 1.50/gal are long long gone.who wants a v8 that guzzles gas, i want more performance but cannot support a gas guzzler. the greedy petro industry knows they can rip people off and it will continue to get worse everyday. they play the "game" raise it 10 cents lower it 5 cents. so i really believe the 305 was ahead of its time and it is now starting to prove itself as a wise choice for a daily driver small block v8. i dont ever want a 4 cylinder for the summer, they sound terrible, whiney.

 

It isn't so much the HP that "kills" the internals, it's the RPM. The L03 has two-bolt mains with stock GM bolts. The crankshaft is nodular cast iron. The mains will be "safe" to around 6000 RPM and the crank could take a little more. At 6000 RPM a healthy 305 can make over 350 HP, which is perfectly "safe".

Horsepower is very strongly a function of how much fuel you burn. Two cars making the same HP will burn roughly the same amount of fuel regardless of engine size. The 305 is a torquey motor and doesn't "need" to rev high to make torque, so your mileage around town should remain decent if you're light on the peddle and keep your RPM low during regular driving. But, of course, your fuel economy will go down ...how much depends on how much you increase your torque. I doubt you'd be able to maintain 25 mpg on the highway with a 300 hp 305. But if fuel economy is your goal keep your very low numeric ratio rear-end (2.73:1 on automatics).

I think the 305 is a nice motor for street machines. It's nice and torquey, which makes it fun to drive and very responsive, and it isn't terrible on gas. It's when you try to make high revving strip motors out of the 305 that they get out of their league. The 305 was never designed to be a high-revver, as the RPM climb the larger stroke to bore ratio and the proximity of the valves to the cylinder walls seem to become limiting factors. Bigger valves are required to support high revving motors and the 305's bore won't allow valves big enough to allow it to make power up high. On the other hand, some people have successfully built high revving 305s with 400 hp - but the 305 is not an ideal platform for this.

Below 6000 RPM the 305 has a distinct advantage in that it makes good torque and is right in its intended operating range. Its stroke:bore ratio is ideal and it doesn't lose its volumetric efficiency because of valve shrouding at these RPM (with the stock valve sizes ...which are all that's needed to support up to 6000 RPM or so). For a street-machine that's ideal because you don't want a street machine that makes its power up high ...then you run into driveabilty problems, high stall speeds, etc. So, as a strip or circle track machine the 305 is not a good choice, but for the street it's pretty close to an ideal 5 liter motor. People fail to acknowledge that because they have a "higher revving, bigger carb, bigger displacement, bigger is better" mentality. When the 305 is built to do what its design allows (make good torque and hp in the low-mid RPM range) then it's a fine performer - probably the best you could get in a 5 liter motor in such an application - and this is what you want on the street.

 

My LE9/L05 hybrid. It was orgianally a 180 HP carbed 305 that had a mild 204/214* cam, headers, dual 2 1/2" exhaust, ported 601 non swirly heads, roughly 10:1 compression (flattop pistons, 52 CC chambers stock, & knock sensor stock?), and a stock TBI setup from a 1992 350. This all was backed to a 700r4 with the stock 2,000 rpm converter and 3.08 gears with the stock gov-lock unit. Tires are P255/70/R15s

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