Hey everyone, I’ve been on these forums a long time, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried to ask myself this question..... What exactly do I want from my car? Well, to make a long story short, here's my answer:

When I bought my car for 900 bucks, it was the coolest thing ever, it had t-tops, it was red, it had a TPI, let’s just say I was more than happy to have it, it looked great, and it felt great. But like anything else, I started to notice things that ended up bothering me, so I started to take things apart, replace things, etc. The car is a Red 1989 Formula Firebird 305 TPI (stock). the first thing I did to it, was put a 3" edelbrock cat back on it, reason being, the stock flowmaster cat back was rotted at the muffler.

Eventually, I decided to do a motor on it, I put a 350 block in it, but kept the 305 heads because I was low on cash, and I heard the 305 heads worked better than the stock heads b/c of the raise of compression, so all you had to do was run 93 instead of 87..... So I did it. The guy I had machine my engine, supplied me with everything to put the engine together in my garage. I kept the stock TPI, and I was on my way to success.

Along the way, I acquired a free crashed 1988 Black Firebird Formula hard top that had a 305 TBI originally that I used for a parts car, since then I’ve been in an accident, where I had to replace my front end from the radiator support up, here are some pix of the accident, and after I patched her up with the parts cars panels: http://iris.nyit.edu/~ddicandi/pix/ I ended up taking ALL of the interior from the 88', mostly due to the high mileage of my car (261k+) the carpet was disgusting from the leaking t-tops, and so were the seats, I also replaced ALL the weather stripping, and also took the rear hatch from the 88' (someone had put a v6 hatch on my car before I bought it) Lastly, I took the rear end and the fuel tank from the 88' since my tank's filler neck had started leaking, and since my rear end made so much noise when I put the car from reverse to drive, people looked at me from across the street haha....

But aside from all the restoration I’ve had to do to get the car to be half way decent, I’ve also put shorty headers on it since the cat back, which would give me a full legal exhaust. So I guess you can say I have a stock L98 with a full exhaust at this point. I ended up junking that old 88' that I completely ripped apart, and I just recently got white 89' formula that had an original 305 TBI, which is now gutted for a summit carbed crate engine. I bought this car because it has a brand new complete rear suspension and rear end done on it, all the suspension is BMR, and the rear end has new axles, a 3.73 ring and pinion, and a power tracks diff. The car also has a driver’s side door that’s in good condition that I want to take to put on my car before the paint job I have in store for it in a few weeks.

As for the engine, I also got a free 355 block with 113 heads from a corvette with comp camps 1.6 roller rockers sitting in my garage (that I don’t know what to do with)

Now for what I think I want.
Well, I want my car to be as fast as possible, but still be able to pass emissions, and to have some sort of TPI system. I think the only aftermarket intake I can go with to accomplish this is an Accel Super Ram. Now, I will have about 2k to work with as far as the engine goes after I pay for the paint job..... Should I spend that money on a new cam/heads? Should I keep those 113 heads? Should I spend it on the intake? Here's where you guys come in, hopefully I get some good feedback from this thread, and other people that are in somewhat the same position do too! Thanks again guys!

 

I can't see different heads when you've only got $2000, and already have 113's.

You could do the Edelbrock base & runners, about $750. I'd spend the rest improving what you've got (head porting, valve springs, cam - plus the little stuff that always goes along with these projects such as gaskets, hoses, etc.).

 

thanks for the reply, i was kind of thinking to spend the 1k on the super ram, and 1k on just porting those 113's and then get a cam later on as well, and throw it all in together? what do you think?

 

I'm not sure I'd spend $1000 porting the 113's. I would think for $1000 you could port them, and still have enough left over to get a decent cam.