Hi, I'm new here, I just bought an 87 Trans Am 5.0 4BBL Carb mostly stock as far as the engine goes and I was wondering what would be my best bang for my buck as far as getting more HP out of this thing? I'm not looking to spend a whole lot but would be willing to shell out like $1K or so, any ideas from you guys would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

 

N2O will make the most HP for the money. Or if you don't like that idea start off with exhaust, then intake and heads. A numerically higher rear end will help with the "feel" of the hp. This is just my opinion.

 

I talked to my mechanic and he said that for $1100, I could get a better intake, headers, and a cam......he said that with all of that I should see a jump of about 50-60 HP this sound right to you?, I'm not to big on the N2O option although I know it would be my best option, aby other ideas?

 

That's a great start, but all those mods with an inexpensive set of vortec heads should be some thing you may want to look into. You can probably gain 50hp on your factory heads but they will always be holding you back, if your going to go as far as a cam swap you might as well do a head swap while you're at it.

 

better to do exhaust before headers, and better to do rear gears before a cam

 

$1100 could also get you a complete exhaust system, headers to tailpipe, depending what you find. Intake swap won't make a noticeable difference until you've done pretty much everything else to the engine. I doubt you'd get 50 hp with a cam swap if you haven't done the exhaust unless you went quite aggressive. IIRC the 87 LG4 should have the 416 heads which can be worked to flow up to 300 or so HP. If you've got a manual trans it should have 3.23 rear gears, which are alright to move down the priority list compared to 3.08 or 2.73. There's a great thread about making these engines go here, pay close attention to sofakingdom's post.