Hello everyone! I got my first car about 2 weeks ago at my birthday party from my parents! and im absolutely in love with the car! Ive wanted a trans am since i was only about 10 years old.And my parents ended up getting me a 88 trans am with all the GTA options! its my dream car!
So i was wondering...should i keep everything stock or upgrade some parts? I was thinking just maybe a cold air intake,or some new heads? Maybe upgrade the fuel injectors and the radiator fan? I dont really know
Give me your suggestions!
By the way the car has been sitting for 10 years,shes running great! Just needs a new exhaust and oil pan
Heres some engine pics
Thanks everyone at Thirdgen!
Sorry the battery was charging,thats why its not in the car=P And im pretty sure were gonna paint the air filter cover
and yes i know my TA doesnt have the original hatch on it,its got the Firebird hatch
Thanks for your suggestions!

 

Since it's only the lame LO3 engine, it'll never have any real value in the future, so go ahead and start modifying it. Start with subframe connectors.

 

Nice man, and congrats!
i would mod all you want but just make sure to keep a little money to the side incase something goes out.

first defintly start off with necessity's like i belive you said you need to replace your oil pan and exhuast. do those first. You could probaly get a oil pan out of a T/A from a junkyard. For exhuast its mostly up to what you like so listen around, but i'm going go with the magnaflow from bandit exhuast.

next i would probaly redo the brakes up front with new rotors/calipers/pads and then swap in a ls1 f-body rear end which will have the much better ls1 brakes. then since it sat for so long your wanna replace your front end suspension parts (i'll add a link at the end of the page) and all the rest of your brushings, install new springs/shocks/struts, pick up some new tires, if not already done flush ALL fluids and refill with quality stuff and do a full tune-up and seafoam the engine along with the tune up, this will get all of the sludge out.

now that the car should be running like a top dog lets start doing some fun mods! Start of doing any free mods you would like to do, you might wanna remove some weight, this helps in MANY catagories like acceleration, top speed, braking, handiling, and im sure there's more but i dont suggest going overboard just do minor stuff that you wont need but dont make it seem every once is going help.. then do a full exhuast, i would do hooker 2055 hkr (i belive there called that) headers with the supplied y-pipe and then a hi flow magnaflow cat from bandit exhuast. a full exhuast will make the car much more funner to drive and MAY help with mpg a tiny bit.

they arent majorly important but you may wanna make a home made CAI with k&n filter(s) because with the exhuast more air is comming out of the engine quicker. You may wanna also add a shift kit to the tranny for a little extra OOMPH when it shifts, also do you have a air dam? this will help cooling alot, a new radiator might also be benifitial, expecially if your planning on dropping in a bigger engine but most importainly make sure to use a good brand coolant and your probaly want to drop in a 180 degree themostat. heres the link for the front end parts www.p-s-t.com
i'll try to add more info when i remember, good luck!

 

Nice car, and gift. From the pictures it looks like what you have there is a TBI 305 (L03).

If you should keep it stock or not depends on what you want to do with it. Don't worry about injectors or fans now unless they are bad. When you mod a car for performance it's best to start with the biggest bottle neck and work from there.

Luckily the exhaust needs replaced it's well up on the list of bottle necks. The exhaust manifolds should be swapped for headers. Get headers, cat and exhaust for a TPI 350 model (bigger pipes) with a single cat. (some fbodys have 2 cats).

That alone will wake it up considerably and it will sound great as a bonus.

Also a very common thing to do with these motors is change the air cleaner to an open element for a bit more power and throttle response.

don't forget to because anything that can be done has been and there's probably a thread about it.

 

Hey man WOW great advice! thanks alot!
Me and my dad found an exhaust system on Summit.com. It has 2 little kits you have to order.And you can customize it to your needs. So Uyou get a Ypipe get and the dual exhaust and muffler.And i think the plan is were getting a bolt on exhaust with a flowmaster 40 muffler. =-D i thought bout the junkyard too and my dad said no=[ so i gotta buy a 50 dollar oil pan off summit or jegs

And yes i am for SURE going to buy new brakes in due time. I think im gonna worry bout those last though,havent decided! And to me and my dads surprise,the car actually had pretty new shocks on it!
So that was a BIG plus! and they work great! And ive heard of seafoam and i thought people just got it to like..try to look cool or something. haha. So thank you for the extra info! ill have to buy some of that
And i love the exhaust suggestion,that sounds awesome

So again man thank you for everything! I will for sure check out all of this!

 

Thanks man! I love it!
And the radiator fan got hit my somethin. So its rubbing against the radiator.
And thanks for all the engine suggestions man! That sounds pretty cool

 

no prob man! god i didnt know oil pans were so damn cheap lol. and i really wouldnt worry about the brakes last, i know its not fun but i would suggest ATLEAST replacing rotors/calipers/pads. you will probaly need new brake lines to but atleast it should help you a bit.

 

haha yeah man! theyre cheap.The only thing expensive is the rear seal
and yeah i was thinkin that too!

 

I dont see a reason not to modify the engine but try to buy parts that will make the biggest difference in power and be transferable to other small blocks should you desire to change the engine later.

 

It's a TBI - there's not alot you can do for extra power really. The exhaust is restrictive, so headers and exhaust would help maybe. But - the heads and intake are also very restrictive, and doing that much modding will end up in a huge mess of trying to get new chips programmed for the increased air flow - and trust me - the ONLY people who have any shred of luck with TBI chips are those that make their own.

{Now I'll catch hell from alot of folks who swear up and down that they've gotten good chips burned by so-and-so.com through email - but I really think it's - never have I read ANY thread in my 5+ years of being on this board of anyone ever being completely happy with anything other than a self-made custom programmed chip}

The TBI motors are capable of a few mods here and there and retain the stock chip - the TBI computer will 'learn' a bit here and there and deal with some slight modding - but there is a fine line, and when you cross it, no more running car without custom tuning - period.

Exhaust, open element air cleaner, maybe TBI free mods, and you've just about hit the wall. Besides, unless you have a ton of cash around to spend beefing up a 305 'just to show the world it can be done' - it's a wasted effort as anything done to a 305 can just as easily and probably less expensively be done to a 350. And doing it 'just to show the world' - it's been done, we all know it - you really must have better things to do than to duplicate someone elses pipe dream of fame. Stick to the simple and easy efforts that are not a waste of time and money, like exhaust.

{OK - I've stepped on enough toes - although it wasn't my intention - just trying to lay out the honest reality to this young gun who is looking for easy mods for now - hope you 'chip' guys understand that I'm not bashing you, just "keeping it simple stupid"!}

Then - if you want more 'seat of the pants' (SOTP) feel, get rear gears! Your car has 2.73 rear gears - very economical fuel mileage but no 'get up and go' from the light. Swap to rear gears of 3.42, and you'll get alot of SOTP! There's many avenues for swapping gears, the cheapest and simplest of which is to get hold of a 4th gen rear end - you get posi-traction, better gears, and big rear disc brakes all in one easy bolt-on package - the only downside is 1) you have to have 16" wheels, and 2) having the stock wheels stick out a little further on each side. Otherwise you can get gears and have a rear end shop swap them out - it's not something that is easily done in the driveway - alot of tolerances have to be measures with special calipers and things have to be set just right.

By the way - you have in your sig that the car is a TPI - it's NOT - it's a TBI.

Hope that helps. Just remember - keep it simple, and stay away from anything expensive that can't be later swapped to a 350 should you desire the 350 motor later.