Hi guys, I'm a regular over at www.corvetteforum.com, new guy here. I'm restoring a '68 Corvette, and building a 454 for it. 10:1 with 2465 pistons, 781 heads, 2.19/1.88 valves, Isky 300/310 cam. It's a beast.

A buddy of mine has a 1983 Camaro, it's got the 305 with Cross(mis)fire. He wants to get some more power out of it, but isn't much of a car guy and doesn't know where to start. I have a lot more experience with big blocks, and standard small blocks (ie: carb'ed 350s)

I don't know much about the 305 and the Crossfire, other than it's known in the Corvette community as the Misfire.

Given, say, a budget of about $1000-1500, what would you guys reccommend doing for mods? He wants headers and dual exhaust, but I told him without other mods, that probably wouldn't gain him much. Unless the stock exhaust is very restrictive, is it?

Opinions? Thanks!

 

Yes, exhaust is a very good start with our cars, ours is very restrictive.

 

Full exhaust should be the first mod. The stock setup is a joke. The y-pipe is restrictive too. Without exhaust any other mods won't benefit as much. I'd recommend the Hooker cat-back highly. There's a sound clip in the signature. Also go with a cam, not expensive but will help out a lot. I'm not at all familiar with the Xfire so I'll leave that part to someone else. Also I would discourage true dual exhaust, it will get rather pricey for little gain.

 

Maybe he should toss the fuel injection and computer control and just put in a 4 bbl carb and vacuum controlled HEI distributor. He'll be able to make **** hp, have a simpler set up to work on and still have $1000 left over for headers, exhaust, etc.

 

Mark, Looking at the Hooker Cat-Back for him, that connects up to the stock cat, so aren't you still suffering from the 2-into-1-into-2 power loss? Besides the cat power loss?

This is Minnesota, we don't care about emissions.

How about the Dynomax Super Turbo, looks like a full system for $160. Actually, $160 for the system, $130 for the headers. I know Dynomax are popular with the SBC Corvette guys. Anyone experience that?

Thanks for the replies!

 

The Hooker connects to the y-pipe, or cat, just gut or replace a pipe for the cat and into one muffler.

 

Here's a pic of the tips that come with it.

 

I'll have to agree. While CFI is great in it's stock form, when you start doing mods it doesen't respond as much as a carbed engine. I say dump the computer get an Edelbrock intake and Holly carb to put on there along with a K&N and an HEI vacume advance distributer from MSD, Mallory, or Accel since he'll have no computer. Then go with a good exhaust (I recommend Mac Exhaust), a hi-flow cat, and Hedman Headers with Y-pipe. Costs...

Carb: $200
Intake $150
Distributer: $150
Open element, gaskets, ect.: $150
Cat-back: $300
Headers and Y-pipe: $200
Cat: $60
TOTAL: $1210

-Matt

 

I totally agree, and if it were my car, the CFI would already be gone. My only concern for that is that it's not exactly a bolt-on (well, it is) but it requires some more attention. Probably not the best idea for a non-Car guy.

Me on the other hand? The 454 is running a Weiand Team G 7523 with a BG Demon 850 =)

 

I disagree, don't dump the CFI, dump its lame computer, swap in a later TBI computer so you can tune. Visit the Crossfire Injection Vault.