Hi everyone,
This is my first post on the site. My 86 IROC just got out of the body shop after some extensive restoration. It had been in a few accidents and they never really did a good job fixing it. I got it and am giving it a new lease on life. But my question is this...What are some real good upgrades i should plan for the motor? I already have a 3 inch flowmaster exhaust with a dynomax high flow cat. I am planing hooker or edlbrock headers. But should i also port and polish the intake and runners...install a bigger throttle body and injectors? Any idea or suggestions?

 

re-do your intake and get a better camshaft. there is alot of good info already on this sight. just look around.

you should definately get thos headers put on.

 

put a serpentine setup w/ underdrive pulleys on it, tb bypass and an airfoil. that will help some.

 

Make sure you got a good posi and rear gear or your mods wont make that much of a diff. I know from experience

 

No offense but ..... ...
Save your $ for something else, I did the tb bypass and an airfoil and just lightened my wallet, that's all!




If you want to go fast really quick, get a power adder! Nitrous is the cheapest to get going but costs everytime to fill the bottle.

The only thing that is making anybody slower is MONEY!

 

If you plan on keeping the 305, I'd invest in some aftermarket heads. World Product S/R torquers would make a great improvement but you would need a better cam to take advantage of the increased flow. and with that you will need those headers to help the exaust flow. One thing always leads to another..... have fun

 

Cam.. 350.. heads...350....intake......350.....exhaust.....350, get the idea

 

I plan on keeping the 305 for now. Im not really looking into pulling the heads at this point. The plan that i have right now is when i get a chance:

1. swap the manifolds for shorty emissions headers
2. hypertech chip
3. 160 degree thermostat
4. 25 degrees cooler fan switch
5. eventually a cam swap
6. ported and polished intake
7. maybe a new throttle body/ air foil
8. upgrade the rearend to a posi 373
9. new plugs and wires (possible accel) and a new high performance coil

Im looking to make about 300 rear wheel horsepower. Would all of this do it or is there something else i should do? It already has a 3 inch flowmaster exhaust system and a high flow cat on it. Also what would my RPMs on the highway be with those gears?

 

that will get you roughly 230 whp with a 305. dont put those deep of gears in it, put 3.42s. Cam, heads, headers, bolt ons should be around 280

 

1. DEFINATLY get headers
2. Forget hypercrap.... if you want to spend the $$ on computer get the equipment to burn proms yourself... thats what i am in the process of tooling up for.
3. I would do a 180 T-stat if i were you... 160 is a bit much
4. Fan switch is a good idea.... an even better idea is to do #2 and you can turn the fans on and off through the prom.
5. After headers and porting of the intake a cam swap is your best option, 86 got a crappy cam.
6. Porting intake plenum and base is a must on any TPI car
7. Throttle body is a waste of $$... some say the air foil is too, but just looking at the throttle body w/ out one i can see how an air foil could be a bad thing... they are easily found for about 30 bux after all.
8. On a long tube runner 305 TPI 3.42 is better gearng option particularly if you plan on staying automatic.
9. Ignition tune-up is a given... i personally would stay away from accel tho i would go w/ MSD or taylor

*10* Either get a bigger stall, tranny cooler, shift kit or swap to a manual like i did. You wont regret it.

**11** Traction! all the power in the world is worthless if it cant get to the pavement. Get some stickies and some suspension goodies.....Subframe connectors! (SFC)


well i could go on but i think this list could keep you busy for a while

 

You can visit my uncles race shop in new milford, he does superchargers
Other than that, make sure anything you upgrade will work well on the 350 that you will put in when the 305 goes. (Mine is getting ready)
Let me know if you are ever setting a cruise night, I can bring the formy and my bro can bring my IROC.

 

With all the upgrades im thinking of should i step the injector size up from 19 pounds per hour? If so how much. I just saw a set of bosch injectors new on ebay for about 40 bucks. This is why I ask. Hey i used to live in ridgefield. Do they still have the car show on satuday or sunday night at Marcus dairy?

 

I am not sure if memorial day was the last day of the season, butit is still going strong, Just wish I could have gotten my 62 impala on the road to go to it more often.
I have been thinking about upgrading my injecoter, but hte thing runs so pig rivch that I just need ot go through the system completely.
I had a HSR for it, but sold it because I didnt have the money to finish the project *dolp*
Now I think I will try to get it done over the winter.
My car needs a complete going over, clearing of codes, so need to do that before I make it fly...
Let me know if there are any other things going on, I know Bethel still has the Sycamore, but thats older cars

 

i would think #19 would be fine.... you need to burn a prom if you change them anyways. You will see much better gains from a cam headers and porting the tpi.... oh forgot... AFPR

 

Ive heard of burning chips for it and im not sure what it involves. I have a new updated prom from GM cause my computer was going bonkers so i just replaced both the prom and the computer. How does one go about burning a chip? Is there a place that will do it or do i have to do it myself? Im sorry if this is a dumb question but i havn't heard about burning chips in any of my car mags (my main source of info) and have only just heard of them on this site.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/for...?s=&forumid=16

 

I know some about the 86's, that they have really low power camshafts.

I'm going to vote for the cam & valvesprings upgrade,
the hooker headers (i have some stainless LT's),
and a good torque converter (i have a vigilante/precision)

My engine had a roller Comp cam when I bought it, but I think it's a little too big. I may change it later.

Oh one more thing, I vote you get into DIY prom tuning. It saves a lot of trouble in the long run and you get to learn a lot about tuning an engine in the process FUN!

 

Yeah i realized after i bought the car that 86 camaros had the crappy cams. Its def on the plan to swap the cam. The only thing that may keep me from it is the amount of work involved. Does anyone know if i can do it without pulling the nose off of my car or pulling the engine? Is there enough room?

 

just pull the radiator and acessories and you should be able to get at it..... TPI girl had a good point on the springs too. If you have some miles on your valve train you might want something like comp 981? i think those are the direct replacewment ones. And as long as you are doing that you might as well ditch the stock rockers... hehe things tend to snow ball if you want to do them right. As far as cams go tho... for your aplication summit has a flat tappet cam that is just a little bit more aggressive than the stock L98 cam.... with some better springs and som 1.6 rocker... i think that would be a great combo. I dont think you would want to do much more with out any head work...you may have clearace issues as it is. And back to converters... i looked at it this way... to get a good converter like a yank or a vigilante you are gonna shell out 900 bucks... with less than that you can do a WC T5 swap and have a hell of alot more fun... particularly since its a 305. I got a fairly freshly rebuilt WC T5 w/ an almost new center force clutch for 450 bucks... i love it

 

yeah i plan on doing it right if i do it. The motor has only got 51000 on it so it still runs real strong. The concept of swapping to a T-5 has occured to me but there is a bunch of work involved isn't there? I also thought that the 700R4 was a stronger tranny.

 

Both can break if you put your mind to it. Me I like shifting my own gears, more control over the car.

 

I got a slightly used vigilante for $400 for mine and it made the biggest difference of any part I've changed so far. My cam made my car lazy taking off, but the take off seems like the strongest part now. It must have been around .5 second gain. I like mine!

I have changed a cam so it's not all that hard, but I did have some help. I pulled the radiator, water pump, distributor, valve covers and intake manifold. I had someone else pull the crank damper and sprocket, and they showed me how to line the cam up with the crank for the new timing chain. I admit I had a lot of instruction, but it didn't seem that hard to do.
I didn't know how to put the distributor in right or adjust the rocker arms, and I would ask for help if I had to do it again. I'm sure after a couple more times I'll remember it all. Hey I know my firing order

I'm using comp 918 springs on mine, but you'd need different retainers and keepers to use them with your stock valves. My husband switched the guides in mine to run the LS1 valves. I'm sure there's other springs out there that would work well with the parts you have.

 

With the mod list from above, you will be noplace near 300 RWHP. 250's at very best. A heavily modified set of SLP runners, or Accel SR would be required to make 300 RWHP out of a 305 just to start with.

 

who ever mentioned 300 rwhp? It isnt ver cost effective to make a 305 with 300 rwhp. I was just making some sugestions for a quick 305 street car.... it wont be crazy fast or anything but if done right a 305 can get 13s with relativly little money into it. Then if you want a lil' more... SPRAY IT!

 

Ok here is my setup
edlebrock tes headers coated
random tech cat
flowmaster 3" system with turndown
stock bottom end
crane cam 214/222 488/509
crane gold roller rockers 1.5
ported stock heads
9.8 compression
edlebrock base manifold
TPIS large mouth runners
air foil
adjustable fuel pressure regulator
kn filters with homemade ram air
msd 6a with wires and coil
borg warner T5
hd clutch
3.70 rear gear
The car has a good idle and good vaccum, my best run to date is a 13.4 @ 102.4 with a 2.000 60 foot time. Suspension is global west control arms solid, torque arm ajustable solid, springs, bilstien shocks and struts, 255/50 goodyear gsc tires. people call me a liar when I tell them it is a 305.

 

For what it's worth, I had underdrive pulleys installed WAY back in 94 on my 305 Trans Am. I absolutely despised them. Unless I was moving, everything electrical would be at like half power. Headlights, wipers, AC. It all ran like absolute garbage sitting at a light or anything else not giving it gas. The car got considerably hotter too, temp wise. I left em on until I got the 350 crate motor and then they sat in the back of the car till I sold it. I'd rather do a partially pointless upgrade like the airfoil I did back then than EVER put those worthless pulleys on a car I own ever again.

 

yeah after hearing everything people are saying my goal is no longer 300 horsepower...but just reasonable horsepower. I want to beat all these stupid **** burners. Does anyone know how hard a tranny swap is from auto to stick. Im seriously considering it. Do i need a new center console or can i just get the shift trim cover?

 

Doing the tranny swap is not a very hard thing to do. The hardest part of the swap is simply acuiring all of the correct parts. It is fairly straigh forward... there is even a tech article. https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/t...nualswap.shtml

 

When i do my cam swap in the future...would it be absolutly necessary for me to burn my own chip or would getting a hypertech chip do the trick? Im not so sure that i want to try my hand at burning chips...me and computers do not go well together.

 

Oh..... just the guy who started the thread, but I guess you can think I pulled it out of my butt.

 

touchy touchy... i guess i missed that

 

Anyone got an opinion on this?

 

Dont bother with hypercrap. You might as well not change anything if you aren't gonna burn a custom prom. If the cam isnt way too agressive (like the summit TPI cam) it shouldnt be a huge problem particularly since you have MAF. obviously, it would be better w/ a chip.

 

With the cam im not looking for something too agressive. I don't want it to idle like crap. Im not saying i wont burn a custom chip...im just a bit nervious about doing so.

 

Hello everyone! First I wanted to say hi. I would like to do a few things to my '91 T/A to help it breath better. Is there a way to gut the airbox at all? I have an old issue of HPP where they showed you how to make your own, better intake which would help a little. Also, is bypassing the collant lines in the throttle body hard to do, and will it mess anything up if it were re-routed?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/ramair.shtml


https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/t...ntbypass.shtml

 

Wait..just read that again....are you saying that the summit TPI cam is way aggressive or not too aggressive? If its not terribly aggressive then that sounds like the cam for me.

 

The summit TPI cam isnt very agressive at all, infact its only slightly larger than a stock L98 cam. It should be great for a mild 305 that you dont wana dump too much $$$ into. hehe, i guess that last relpy could be confusing could be confusing, i didnt really say if i was refering to it as too aggressive or not too agressive. Anyways, just look it up at summit and you will see its not all that big. It actually seems that summit is trying to make a cheap option spacifically for peanut camed 305 TPIs. good thing i have an 85'... i never had that problem.

 

Ok thanks. I think that cam is the one for me then. Summit basically put it in another 86 TPI camaro and gained 40 horsepower which sounds damn good to me. Does anyone have experience with summit cams though? Or should i just take down the exact grind that it is and find something comparable from comp cams or crane cams?

 

I wouldnt worry too much about their quality, i dont think summit makes them. They probably get somebody like comp or crane to make them anyways and then package them as summit. Anybody wana chime in on this one?