Let me start off by saying I know everything there is to know about beautifying a car (you should have seen my car when I got it )

Secondly, I don't know the first damn thing about engine work.

But I want to learn.

I would love to be able to do a top-end rebuild myself one day soon (my car has 118K).

I would like to know what mods I could do to (1) Learn more about my engine (2) Improve my car's performance (3) Not screw anything up. My car runs great for a factory set-up and I don't want to cause any problems to make it run like dog poop.

Any advice is appreciated!!!

 

Make a cold air intake for it, Headers, catback, MSD 6AL Ignition, Shift kit.

 

Ok well if you really wanna get started. The easiest way is to read a book or two aobut how to mod thirdgens. Thats what I did back in the day and after that you have a really really good basis. Just wanting to have the car go faster is good but you need to know what you wanna mod first. Have you done the super easy air filter yet?

To get a good idea on ways to mod you can also get a chilton manual from pepboys and read that. Maybe sure you do all the maintenance that the car needs first. This has full instructoins and pics and will let you get your feet wet. After that post some more specific questions and plenty of good guys here will answer them.

In a nut shell, do any and all maintnenace the car needs and maybe stuff it doesn't need, just so you work on as many parts as possible. After that you will feel much less clueless.

Good luck.

-Dennis

 

Werd. Or you can just buy a 454 crate from GMPP.

 

like earlier said id start with headers, high flow cat, catback. Then move onto getting a slp cai or for cheaper make your own (just dont do it out of pvc pipe) dont waste your money on a msd 6a ignition you have fuel injection and hei really only carb cars with crappy ignitions need them. If you wnat a better ignition id get a msd coil, cap & rotor, and wires.

 

Check the tech info section on the main page. There are many good (and basic) projects there that will help you out. Also, read posts with heavy post counts or stickies, they're usually good (unless they descend into bickering which certain threads are prone to) Try to soak up as much info as possible as well.
Quite frankly the way I like to work my way up is maintinence->repairs->modification; I've installed a 9 inch rear end in a Chevy before, not 3 years ago I'd hardly know the first thing about cars (I was a computer geek) but I started with stuff like oil changes and replacing the bad water pump and moved up from there.

 

The free mods will shave alot of time off of your 1/4 mile and make it funner to drive. I just did the intake siamesing and runner entry "siamesing" (more like smoothing). Fuel pressure, timing, shift kit, CAI (Auto Zone sells everything to make a nice little CAI for third gen TA's), headers, exhaust and you should be happy. Well not really because once you make it faster once you'll want to make it faster again, and again, and again; it's very addictive.

 

OK. First, tell me what I need to make the Cold Air Intake from Auto Zone. I want it to look nice, so advise me if I should just look into buying one.

Also, I know on the thirdgen's up through 89, you would connect the MAF sensor to the CAI, right?

Well, since I have a 92, I have a MAP car instead, right? So, do I connect that to the CAI?

 

making a cai is simple, if you want it to look really nice measure the lenghth and angles of piping you will need to go from the end of your intake elbow to as close to the fender as possible. Once thats done go to an exhuast shop and ask them to mandrel bend you a piece of aluminum that size. Then paint it or have it powdercoated and just attach it to the other end of the intake elbow with a silicone or rubber coupler and then attach the cone filter to the end and youre done

 

What's the big advantage of this CAI over the one that comes with it factory?

 

if you gut your factory airbox, i find it hard to believe that there really are any advantages of a CAI over the factory setup. just heat the fins in your plastic airbox up with a torch then cut them out with a sharp razor, drop back in, and put 2 k&n's uptop, and you're set.

 

More air is the key with a CAI. The one I made isn't anything special but it works. When I installed my airfoil with the CAI, it sounded like a small supercharger. I have plans of cutting a hole in the canister plate and running a "ram air" setup using the foglight hole.

For mods, when I started I went with the CAI, exhaust and normal tune up parts. Woke the car up ALOT. Now, as you can see in my sig, I'm far from that. But everyone has to start somewhere.

 

your sucking colder air in, and alot more air is coming in. more power and better milage. if you really want a functional cold air intake you have to cut a hole in your car where the old filter sat and put the filter into the fender area ( any one got some pics of this for better explanation?) i did it to my car and it helped alot, but you do need to get a better exhaust then stock to let the air flow better "easy in, easy out" theres tons of threads out there on people making them, and you can get some real good ideas on what you should do fo yours, most i think are in the fabrication thread.

 

see my sig or do a search for Tim Burgess or TunedPort335

 

My air box doesn't have any of this that you're talking about. I have a 92 and my air box is round and metal (takes a round filter about 6" in diameter & 9" in length ... just like the one that comes with the SLP kit for my model year) and has the same "piping" to the intake as the SLP intake for my model year.

Should I even bother making or buying a CAI in the first place?

 

No that was a guideline for gutting a Camaro airbox. Yours can be modified and a K&N installed and it will work quite well. If you want to upgrade from that you can get the chrome piping from Auto Zone and make some smooth pipes that go the factory route.

 

Can you elaborate? I'd like to do this ...

 

You can purchase a cold air intake on ebaymotors.com. They run for $56 shipped and they come with a K@N type filter. See if they have a setup for Your 92 model with it's speed density type intake.

 

Here's one way (from Vader but sourced from off this site):
3rd° Tech Tips~Air Flow Modification

Here's another:
3rd° Tech Tips~Air Cleaner Mod Warning

I'm not sure if yours being a 92 has the same routing they warn about in the 2nd link I would definetly check that first.

 

I have a 1991 T/A and all you can do is remove the filter housing and place it in the garage. Then with a 7" KN filter you bought at any car parts store (you may have to order one, but 2-3 days later you will have it for $50 or so) and attach it to where the filter housing was and bammo!!!! Better flowing intake.

OR

Go to Home Depot, buy some 3" black ABS pipe, Two 45* black ABS pipe elbows and a KN filter, and cut the pipe to the length you need and just slip fit the peices together and you have a better flowing intake duct, plus it's black and won't look to out of place with the other stock black peices in the engine bay.

 

sounds to me like you already have a cold air intake. so leave that be for now, you wouldnt see that great of a power gain from it anyhow. remove your pelenum and grind down the restrictions right inside, theres a great thread by I believe Vader that will show you exactly what to do. all you really need is a dremel, a carbide bit and some lubricating oil

 

Do some simple exhaust work. Buy and install a cat back or some kind of full bolt in headers. That kinda stuff is pretty hard to screw up.