Hey I need some suggestions for my Trans Am. It was my first car and I have no intention of ever selling it so durability and fuel economy are fairly important but horsepower and low priced mods are also important. Heres whats going on so far:

1988 Trans Am, 305 TPI (engine code f) completely stock 135,000 miles

It was getting really tired so I purchased a replacement long block from o'reilleys for $1300 and it is currently in the shop getting the intake/etc transferred over. I want the car to have awesome response and cajones like it did when I first got it, so I also bought the following: New cap & rotor, distributor, wires, spark plugs, water pump, thermostat, radiator, fuel filter, and MAF to replace the old one which was broken.

I am interested in the freemods along with anything else that is reasonably cheap and will give me excellent results for daily driving and an occasional race against some teenager in a civic, but my bird will probably never see any track time so superchargers, etc. are out of the question.

I will probably do the throttle body coolant bypass but I don't want to cut out the honeycomb around the MAF since I spent like $180 on the damn thang! I also need new exhaust because I had to cut off all of the exhaust after the catalytic converter one night. I currently plan to install a cut-out and a cat-back system but is a whole new system with headers worth the cost? What other mods are going to get my bird the pep it had when it was brand-new?

Any other ideas would be helpful too. This summer I plan to: cut the roof off and have a permanent convertible, Then sand off the rust spots and repaint it metallic flake/white, replace crappy grey cloth interior, and replace stolen stereo system. I think all of this will make it a nice daily driver in the summertime.

If anyone is interested, I can post pics!

 

Oops, forgot to mention that my cooling stuff is screwy. I pulled out the (broken) air dam and the other plastic pieces that appear to guide the air into the radiator and I will be replacing them with some sheet metal. I read that one mod is an extended front air dam. What size of dam should I make? I think that i picked up a 195 degree thermostat. Should I get a 180 instead? why?

 

What cam shaft do you have running in the long block that you are putting in? Perhaps a small upgrade in cams can provide you with a few extra ponies.
Is your car a stick or an auto?
Much can be done while the engine is out, where you wouldn't have to pay much for labor, compared to these things being done while the car was all together.
Be careful about converting your car to a convertible. You are going to have to put effort into stiffening the frame after the roof is gone.

 

It's got the stock automatic yet but i've never had any trouble with it, so i never replaced it with something more sturdy. For what it's worth, the crate that the long block came in listed it as having an "H.O. cam" but it didnt give the specs on it.

I will have to do more digging about the frame stiffening, that is something that I hadn't even thought about!