Can anyone tell me what other free mod's i can do, if there are anymore, i just wanna do them all, mite as well right they are FREE!, i have gutted my cat, and my MAF sensor, im working on making myself a new ram air box but im not sure how to go about it if anyone know's more free mod's i can do, or have suggestions about making my ram air better, i would appriciate it.
Thanks alot -Don

 

Install a 160 deg stat & fan sw.

Do the TB coolant bypass and relocate the MAT into the air box for a truer air temp reading.

Cut back the spark plug ground electrodes. If you had a HuperTech coil/cap/rotor with those wires you could open the gap to .045"-.048". This has netted me 10hp gain or 1mph at the top end.

 

By-pass your TB. Grind down the EGR walls from the plenum.

 

okay, forgot to metion, ive put in a 160* thermo, i know alot about my car but that stuff your talking about has lost me for the most part anyways, if there is any kinda help link online or on this site that can tell me or even show me how this stuff is done it would help thanks -Don

 

"Do the TB coolant bypass" requires pulling the hoses from the TB, connecting them together and plugging the TB openings with rubber vacuum nipples from Auto Zone.

"relocate the MAT into the air box for a truer air temp reading." can be done with a kit or pull the MAT from under the rear of the plenum, plug the plenum hole, add some extension wire to reach the air filter lid and install the MAT there.

"Cut back the spark plug ground electrodes." is on my site at:
http://www.geocities.com/jgkov/index.html

If you have the large HEI dist the HyperTech coil/cap/rotor just bolt right up in place of the stock unit. This puts out about 53kV compared to 34kV stock and delivers it at higher RPM. This is what allows you to open up your plug gap for a better charge burn.

 

Cut back On the Burgers, Garunteed to Lower your ET.

And I wouldnt go Cutting Back the electrodes on your spark plugs. were talking 1/10'ths of a Horsepower here...

give yourself a little more initial Timing. Port the plenum and Runners, Gasket match the Runners to the base.

Index your plugs... *( hahaha )

I don't like the idea of the Gutted Maf To much Myself, either... But to each his own.

 

Could you give me a little more info on porting runners and gasket matching the base? I didn't think you could port the stock runners? Thanks.

 

You are right, they are too thin for the runner tubes to be ported.

By porting stock runners I mean:
1)remove the lower tube "dimples"
2)open up the tops at the mounting flange
3) port matching the plenum with fluted openings to speed air flow from the plenum into the runner opening.

So far I've applied this technique to both the LB9 in the IROC and the L98 in the Vette.

My method is on my site:
http://www.geocities.com/jgkov/index.html

 

Pretty Much Free:

Clean the throttle body real well with carb cleaner and a rag or toothbrush.

Increase timing atleast a couple degrees. Stock is 6*, I've seen guys with 12*. Just make sure it starts ok after you increase it

Throttle Body coolant bypass.

Remove MAF screens and cooling fins.

Port plenum.

MAT relocation.

File Spark Plug electrodes.

Gut Cat or replace with a pipe.

Remove AIR pump and charcoal canister.

Cheap:

Spark Plugs, 8mm wires, Accel Coil, Cap&Rotor, Airfoil, K&N air filter & cold air, muffler, exhaust cut-out.

These are all I can think of right now. If you need more info on these, just click on the search button on this site, or check the tech articles. I'm not telling you to do everything on this list, but they are popular free mods.

 

Probably none of these will yeild largely noticable results by themselves, but if done all at the same time you should notice a good difference. Actually I wish someone would do all of these at the same time on a stock moter and dyno it before and after so we could see exactly how much.

 

Though I didn't do that for the IROC I have time slip data on my site with results of mods to the Vette. These are normalized for weather conditions so comparisons from week to week are valid.

 

Bump up your TV line pressure by adjusting the cable. Firmer shifts, and it delays the upshift.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think you really wanna delay the upshift on these motors. I think they shift too high as it is. It would definately be overreving.

 

How do you do this, and how much of a difference does it make?

 

click the "search" button on this TPI board, type in timing.

 

"relocate the MAT into the air box for a truer air temp reading."—Save your money and time. This will do absolutely nothing on your 89, this only helps the SD cars.

 

You don't necessarily want to just bump the timing up arbitrarily to some number. Thats an easy way to put yourself right into the knock sensor and slowing your car down.
What you can do, is under controlled conditions (like at the track or one day w/ a G tech) do a bunch of back to back testing w/ the timing set at different places. You want to run as little tioming as is consistent w/ your best MEASUREABLE performace. Seat of the pants is a waste of time and liar.


The best free mod is simply keeping your car in shape. Take some time to learn what everything is and what it does. And keep your eye out for little stuff that is wrong. There are a lot of cars out there giving up more performance than they stand to gain with bolt ons just because they never ran 'right' in the first place.

 

I secong Ed's answer. too many people go and add a ton or parts to there car that has so many miles on it and never seen tune up in its life. you should be familair with how your engine operates and what mods do what to performance. change fuel filter, plugs air filter clean throttle body, etc. then get some go fast parts.