Hey guys I have not posted here in a long time but I have a few questions.

The 86 is giving me more and more problems and everyone thinks the motor is about to go so I got another 2.8 car for free and a few buddies and I are striping it and I am going to re build the motor and tranny so that my car is out of comission for the shortest amount of time.

The plan is to port the heads and intake, Dynomax catback since the stock exhaust is rusting out, comp cam and all the other little stuff.

What kind of distributor should I look at and where can I get good pistons to go with the good cam and port jobs?

Who sells high flow y-pipes?
I am shooting for high 15's with the stock gears
Also what are the stock gears that came in the MPI 2.8 A4 cars??
Thanks
David

 

I believe that MSD makes a pretty decent distributor setup, hopefully they do, i know they have em for v8's . Ummm, and on the gears, we run 3.42's out back. Getting into the 15's onthe stock gears, and a full rebuild along with all the mods that you can do the motor shouldn't be that hard to do, or atleast we can say that it won't be anything near impossible.

 

I thought they where 3:42's.

I was looking at a few MSD's, a flame thrower would be nice.
I would like some accel injectors but I am sure those are quite pricey, I may just keep the stockers to save money.

The car only weighs about 3,100 pounds if that (no GFX, smog, A/C, rear seats, spare and jack, no power options, to t-tops) on the stock hood and I have beaten LOW 17 second cars by about a car lengh so I think it can be done, I just do not want to spend a lot.

 

I think one of the best mods I've personaly seen done to a 2.8 is having it bored out. A friend of mine just went though the 2.8 for his S-10. He had it bored .060 over, and man does that thing have punch!! I was amazed by how much more power it added, even with a fairly mild "RV torque" (.420-.443 lift) style cam.

 

I was thinking about having it bored (I know I will with the 150k miles) but did not know who sold those. I also have found a few stroker kits, and the way I see it is that I know I will have to have machine work on the crank and all so why spend the money on that plus the rings and everything else when for a 1,000 bucks I can get a new crank and everything else in the rotating assembly plus a fuel pressure regulator and fly wheel some kits.

Some sites say you get 160 with this on a stock bore and close to stock cam and I have heard of guys making 200rwhp with the stroker kit, cam, ignition, and the dynomax. stroking it will give me a 3.1 but I can use the stock 2.8 rods right??? then boring it that much would give me what close to a 3.4?????

 

If I remember correctly, a 3.4 is essentially a bored and stroked 2.8. The question really becomes:would it cost just as much to do all the machine work to the 2.8 block to make it a 3.4 as it would just to get a 3.4? That's just my $.02

 

Well it would cost at least 800 for the 3.4 and for a grand you can get a stroker kit with a new crank, pistons, flywheel, bearings, rings and a few other things. then just have it bored.

A few people are trying to get me to just drop in a carbed 350 but that may be to much of a pain

 

The debate has been going round for sometime - Can you punch out a 2.8 or 3.1 and make it a 3.4 ? Most say No, that you'll take out too much metal out of the cylinder walls ( - ie. you cant bore a 305 out to a 350)
However my engine rebuild guy sez - the only way to know is to try it - And so far I haven't heard of any one who has had the Balz to try it!
If I had a cheep (free) block I'd try it (so if anyone wants to send me a free motor - I'd let you know if it warks)

 

Well I am getting a free and COMPLETE 1986 MPI 2.8 so I will bore it 30 over and see, if it looks like 60 over will be rather thin then I will leave it but I figure with the stroker kit and the 30 over I should be fine
Add a cam, nice exhaust, torque converter, port the heads and intake, nice ignition and leave it at that, nothing crazy

 

Nobody makes an aftermarket distributor for our cars- unless you go carbureted instead of fuel injection, which I wouldn't suggest. You can rebuild our distributors with a Holley (or Accel) ignition module, though... and the rebuild alone will give you some power back. The Holley module is #891-103, HLY-891-103 from Summit.

You could send your injectors out to Rich Jensen at http://www.cruzinperformance.com , I did that, and you pay less than you would for 1 new injector, and the results are impressive! I got another set of injectors (3.1 Multec's) that I'm going to send to him soon, to drop into my car.

I wouldn't go for overboring the 2.8 (or any motor, for that matter), to it's maximum. Ignoring all other risks- you can't rebuild that motor again! How will you clean up the bore if you're overbored to the max? You'd have to sleeve the block... and the price will be too much. KevinS on this board overbored his 2.8, to I think 0.30 over, and wound up with a 2.9l. Don't think of overboring as a "power" mod, but just as something you should do to clean up the holes. The rest of the rebuild, including the cam, will give you your power.

Most of the coin will go to the machine work.

Make sure that your car problems are related to the engine... I bet it'd suck if you swapped this rebuilt 2.8 in and still had the same crappy running problem you did before!

 

yes, trust that overbore won't do all that much for a performance gain,and as tom said the cam will. My lil' 2.8L is bored .030 over giving me that same 2.9L's that tom was talking about, not much more performance....if any.

 

The bore was to just clean up the holes since it has 156k miles and for the first 110k is was not taken car of. The stroker kit is what I am really looking at just because you get the crank, pistons, rings, and a few other things.

I have had a few buddies look at the car also, the radiator leaks a bit but not to much, anti-freexe pools up under the intake and themostat housing, the SES is allways coming on with different codes, I smell oil even with good oil and enough in, the spark plugs are allways covered in crap, the car burns and leaks oil....... I could go on and on. Thanks for the info Tom, I will look into it. I want to be looking at the cleaning and flow match section right? You can't beat those prices.
David

 

Yeah, see, a few of those things aren't motor-dependant. Sounds like it needs a new thermostat gasket or upper radiator hose (at the thermo housing). A leaking radiator will still leak with a new motor, and the SES error codes will probalby stay, too. At least the oil burning will be fixed; probably the cause of the spark plugs. Do you use the car mainly for short trips? If so, you could try a hotter plug, that might keep the plugs cleaner for longer.

 

It leaks where the block, intake and heads meet, the hoses and stat are all new and on right, and I do not have a problem with oil on the plugs just engine crap and most of my trips are ussually 20 miles on the highway. I was going to get a 4th gen but can't afford it untill I have my degree and I do not have the time for a v-8 swap so I guess this is the next best thing. I also have a really bad idle, the ignition is fine and so is the timing from what I can tell. I am getting a free 2.8 car to strip so I will just take its radiator if it does not leak.

 

Sounds like a good project! You'll have to keep us posted on how it goes. That's kind of how I"ll rebuild my motor, I'll get a junkyard one, rebuild that, and then put it into my car. That way I'll have a running car until it's time for the swap.

Ya know, your '88 motor has one thing that the '86 won't have... the '88 has an internally balanced crankshaft. The '86 is externally balanced, on the flywheel. Make some kind of mark showing the orientation of the '86 flywheel to the '86 crank, or you could wind up with an imbalanced motor. Are they both auto tranny cars?

 

Well I found out the car is a 86 not a 88 . What the buddy told me is that some kid wanted to tell it because it was runing very warm, the buddy asked him if he checked the coolant level and the stat and his reply was these cars have stats? Se he offered 500 for the car and got it, the heads are fine and there is no signs of over heating . NOW another buddy has a black 86 with the 305 and he told me I could have it for 400 with the bad motor. It only needs a cam and new cap and rotor. The paint is really old but there is no body damage or deep rust (my car has some of that on the quarter pannel). I know that he could replace the quarter faily cheap but I would almost rather the V-8 car because I would not have to ever deal with the pain of a v-6 to v-8 swap and all a new black paint jobs on a window tint looks sweet. Also I could never see the 2.8 project having over 200rwhp. With the v-8 car I will have that EASY with the cam and a few other things. Then I could sell my current car to my brother or who ever wants it.
If I stuck with the v-6 it would look like this, stroked and bored 30 over, comp cam, coyles timing chain, distributor upgrades, the fuel injector stuff, port the heads and intake, stall converter, rebuilt tranny, and all the little stuff.
To many decesions.