well, i did it

i was thinking about pulling the trigger on purchasing a 1986 2.8L auto firebird. got the cash together today, checked it out, liked it, and bought it. its been repainted a deep blue, retrofitted with 4thgen seats, has power windows and locks, and Ttops. cant wait to go cruising and pop them off... its been awhile since ive had a thirdgen with the removable roof

so i started a thread about 2 weeks ago about what to do to these cars for a little more power. see that thread here:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/5...tial-2-8l.html

first, im going to go through the entire car and replace/fix/tune as needed. then its time for some weight reduction in the form of A/C, emissions, and spare and jack delete. ill probably follow that up with some free/cheap mods. once everything is running good, im heading to cecil county dragway for some baseline runs. possible dyno time after that. then the real modding begins

i know i asked in the other thread i started, but anyone have any suggestions for free/cheap mods i can do before i bolt on more serious parts? i want to get the most out of it before i start modding it

 

Hey, that car sounds familiar! Good luck with it.

Since you're going with a performance build, I'll bet a good set of headers and a nice exhaust would be a good start...it'll wake it up a bit.

I'll bet if you are serious about going fast and retaining a 60 degree v6 a 3.4 might be a good platform

That car is the first I ever rode in with t-tops, and man is it great. The new firebird we got has run a 16 second quarter mile, and is a 3.1/700r4 with headers, high flow cat, new exhaust, and cold air intake.

 

the car drove flawlessly for the hour long trip back to DE. Lisa has never driven a RWD car, much less a fbody, but she didnt have any problems with it at all. cant wait to get it registered then when the weather permits, pop those tops off. ive got a targa top in my Vette, but its kind of a pain to remove so i dont do it often. with the fbodies tho, just swing a lever 90* and lift!

im planning on going through the car next week cause i have off from work. gotta finish a LT install on a friends 94' Formula before i do any work on my new bird though. i already removed the stock exhaust on the 4thgen, and shed be PISSED if i had my hands under the hood of another car before i finished hers

gotta get it done soon though... its gonna start getting hot in a few months and if i want the best times at Cecil, i gotta take advantage of the cooler air while its here. a 16sec 1/4 mile run isnt too bad for a near stock V6 thirdgen... thats near LG4/L03 territory. my bone stock 84' LG4/auto Z28 went 16.0 at 85mph. sad thing is tho, my stock 05' Sunfire is faster than any of those cars... i got mine to go 15.8 at 89mph

 

Hey man, congrats.....!

However, I think I speak for everyone when I say....;

 

yeah, yeah. gotta clean up the interior and engine bay a bit then ill snap some shots. heres some of my Vette in the meantime...

 

Beautiful car. Corvettes are my favorite! And in red! Even better.

 

i have an 86 fbird too in red congrats on your car