What are some of the power restrictions on the 3.1?

Like as far as power goes what are some things to start with?

Does the intake/exhaust breathe well?

Things like that

 

intake/exhaust breathes ok, not great. the heads are probably one of the biggest limitations. the valvetrain can get you some ponies. starting out with headers and a cat back would probably be a good start. unless you have some professional skills and good tools I wouldn't do anything with the heads.

 

If it needs a tune up, do that first. You'll feel the car respond much better. If you don't want to spend any cash on intake, just cut the bottom out of your factory air box. But if somehow you have money to spend, especially in this economy, then do what chevyracingrox says, headers and all.

 

Ya I just got the car back from the mechanic's(had 5 bad injectors so had them all replaced) and first thing coming is obviously a tune up...

The car has exhust already...I know it doesn't have headers, but I think is might have new from there back cause pipe looks new(also think cat is gone but havent really searched) but I know is has at least a new muffler and tips cause I can still see the paper tags on them.

Also what are some of the free mods people talk about? Don't know much about them

 

i know bout the k&n cold air intake, cherry bomb glass pack. i got the glass pack on my car and it gave me 5 ponys! lol how do i know this? i have a buddy that has a shop which hes got a dyno and we did it with stock then no muffler then cherry bomb and the cherry bomb is my best choice. also its cheap only 20 bucks at auto zone!

 

The exhaust is the cheapest place to start, catback, headers. that will wake it up. You can always do some air intake work. I did some intake manifold porting after i opened up the airbox, that helped on benchflow numbers. Felt more in the upper end too. heads are where it gets expensive. do the cheap stuff, youll like how it works out for you. do all your bolt ons first, before you get into any of the porting and grinding and customizing. engine isnt the only place to gain from too. driveline will get you more, and suspension will get more of that HP to the wheels.

 

The intake is the biggest restriction on the 60v6 followed by the exhaust and then the heads. You can port the intake and get a decent amount of power out of it. I remember a guy on the Fiero board testing the potential of the 2.8 and he found that he could get around 200 on it N/A. If you got like $700 to spend you could get a trueleo intake but I would only do that if you couldn't weld up your own.

Exhaust
Port intake
Headers
1.6 rockers/or good cam

When porting these engines I found that while porting make sure you port match and cut the gaskets to match up perfect. They need to breathe to get power to 7000. With just exhaust system, rockers, cam, and ported intake you should be around 170rwhp. But the main weakness is actually the oiling on the main bearings causing failure.

 

I got a good used Edelbrock Torker II intake manifold with the 4-bbl hat for my '84 2.8 on eBay. It looks exactly the same as the Performer that's now being sold and I assume Edelbrock simply renamed the unit. I pulled the original 2-bbl manifold and the intake ports on the heads look like a disaster area. They do not come close to matching the shape of the intake manifold gaskets. Heck, they're not even close to rectangular! It is quite obvious that a simple port matching job would yield significant power gains. I've ported SBC heads before. My main concern is whether there's enough 'meat' in the 2.8 heads to allow a decent porting job. I didn't take a really close look before I dropped the 'new' manifold on for a test fit.

The stock Y-pipe is a terrible piece of engineering. The bends are full of wrinkles that would obviously cause a lot of unwanted turbulence in the exhaust flow and restrict scavenging. Headers would seem to be the obvious solution but simply replacing the stock pipes with mandrel-bent tubing with no wrinkles would definitely give a small boost in power.

Has anybody succeeded in modifying S-10 headers to fit an F-body? From catalog pictures they look like they could be shortened and hooked up to a dual exhaust system. I'm concerned that the K-member might cause some interference. The Pacesetter headers look pretty but they incorporate a Y-pipe feeding into a single exhaust.

I'll be installing an Edelbrock Performer cam and a Holley 390 cfm carb to complement the manifold.

The ignition system is an MSD-6A with an 8981 programmable timing computer and high vibration Blaster coil. I already have all those parts. The factory ECM will not be used. Another computer will be purchased to handle the transmission.

 

The iron heads are pretty thin. That's the main reason they're such a big restriction- that and they just plain flow like dry poo. I have s-10 headers on mine. They were pretty close to fitting from the factory, but I still had to do some bending. Clearance isn't great, but a little trimming could be done to tuck them up higher if you're doing a custom exhaust. I just slapped some glasspacks on.

 

I was afraid of that. Would later model aluminum heads fit the 84 block?

 

The top end off a 3x00 (3100, 3400, 3500, ect.) can be retrofit as a whole, but you can't mix & match parts between iron & 3x00. Since you have a problematic '84 block I'd reccomend you get a 3.4 block from a 4th gen camaro/firebird before you consider tweaking things. Since they already have a crank sensor retrofitting a 3x00 top end will be that much easier.

 

3.4 block with stock piston and a 3500 top end with a nice cam will get you in the market of 300hp and a hell of a rev range. That was my original plan for my old Fiero but I ditched that and bought a v8 camaro.

 

Thanks for all the input. Your recommendations are being seriously considered but I have a minor geographical problem being located 7,000 miles on the wrong side of the Pacific Ocean. Finding a 3X00 engine around here would be a nice challenge. I could ship one in. Then the only challenge would be finding the $$$.



Then again 300 hp from a 3.4 with 3.5 heads sounds VERY interesting! Would it be necessary to keep the fuel injection system? How much power would be lost by downgrading to a 4-bbl setup?

I'm no Luddite but the thought of working with EFI frightens me.

 

I suppose you could weld up your own carb manifold if you wanted to, but why loose all that tuneability?

 

I guess I just need to get over that psychological hump between carburetors and EFI. I have no doubts that EFI is the best way to go but I've only had one EFI car, an 86 Camaro Berlinetta, but that was years ago and I never did more than change a fuel filter and the plugs.

If I can get a complete 3rd gen 3.4 with all the wiring, ECM, etc., how difficult would it be to make it run in my car? I'm sure there's a thread on this. I'd appreciate a lead. Meanwhile, I'll search on my own.

TIA for any help.

 

You don't need to do anything to the ecm for it to run, sevral people have swapped blocks (you keep the 2.8 manifold/sensors) and still use the stock ecm with the 3.4 injectors. All you need is the long block (block, crank, pistons, rods & flexplate/balancer) from the 3.4. You only have to retune it if you decide to put a 3x00 top end on it.

 

KED85s swap boogie is the way to go. While you dont NEED a tune, it will help after the swap. I swapped in a 3.4 and it will run rich, as most who have done the swap will tell you. Overall it is the best, easiest, and cheapest way to go though. Youd rather be rich than lean.

 

Because I have to do most of my Stateside stuff by remote control, I'm thinking the easiest way to get a 3.4 is to buy a whole 4th gen car and extract the engine and tranny. I have a buddy in the Dallas area who will gladly lend me his driveway and garage for that. I could then put everything on a pallet and ship it over.

Is it true that the 4th gens had to have their engines inserted from underneath because their windshields stretch out so far forward?

 

That's how the factory did it. Same with the Corvette.
However, I know of people locally that took their time removing a 4th gen engine and had no issues bringing it up & out.

 

I did mine from the top. Pain in the a$$ because you basically have to unbolt everything from it to get it out smooth. You should still consider just getting the block because if I'm not mistaken (a) the tranny is electric shift and (b) the ecm it uses hasn't been cracked yet- so no tuning. You'll be working backwards having to reinstall the old harness & mangle it to work with the new sensors, then get an independent trans controller.