Note: I have read all the important posts and searched the forums before making a post.
Just bought a 92 firebird 3.1l. I want to improve my performance, mainly acceleration. I have a limited budget to work with and the way I see it, I can either make many performance improvements to my car (leaving in its current engine) or I can swap in a v8 but only have enough leftover for just a few small mods. I don't have money for both atm. Which will give me better acceleration for my money? (By performance improvements, in case there was any question, I mean new exhaust, new intake, lighter wheels and driveshaft, better heads, chip).

Edit: Or a higher-performance v6 I suppose

personally, id go with a v8. mostly for the long run. you can buy performacne parts for a sbc at about the third of the price of these v6's

i was considering the same thing. but i overall decided if i was hellbent on good performance id go for the v8. i am mostly keeping the v6 because i already have a replacement v6 and the performance parts i want arent totally out of budget.

long story short, how far do you want to go with it?

^Right. What are you looking for? 14 second quarter mile? Keep the 6. 13s? Keep the 6. 10s? Probably should go v8 or it's gonna get expensive.

What does limited budget mean? $300 or $5000.
What's your skill level?
Shop/garage?
Tools?
Time?
Only car?

There's more than just power to consider....

if you have to have speed, you never should have bought a V6. It's always smarter to just buy the V8 you'll wanted in the first place.

I'm not saying a V6 can't be made faster, but it's not easy or cheap.

Get a cat back system, most performance cat backs are for both v6 & v8s.
Change the rear axle ratio to a 3.73 ratio.
To change to a v8 you'll need a different tranny, radiator, accesory brackets, rad hoses, & all the stuff that'll nickle & dime ya'.
A 3.4 (camaro) swap w/ a few mods like headers & cam might be what your looking for, its a direct swap.

I got the v6 because it was a good deal on ebay and my funds are quite limited. My thought was get that while I could and at least have a car and then upgrade as money allowed. Limited budget in this case is as much of my leftover financial aid I can spend without my parents killing me so for the present time I have about 1k to work with. Skill level, well, meh, but I have highly skilled friends that can help me. I have access to the tools at an auto repair shop, the main guy there is a friend and probably has all the tools I would need as he has made multiple hot rods. Time, at least 10 hrs during the week and all weekend if needed. Only car, well it is the only car in my name but I still live at home, I have other vehicle options no problem. My goal is low 14s-high 13s.

a 3.4 is a good option too, i am not sure how itll do in the quater but the cat back is definately a good idea. i just still cant get over the price of parts for these dang things. 500 dollars for a holley carb, 275 dollar to wrap up in intake pieces, 437 dollars for headers, like 350 for a cat back, and 320 for a cam kit. thats around $2000 for what? just over 200 horse?

Judging by that ^, I'd throw some nitrous at it and call it good. It's well within budget, can be done in a day, will get you a lot closer to your goal, and could someday work with a v8.
Then, do minor upgrades that help performance, but could still work with a v8, if you decide to go that route. Better rear end gears and diff, cat back exhaust, and so on.

nitrous is a good choice too. much less money and much easier. me personally, i feel like nitrous is cheating. feels lazy to me (nothing against those who use it) im still in the air about the v6 or v8 thing myself. it is alot of work to put in a v8 so if you go that route, be prepared. but a 3.4 can do well too. its 160 horse and bolts right up.

In my opinion nitrous is the same as a turbo.. at least it accomplished the same thing as a turbo in the same principals. So im young and in my mind its not cheeting.

My opinion.... turbo if you have the $$/skill/and time. If not nitrous. A safe wet 75 shot will get you in the 14s or 15's depending on you skill at the track and other aspects of your car, and will only cost about 600 or $700 for a new kit with proper safty stuff. I.E. Blowdown line, rpm window, and bottle heater/guage.

The turbo is alot harder in my opinion, im in the slow process of the turbo option, its hard to have the time to dedicate to do the nessasary fabrications but there is a ton of info on this site about that route of the turbo and what can be achieved. But in my opinion, is THE BEST option for power in the V6 thirdgens.

Also check up on the hybrid top end swap.

But by your experience in this, i would think that the easiest Hp and cheepest Hp would be the nitrous, but read up on it for a bit before you buy it or you WILL be putting a new motor in your car because the nitrous killed your old one.

You have a lot of options with the V6, and way more with a V8. Most however will far exceed your budget.


In your case i'd agree, a wet nitrous kit seems logical.

lol, im not an old man, im 19. i just dont like the idea of nitous, it is like crack for engines. and like crack, it can really f**k stuff up

Ok, so what I'm seeing for the near future is a swap to a 3.4, exhaust and other performance upgrades, and a wet nitrous system. Can't buy it all at once of course but then that gives me time to install the parts as I buy them. Eventually, when I have the money and experience (aka after I finally find some work in my wretched little town), I'm going to drop in a v8 and get a turbo, along with all the extra mods that would require, but I like this short-term plan. While in the long run it would probably have been easier to save up for a faster car in the first place, I really love the F body look and will feel more accomplished if I make the speed myself.

Thanks for the input (Oh and I'm also going to drop as much weight as I can as well- taking out the back seats will be $0.00)

psh, not like the back seats are worth sitting in anyways

while nitrous has a low initial cost, its not really that cheap once u start adding in the cost of refilling the bottle.
last time i checked nitrous was 5.50$ a pound

i did a writeup on my turbo system and i figured out the cost per hp gain and the cost wa sfairly low, but everytime i turn the boost up the cost comes down since the engine makes more power but it didnt cost anyrthing to increase it

how much did you turbo set up end up being? and what turbo did you use?

Ok well let me put a 100 shot of nitrous on my car and you put a turbo running 10psi on your car and see what last longer? Basically whoevers car was tuned the best by the person working on the car.

My point is that nitrous and a turbo use the same elements to increase horsepower and it comes down to the tuning of the person that equipted the car.

If it the motor blows up then it either wasnt able to handle the Hp or the person tuning the car didnt know exactly what he was doing.

Both n2o and a turbo can be safely used and not one is more dangerous than the other if the person knows what there doing and understands the concepts of both.

off hand i dont rember, but the thread is in the power adder section when i get a lil more time today ill look for it for ya

nitrous is a lil harder on the engine vs a turbo, if i were going to build a nitrous engine id keep total power output about 100hp below what i would run with a turbo engine.


but nitrous is safe if installed and tuned properly , id have no issue bolting on a 100-150 shot on a stock engine, anything more then that i would use a progressive controller

here ya go,as u can see with a turbo motor any increas ein power greatly reduses the cost per each hp gained

awesome results from that turbo. yes a turbo is like engine crack as well and it can and will reduce the life of an engine especially one not meant to be turbo charged. id personally prefer a turbo over nitrous any day. mostly because the power is always there ya know? you never have to refill a turbo and when you wrap it up, the power is there.

gears and a 3.4 would wake it up for cheap relatively easy.

gears and a 3.5 would be better.

Not when ease and speed of swap is important I am afraid.

Power can be had cheap if you check out my V6 engine parts for sale post.

It can still be done in a weekend... I took so long because i have very limited spare time.

It requires fabrication/modification, the moment there is a complication, taking a wknd is out the window.