Alright guys! So my first post on here, just made the account. Been trolling around for a little bit to find some information for my friend, and decided I needed to ask some more specific questions to what I need.

So backstory: My friend bought a 2.8L Firebird last summer. Trans locked up in second gear, his dumbass wasn't paying attention, wrecked the engine. Got a replacement 2.8L and tranny put in after I begged him 19 million times to put a 350 in it in the first place so I wasn't called upon to do it. Told him he wasn't going to be happy with that stock v6. Well guess what he isn't happy with?

Alright he wants to swap in a 350 V8. Cool. So I imagine you can get away with building a 350 fairly cheap. But he wants to keep overdrive. Grrr. Anyways, 350 with an overdrive trans is looking to be about 1000 for the swap, not to mention driveshaft shortening or anything like that. Okay.

Can I get his 2.8L v6 up to around 200 horsepower (N/A) for about 1K? Or should I just devote this summer to helping him gather parts and get a 350 in there? Thanks guys!

 

Here is what I was thinking performance wise, its a 1987 firebird (forgot to mention in the beginning).

Bigger camshaft
Headers
Custom CAI
EGR Delete
Roller 1.6 Rocker Arms
Bigger Injectors (?)
single decent sized exhaust
3.40-ish rear gears
Tune

 

$1,000 is not a very big budget if you have to both rebuild it and then get 200 horsepower out of it.

With that said, back in the day, my friend had an '87 Type LT with a 2.8. He added headers, exhaust, colder t-stat, chip, bumped the timing and we opened up the airboxes. After that, other than low end torque, it felt a lot like driving a louder, revvier LG4.

BTW, your friend probably already has a 3.42-ish rear gear.

 

It already has been rebuilt. It is a new engine sitting in his engine bay, which is why I'm not as gung-ho for swapping engines and trannys

 

200HP is easier done with a 3.4, but you can do it with a 2.8. You'll need a cam, and some serious head work, headers and full exhaust as well.

There's a sticky with all of this info at the top of the V6 section.

 

yup it already has 3:42 rear gears ,

install a set of 4:10's and a 260 camshaft from delta,
port the cyl heads and intake and it will be a whole new animal


ur looking at 350-450$ in mods

from there u could do the 105$ high stall converter and a good free flowing muffler i.e not a flowmaster and pick up a bit more power

 

How much boost can you cram into a stock block reliably?

 

BTW that cam, would it work with the stock computer? Or would it get cranky? New pushrods or no?

 

I have been running just shy of 10psi on the stock block for a year now. The 2.8 LOVES boost. Did I mention I waited till the 300k mile mark to put a turbo on it? If it wasn't very close to 300hp I'd be surprised. Its faster than a 350 Third gen with unknown mods; guy was a dick till I walked him.

HOWEVER, it's much more than just slapping a turbo on it...

 

Yeah, ive been down the turbo route with a 5.4L Ford before. It is time consuming to get everything to run correctly, but sometimes the noise is worth it.

 

Well worth it IMO. I had basically never messed with a turbo or ecm in my life till I did it myself.

With the right setup and all bases covered I could see it running 16psi without problems. Thats what I'm going to jack mine up to now that the front mount cooler is installed. Yea yea yea, its not a measure of power.

 

I would be down for it (especially on a stock motor) but my friend who owns the car doesn't want to go turbo yet. In which this winter he will say he wants more power and want me to turbo it with snow on the ground.

I'm reading about burning chips for these engines now, but it is making me want to bang my head on the desk.

So right now I have:
CAI and Cat-Back
Gears (4.10)
Bumpstick
Custom Chip
Torque Converter
Porting

Trying to figure out exactly how these engines like to be ported, I ported the heads on a 350 and when it got all put together it ran like ****, picked up another set, did research, and they worked better.

 

Fasteddi or Project89 would have to chime in, as IIRC both have ported the iron heads before. But if you/your friend wants a fun to drive v6 that will keep him happy for a bit I would look into whats called a "hybrid" build.

Its essentially a FWD top end on a RWD block. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/7...eddis-set.html

Could be done under 1k easily IMO. The FWD aluminum heads stock (year 2000+)flow better than any port and polished iron heads ever will. Thats what I am working with in the next build. But I'm starting with the 3.4 block and hopefully slapping a 3500 top end on it, and finishing the package deal with T4 turbo.

 

You know how those projects start. Once you get the taste for power, you want more.

 

So true lol. I went from cammed 2.8, to 3.4, to 5.3. Still not enough.

 

^^^ Main reason why I just ordered an electric boost solenoid for my ECM, LOL.

 

I just threw a 3500 in my Camaro. If you don't count the cost of the T5 swap, I probably only have $800 or less into the swap

 

Just a little update. Currently we are looking in to buying 4.10 rear gears, first things to go in the car. Also got a little nitrous shot system in the shopping cart and a cam