Hey guys, I recently picked up an 89 2.8/T5 Camaro and I have a few questions.
I plan on doing the 3.4 swap soon as I can pick up one for less than $ 100 locally. I know the stock exhaust is a puny 2.25. I know that general consensus is that 2.5 is pretty much the standard up grade for the 2.8/3.1. I've been reading over in full throttle V6 that most of the 4th gen 3.4 guys lean more towards the 2.75 found in the stock Z28. Would I be better off using a 2.5 or 2.75 exhaust tubing?

Secondly, in your guys opinion, which intake would work better with the 3.4? A stock 2.8 with plenum spacers or the 3.4 modded to fit a distributor?
My ultimate goal is just a DD with some pep, no boost just NA.

 

2.5 is fine if ur not really planning on any future mods the price to do 2.75 is prolly the same though so i would just do it

3.4 manifold is what i would use , the spacers inbettween the mid and upper section will make the 2.8/3.1 manifold worse then it already is


best bang for the buck will be the high stall autozone 105$ converter and a rear gear swap though

im only 2.5 hours south of ya so if u ever wanted some custom long tube headers , or a turbo kit done i could build them for ya

 

Well I don't need a stall as its a 5 speed. I am in the need of some headers, what would you charge to build me a set?

 

id have to price up the tubing anf flanges again as price has changed alot since the last time i did a set

u want shortys or long tubes? and would u need a y pipe made as well
once i know that i could price up all the materials

 

To be honest, I'd be totally happy with a set of shorties, keep it simple. I can make my own y pipe that's not an issue

 

I have another question as well. I have a friend who has a 3.1 out of a 91 RS that he'd sell me for $25. It would need a rebuild anyhow so could I punch a 3.1 into a 3.4? I know the stock 3.4 comes with a crane 2030 cam so what I want to do is a full rebuild, port the heads with upgraded hardware and throw on some 1.6 rockers. Nothing too big.

 

Let Dave make you a set of long tubes, I know his work, it'll come out awesome.

 

No, the 2.8/3.1 block does not support the bore needed for the 3.4 pistons. The F-body 3.4 also doesn't come with a Crane cam. It has AFAIK the same specs as the 2.8 and 3.1 cam. You may be thinking of the Crate 3.4 which comes with a GMPP cam that has the same specs as the Crane (and likely made by Crane).

 

You might be right, I think a mild build 3.4 would be perfect for a fun DD and still knock back decent mileage

 

ill price up materials for ya tonight and let ya know what a set of shortys would cost , honestly if ur going to go for custom headers i would get the longtubes they really shouldnt much cost more in terms of material or time

 

Do a 3.9 swap if you are gonna spend a bunch of money to rebuild a 3.1. 240 hp out of the box. Flip the intake around which you have to do anyways and you can use a distributor

 

Well I'm not going to rebuild a 3.1 lol. I'm opting for the 3.4. I really don't want to go too crazy on this build as its not meant to be a fast car, I have my 88 with a 383 LT1 for that lol. I want this to be a fun, peppy DD.

 

I thought there was an old thread about the 3.4 intake not really being much better than the 2.8/3.1 in regards to flow numbers and gains. I did a bit of digging but couldn't find anything yet. This has been discussed a bunch, but maybe only done once, I do recall seeing pics of the back side of a 3.4 intake cut/modded to fit a dizzy.

 

That was pillsbury10's car. I saved some pics of his set up. He modded a 3.4 intake to work with a distributor

 

Another question I have is anyone have any pics of some ported 3.4 heads? Or even inside the ports of stock heads. I do all of my own porting and plan on cleaning up the heads. Also, what size valves do they come with? Would it be advantageous to up the valve size? What springs should I go with?

 

Anyone?

 

Ok so I guess I ask the hard questions then? Damn lol

 

1.60" Intake / 1.43" Exhaust

No, just clean up the bowls and runners thoroughly...

Depends on cam size and if you go boost...

Edit: I measured a set of 3.4 valves I had lying around RF, in case you were curious.

 

You're the man, thank you. I found some V8 flowtech shortie headers that I'm going to cut up with some flanges I made to get some exhaust flowing. A friend of mine has a stock LT1 2.75 exhaust he's going to hook me up with as well with an Xlerator (MagnaFlow clone) I got for 10 bucks. All in all I'll have less than $100 in the entire exhaust lol.

 

One more question, I've been reading up on the Delta 260 cam. It says that it's the biggest I'd want to go on a stock MAF tune. Is that correct? Also, how well would it run with 3:42 gears? I've been pondering bumping up to 3:73s

 

Hello?

 

260 and 3:73 will run pretty decent on stock tune , but benifits greatly from a tune
272 and 4:10's, deffinate tune needed


i ran the 260 and 4:10's in my original 2.8 and loved it , infact the 4:10's stayed in with the turbo


did u get my pm

 

lol nm on the pm thats a hell of a lot cheaper then what i can build ya lol

 

right below the intake seat is important , if u take an ex valve and drop it in the intake side will see the ex valve will not drop into the bowl

also the valve guide/vane lots of work u can do there

match the intake port to the intake manifold port dont make it any bigger


theres a huge lump in the side the ex port u can take out

if u need pics let me know

 

Pics would be fantastic thank you, I can't wait to get the 3.4 in, the 2.8 isn't exactly terrible for what I need I just need the extra kick to get about lol. So I know the 260 cam will work fine on a stock tune but how much more of a kick would a tune get me? Do I really need the 3.4 injectors or can I get away with the 2.8s?

 

with swaping the 3.4 u will need a tune anyways , so it will be a good boost power and econemy wise , also in that just use the 3.4 injectors

bare bones min i would do the 260 with 2.8 iinjectrs , witht he 2.8 maf system and use an adjustable fpr to dial it in the closest u can that way


honestly i would pay somone to tune it if u cant do it yourself, rather then bandaid it


ill get ya some head pictures a lil later , takes me a while to sort threw my photobucket

 

I can tune it myself once I get an EBL Flash for it.

 

Any pics of those ported heads?

 

sorry photobucket hasnt been loading on my pc , my dsl has been dialup speeds for the last week or so , look in fast eddis turbo thread i know i have posted them on here a bunch of times , ill give photobucket another shot tonight

 

Can you use a distributor with a 3.9? The intake looks like it's recessed enough for one to fit

 

it does fit but it takes a bit of machining but nothing too crazy. A dremel could probably be used.

 

Wow, that's nothing a dremel tool couldn't fix..

 

What distributor is that?

 

shout out to me lol...might be the only car with that setup. so theres that lol

 

more ppl should be running the 3.4 intake

 

A few years back I ported the iron 3.4 heads, lower intake, and the 2.8 mid and upper intakes, for a silver 86 Camaro I did for my dad. I forget what username I did it under, but it was here somewhere. And it wasnt my first one. But this time I just hogged the mid, and the intake vanes, and gasket matched the intake ports, plus tapering the guide bosses, and fully polishing the exhaust ports.
I used the 3.4 injectors and cam, everything else was from the 2.8, and it still ran out of injector by 3000 RPM, and the lean misfire kept it from even revving above 4500.
It just got worse and worse as the tach moved from 3000 to 4500.
Anyway, it wasnt fun, and I still have a running 3.4 in my 94, so I keep wondering about 3500 heads, they are showing up in the cheap self-serve salvage yards more now than ever before.
It might be fun to try some bore-notching and a fabricated intake manifold to try 3900 heads, but I have yet to find a pair.

 

3.9's have been popping up quite frequently at the Tearapart on Redwood here in town. I've been half tempted to build on up just for giggles. I would just have to find cam spacers to delete the VVT. 3.5's are now a dime a dozen here.