I heard from a friend that if I plan to do alot of bolt ons for my 91 3.1L firebird that I need to get better pistons because if I go 50 horses over stock they can fail/blow/implode/sieze -> what have you... any truth to his trivia?

a side question: whats easiest thing i can do short of custom CAI to improve the extremely wierd/restrictive air passage on my 91?

 

what's your air intake look like?
are you talking nitrous?

 

it has the air filter housing in the front passenger side corner...
immediatley after, it has this hard plastic square-ish passage, that goes from about 2 inches to 1.25 then back to 2 inches and then into the accordion looking stock plastic tube and then finally into the engine.

its the stock setup for intake on the 1991's, and it looks madly restricitive...

 

i have same thing this guy got so please help us ppl! LOL

 

The piston deal is bogus. Yes they are weak, but they can handle more then a 50 Hp increase. Just don't go much furthuer then that. You wanna see and intake take a look at this monster!:hail:


And yes this pic is the beginning of the ram air set up I did to my car. That pic there you would need to remove your stock intake mounting and your batt,(Move the batt to the trunk) and drill out 28-30 spot welds remove the mounting plates for the air box and batt and run 45* elbows down through the openings and mount your filters there. That would make it a CAI.
For ram air he he have fun! remove the front clip make custom intake boxes yourself cut out the turn signals to make the opening larger for the intake boxes to fix in get another 2 90* elbows and some expaned 1/2" grating to hold the air filter. Oh and did I forget the fiberglass and resin to smooth everything out and make it look nice and semi neat?. It took me a day to get the system installed and another 2 days to get the turn signals remounted into the grill and to make the filler panel and make it look SWEET enought to install.

 

Starting in '89, the 2.8/3.1's got lighter, forged pistons from GM. If your fuel pump is dying, and can't supply enough fuel, you'll melt thru any piston.

 

Thats a phat setup hunter... you have the 3.1 it looked like. My friend who works on my car occasionally said that if I get a setup with too much flow, then my engine might hiccup when I gun it from a stop. Would it have something to do (wild guess here) air/fuel ratio?

High performance fuel pump if im going 50 horses over stock then? I heard somethings about pop-up pistons too, good somethings. Anyone have em?

 

Nah, the motor will be fine if you give it "too much" air. I don't think it's possible to give our engines too much air, unless you mounted 10 K&N filters on the front of the car, with a big scoop running to the throttle body! The computer should be able to handle it. When you go to crazy extremes (aka Supercharger), that's when you need to work with the computer.

And you dont' really need a high-performance fuel pump, just one that's alive. Installing a remote fuel pressure gauge (like the isolated one at http://www.autometer.com ) is the best investment. If you're running down the 1/4, and your fuel pressure drops (pump dies), you can shut the car off so you don't burn a piston.

Plus, a car will run a lonnng time on a fuel pump that's dying; the problem is, we don't realize it until the pump is absolutly dead. (I've replaced my fuel pump twice already! What a pain...) After each replacement, the car felt SO much stronger! So I'm just saying to make sure your fuel pump's okay. I think Dan (CaliCamaro) is the one that mentioned that a clogged fuel filter will kill a good pump quickly... so change your fuel filter yearly!

A high performance one might flow too much fuel for our cars, anyway. The V8 TPI one (not TBI, that's low pressure) will fit in our fuel tank sending units, and flows more fuel than the V6 MPFI pump (same pressures). Personally, for our V6 motors, I'd go with a genuine Ac/Delco V8 TPI pump over a high performance pump. The V8 pump flows enough for 8 V8 (higher flow) injectors, so if we installed 6 V8 injectors, we'd still have enough flow "available". If I didn't explain that clearly enuf, let me know...

 

ive had a ride in camaro_hunters car...

no way it hiccups...when u start...

if u gun the throttle... he shoots like a rocket...

try to do what some ppl do first... like cut the bottom of the airbox to see if u get an improvement....

 

and yeah his car is definitely a monster...INtake...

 

For my air box thing.
I removed it.
I also got, at a swap meet, a 90* bend from some car (honest no clue I buy those emission hoses to experiment-they cost me $1).
I used tape to close off a hole on the side of that rubber 90* bend. I bolted it directly to my throttle body and it fits great!
Then I used dryer outlet hose to go from the 90* bend thing to my MAS which goes to my stock air cleaner I modified (by straightening the lid opening). I hold up the dryer outlet hose with wire and some cardboard as a buffer from the heat of the radiator hose I've tied this mess to.
Next is to remove/cut opening into some of the underhood bracing (at pass. headlight area) to allow more air in to the AC. And raise hood bump stop to keep hood slightly ajar.
It does help.
I ONLY expect to get more air as I'm on the freeway, where I need the extra cooler air the most.