in my 88' firebird i have a 2.8Lt with the 700R4 tranny, and i donno you guys are probably gonna hate me for this but i wanna turn my firebird in to a ***** or rice rocket, i want to get it with air cylinders and custom interior, chrome rims, and i nice sound system, im already working on the sound system,i am about to put 2 bazooka 450 watt triangle subs with 2 160.2 fosgate amps in there in a custom fiberglass box, but i really want to make that 2.8 MOVE! and i always read about instead of wasting money on hopping up that 2.8 just put a 3.4 in it, well does anyone know of any web sites or articles or a kind of guideline tell you about certain things you can put on it and to give you all kinds of horeses. and do i need to update any sensors, wireing harness, tranny? and what kind of gain will i get with with the motor? is there going to be a big differnce? and howmuch to the motors useually go for? any help would be apriciated

 

Look for the thread call the 3.4 long block swap boogie.
I wrote it.
I did it.
Worth it.
Plus you'll need 3.4 for hauling around all that extra stuff.

 

Honestly.. here's the deal on ricers...

The cars they use are economy cars (in case no one noticed!)... they were not built for racing... granted because they are newer they take advantage of technology and some handle quite well. What makes a ***** is the funky paint, g0d aweful "wings" ugly GFX and an annoying muffler. Granted, -because- they are economy cars, they have quite a bit to gain from the little things... the chips are tuned horribly, the exhaust is rediculous and the intake is less than desireable... High revving engines just plain sound horrible when they're not muffled...

You say you want your car to move... port and polish the intake... the entire thing. You would do best to do the heads while your down there too... the upper and middle portions arn't bad... but between the lower and heads and the middle and lower they're terrible.. get a felpro gasket set and match it up and you'll see what I mean... And to answer your question now, YES radius the injector ports! A KNN with help after that... headers that Camaro_Hunter_D is producing in addition to a custom y-pipe and cat and cat back will help quite a bit. After that get a cam, I reccomend the Crower cam for our app... better than the Crane Compucam 2030... in addition to the cam get some 1.6 ratio full roller rockers.

After that, if you're still not satisfied... rebuild the entire engine with Sealed Power rings, forged slugs and run Nitrous Oxide with the new NOSzzle set they have just put out... Custom burn your own prom and enjoy 13's on quite a bit of juice.

Honestly, if you wanna beat the ricers... if would probably be cheaper and easier to swap in a V8, tranny, mounts and springs.

If you just wanna go "rice"... make your own disgusting GFX from wood and bondo, pay 4000 for a professional Day-Slo Orange paint job... get lots and lots of stickers to cover up that beautiful paint... get 20 inch rims with rubber that is only .25" thick, buy a 4 foot tall wing, put and exhaust on it with a single 5 inch tip... slam the vehicle to tha ground and enjoy. Word is bondo yo!

 

but man i like all that stuff dood, i have friends around here that drive eclipse's,civic's,del sols, and i donno man but when my friend smokes my *** in a damn saturn with no mods i feel like hitting myself in the sac, but i really dont want 20's just 18's i want em wrapped in yokahomma's, and i found this wing for an intergra that would fit on my car it's only like 3 inch's high and it hangs straight back off the car like 8-9 inchs and its for drag racing, at justcylinders.com i found some air cylinders made for the 3rd gen firebird for 1000$$, i wanna get some sparco seats in there and have the interior all custom, have all my exterior trim and door handels shaved, and have it painted a bright fireengine red. and a nice motor. but i mean i want a car that looks nice to where i can pick up chicks, i can go anywhere and not be embarrassed by my ride cause some rich homo has a new eclipse with rims and a chrome illision paint. and i also wanna clean my car up and be able to take it to like one of Houstons car shows and maybe even win! and i like that sound! but hey man i had this magazine that had this supra in it and it had a inline 6 that had over 1300 horses...it topped out at 249 mph. personally i think that car is far from beeing an ecconomy car.. but hey thats just my style if you dont like it thats cool with me, but i just hope you guy dont hate me cause i want to do this stuf to my bird and continue helping me..

 

Hey man, we're not going to hate you... just understand that most of us here don't like that style car.

As for the Supra with 1300 hp, it's a custom TT motor... far from the stock engine. Supra's are a sports car anyway, not an economy Civic. And I never said ricers can't run, I know a few who put up good times, good for them. I like my American muscle the way it is.

If you wanna hang with the big boys, you're better off spending some of that fortune on a V8 car... honestly. V6's put up mid 17's stock, and can make it into 16's with a few things, but if you wanna hang with your "fast" ***** friends, a 6 isn't going to cut it without some custom work. But hell, do what you like, it's your money.

As far as shaved exterior stuff, I'm a fan of that, no biggie there. Bright red, very nice... wing (cringe) but it's you're car, more power to ya if you make something original that looks good to -you-, thats all that matters anyway... Air cylinders, original, and used correctly and wisely can just make the moment... they're a good conversation piece seeing as how no one really uses them anymore. Stereo, always a big fan of that...

Seriously dude, good luck with it. If you have any questions related to the car aspect of your car, this message board has a plethora of info, if you wanna talk big wings and silly stickers, try to find an import racers page to talk about that stuff on... around here thats kinda treading in murky water.

It's all about having fun, whatever floats your boat.