How can i get more horsepower on my '84 2.8 carbureted camaro without spending any money?

 

Stickers, LOTS AND LOTS of stickers. Get a 12' Vtech one. Optimal location is right in front of the drivers viewing area, good for about 20hp. Get a Calvin pissin on Ford, back glass, 5HP, lots of FLOWMASTER stickers, Even get a Type-R Sticker, and put it ANYWHERE, that's 50HP right there

Just kiddin, I dunno how without spending ANY money....

------------------
Smile, you're in my rearview I'm joking, I have a v6.
See pics @ Billy's Firebird
92 Bird 3.1L Auto
Best $750 I ever spent....
DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!
Kills:
93 Mustang LX (Before Mods),98 or 99 Dodge Stratus (tough one, edged out at 40),
92 Camaro RS 305 TBI-Not too fair, his fuel pump went out 2 days later. Nice car, but not running right. 97+ Honda somethin or another...modded....kept at my door the entire way
Close Calls
94 Grand Am 3.1 V6, 92 Cavalier 3.1 V6
01 Porsche 911 Turbo (Had em till first gear)
Mods-Jet Stage 2 Performance Chip, Accel Cap/Rotor, Accel 8.8 MM Wires, Accell Coil, AC Delco Rapidfire Plugs, Dynomax Catback, K&N
AIM name OVRCLCK350

 

Eh, stickers cost money though. Only free things I can think of is to empty out the car of junk, and make sure the air pressure in the tires isn't low.

Bizzy, how much would you spend? $5? $15? $50?

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

If you don't need it and it isn't bolted down throw it out. Your spare tire, wrench, jack (and the remnants of the burger he didn't finish last week). If thats not enough, you can always diet. Every pound your car doesn't have to move is a pound that you don't have to get moving.

 

(according to another post) remove your floor mat. Your car will be WAY faster.

 

ya know rs402...i thought of the same thing..most people think their car is heavy and slow when in fact they add 250 lbs to it themselves!

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" I'd rather run last in a full out race, than to NOT run at all ".

 

Not me. I've been at the 125 lb notch on the scale for 10 years now. 27 years old and still have to get some things in the boys dept.

 

I'm willing to spend some money. up to $100 per mod. Thats the most money i have at once.

 

take out your catalitic converter, does wonders

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Steve
88 Firebird TBI,TH700R4 - Open Element, Cat Delete, K&N filter 14*4 element
1/4: 16.1@85.7

 

Well, in that case, for a $100 shot, do the major tuneup. You can do it piece by piece if you need to.

https://www.thirdgen.org/messgboard/...ML/000545.html

Past that? Clean out the carb - oh wait, that's part of the major tuneup. You can use carb/choke cleaner since your motor's not fuel injected.

Past that? A simple cold-air intake. Remove the factory plastic tube that goes from the end of your air cleaner to the driver's side radiator support. Buy a $10 clothes-dryer-hose from Home Depot, connect one end to the air cleaner, and mount the other end somehow so you pick up cold air from behind the bumper. If you want ram air, run the tube so it points "forward" from underneath the car, with nothing blocking it.

Past that? Buy a $5 spritz bottle of simple green engine cleaner. Let the engine cool. Cover your distributor cap, and any electrical connectors you think look like they'd be "in danger" from water, with aluminum foil. Cover your alternator with a garbage bag. Clean the engine as directed on the can. ** When you start the engine (as directed, after rinsing it off, and then after removing the tinfoil & garbage bag), lower your hood, but don't latch it. Reason? If you don't, any excess cleaner that's on your pullies will be Thrown Into The Air- and Land On Your Paint! (I found that out the hard way.) Engine cleaner is NOT good for paint. Once the engine runs for a minute, raise the hood back up to help the engine dry.

Past that? Buy a $5 can of spray-chrome. Remove the air cleaner. Clean it with Simple Green & a brush. Let it dry. Spray your air cleaner chrome. Or, not... but it would match the Home Depot Dryer Tube!

Past that? Hm. Ah! You can advance your timing a bit. By the way, that's all a "performance chip" will do for your carb. The chip doesn't have much to do with performance, and basically that $80 chip will advance your timing for you! I'm not sure what the stock timing spec is for the carb'd 2.8 (if you find out, let me know!), but you could probably advance it 2-4 degrees more.

Past that? If you can't afford the full (best option) cat-back exhaust, you could bolt on a $30 performance muffler. Summit has a few, the Dynomax is one of them. The problem is it'll be a major pain in the butt to remove your old muffler from your old pipes, and install the new muffler onto the old pipes. But if you're on a budget and have the tools & patience you can do it.

Past that? (hehe) You can go to a junkyard, and buy an electric fan out of an 85-up fuel injected Firebird/Camaro. It won't matter V6 vs V8 (you'd probably want the single fan setup, though, to save weight). Your mechanical fan is robbing you of a few HP at high RPM's. Yep, it's on a fan clutch (engine gets hot, clutch expands, fan engages)- but since it runs off the engine's fan-belts, it sucks 2-3 HP. An electric one will run off the battery and give you that HP back. If you're like me and hate making brackets, make sure to grab the factory brackets (radiator cover) that mount the fan to the car from the junkyard.

Edit, 3/23/2001! I forgot to say one more thing- you'll be removing, and ditching, your factory fan shroud. That'll clean up your engine bay a bit. The electric fan will fit up almost against the radiator, and eliminates the need for the old-style shroud. (Shrouds were used to channel the air from the fan over the radiator. Since the electric fan's so close, no channeling is necessary.) The upper bracket for the electric fan will be part of the donor car's top radiator cover. The lower bracket will be at the bottom, bolted to the radiator support. You should also cut and take the fan's electrical connector off the donor car- try to leave as much wire as possible on that connector before you cut.

Now, since you're on a budget, you'll have to do without the usual "automatic fan switch"- that kicks the fan on when the engine gets to a certain temp. This means you'd have to put in a temp gauge, and when the gauge gets to a certain degree, you flip a switch to put the fan on. When the engine cools down enough, you turn the fan off. Don't get worried- gauges can be inexpensive if you don't get "the best"! (And who really needs the best? We just want the best! )

In fact, Summit Racing makes & sells the combo I have- a mechanical temp gauge & oil pressure gauge set- that's two 2" gauges on a gauge bracket (black)- for $16. They have other gauge packages too- here's how to find them. Go to Summit's site at http://www.summitracing.com , then click on "online catalog, click/search/buy", then click on "gauges" on the left, then click on "gauges/analog", then choose the "Summit Gauge Kits". Connecting the fan to the electrical system requires $10 in parts- a switch, a relay, two fuses, and a spool of wire. To me, that would be one hell of a cheap mod! You get some HP back, you get a fan switch (get a lighted rocker or toggle for more "ooh" points), AND you get two gauges!

Past that... Oh! There's another air intake mod, in thirdgen.org's tech section: The Dual Snorkel Intake. Here's the link- https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/t...lsnorkel.shtml

Past that... Poly bushings! Find your sway bars. There might be one under the rear axle; I think that not all '84's came with them. There's definately one in the front. Found it? See the ends of the bar, how they're attached to the car by things that look like the letter "I"? You can replace those with polyurethane ones from Energy Suspension. I'm not sure of the part # off hand, but you can call Summit Racing, and ask for "Energy Suspension Polyurethane End-Links with a 2 5/8 inch sleeve length." You get one pair (enough for one sway bar) in each pack. That'll help the car feel more sturdy (and that makes it feel faster) in turns. I bought my ES end-links locally for $26/set, Summit might have them cheaper. If you do only one bar, make sure to "improve" the front bar first. Improving the rear bar first will increase the tendency towards understeer... not good (front of car plows straight when trying to turn). If you -don't- have a rear sway bar, you can get one out of a junkyard for cheap- it's almost a 100% bolt-in! After doing just the end links (for both bars) on my car, the handling improved noticably. If it's between getting a set of links for the front, or getting a junkyard rear bar- get the junkyard rear bar. Some years had thicker bars than others- in fact, you might want to upgrade your thin '84 front bar with a thicker '86-up front bar.

**Summit doesn't charge for shipping, but they do charge a $6 handling fee for each order. You'd save on handling costs if you buy an end link set and the gauge package at the same time.

Past that... anyone else? Geez, this makes me want to start on an f-body from "the beginning" again!

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited March 22, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited March 22, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited March 23, 2001).]

 

Tom, Do your finger hurt after typing that much?

 

Nice post TomP. It's good to have guys like you around.

 

i have to say one thing though:
the dryer hose idea is a bad idea. If it seals correctly around the intake, when u hit the gas the tube contracts and chokes the air coming in..

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1989 Firebird
2.8 v6, t5 swapped in

Ram Hi-po clutch, Cold Air, 1.6 rockers (ready to install), Lakewood LCA's, Lakewood Lift bars, 3" y-pipe, Random Tech Cat, 3" I-pipe, Flowmasters, MSd 6a, MSD Coil (Fireball in future) Accel 8.8 wires, MSD Ignition Module, 4th Gen Seats (not front yet)

" I'd rather run last in a full out race, than to NOT run at all ".

 

Any one here ever wana remove ALL THE MODS and go back to stock i mean down to the catback and wires everythign and see waht the car feels like??? I like not knowing anythign about cars why because i get to learn. damn brain forget stuff so i can have fun again

 

Actually my mind hurt more than my fingers; cheap things are hard to come up with!

Graeme'sFirebird, I don't know... you seemed to be the only one with the dryer hose collapsing. Most of the one's I've seen have circumferential ribs around them to prevent that. Was your hose smooth? I personally use an "Air Intake Duct" hose from Pep Boys- it came in a tall green box. It's a thin plastic/rubber/whatever hose, with a spiral-coil of metal wire around the whole thing. That makes it almost close to impossible to crush by hand, let alone by an engine. The hoses cost me $15-$20 (6 feet worth), I suggested dryer hose because I think it's cheaper.

FastRS, I have one of those times! My car had just a cat-back, and was in urgent need of a tuneup. It was before any other of my mods. Unfortunately, that was my best 1/4 time ever... (sigh)

I just edited that long message; I forgot to include a detail about the fan swap! I marked the edit in bold so it's easy to find.

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited March 23, 2001).]

 

I've posted way too much about this topic!

Biz! I just noticed something!! Know how I was describing using dryer hose to make a cold air (or ram air) intake? Well, want pictures? Click at the top of the screen on the "Performance Induction Systems / 82-92 Camaro/Firebird Ram Air Induction" advertisement! That's the same thing I wanted you to make- expect you'd spend less.

(The car they show has a chrome air cleaner cover... )


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

actually, it was one from pep boys too... the same one ur talking about. When it was idling and u hand revved it, the hole tube sucked in and choked the engine...

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1989 Firebird
2.8 v6, t5 swapped in

Ram Hi-po clutch, Cold Air, 1.6 rockers (ready to install), Lakewood LCA's, Lakewood Lift bars, 3" y-pipe, Random Tech Cat, 3" I-pipe, Flowmasters, MSd 6a, MSD Coil (Fireball in future) Accel 8.8 wires, MSD Ignition Module, 4th Gen Seats (not front yet)

" I'd rather run last in a full out race, than to NOT run at all ".

 

just buy a bottle of NOS OCTANE BOOSTER "racing formula" its got methanol in it. your bound to get something outta that. your like running jet fuel threw your engine.

 

It couldn't be the same one... I can hardly crush the tube with my hand. All my connections seal well, and I've revved the engine while being over the motor. Maybe you got a defective one or something? I always thought you used dryer tubing, not the stuff I had.


------------------
-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

The only thing methanol will do for an engine is make it run bad. I've explained this before and here it goes again.

Methanol does not mix with gasoline. It also doesn't have the BTU output of gas. That means there is no way you can get anything resembling HP out of an engine set up for gas. It takes 1.7 times as much meth to get the same BTU's. You need an increased CR and different timing settings to use meth. Methanol, futhermore, is not compatible with standard fuel systems. It will eat the seals in the injectors and most other rubber it comes in contact with.

Nitromethane is a different substance. It's an oxidizer. It won't blend with gas either. It will blend with meth. At the right ratio it will add oxygen to the combustion process and give the same BTU output (or more).

The real advantage is alcohol fuels burn slower and colder. The slower combustion exerts force on the piston longer. That transelates(sp?) into more torque. While being colder allows for more compression (meth also has alot higher octane rating). When mixed with nitro at higher percentages The resulting increase in BTU's can be exponentialy higher than that of gas, while still burning slower and allowing for CR's as high as 15:1 in the right engine head combination.

Jet fuel is a highly explosive form af gasoline, and is extremly expensive if you can get your hands on any.

 

haha true true. but I use it anyways cuz it makes my car run better and quicker.