I bought a stock 1986 Trans Am and I love the car. Its a daily driver but I'd like to make it faster without comprimising reliability or gas mileage. What are some good mods to look into? I think I'm going to do intake tomorrow. Being my first TPI and first V8, is there anything I should know about them in general? Thanks, I can't wait to mod this car!

 

The 305 TA's seem to respond to a good cat back exhaust, then I would go for headers and a CAI (cold air intake). It will sound a lot better as well as give you a major seat-of-pants performance increase. Things get a lot more complicated from there.

 

Well I drove it home with not catback but I'm going to be putting on a flowmaster and pipes tomorrow. Any reccomendations on what intake to do? Which headers?

 

super ram is the only 50 state legal one, but if that doesnt matter, then its only preference on what kind of powerband you want.

 

Would there be a big difference between getting a CAI and just an open air filter? I've seen quite a few threads arguing why ram air is useless.

Also, I've seen some hooker headers on ebay for $50. Seems too cheap and I haven't been under my car to see what I would need. Any ideas?

 

I would'nt put money into anything untill you get the 86 flat tappet peanut cam out of there, this coming from a former 86 IROC owner.

 

Where/how much/how hard to install, etc.?

 

what are your goals? for example, what would you like to be able to run in the 1/4 mile? how much power do you want? i would do a cat back first and foremost. then save your money and do the cam and headers at the same time as they will be the next restriction. after you have the cam, headers, and exhaust done if you still want more power port the stock heads or get different ones and port the intake. how many miles are on the car and how does it run now?

 

Before you start modding you want to make sure you have a solid platform with which to work.

Do a good tune-up and check out the suspension. Make sure everything is working the way it is supposed to work. Replace hoses and belts, and check the timing and that sort of stuff. As soon as you start changing parts you spend more time in the garage than on the street, which is why you bought the car in the first place.

After you make the car run perfectly as stock as it is you can decide what you would like to change first based on how it performs. If you want it to go faster then you need to know how fast it is now, and how much faster you want it to be. That will help ypu determine how much money you want to give to the hot rod gods. Changing parts because its cool may not get you where you want to go and get you into spending way more than you want, taking longer than you want, for less results than you want. A trip to a Drag Strip and an Autocross event should point you in the right direction.

If you have no experience changing parts figure from the headers to the exhaust tips will cost about $1000. That may or may not include labor depending on what you purchase. As a matter of fact most upgrades that can be bolted on come in about $1000 increments. It can be done cheaper (sometimes) if and only if you do the work or get a hook-up.

I know this because right now I have an '85 in my garage that I haven't even driven 500 miles. The motor is out because I got caught up in the "might as wells".

There are leaks everywhere - might as well rebuild the engine...
- might as well get a bigger engine
- might as well get a 400 as they are about the same price
- might as well change the heads since they are so weak
- might as well get headers since the engine is out
- might as well get a k-member so I can make it lighter
and so on and so on and so on and I still don't get to drive the car.

If you don't know the total you want to spend on the car then determine how much you are willing to set aside each month/week/whatever then figure out how long you will be willing to do it.

Example:

$250/mo X 4mos. = $1000 = headers and exhaust = how much faster?

Get it working perfect then improve it. DOn't do like I did and get stuck saying yeah I got a Camaro it's in the garage...

Jason

 

underdrive crank pulley,cheap and easy.

 

I don't plan on taking it to a track really. I just want a bit better performance, nothing crazy. The engine is running well and I'll be tuning it up sometime this week. $1000 for exhaust is really steep in my book unfortunately. I don't think I'm going to go over board on mods, but we'll see. I'm thinking:
Intake
Exhaust
Polyurethane sway bar bushings
Aluminum Driveshaft
Cam maybe?

 

You will get your biggest bang for the buck with a cam for that car. I would use the comp cams xe256h-12.

 

The point of taking the car to the track is not to be Speed Racer and go home with the pretty girl and big trophy. It's to establish a performance baseline. Go on 'Grudge' night or some other night when it's cheap. Make 2-3 passes to see what your car runs. You can skip out before eliminations if you wish. The goal is to have an ET and MPH from which you can judge your improvements. Still don't want to race? Get a G-Tech and use that instead on your favorite empty road.

You want a 'performance improvement', but how will you know if there's an improvement if you don't know what it did in the first place?

When I got my Chevelle as a teenager back in 1990, I raced it at the track the 2nd day I owned it and put down a best of 16.01. Within a month or two, I upgraded the pathetic single exhaust to factory-style duals with Dynomax mufflers. I took it back to the track and that single change got me down to 15.2. (I have a 400 -- a 305 probably wouldn't see such a large gain) Another year or so later, I got headers and that put me in the low 15s, high 14s. Then I replaced the 2-bbl with a 4-bbl and Edelbrock intake. Those changes got me another couple tenths. I now had a car running 14.60s, compared to 16.0s when I got it. And I used real numbers.

Just as a side note, when I swapped on the 4-bbl, it wasn't any faster than my 2-bbl. How can that be? -- the tuning (jetting) wasn't right for my engine. I made some jetting changes, using my ET to judge the effectiveness. The car ended up, ultimately, faster with the 4-bbl. The same principle applies to PROM tuning. If you make changes and dont make adjustments in the computer, you might not see any gain, or even a negative effect.

For your basic mods, start with the exhaust. Get some better pipes with a good flowing muffler. Make sure your cat isn't plugged. If your engine can't get it out, it can't take it in. THEN work on the intake side.

And lastly, for someone who isn't very interested in racing (which is fine), an aluminum driveshaft would be about the worst way to spend your money. Very little performance improvement, and no one will ever see it. And no one other than hardcore car guys will want to get on the ground and look under your car.

I'm not trying to sound mean or nasty. But I (and many of my friends, and many people on this forum) have been-there-done-that. Don't be afraid to learn from the experience of others. Everything jrg77 wrote is right on the mark, including the 'might as wells'. I'm in the middle of some might-as-wells with my EFI upgrade. :-)

Now, go get a baseline, and happy modding!

-Dave

 

1st response covers it for a start.

It's Not?