will a cold air intake really help?

I have a 1999 Alero GLS V6 3.4 ltr. I was wondering what basic things i could do to help my car run faster and/or better. Cold air was one of the first that I thought would help, but I'd like another opinion. Would it help my car get better miles to the gallon too? If you have any other suggestions on performance parts that would help too, I don't have a huge budget to work with though either. Thanks.

Read this thread ewack - me and some other guys discuss intakes and some other stuff for the Grand Am's 3.4 (it's N body, same exact engine also, so everything will apply to your car)

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=334145

an intake modification (WAI or CAI) is a great first mod, and the lowered restriction will help slightly with MPG. Read the thread, and you should find it covers most intake stuff.

welcome to the forum

I would have to say, it will not work as well as you might think. A cold air intake may only give you 1-2 more mile to the gal. to me, 130-150 bucks for in intake that will only give you 1-2more mi per gal. its not worth it. Preformace wise, 8mm plug wires will help, its only 3 or 4 bucks more then stock wires, that will help with preformance. use 94 oct with it, and you will feel the difference. and stay away from BP gas. its junk, that will hurt your engine.

Here ewack, read this thread too - it's for our 3.4's, and we discuss tons of performance stuff.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=355665

Vamc, using a CAI solely for the purpose of increased MPG isn't worth it, unless you can build one dirt cheap. I built my custom WAI / CAI hybrid setup for about 50 bucks. And running premium all the time will not help that much with performance. The premium vs regular debate has been discussed for a long time, and the fact is that premium runs slightly smoother because higher octane = longer combustion time = less knock = knock sensor doesn't retard timing = not as much robbed power. And BP gas is not "junk that will hurt your engine." It depends what station you buy it from. I personally like BP - our station in my town has always given me good gas. I can understand what you mean if you have a crappy station in your town, but it is not true of all BP stations. They actually, as a corporation, have high quality gas. Where as, for example, speedway uses 10 % ethanol, BP uses none. A good example of their gas quality I witnessed in my friend's old F-150 - his truck ran the same on Speedway premium as it did on BP regular - that says alot. I'm not trying to bash on you or anything, I just didn't agree.

As far as more performance mods, check the above thread - me and a few other guys reccomend some good ones.

I tried 3 bp gas stations in my town, and i had the same resolts, my check engine light went on, alot of hesatation. Now i have 8mm plug wires, i think this has to do alot with it. now, bp w/ amaco is good, i have no prob w/ that.

Oh I see. Well now that you mention it, our BP is w/ amaco, so you're right, it could be a completely different story.

As far as those wires, I have 8mm MSD ignition wires - I love em, but they need some TLC.

I would highly reccomend taking them off, cleaning the coil packs caps, coating the caps and the inside boot of the wire with Di-electric grease (cheap at autozone) and reseating the wires - push them down super hard, because a few of mine were loose after I originally installed them.

I have tayler wires and their great