'89 305 V8 Camaro upgrades?

Hey guys, I just recently got my first car ('89 Camaro), and I was wondering if anyone could give me some ideas on how to boost my horsepower without spending a fortune. I was thinking along the lines of holley 670cfm tbi unit because I seem to already have an Edelbrock performer intake or is there something else that could give me more power for near the same price?

Thanks,
=Nick

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=369986

Educate your self there. But you know 305 are very poor performers with out a lotta money thrown at them.

what is the difference between TBI and TPI?

TBI = Throttle Body Injection

TPI = Tuned Port Injection


Tuned Port Injection has one fuel injector per cylinder. Throttle Body Injection has two injectors that fire into the intake manifold.

Mainly induction, heads, and cam. Tuned Port Injection (TPI) looks kind of like a spider sitting on top of the engine and Throttle Body Injection (TBI) is pretty much a computer controlled carb. TPI 305, for most years, got a bigger cam than TBI 305s and different heads that flowed a little better on the intake side than a TBI head.

Mods that I would do first for a stock L03 (TBI 305).
1. Carb air cleaner.
2. Sub-frame connectors
3. Headers and 3in catback
4. Tuning
5. Posi and 3.73 gears

With this setup and you get the tune spot on you'll have the power to run high 14s, which would be a good start.

thanks guys, feel free to post any other suggestions. all are appreciated because im a n00b when it comes to cars.

=Nick

But you know 305 are very poor performers with out a lotta money thrown at them.

That's a pretty bold statement there :disappoin

You think that an air cleaner is about 15 bucks, headers 350ish, catback about 200, gears about another 150, and the tuning software is about 150-180 if you already have a laptop. That's about less than a grand to lower your et by about a second and if you spend you want to spend a grand buy a pair of slicks and your running deep in the 14s.

And that's pretty much buying catalog or internet parts.

There's plenty of goodies lurking in the bone yards for far less than that.

My Camaros, both 305's had no problems running with 350's, and many occasions my first '85 carbed 305 would walk my cousin's 350 TPI z28 to the bus stop. :thumbsup:

Edit - come to think about it, my brother in law was so pissed, he bought his GTA TPI 350 for 4500. I bought my Z28 for 400 and when drove it he swore up and down it wasn't a 305. Still would have loved to see the 2 raced.

I was doing some searching after thoroughly reading the 305 post. I was wondering if this http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=HLY%2D502%2D5&N=700+115&autoview=sku was worth getting considering I already got the intake manifold that post recommended.
Or would something like this be worth buying http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=EDL%2D75254&N=700+4294908216+4294924930+4294908198+4294840138+ 4294925239+400065+115&autoview=sku ?

=Nick

Right now, I think that would be over kill plus you would have to make some pretty significant changes to your VE tables along with you IAC to compensate for all that extra air. Your stock throttle body and injectors will be more than enough to support every bolt on you can throw at it, although once you get the headers, exaust, and air cleaner you might want to up the fuel pressure a little bit. In my old L03 I had it running really good with the tune and had about evey bolt on I could think of and I did not come close to pulling any vaccum at WOT. It would be better to wait on the bigger throttle body for when you start getting into heads/cam swaps, right now it'll hurt more than help.

I found the headers which cost about $400 on summit racing, found the sub frame connectors, I can't seem to find the 3in catback and Posi, but I did find the 3.73 gears. And what would I have to do for the tuning? again, I'm a n00b, so it's a little hard trying to find all the parts because I probably don't know where the best places to look are.

=Nick

What headers are you looking at? I got my headman's for about $325 w/AIR. For the tuning, try looking at www.moates.net (http://www.moates.net). Tuning can be a bit overwhelming at first but the more you look at it the more sense it'll make sense and after a while it'll just seem like second nature. The OBD1 cable, BURN1, and I think the G2 adapter with flash chip should be all the hardware you need. You can also download WINALDL for dataloging and Tunerpro for tuning, both of them have free versions. If you get the stuff and have any trouble just let me know and I'll walk you through it, it's not too tough.

As for catbacks, there are about a million options out there it's just what every you like, wether it's Dynomax, Flowmaster, Magnaflow, Borla, Mac, or what ever. Just do a search or go to their websites and you can listen to all their different options and choose the one you like the sound of best, the differance is going to be about 5-7 horsepower at the MOST. Personally, if I like the sound of a muffler that flows less than another, I'd gladly give up 5 hp to have the sound that I like.

I must be retarded or something because I can't find any catbacks, I found 1 kit off of a Dynomax or Magnaflow site, but it was $1,000

there are a ton of catbacks: borla, flowmaster, magnaflow, dynamax, and others. just shop around for good prices. most will be 3in and you really don't want to go bigger than that.

If you go to jegs.com or summitracing.com and search for camaro and the name of catback you're looking for you should get a ton of matches.

Here's just a few of them
http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+4294908198+4294923429+115+4294 922451&NeXID=5

huh....I had searched all over summit racing and came up empty, I guess I was just looking in the wrong places.

Thanks,
=Nick

*Edit- I found the Headmans hedders, but since I'm in California, apparently I can't use them. So, I think I might go with either Flowmaster catback and probably Edelbrock headers which is gunna cost me about $400. How do Flowmaster's sound? Do you know if they have a deep, throaty sound, or do they have a "ricy" sound...because, I don't want my car sounding like a rice-rocket*

Flowmaster + v8 = no rice. On my old ride I had 3in piping with a flowmaster muffler and I loved that sound. IMO flowmaster doesn't sound near as good on an LT1 or an LS1 as it does on a regular SBC.

I know its a little off topic, but my car sometimes dies out when I'm at a red light, or a mild long stop, and I seem to notice the batter fluctuate before it dies out. A friend told me it was probably the alternator..does that sound right?

Yea, it's probably the battery or alternator. Go to Advance and get them to check them both out to make sure they're alright, they do it for free. If not than it's probably an wiring issue, which is fun fun fun...