easy power

[K-Unit]

My 84 Z28 is completly stock right now and i wanted to get soem more power out of it, without spending too much. The stock 84 had about 145HP which is very gutless in my opinion. I was wondering what mods i should do first. I am aiming for 250HP. I know thats not very much either, but i don't have a lot of money at the moment. Anyways so i was thinking I would put dual exhaust on, or maybe just a single 3 inch, headers, carb, cam and intake manifold. Anything else that i could do to get some power without spending too much more?

[DaMoNe6969]

That should put you near the 250hp mark providing you get the right cam/intake/carb combo..

The benifits of true dual exhaust arent worth the effort.. Get a set of Edelbrock TES headers with a 3" Y pipe and 3" cat-back..
Also, while your down there.. Pull your heads off, havem' rebuilt w/ a port and polish... You want it pulling air in and pushing it out as fast and smoothly as possible...

You should talk to 1992RS

[K-Unit]

How much do you think it will cost to have my heads rebuilt and port and polished?

[DaMoNe6969]

oh, make sure your engine can handle the extra power.. The car is 20 years old already, if its the original motor, its tired out and ready to retire.. If you build up the top end, Chances are you'l blow your bottem end in a week..

[DaMoNe6969]

I couldnt really give you an estimate.. Prices seem to vary so much from shop to shop.. Nevermind from one country to another..lol

[K-Unit]

ya, it may be 20 years old, but its had it pretty easy, the first owner was an old man, the second was a woman whos husband looked after it while she drove it, now i have it. It has about 80k miles on it.

[DaMoNe6969]

thats suprisingly low.. Provided it has been taken care of and maintained.. You should still have a strong running engine

[4onFloor]

Originally Posted by K-Unit

How much do you think it will cost to have my heads rebuilt and port and polished?

pull the valves out of the heads yourself (marking locations as you do it) then take both the valves and the heads to a machine shop. a simple valve and seat grind runs about $30-45 around hear. if you do the bitch work like assymbly and re-assymbly yourself, you'll save quite a bit. valve seals cost about $10 for the stools and $10 for the O rings, and you can easily install them yourself. you can port your own heads if you have a grinder, but if you've never done it before, i'd have it done proffessionally

i rebuild my own heads and it runs me about $20 for the whole job if i re-use the valves and springs. but i also have a valve grinder and a die grinder.

[DiabloGT]

Originally Posted by 4onFloor

pull the valves out of the heads yourself (marking locations as you do it) then take both the valves and the heads to a machine shop. a simple valve and seat grind runs about $30-45 around hear. if you do the bitch work like assymbly and re-assymbly yourself, you'll save quite a bit. valve seals cost about $10 for the stools and $10 for the O rings, and you can easily install them yourself. you can port your own heads if you have a grinder, but if you've never done it before, i'd have it done proffessionally

i rebuild my own heads and it runs me about $20 for the whole job if i re-use the valves and springs. but i also have a valve grinder and a die grinder.

how did you get experienced at rebuilding heads, like how did you learn it/ who taught you?

[4onFloor]

i learned how to grind valves and valve seats in highschool by practicing on other people's cars

my dad and my grandpa showed me how to port and polish, then when my grandpa retired as a mechanic i got most of his tools: valve grinder, hard seat grinder, porting bits, mics, spring compressors, umbrella punch etc.

[Chevyracincamaro]

toight. thats pretty much how i learn most of the stuff i know, by experimenting on other peoples' cars...

[5 Point 7]

Damn man, I wish I could have the hook up like that. That would be nice. I've went around to different shops and asked if they need a hand around the shop and I could learn to do some work. And would work for CHEAP, just to learn stuff. And ALL of them said no. So I guess I'll have to learn by spending a shitload on a car and mess it up in the process. Allwell, I'll get it one day

[Chevyracincamaro]

thats what im doing. my car was in perfect, and i mean perfect, working order when i got. so far its spent more time on the jackstands that on the road. with cars, you just have to learn from experience...

[5 Point 7]

Yeah that's how I've learned what I do know. Back when I got my first car changing the oil, brakes, lines, booster and master cylinder. Hollowed cat...installed intake. Audio systems.. I had a lot of fun doing all that learner stuff. But at the level of porting your own heads, etc. I could just see myself really, REALLY screwing something up.

[Deadcarny]

There was a guy that used to work with me that had an 86 TA with the LG4 (160HP 305). He wanted to mod it for cheap and started looking into what he wanted to do. We pulled his motor at work and pulled everything except the Shortblock apart. He searched the internet and found a couple sites on the net about porting heads and decided to try it. Those stock heads are easy and cheap to find if you screw up anyway... He ordered the standard abrasives kit from summit, a Die grinder, and some carbide bits. He kept the stock Valves, but obtained a Junk intake and Exhaust valve from a local machine shop to put in the chambers while porting to avoid damaging the stockers. After the port job, he had new Guides installed and had a valve job along with milling like .005" from the heads to raise compression a little. He Then ordered an Edelbrock Cam/intake kit and installed it with the proper size carb. The car also had shorty headers and a cutout.

After all these mods this little 305 made 210rwhp, which comes to just under 250 at the flywheel. he could have gone with a little more duration on the cam, so as long as you do not mind losing a little streetability another 15rwhp may be achievable!

I do not think he paid over $600 in the end.