I'm I college student with a crappy job. What are some cheap ways to make my 1992 Camaro RS fast? I was thinking a peformance chip from hypertech, new exhaust cut off underneath the seats. Not sure about headers and roller rockers but if that is the cheapest way to make it fast give me some suggestions. I'm just starting off with my first Camaro and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks..

 

Most definately headers !

And:

http://www.thirdgen.org/ultimatetbi

http://www.thirdgen.org/ultimatetbi2

That should help ya out a little bit.

 

nitrous

 

Probably the BEST way to add serious power to the TBI 305. By the time you add up all the little mods and get a whole 15 hp, you can throw 600 dollars at a NO2 setup and have close to a stock New Edge Mustang GT.

Those 305s were hurting from jump street.......They have something like 180HP which is probably 145-50 to the wheels. NOT GOOD!!!

Nitrous all the way...

 

My '88 Camaro LT T.B.I. had 170 hp. It was quite the slug. I sold it and bought an L98 car. I figured no matter how much I modded the T.B.I. it would never match the L98.

But NOS seems the best choice until you get a TPI, LT1 or LS1 car.

I searched NOS at Summit but only found them for TPI cars. I'm not familiar w/NOS so maybe you'll know what kit to consider.

 

I found a performance chip that requires the intake to be modified. After modifying the intake and adding this hypertech performance chip, the chip promises about a hundred horse power...? I was wondering if that is an actual possibility? it seems to be too much of a performance gain to me for only 200....

 

do not get any chips...waste of money.

Headers/cam gears and converter are your best bets. Then you can swap them to a 350 later on and keeps all your mods.


I would not expect much from that car...it just designed for transportation. TBI was never intended to be fast

 

Dont buy a chip. Waste of money. Headers and exhaust, gears, and N20, like they said. After that, look for a new engine. I picked up 6 tenths, and 7 mph with just an exhaust. Of course it still didnt break into the 15s, if that tells you anything.

Yes, there are guys going fast with 305s. Some are in the 12s, with a carb, but they spent alot of money.

An LT1 or LS1 swap will cost about as much as a crate motor, so its really up to you after that. You can get LT1s all day on ebay for $1200, with a computer, and harness. Add another $2k or so for what you need to make it work right, and youre looking at 13s. And with the nitrous kit swapped over, maybe even 12s. LS1s cost more to install, and are harder, but they have much more overall potential. And with a crate engine, your checkbook determines where you stop.

Good luck.

 

not to jack this thread or anything but are there off the shelf n2o kits for a tbi camaro? i haven't seen any. i was gonna mill my own plate out of aluminum but a kit would be much easier.

 

no, just put a nozzle over top of the throttle opening. You may need something to do about supplying fuel. I think the TBI only runs on 12-15psi

 

Some guys use a kit for the TBI 350 for the trucks. It works too.

 

The 305 TBI is a good reliable engine, but it's severely limited in it's ability to breathe. In stock form, it makes peak HP at 4000rpm. Anything you can do to improve airflow from the air cleaner, through the manifolds and heads and out the exhaust would work great.
I've heard a pretty popular mod for TBI engines is swapping in a stock LT1 cam. I'm sure you can find one of those pretty cheap. You can use stock LT4 springs/retainers with it, which can also be had for cheap. You can do the 1.6 ratio rockers at the same time.
Look for a dual snorkel air cleaner that was stock on the L69 305 4 barrel, and throw in a K&N filter element.
Get rid of the boat anchor stock cast iron intake manifold and get an Edelbrock aluminum TBI replacement manifold. That will give you a few more ponies and chop some weight off the front of your car.
You can do headers/high flow cat/catback exhaust. You can also look for a factory setup off of a 89-92 car with dual cats; that should net you some power.
You can get most of this stuff pretty cheap on ebay if your patient enough.
Lastly, do a search for a company called "Turbo City". They have some good stuff for TBI engines. On second thought, here you go:
http://www.turbocity.com/

 

I had a 91 RS with the 305 TBI. I wasted a lot of money trying to make it fast....and I still got beat by pickup trucks and altimas and whatever else happened to line up next to me; and lost several MPG in the process.

My advice is this. Enjoy the car the way it is. They handle really nicely. They look good. They sound good. They aren't fast. There are a couple guys around here who champion the things, but they've dumped serious coin into thier cars.

You'd be better off saving the money up and buying a car with more potential when you're tired of that car.


EDIT: whatever you do, don't buy that Hypertech Chip. If you just HAVE to get rid of some money, give it to a charity. It really is a terrible waste. I already made that mistake for you.

 

TBI guy gives some good advice.....

Even with the mods I suggested, you aren't going to be out there blowin' people's doors off. You should see about 50 more horsepower, which will put you around 220hp, or in the territory of a stock 305 TPI/stock 5.0 Mustang.
Something else you might look at is putting in a limited slip differential (stock RS has an open differential). If you have 2.73 gears, keep them. A mild higher stall (around 2200rpm) lock up torque converter and a shift kit will wake the car up quite a bit.
It is what it is. The car will be more fun to drive, and they're already pretty fun. My 91 RS was and still is the best handling car I've ever driven.

 

When I was newbie at the camaro, I did the hypertech chip (I didnt dyno it, and gave only a modest increase in power, barely noticeable) on a 5.7 TPI. I was not very pleased. I then got some green filters. Again, nothing to brag. Finally got some headers (shorties) and new Y pipe and magnoflow cat/muffler 3" all the way and that finally gave me a more noticeable power push. For the price of the hypertech chip you can get the headers, the expense will be the application, if you cannot weld then getting somebody else could cost you up to $500-600. Not including the Y-pipe which is $100 roughly. These modest gain is roughly 1G.
Luckily I have a 5.7 TPI and more options are allowed. My advice is just get a good tune and maybe a good sounding muffler (flowmaster be ok for that car) and save money for another engine. My next plan is to mess with the induction and nitrous. good luck