What would you do?
02-18-2003, 11:44 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Orlando
Posts: 2
What would you do?
I have a 1978 Pontiac Firebird ans she's basically bone stock. I am looking for suggestions of what to do with her. Here are the requirements and budget.
I have 4K to spend on the mechanics of the car. This is a pretty firm budget. This has to cover everything, tranny, rear, and most importantly motor.
As she sits now there is a stock TH350 in her, 3 spd, no OD, and 10 bolt rear, 2.73's, non-posi.
She will remain a daily driver, needs to run off the cheap pump gas, and I want to go as fast as possible.
So what would you do? Any and all advice, suggestions, etc are welcome. Feel free to PM or AIM me, too.
I have 4K to spend on the mechanics of the car. This is a pretty firm budget. This has to cover everything, tranny, rear, and most importantly motor.
As she sits now there is a stock TH350 in her, 3 spd, no OD, and 10 bolt rear, 2.73's, non-posi.
She will remain a daily driver, needs to run off the cheap pump gas, and I want to go as fast as possible.
So what would you do? Any and all advice, suggestions, etc are welcome. Feel free to PM or AIM me, too.
02-18-2003, 03:30 PM
#2
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: SAY Town
Posts: 412
You should be able to run an edlebrock Performer RPM kit, perhaps just the intake, cam, and carb for now. That would run about just over 500 dollars. The performance gain would be suprising. If you have the money for it (another grand) with the addition of the cylinder heads it has made 425 horsepower.
The TH350 is cheap to work on and reliable. But, I probably wouldn't go any higher than 3.23's with that tranny if you want to drive it on the freeway. Your 2.73's would be best. If you swap, however over to a 700R, which you can get for about 600-700 dollars. That overdrive would allow you to run 4.11 gears and still maintain the same drivability you have with your TH-350 now. But the 0-60 time would be dramatic.
You should be able to do motor, tranny, and gears (with an LSD) for $2,500 if you do most of the work yourself. That is assuming the bottom end of your engine is still in good shape.
The TH350 is cheap to work on and reliable. But, I probably wouldn't go any higher than 3.23's with that tranny if you want to drive it on the freeway. Your 2.73's would be best. If you swap, however over to a 700R, which you can get for about 600-700 dollars. That overdrive would allow you to run 4.11 gears and still maintain the same drivability you have with your TH-350 now. But the 0-60 time would be dramatic.
You should be able to do motor, tranny, and gears (with an LSD) for $2,500 if you do most of the work yourself. That is assuming the bottom end of your engine is still in good shape.
02-18-2003, 06:34 PM
#4
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Oshawa - Home of the 5th-gen
Posts: 5,308
The suggestion about the Edelbrock engine kit is probably a good idea. The cam is the most important piece of the "puzzle", although each of the components (heads, intake, cam) do have an interconnecting relationship!
Therefore, you've gotta decide how much you want to spend on the engine alone, but IMO, the stock heads should work fine with a "not-too-wild" mild cam
. In my '81 Z, I used GM "882" casting heads (basically, smogger heads) but with a decent cam and a good intake, it was a strong motor. Also, you can buy headers cheap for 2nd gen cars (~$200 CDN, so probably ~$150 US??) and they add a good amount of power, and they sound better too!
As far as transmission/gears go? I'd probably stick with the TH350, although if you switched to a 700-R4, you'd gain the overdrive and could run a lower gear (ie: 3.73) and still get decent highway mileage. If you keep the TH350, I wouldn't go any lower than 3.42's (which is what I had in my '81) since the motor starts to scream pretty good above ~70mph, and mileage isn't great. If you keep that tranny, 3.08's or 3.23's probably wouldn't be bad, but just get a Posi diff instead of the open diff.
I guess you've never specified what motor you've got, but IMO, I'd be using a 350 SBC --- they're pretty much the cheapest, easiest, and most common GM engine to get parts for, so on a "limited" budget, you'd get the most for your money. Oh, and if you really want to go "as fast as possible", leave the 2.73's, or get 2.56's like my '81 had, and I swear the sky's the limit!! I'm sure with enough road I could have hit 200 mph!!!
Damn that car was fast!!!! ('til I changed the gears to 3.42's, but then it pulled off the line like a bat outta hell!)
Therefore, you've gotta decide how much you want to spend on the engine alone, but IMO, the stock heads should work fine with a "not-too-wild" mild cam. In my '81 Z, I used GM "882" casting heads (basically, smogger heads) but with a decent cam and a good intake, it was a strong motor. Also, you can buy headers cheap for 2nd gen cars (~$200 CDN, so probably ~$150 US??) and they add a good amount of power, and they sound better too! As far as transmission/gears go? I'd probably stick with the TH350, although if you switched to a 700-R4, you'd gain the overdrive and could run a lower gear (ie: 3.73) and still get decent highway mileage. If you keep the TH350, I wouldn't go any lower than 3.42's (which is what I had in my '81) since the motor starts to scream pretty good above ~70mph, and mileage isn't great. If you keep that tranny, 3.08's or 3.23's probably wouldn't be bad, but just get a Posi diff instead of the open diff.I guess you've never specified what motor you've got, but IMO, I'd be using a 350 SBC --- they're pretty much the cheapest, easiest, and most common GM engine to get parts for, so on a "limited" budget, you'd get the most for your money. Oh, and if you really want to go "as fast as possible", leave the 2.73's, or get 2.56's like my '81 had, and I swear the sky's the limit!!
I'm sure with enough road I could have hit 200 mph!!! Damn that car was fast!!!! ('til I changed the gears to 3.42's, but then it pulled off the line like a bat outta hell!)
02-21-2003, 09:09 PM
#5
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: President of Sixpackistan
Posts: 11
Originally posted by Bliggida
You should be able to run an edlebrock Performer RPM kit, perhaps just the intake, cam, and carb for now. That would run about just over 500 dollars. The performance gain would be suprising. If you have the money for it (another grand) with the addition of the cylinder heads it has made 425 horsepower.
The TH350 is cheap to work on and reliable. But, I probably wouldn't go any higher than 3.23's with that tranny if you want to drive it on the freeway. Your 2.73's would be best. If you swap, however over to a 700R, which you can get for about 600-700 dollars. That overdrive would allow you to run 4.11 gears and still maintain the same drivability you have with your TH-350 now. But the 0-60 time would be dramatic.
You should be able to do motor, tranny, and gears (with an LSD) for $2,500 if you do most of the work yourself. That is assuming the bottom end of your engine is still in good shape.
You should be able to run an edlebrock Performer RPM kit, perhaps just the intake, cam, and carb for now. That would run about just over 500 dollars. The performance gain would be suprising. If you have the money for it (another grand) with the addition of the cylinder heads it has made 425 horsepower.
The TH350 is cheap to work on and reliable. But, I probably wouldn't go any higher than 3.23's with that tranny if you want to drive it on the freeway. Your 2.73's would be best. If you swap, however over to a 700R, which you can get for about 600-700 dollars. That overdrive would allow you to run 4.11 gears and still maintain the same drivability you have with your TH-350 now. But the 0-60 time would be dramatic.
You should be able to do motor, tranny, and gears (with an LSD) for $2,500 if you do most of the work yourself. That is assuming the bottom end of your engine is still in good shape.
Yeah, what he said L
. I'd leave the tranny alone (maybe a shift kit), and upgrade the rearend, and put an intake/cam/carb/ignition combo on it.
02-24-2003, 01:40 PM
#8
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 623
A friend of mine has a 79 Z28 with a built 350 out of an 84 3/4 ton truck. He is wanting to sell the original 350 that was in the Camaro. It consists of the original 2 bolt 350 that had a stock rebuild about 60k miles ago (.030 overbore), TH350 tranny that was rebuilt in 97, as well as an Edelbroch 600 cfm carb with a performer intake and a set of ceramic coated shorty headers. The carb and intake both have about 12k miles on them, but the headers are brand new. The engine is disassembled but has all the parts needed. I'm posting this for a friend of mine. He'll let all this go for $350. He really needs to get rid of this stuff as it is taking up alot of room in the garage, and he doesn't have any use for it. His email is houseagent20@hotmail.com
Jason
Jason