I've loved the Firebird since I was a child back in the '80s. 15 years later I finally get my hands on a bright-red '97 Firebird with 24,000 miles for only $7,500. I mainly chose it for looks over perfomance, as performance cost so much money in more ways than one. That, and it was a heck of a deal. Too bad it's got about as much pickup as my old Saturn SC2, oddly enough, the bird gets more mileage on the highways.

Anyway, I was wondering if I should try and do anything with it? I believe I saw a topic about upgrading V6's, and I was just curious if it would be worthwhile, and what half of that stuff meant.

 

You can starts off with a lid/CAI (cold air intake) but since you have a 97 i think that year still has the cold air intake setup. Then some headers and a cat-back system. And if you you still got money you can always get some gears, stall converter etc... But if you want to go big then you can always go with a mild cam, port and polish. Then there is always power adders like nitrous, turbo/supercharger. But its all up to you and how much your willing to spend. Hope this helps and congrats on your purchase and welcome to the board.

 

Heh, I'll bet some of that stuff adds up quickly. What's that stuff go for, about?

That brings me to another question, I know you believe it's there, but how can I tell if I have a CAI or not?

 

To find out if you have a CAI setup or not look under the hood and if you do not have a box/lid looking thing then you have the CAI setup which i am 100% sure thats what you have. I cant really explain because i am not familiar to the CAI setup becasue i have the lid. But look under the hood follow the elbow looking thing that comes off your engine/throttle body and follow the tubing and if the owner before you installed a CAI then you will see a cone like filter but if you dont you will just have a air box assembly. Hope that helped and i am sure someone will chime in and explain what i couldnt explain.


Here are some sites to help you find the mods i was talking about

www.thunderracing.com
www.lmperformance.com
www.tbyrne.com

 

Congrats on the F-bod!

Like 3.8LCamaro98 said, it all depends on how much you are willing to spend. I'd definitly give it the basic bolt-ons. Lid, CAI, exhaust. Help it breathe better.
Then, if you've got the funds throw some nitrous in there.

 

You should have quite a bit more power than a saturn SC2. might not feel that way since the saturn is a smaller car.
like was mentioned above, see if there is any aftermarket on it now. Your first mods should be the cold air intake and headers exhaust and high flow cat. just the exhaust will help and add about 10 HP, but if you can afford to do both together, it will save some hassle and labor.
Then gears and posi. 3.42's if your an auto, stick w/ the 3.23's if your stick.
Cam will be a great follow up mod once you have the other basics, and will only run you 400ish if you do the work yourself, it'll be over a grand if you hire it out.
You'll have alot of fun with the car, and its not very often that you find a 97 w/ that few miles.

 

bright red bird =


welcome to the f-body club...

 

97's came stock with CAI?

 

No 97's did not come w/ a CAI stock. What i ment/saying was that the 97 birds have the air box assembly not the lid on the 98+ f-bodys. So i was saying he should look into a CAI kit and not a lid like the whisper lid etc...

 

Yeah, it definately doesn't have a CAI, as there's a nice box that doesn't feel like coming off. So... out of all that stuff mentioned, how much of it requires knowing how to weld? I'm assuming the exhaust sytem and the cam.

 

Go here and click on one of the topics. Use this as a price reference. I recommend nitrous if you want cheap boost.

 

you probably have to weld the exhaust only because most catbacks are made for V8s and require slight modification to fit on V6s but there are V6 specific catbacks/conversion kits out there that bolt and clamp right in without any welding.

also no welding necessary for the cam swap.

 

So... if I'm reading this right, then this particular product (This is a cat-back, right?) would not require any welding? It would then connect to my current headers, or eventually, new ones?

Borla

Also, I forgot to ask, if that's not a cat-back, then does anybody know of a brand that makes them for V6's?

 

I'd recomend you get to know the car first, I slowly learned what I was doing before I changed anything.

Like most said, the intake is a big one, real help changing that out, I did my exhaust over a year after I bought my car and left the cats/forward piping alone.

 

Thanks for the input. I wasn't planning on doing anything of this sort until after I graduate, but I'm always curious to learn along the way.