hey, im new

[DragCamaro]

hey, im pretty new to the GN's and im about to buy a 85 model. basically what i want to know is what will it take to get this into the low 12's, mabe 11's, ill build the motor eventually, but that will take some saving. i plan on swapping in an intercooler, but i dont really know where or what way to go. im basically looking at the best bang for the buck stuff if there is anything specific, i figure a chip, downpipe and some sort of intake setup, i really dont know how all that will work out.
thanks for any help
Mark

 

[SouthernCal GN]

Welcome to the darkside

The hot air cars (84/85) are harder to make go fast, as most of the market is focused on the IC cars. That being said, your goals are achievable, depending on how much you want to spend.

 

[fbodlovr]

I was in the same spot as you are a few years ago. Granted my engine was screwed up from the beginning. It seems like quite a few hot air guys have changed over to the intercooled setup to get the power.....a little easier. I am actually one of those guys as I am swapping mine out for the intercooled now.

Its kind of a good time for you to come on here as well. I have a good amount of first mods that will help you out. I can list a few for you that are the first steps.

Get a new intank fuel pump. The walbro will work really well.
You'll also want to get a hot wire kit for your fuel pump to get a better current back there.
Then, you'll want to start changing over to some of the 86-87 stuff, like ecm, ign. module, and coil, ign module adapter, and ign module harness adapter, an IAT sensor with the harness, and ESPECIALLY a scanmaster or something along those lines. From there you'll want to upgrade the turbo, which for the hotairs is the ta33c from limit engineering. That turbo from what I have heard is good for the 11's. You'll also want an adjustable actuator as well so you go beyond the factory boost levels. Once you get that turbo, you'll want to get bigger fuel injectors, with a chip, and an adjustable fuel pressure regulator. From there, you'll just do the mods that come after that, or whatever you prefer like exhaust headers, intake, and so on. IF YOUR HEADERS HAVE CRACKS IN THEM, GET THEM WELDED!!! That will hurt performance becaus of spoolup problems.

I have some of those parts that will get you started off as well. I have the turbo which has only 60 miles on it, the IAT sensor with harness, the adjustable actuator, injectors, chip, ign. module adapter, and ign. module harness. I also have a couple other things, but thats just to give you an idea.

Hope that helps you some. These cars are fun, but can be more of a headache to go fast compared to the intercooled cars.

Oh, and welcome!!!!!!!

 

[DragCamaro]

the guy said it had 87 style coils. idk really what all that includes, weather its just coils or the complete ignition, is there any way to tune these cars? like LS1's and series 2 3.8's have hp tuners, is there anything fully tuneable like that? i figure not, cause there chipped.
i planned on swapping the intercooler in, how should i go about that, like a kit or something? cause im pretty low on cash and a $800 intercooler kit is pretty much outa the question for now, btw how will this run stock vs stock with a 96 trans am (350LT1 auto)
thanks for the help

 

[BRAD_PADGETT]

If I was in your position before I bought my Hot Air I never would have. This is based on my knowledge after the fact. Your goals will cost easily $8000 in improvments in a Hot Air. Put this money on an 86/87 on the front end. Good luck- Brad

 

[Jerryl]

hey, im pretty new to the GN's and im about to buy a 85 model. basically what i want to know is what will it take to get this into the low 12's, mabe 11's, ill build the motor eventually, but that will take some saving. i plan on swapping in an intercooler, but i dont really know where or what way to go. im basically looking at the best bang for the buck stuff if there is anything specific, i figure a chip, downpipe and some sort of intake setup, i really dont know how all that will work out.
thanks for any help
Mark

Mark,
Welcome to the board.
The previous members are very knowledgable with these cars and have graduated from the "School of Hard Knocks".
As long as you heed their advice, you will be fine.

You have set realistic goals and that is the most important thing.
You are looking for 375 - 425 at the wheels in a 3700# car.
All it takes now is the $$$$$ to meet the goal. :biggrin:
Have fun!

 

[Boost231]

Welcome.

 

[T-Type85David]

i was there, you got the right idea,

my 1st mods where

Hooker exhaust Summit.com
Big mouth Cold air intake TR customs
dynomax supercat summit
Rebuild bored over 30
Edelbrock shocks and new springs summit
MSD WIRES

I think it depends on how you want the car to handle/go.


IF you really want to SAVE$$$$


convert to the f-body radiator,
9'' open K&N,
Get the 160 stat,eletric fan(s),
adj FPR,
If your exhaust pipes are good, get better mufflers and cat, NO FLOWMASTERS!!!!!
Spark plugs and a good wire set,
93 octane with or without 2 bottles of NOS octane booster and lucas Fuel Treatment (your choice) i use em
full syn oil with cooler,
Hotwire fuel pump kit and fuel pump upgrade.
91/93 chip with 36lb injectors
Shift kit, and posi diff
Last but not least, a scan tool n air/fuel gauge & boost gauge

That should be around 2,000 give or take a few hundred.Depends on parts picked.
Hmm one tip, Better TIRES make a huge differance. 215/65/15 is our stock size. Falken Ziex 512 are great i got them for 53$ a pop. Tire tirerack or tiresavings.com and look around. Then just call a few local shops. later you can do all those 86/87 upgrades, as for your turbo, just get better internals. I'm stock right now but i got a few quotes, 450 $ gets me up2 350hp, 600$ gets up 2 450HP . PNP yours heads a bit, port match your intake and TB. Like everything else in life, it takes time........... unless you have a GNX.

LIVE by " if it ain't broke don't fix it" but add to that "unless it makes it go faster'" haha and you will be fine. hope this helps let me know how it goes.

 

[turbo6x2]

The above post hits on a lot of things that will help. The port and polish heads, gasket match the intake make huge difference on these cars. As does getting a larger down pipe soon to be availble on G body. You can do the basics injectors, fuel pump and freshen up the motor. If you do a lot of your own work you won't spend a ton of money either. I would suggest doing a lot of reading and printing off information from Turbo Regal Web Site and getting a 3 ring binder and label the sections for easy reference.

Good luck,
Jamie

 

[esinger]

The easiest way to get a 11 sec hotair is to buy Jamie's car

 

[Dwayne]

If the car is totally stock and unmolested, I would leave it that way and drive it.....it will be worth a helluva lot more money down the road.

 

[WFO]

The "must have" items:

-Walbro 255L pump w/ hotwire kit
-Adjustable FPR
-87 ECM/new chip
-AC Delco CR43TS plugs @.035"
-new plug wires
-new fuel filter
-fresh oil and pureone(no fram!)filter.I use DELO 15w40 diesel oil.
-scanmaster/turbolink/powerlogger or some other tuning device
-manual boost controller
-gauges-boost,oil pressure water temp

These things will keep your car from becoming a grenade as you start your performance mods.You can actually gain quite a bit with just these mods if you take the time to tune the car for them.

-bigger injectors(at least 42#)and chip
-3" downpipe
-hooker dual exhaust and no cat if you can
-ported heads
-port matched intake
-bigger cam
-cold air intake
-alky injection or intercooler or both
-bigger turbo

I'd get everything off the first list starting with the fuel pump and tuneup.

Once you have all that stuff get the new exhaust and air intake.By that point if you're actually tuning it you'll probably be ready for injectors.

Do yourself a favor and scour the parts for sale forum every day.Some of these parts are damn near given away on there.You can buy used and save a pile of $$.

Hell there was a guy a couple days ago selling a set of 42# injectors and a chip for $80! You'll probably hear different from some,but that's all the injector you're gonna need for your hotair...

 

[Boost231]

want to hit the 11's cheap put the blue bottle in the back of it.

 

[WFO]

want to hit the 11's cheap put the blue bottle in the back of it.

"Nawss...I need nawss...the big bottle...make it two..."

 

[turbo6x2]

The easiest way to get a 11 sec hotair is to buy Jamie's car

Hey, that would only work if you pried it from my cold dead hands...

 

[turbo6x2]

If the car is totally stock and unmolested, I would leave it that way and drive it.....it will be worth a helluva lot more money down the road.

True but you can do just a good motor overhaul and get into the low 13's and then a couple small mods the 12's My friend did this with very few mods and the car is still street driven.

 

[turbo6x2]

Hell there was a guy a couple days ago selling a set of 42# injectors and a chip for $80! You'll probably hear different from some,but that's all the injector you're gonna need for your hotair...

42# injectors will get a hot air into the high 11's safely.

 

[DragCamaro]

yea this has to be daily driven too, im trading my 96 trans am for one (thats why i asked how they compared performance wise) so first thing i should get is a pump, injectors and chip? where is the best place to get all that?
im really not gonna track it all to much, i just wanna kill some cobras lol. i defanately will, but im not making it a trailer queen. i can build the motor myself, parts are just the biggest things. im figuring on making it pretty nasty if i ever build the motor, i was thinking a master power T-70 w/ an intercooler and alky, pretty good cam too. is there any way i can swap a 700r4 into it? there a lil cheeper to build and im a lil more formiliar with them

 

[T-Type85David]

Daliy driver hot air, hmm have to use a cat or pay BIG $$$ Cobras huh, hmm never ran against those but be a 5.0 GT SC fox body. HMm Get parts that will help other mods later.

hooker exhaust kit/w mufflers SUMMIT so you don't need to pic the right ones just use the ones with the kit.
Big mouth cold air intake FROM TRCUSTOMS
Scann tool,
REMEMBER
You can't really gain much without freeing up power you already have.
don't put 42injectors without a chip or a good air intake system
or run a bigger turbo with WEAK exhaust system.
Free up HP, go electric fans,water pump, use power pulleys.
If your talking cheap.... DIRT CHEAP HP
COlD AIR INTAKE, EXHAUST KIT W/ hi flow cat.( i use dynomax super cat myself) 160 STAT,
Run 93 octane with lucas fuel treatment, buy the big bottle it's cheaper.
This is only if everything else is ok, put money into brakes,tires, fluids,tune up and all that stuff. That should free up alot of HP that you will feel.


I don't have much mods just tweak and free up HP and i beat SC stangs. All in all, it's the driver. How we setup the car and take car of it. The better you know your car the better you can tune it/drive it.
Another THING!
PEOPLE WILL TRY OR WILL STEAL IT FROM YOU!!!!!
so put some money into an alarm or tracking system or whatever.
YOU CAN"T STOP a tow truck when your not around.
Cover that car up.

 

[DragCamaro]

what is the best chip? are any of the ebay headers any good or are they junk? what kind of turbos can i use, i just noticed that these cars dont have the typical t3/t4 flange, is there like an adapter so i can run what i want? should i wait and get an intake and downpipe after i swapturbos or will it work with about anything?
i found a lot on ebay, and i might end up going with those headers if their any good and a front mount intercooler setup, most of that is for a 86-87 though, will it work if i change the headers? id have to get a 86-87 intake then wouldnt i?
thanks for all the help
Mark