New guy wondering about how to make his 85 Hot air faster than his firend's 85 'vette

[Hotair85]

Here's my story. I just picked a 1985 GN up from a friend of mine a few weeks ago. For sake of simplicity and originality, I would like to stay with the Hot Air engine . My best friend just bought a Corvette of the same vintage not too long after. He and I haven't yet been to the drags with either of our cars, nor have we dug up any production data on either car. All I can say is that a race between the two would be close. I want to widen that gap so I can have some breathing room. I don't know much about the Hot air cars and what's available for them. I plan to rebuild the engine while the car is in for paint, as it turned 100,000 a few hundred miles ago.

The previous owner did the following mods:
-Shift kit
- conical air filter (Don't ask me who the hell makes it )
-half-assed sound system

Please Help

 

[John84GN]

Do a search on here first, for perfomance recipes and upgrades, but your best bet would be to go here:

www.gnttype.org

TONS of info here, just look under the resources menu on the top right of the screen.

Also, look at some of peoples sigs after their posts in the Hot-Air sections to get some different ideas about what parts and combo's provide the best times and horsepower...

Hope this helps

John

 

[WFO]

couple of thing first,assuming this is your first turbo regal...

-the stock torque convertor is 2400 stall,and works fine with most turbos you'll be using on a mild build.

-the stock gears are 3.42's and should never be changed...the turbo likes to "lean" against some gear,and most 9 second cars i know of still run 3.42's.is you car a posi?g80 code on the trunk lid sticker.

-you will need some fuel imrovements right off the bat.a walbro 340 pump,billet adjustable fuel pressure regulator and hotwire kit are mandatory before attempting any performance mods.clean stock injectors are good to ~mid-12's.

-turbo cars don't like backpressure.large gains can be had from a 2.5"/3" downpipe and aftermarket exhaust with straight thru mufflers.no chambered mufflers(i.e. flowmasters).

-i would change to the 87 ecm and maf.the selection of chips and scan tool data is much greater with the newer ecm,and it's easy and cheap to swap.

-you're gonna need a scan tool.if you change to the 87 ecm you can use scanmaster or you can use tubo-link with either.trust me,you cannot make one of these cars run right without one.

-don't bother with any gimmick spark plugs.use ac cr43ts's gapped at a snug .035".you will also need new high quality(msd,magnecor)plug wires.the ignition on these cars is very hot,and will expose inadequate parts in a hurry.

-you should decide what you want out of this car and buy the parts once.if it's just gonna be a nice,quick driver you can get away with some stock parts.if you have loftier goals you should spend the money right the first time...

later,sean