i need more power out of a 3.1

[Guest Eurolumina92]

Im looking to do some mods to me car i have a 3.1 lumina that has good power stock but not enough for me im looking for mods that can be done in a day not a timely project this is my daily driver

[Redfox340]

How much are you wanting to do? Spend? Budget?

Here are some of the common starters to do on you 3.1L pushrod:

* tune-up (start with the basics: plugs / wires / throttle body cleaning; you'll be amazed)

* [cold] air intake (custom made)

* exhaust system / components (local speed / muffler shop)

* performance MEMCAL chip (Fast Foward Performance)

* poly dogbones (Fast Foward Performance)

* underdrive crank pulley (Fast Foward Performance)

Sky's the limit on pushrod motors. Many concepts / ideas for performance are very practicle.

 

- Erik

[phantomFE3]

unless you have quite a few benjamins in your pocket, i think its a lost cause.. but if you have the $$$ and you want to go pretty fast, then you could either put a turbo system on it from a TGP, or build up a NA3.1, the NA might take alot of work but id say it would be around the same price as you would pay for getting the turbo on there (the damn crossover costs like 400 if you want the top-o-the line model) and for 400 bucks you could buy a cam, and maybe even a set of pistons for your motor, im not sure how much pistons cost but you can have them made for a variety of prices. plus with a naturally aspirated engine, you wont have the turbo lag (not much with the turbo from a TGP but its still there in the back of your head.. ) and you wouldnt have to worry about the turbo maintenance or anything because turbos need proper care too, all in all i think you would get better performance out of a turbo, but then there is the maintenance and the chance that it will go bad and you might have to replace the turbo, plus the cost of the x-over.

 

with the naturally aspirated engine, you would want to get the heads off of the newer 3100 and the intakes, get the heads worked on and have everything worked over to get a little more performance, you would want stronger headgaskets (your gonna want as much compression as you can get, safely) a cam, i know you can get some of those things from gmpartsdirect.com but they overcharge.. and your going to want some new pistons and rings and all the other stuff that would go along with a powerful engine like that, like the fuel pump and whatnot.. each engine has its downside, to be honest i like the idea of having a naturally aspirated high compression engine, but thats just me. i have no idea how much either one would cost but i think considering all the parts you would have to get to make the turbo crossover from a TGP they might be pretty close to the same price. but doing both of these properly would be quite a bit of money and ALOT of maintenance and vehicle down time, depending on if you take each motor out and work on them or get an extra motor and work on it outside the car and drop it in when your all done.

 

sorry that was kinda long but i myself dream about having a souped engine in my car, just because its so slow. and to be honest, ive tried making my car fast with a small budget and the essentials. ive done dual exhaust and a ghetto rigged intake and it didnt do much, even with my makeshift cold air intake (dont say anything guys because this one i only tried for a week and never took pictures of it and it was a REAL cold air intake, into the fender and everything, and NO you bastard i didnt make it out of PVC i made it out of 3 inch steel tubing!) and yeah, it didnt do much, just sounded more throatier on the hard acceleration and thats about it, i could kinda feel it in the seat of my pants, but not really.. but you might want to try the other things like the chip and the dogbones and the underdrive pulley, i havent heard anyone CONFIRM that they give significant increases in power but im guessing if you get all 3 of those from FFP you might be able to feel it...