Does any one have any advise on how to restore or add some power to a 80 corvette with out breaking the bank!?
Thanks!

 

Carb, intake, heads, cam, headers and true dual exhaust.

Too much $$$? Too Bad!!!

Les

 

best modification, hands down, PULL THE DAMN STOCK MOTOR, and go by a nice crate motor, a numbers matching 80-82 is pointless

 

Thanks, yea your right if I want it bad enough it is going to cost!!

 

"Speed costs money...How fast do you want to go?"

 

I'm sure I will end up putting alot into it(money well spent!), but right now I really can't do much.

 

It really does depend on how much power you want and how much you want to spend. The first and cheapest place to start is always a good tuneup. New plugs cap rotor and just get things running right, maybe recurve the distributor. Then move to intake and exhaust. Ideally you would want a true dual exhaust with no cats, but if you have to get emmisions tested than that is out. If so opt for a cat back exhaust. Also a better flowing intake manifold.

Do these things and you are looking at 20-30 horsepower I would guess. Anything more than that will start to cost big bucks.

 

Fix the basics like tune up and recurved ignition first, then the exhaust, then it's time for the cam or new heads with a cam to match. If that is not enough, you can swap out the rear end gears. Those are the steps in the order I would reccomend.

-Mark.

 

if you have alot more time than money you can port alot of stuff yourself. and then buy exhaust. preferably with headers. because that can carry over to a new motor.

buy a new motor.

 

CHEAP WAY TO MAKE POWER!!!! HERE!!

get some vortec iron heads... and a vortec manifold... get the 58cc or 62cc chambers...1.94 valves (more compression, head flow better, intake flows better)

You will spend less than a grand for that...and make about 40hp over your bone stock 1980 motor...

Get some headers (flowtech or headmans are cheap about 150.00)...and MAD chambered exhaust (mid america about 220.00) That should get you another 20hp

upgrade to at least a 266 or MAX 270 adversited duration hyd camshaft...about 125.00 cam and lifters (if you go more you will need a stall converter) Should give you another 20-25hp.


Or better yet get a GM ROLLER hot cam kit 500.00 OOPS broke the bank!

 

The first thing you should do is get a set of headers and a good exhaust on the car NOT a set of heads. Then, do a street port job on the stock heads. You can do the porting for under $100. Depending on how rotten the stock heads are these two mods can get you 40 to 50 horsepower.

After this comes a MILD performance camshaft THEN an intake manifold if you want to go that far.

Each modification complements the one before it. That way you're not strapping a $1200 set of heads to a stock exhaust. The weakest area on these cars is the exhaust. You need to fix it first. Everything else you do will work better if it has a good exhaust.

BigBlockk

Later.....

 

[QUOTE]Bro... I am not trying to disagree with you... BUT I am ... to spend 100.00 on a stock set of smog heads when you have buy a pair of brand new vortecs for less than $500.00 add Headers on this setup it would KILL... I MEAN KILL your stock smogy heads (with 100.00 machine work) with headers.

You would have to spend about 400.00 in machine work to make those heads come close to new pair of vortecs.

Of course if your goal is to keep it stock... then work the stock heads... that is the only think you could do and still be numbers matching.... your factory cam, intake and factory exhaust will kill your performance anyway.

Depends on what is more important...
chances are your '80 will not be as valuable as a earlier year chrome bumper car with a good engine option in 20 years.

Sorry just my .02

 

get some headers and dual exhaust

 

make sure you get the sidepipes, they increase the pimp factor x10

 

You can do alot of things.Unless its a California Car.Then your stuck.The Federal 80`s can be built up just like anything else.

 

[QUOTE=holley505]When I read his original post it sounded like he wanted to get a little better performance "without breaking the bank". Now it is true that Vortecs are great heads but you can't get them (new) for $500. They cost $700 because you need the special manifold to go with them. So let me see, thats $700 for the heads and manifold plus $600 for headers and a new exhaust system (I wish). And thats if you do it yourself. That comes to about $1300.

Now if this car were mine I would start with the exhaust ($600) then do this http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.shtm ($100) and then drive the car for 6 months (getting 2 to 4 MPG better mileage) and see how I like it while I'm saving money for round two. At this point the car has about 40 HP more than stock and we have spent $700. Doing it your way he has nice heads and intake (at the $700 mark) being choked to death by that lousy stock exhaust system. You have to remember the stock exhaust is the biggest problem. The stock heads are better than the stock exhaust. The stock heads will work better if you get rid of the stock exhaust. THEN you improve the stock heads if it can be done at the right price. I don't think $100 is too much for heads that are "good enough".

Now, after two or three months he just can't live without more HP. Well he has saved up a couple hundred bucks. Now this isn't enough for the heads he wanted but it is enough for a cam and lifters. We'll even spring for $100 in beer to get all this work done and call it a total of $1000. The cam he gets is just a little over stock but it has all the modern ramp rate and lobe center technology. Now the cam, cylinder head work and headers on this engine would be worth 60 to 75 HP depending on just how bad the stock heads and stock exhaust were. This is about the same boost that the Vortec and headers will give ya and we still got $300 to go.

I guess this would be a good time to put a better manifold on it. This would be, what, $150 with the gaskets. I bet you could get it for $50 on eBay. Come to think on it, I wonder how much a 75 HP hit of squeeze would be from eBay. HMMM!

Now if that still isn't enough he can still get the Vortec heads, some time down the road, so to speak. But, what so ever is he going to do with those ungodly expensive heads ($100) he already has on his 'Vette? I don't know...he can put them on his pickup or something!!!

BigBlockk

Later.....

 

i agree with big blockk

sometimes its not about being or having the best. its about bang for the buck.

im a big fan of 75% of the gain for 25% the cost with 50% more inginuity.

if he doesnt spend all that money on heads maybe he can do a bunch of other small stuff that gets more of a gain in total vehicle goodness. like some suspension work. or some needed maintainance somewhere else. or new sticky tires. or a bunch of dizzy parts to get a good spark curve.

i think us chevy guys get spoiled with too much aftermarket anyway. ive had two cars with zero aftermarket performance parts and its amazing how much you can do yourself with some time and 5000000 grinder bits. there are significant gains that can be made on any production head/intake manifold. regarless of its "smoggyness."