1981 engine capabilities
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,155
Likes: 0
From: San Diego California
I agree, you can still do a lot for little money, but I would put headers on it, true duals with high flow cats, change the cam and use a head gasket that crushes down real thin to up the compression ratio. OR, go to aa salvage yard and get a complete late model engine and harness but I think the exhaust
modification alone will give you a good boost.
modification alone will give you a good boost.
Racer
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 306
Likes: 0
From: New Hampshire
That is a shame about where you live, but there are still a few things you can do, higher flowing exhaust and cat, better mufflers, ect. You can also do what old time hot-rodders did before money was a tool. gasket match the ports in the heads with the intake and exhaust, have the head milled down a little to increase compression and if your good with a dremal tool, clean up the intake and exhaust ports and modify the valves you already have. There is a book called "Design and tuning of competition engines" by Phillip Smith that went into detail on how to do it, not sure if it out of print though. A windage tray will give you a few more horses at speed also, other then a good intake and carb, everything else gets expensive.
