I only removed the AIR pump because I had removed the cat and installed headers, so it is pretty much useless without the stock cat and manifolds on it. If anything, it makes working under the hood a little easier without the extra pump/belt/hoses in the way.

And regarding the stainless manifolds, they were put on the engine to reduce weight only. I can show you pictures of what the look like on the inside and where the welds on the flange broke on mine. They are junk. Spend the $110 plus the extra money for the VHT paint and buy the Summit headers. they will work perfect for a mostly stock engine.

 

I was not aware of hedders for $110. At that price this would be a good upgrade. Plan to spend $9.00/can for the VHT paint, it took 2 cans for my hedman hedders . Still , at $128 for painted hedders, you cant beat that.
I would still look at the hp increase vs the original ss setup from the factory ,then decide on the money.

 

I wasn't planning on installing headers this year. I only did it because my left motor mount fail and caused the engine to tilt up and broke the flange right off my stock manifold. I'm sure it could easily be welded, but i figured I might as well just install headers, as the mounts were a lot easier to replace with no manifolds in the way. The summit headers fit perfect and mated to my exhaust with only a little modifications (slight bend) to my right side pipe. I'll do a write up on them with pics when I get a chance.

 

Right now I am not looking for much..hell If I could get close to 250hp(thats not a goal just a number I threw out there) I would be ok for the time being....I want to be able to make a right hand turn and have the person that is a quarter mile down the road not catch up to me when the speed limit is 45. Just a slight performance boost that is all...nothing spectacular. Hell if a new Prom, some headers, and changing the gears makes everything a little better...I am all for it. Some quick cheap mods is all I am searching for

 

I know exactly how you feel, I like the fact that the car is mostly stock, but a little 150 hp import feels faster then a stock '81. I'm not looking to build a beast, but i feel a round 300-350 hp would be perfect for this car.

IMO, a lot has to do with the gearing and the characteristics of the rear end and tranny, thats why i'm saving for a manual before I do anymore major engine mods. I think a 5 speed with a low first gear would really wake the car up and I can shift when I want and not be in 3rd at 25mp when driving normal.

 

I'm with you there. While I'd love to do a manual swap, I just keep seeing all the power I could buy for that kind of money.

My next major mods will be a higher stall torque converter and gears. They were doing everything they could to eek out mileage back then.

 

If you have $2000 , an OD swap is the way to go. The '81 / auto came with 2.87 gears. 1st gear with the OD and the car will act like it has 3.73s ,and 4th gear will act like 2.08s on the highway.
The 4 sp cars came with 2.72s. Man on the highway you'd be idling along at 1400 at a 60 mph.

For me - the BIGGEST bang for the buck is and OD. I went from really liking my car to LOVING my car.

 

I was planning on doing gears before the manual trans, but I feel with the right 5 speed, I'll get the performance I need, and an overdrive gear with my 2.87 will really idle down the highway, I'm guessing around 1700 rpm with 2.87 gears, 27" tire and 0.64 5th gear.

 

300-350 would be perfect. Whats the ballpark on doing a manual swap?

 

Nate what have you done so far?

What torque converter are you looking at and what are you going to do to the gears?

 

So an OD transmission? Which would you suggest?

 

he's probably talking about an automatic 4 speed. the only transmission that will give you a low first gear would be a 700R4. you can easily swap one in using parts from an '82 and it could be in your $2000 budget if you get a good deal on used parts.

I'm going to go with a 5 speed manual. I'll probably go with the RS500 kit once they become available and I read some reviews on them. This kit to convert from an auto to manual is about $4500, but thats all new parts.

 

A 60HP increase (from 190 to 250) is significant and would likely include a cam, head work (or heads) an intake and carb, and an exhaust system. Engines are bascially air pumps. The first step to make power, is to get the air/fuel in and out of the combustion chambers. If you do a carb but not the rest of the system, the increase wouldn't be very significant. Same if you did just the heads, cam or exhaust. Everything has to work together to get the most benefit. For example, you want a cam, the intake, heads, and converter to all work in nearly the same RPM range. And then you want the gearing to compliment the engines power band so you're not at the top or bottom of the power band all the time. And to get 300 - 350 out of this engine, you're likely talking compression ratios too. Basically a rebuild of the current engine for significant HP gains.

I think you're on the right track with trans and gearing mods. Look at it this way. If you're going to singnificantly modify or change the engine in the future, why not spend the limited time and funds you have now to do mods that will not only work with the car in it's current configuration, but will also compliment your future plans, which will require these changes anyway?

 

I have a 290 HP GM Performance Parts crate engine, Stan's Headers (tri-Y design), and a Performer intake. That's about it for mods. GM HEI replaced the CCC distributor, Older Q-jet replaced the CCC version.

I'm thinking of ~2200 stall converter and probably a 3.54 rear. Depending on funds though, I may go the 700R4 route with the deep first gear with a 2200 stall converter and keep the stock rear end to keep my ears from bleeding at highway speeds.

It is not running yet, but hopefully will be in a couple of weeks after I get the fuel system sorted. It sputtered and ran briefly on starting fluid and fuel directly to the float bowl.

 

That last part makes a lot of sense...

So pretty much prepare everything else for an increase in power...which would A) Give me a little bit more power and B) Be able to handle the future power gains

 

Sounds like it's going to be a fun car to drive

 

Yep. That's what I did. I did the exhaust first, then the trans and then the big block conversion...

 

That's the plan. One can never have enough power, of course, but as it is, it should get out of its own way and have a good amount of torque to play with.

Good luck to you.

 

Niiiccceeee

 

Same to you thanks for the help