Apologies for another dumb question, but are the 1982 Crossfire Injection engines easier or harder to improve the HP performance on than earlier C3s?

What sort of numbers can be gained starting with a stock '82 engine?

For example to gain a 300-400 BHP performance, what sort of ball park overall cost?
👍

 

Are you talking GAINING 300-400 HP (over the stock 200hp) or getting TO 300-400hp ??

VASTLY different ?s

 

Getting to 300 - 400hp

 

Getting to 250 or so isn't that difficult......but 300 is going to require a Renegade intake.......400 would require heads, cam, massive throttle body mods, and a specialized piggy back style computer to run the system at that power level......
PM Buccaneer....the resident CFI expert and designer of the Renegade intake......he knows all.

Jebby

 

Thank you, so not so easy to up the power after a certain point on an '82 because of the early computer system? 🤔

 

It is the whole CFI system in general......you are asking it to flow double the amount of air and fuel......it can be done but every single piece would have to be modified.

Jebby

 

Understood, thank you.

 

LMBlue -- dont get discouraged -- to answer your original ?; yes you can get some real seat-of-the-pants gains out of a XFire. READ the sticky at the top of this section on 82 Tips/tricks

Here's what i'd do to start and see if you like it

Replace fuel pump with 85-89 corvette unit: original in new condition can barely keep the 13 psi the TBI's need. (E241 $70)
Install a Renegade intake: OEM intake gives up after 4K rpm with its undersized intake runners (not even as big as the lame heads intake ports) -- $626 at Jegs
Go aftermarket ECU chip, improved throttle response and most get better shifts from 700r4 trans. ($150-200)
Remove hood tunnel air flap - give engine colder,dense outside air (FREE)

 

Best performance gain would be gear change IMO. With the OD trans you can get away w/ 3.70. It will get up and boogie and still cruze on the Hwy. I wouldnt even mess w/engine

 

The above posts are spot on.....but to this I would add some long tube headers and a nice 2.5” true dual exhaust....

Jebby

 

Callin Buccaneer...op hes the guy you wanna talk to. He designed the Renegade, has a C3 that runs 12s with one.
Makes me consider a late C3 just for that...they look great, everyone expects them to be slow, dont have to be!
12-13 sec stock looking/sounding car with AC on sounds real appealing to me!
Even an 84 thats been hated would be fun wtih one of those. Can be had for pennies

 

Well, I read through all this and like mentioned was a good start for low bucks to get it to run better, but I was wondering the same thing about HP gains. I always talk about RWHP, not at the motor since everything I do on my 82 is on a chassis dyno. So, with that said a good running bone stock 82 CFI motor with just a Renegade swap should net you 30+ RWHP at least with all the data I have collected over the years since its inception. Also, with that said has to go along with the fact that the FP is at least 13psi, maybe ever 14psi and the rest of the motor is in good repair. One last thing that I have to be let known as well, since I know this to be a fact... The manifolds that Jegs/Summit are selling are ALL the same from EMS in CA. We PULLED our tooling away from them since they could not produce a quality unit and had too many complaints and customer service was bad from all the reports I received. I think there were six units available at the time we picked up our tooling back in January of this year. So, any units sold will be machined by EMS, NOT by me. I just want people that are potential buyers to be aware of this. If nothing more, if you go through the above company's they have a great customer service and you should be able to get your money back with no hassles. Oh, and if you want to go real fast, get your wallet out and I can hook you up with the right stuff for your CF to get you there.

 

Is there any place that I can still get a Renegade manifold? I just purchased an 82 from a friend. It has been stored a long time. It is stock with has 39K miles on it.

 

They are essentially, non-existent anymore. You may see one on eBay from time to time though. GL finding one.

 

Have you ever considered talking to Speedway ? They seem to be a company “on the move” and wouldn’t surprise me if they did . They’re making some odd ball blower manifolds and your intake would be right up their alley

 

but they would have to redesign it from scratch unless Buc and co were gonna trust somebody else not to make them look bad by butchering his manifold design again. and with the limited number of potential customers it probably ain't gonna happen. you can get some improvement by porting the crapola out of your intake. find another to do that to so you have one you don't have to epoxy back up once you find out where the STOP CUTTUNG HERE point is. in fact buy 2. one to ruin. one to port. and a stock one. it is way easier to do a modern efi conversion to an efi car than a carb car. something to ponder...

 

I bet they could sell more Cross Fire TBI intakes than lets say a Ford FE Blower manifold which they stock , Speedway's aluminum looks good now days so don't think that would be a problem anymore either

 

My son's 84 runs 13.7 quarter mile ET. He had throttle body's bored out large enough to put quadrajet secondary throttle plates in it, AFR heads, Cam with rhodes lifers and headers.
Gary

 

And...if you ran a Renegade with that and a little tuning, you would be in the 12s. Jus sayin'.

 

Any idea where I can find a Renegade?

Brian A.
84 Z51 Coupe
90 ZR-1
12.09@118
01 Z06 not quite stock