Just Purchased 84 Vette - Need Advice

[orange84]

I just bought an '84 vette and need advice on what I can do to improve the performance relatively cheap. I purchased K&N Air & Oil Filters along with a Power Chip, what else should I do to increase the performance?

 

[JonM]

Go to this site and check out the tech section

http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/

 

[WhalePirot]

Only drive downhill?

Cheap and fast don't go in the same sentence, in hotrodding. Then again, define cheap.

Welcome. Most of us are more helpful than this post.

 

[C4Tom]

Most of us are more helpful than this post.

 

[orange84]

Thanks for the help....I'll look for more hills to drive down (damn Illinois and its flat terrain).

Thanks

 

[Robert]

Whereabouts in IL are you?? I live close to Chamapign. Last Sunday we took a drive to Southern IL and I could not believe the hills!!!! So if flat gets to you...head south a few miles.


Champaign County is one of the flatest places in IL. I lived in MO for 27 years and almost forgot how flat it is here.

Anyway, I have left my '84 the way I found it. Now that is not to say that someone hasn't done a little to it. It seems very quick to me and feels like a hotter cam has been installed. But then, I have never owned a Vette before, so maybe even an under-powered one might seem quick to me.

Robert

 

[orange84]

I am North of you, but I am a U of I alum. Yes, southern & northwest IL is better for the hills.

 

[G Winter]

You should live in NW Iowa.. not only flat but no curves all square corners and straight roads, takes a lot of fun out of driving the vette. Only place to use the handling is on the entrance and exit rams on the interstate.

 

[Robert]

Same here in IL G Winter. They laid the roads out in Mile squares.


Each county has the roads numbered from south and west of the county line.

So if your at 1200E and 1800N you are 12 miles east of the western border and 18 miles north of the southern border.

One good thing...maybe the only good thing.....you never get lost.


Robert

 

[WhalePirot]

I just bought an '84 vette and need advice on what I can do to improve the performance relatively cheap. I purchased K&N Air & Oil Filters along with a Power Chip, what else should I do to increase the performance?

Sorry to be sassy, earlier. As I was told, but did not listen, the X-fire does not lend itself to cheap, effective mods. The ports inside the intake are quite small and cannot be readily enlarged. I changed RE ratios (3.07>3.73) with a rather-stock motor and was not happy with the low RPM ceiling. It was quicker off the line, as you'd expect, but overall, not a great change. One does get used to 'quick' rapidly, even after new mods.

I did headers first, then a hotter cam and larger valves; worked heads. It was better, but costly/$$.

I also did a K/N filter and larger TBs.....didn't really matter due to small ports.

 

[geekinavette]

The ports inside the intake are quite small and cannot be readily enlarged.

No...but there are ways around that!

 

[Robert]

So geek, is that a pic of your intake??? and how much did help/hurt you???


Robert

 

[geekinavette]

Yes that is what is on my car right now. The intake alone doesn't gain much...the cam/headers/computer all have to be scaled accordingly. Right now I am running that intake, a Crane Powermax 2050 flat hydraulic (454/480, 216/228 @ .050, 112LSA), stock heads, and a set of Hedman long tube headers ceramic coated inside and out. The ECM is a Caprice TBI unit (1228746), and "tuning" it is an ongoing project...but it's not bad at all. I don't have any real "hard" numbers...but a few 0-60 comparisons show somewhere between 1.5 - 2 seconds reduction. It WILL pull to 5500...I didn't really build the engine for those kind of RPM so I don't push it beyond that. A stock Crossfire falls flat on it's face somewhere around 4000.

Elkabong has a similar intake that he's going to be trying out on his 383 buildup.

Bill

 

[Robert]

So, you just machined the ports to a bigger size?? Then added an ECM from a Caprice?? What year?? Do you still get all the readings like mpg, trip meter and all the other stuff in the information center??


So many questions....

Robert

 

[geekinavette]

Not a bigger size per say...but "siamesed" such that each cylinder can pull air/fuel from two runners instead of one.

The ECM is late 80s early 90s Caprice, Camaro and Firebird.

The mileage display is lost with the 1228746 ECM...but I do have a solution for that in the works...just haven't had time to finish it. It is also not a "plug 'n play" straight out of the box...I had to make some hardware to adapt it to the CFI harness. http://www.speedtronics.net/aboutham.asp ...and I use this (so does elkabong) to program the ECM http://www.speedtronics.net/aboutprominator.asp

My motto goes something like..."if I can't find what I need...then I'll make it!" :L

Bill

 

[MoeJr]

Power production of the stock Cross fire Intake is done by 4500. My car will pull fine to its WOT shift of 4900-5000 rpm. If you do a search on here for Cross Fire Injection. You'll find a thread I started with a couple good sites on mods for Cross Fire Cars. The intake is the biggest drawback but can be worked to allow the car up to 400+hp as evidneced by one of the articles on those websites.

http://home.houston.rr.com/ken73/CFI.htm

http://www.swko.com/~lionsden/crossfire.htm

 

[Dr-Pepper]

That is the greatest reply I think I have ever heard. My machinist has a sign on his wall " Speed Cost's Money How Fast Do You Want To Go"
Never drink and drive Dr-Pepper