Hey everyone. I am looking into upgrading some of the internals on '03 monte. I dont want to go to in depth, but was curious as what anyone else has done to beef up the hp. Cold air intakes, engine tuning, etc. I have the 3800 (not supercharged), and am obviously not trying to blow up the engine (thought I would get some info before just throwin parts at it).

Any help/input would be greatly appreciated!

 

1. u-bend delete
2. high flow cat
3. resenator delete

First two are a must and the third is for sound more than anything but this would be a good start 8-12 hp gain i would say and these are all exhaust upgrades.

here are some good stores to check out for stuff
www.3800performance.com
www.pfyc.com
www.zzperformance.com just go to the grand prix section at this store

 

dont forget cold air intake is a must. alsoa 180degree thermostat is a must as well... its cheep ($10) and will protect the engine when you start moding.

other things to consider are:
-new fuel filter, spark plugs,good clean ground wires and battery terminals, injector cleaning (not the pour in take cleaners eiher remove the injectors or have a shop run thier cleaner)
all these will make sure the car is runing in top shape... no point in spending money on mods to make power when there is a maintanece issue or clogged filter robbing you from power that should be there.


the first thing you need to ask yourself is how fast do you want to be and how much do you want to spend... from that you can plan your mods to get the most hp for your money

with the 3800 there are a lot of mods to make you fast while being NA (natrually aspirated) and there are Turbo kits and you can swap the SC from the 3800SC to yours aswell... so again plan.

 

sounds like most of the good stuff is covered...definetely exhaust and cold air intake...those are the first things to do as they are cheap mods and gain you quiet a nice little bit of hp

 

Once this is done, rockers are the next best stop or cam.

The 180* T-stat is useless on your vehicle unless you plan to beat on it. It is only needed if you are going to used forced air induction such as a supercharger or turbo where compressed air temps will raise the engine temp up to high.

 

Soa 180 thermostat would be useless on my 3.4L '01 LS?
[sm=partyparty.gif]

 

As a performance mod, yes unless you live in a very hot climate, but your profile shows North Dakota so I wouldn't be concerned about it.

It's really only going to be usefull if you run your car hard like drag racing or if you have supercharged/turbo which you don't.

 

the gain you would get from putting a 180 degree thermo in is minimum...i mean if you have to change your thermostat then by all means change it for that one..but if its fine i wouldn't worry about it...
colder plugs may do a little bit...but not even that much there

the biggest gain for you is gonna come from a cold air intake and the custom exhaust mentioned above, headers, not so much either until you get into the 4-500 hp range..

but definetely cold air intake and exhaust..get rid of that u-bend

 

I dont mean to step on either of your toesguys, but from my tuning experience a 180 stat is worth having. both of you guys are SC'd. and the importance of mods on SC cars are very diff then on NA cars. Im lucky to have both. and see that the tricks i use on one wont yield the same results on the other.

i know from tuning that keeping the engine cooler will yield better AF ratios and if the engine bay is even 5* cooler it will lower the heat effecting the air intake temp sensor... a 5* varience can retard a min of 1* of spark advance or as much as 3*. yes i will admit if you dont have any mods yet a 180* stat wont help. but for 10* and less then 20 min install time? its a no brainer. ZZP quoted on their site that they saw a 3hp gain from runing a 180* stat due to the reason i stated above.

and even if your not doing the stat for perf. its insurance to keep the motor health in the long term. now if you think your sharp and try a 160 then you've gone too far. and that will hurt the life of the motor. with the use of proper engine tuning 160* stats are no longer needed. cause fan turn on times can ensure coolent stays at an optimal 175-185*

im not trying to **** off anyone... i just want everyone to understand that modding a SC car is very diff in some cases then with an NA car.

also with NA cars, tuning the exhaust is crutal. anything bigger then 2.5" pipe and you will loose too much Tq and not gain enough HP to compensate. at about the 250hp level on an NA car if you havent gotten headers yet you will be fighting a loosing battle without them. (this is not the case with forced induction) wiz if he hit 4-500hp without headers! OMG also with the 3400 there are not direct bolt on headers for our cars... you have to adapt headers from the grandam's. for those with the 3800 there are plenty of bolt ons out there for you. i have a friend who holds the record for the fastest NA impala...and its about ready to get a lot faster! i currently am the fastest NA 3.4L monte. im willing to help anyone who asks. i hope this clears up some of the confussion

 

dave, how much gain would you get from putting a colder t-stat, and colder spark plugs...its a very cheap mod...but everyone tells me you'd barely notice it...i know its something i'm gonna have to do aventually...just wondered how much of a gain it is