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  #11  
Old 05-07-2010, 02:42 PM
zipper's Avatar
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400whp is going to be hard to do out of a 3400, and it won't be done cheaply. I say this because it appears that you don't really have a background in PCM reflashing and if you don't have a dyno nearby it's going to be really hard to know what your car is doing. There are a lot of things that you have to do along with a turbo. You'll need gauges and a built trans and some better wheels/tires. I'm shooting for 400whp out of my 3800 and it's going to be quite an expensive adventure when I'm done.

Believe me too that you will need new tires. lol. All of first gear is useless to me if I floor it. I've had the tires squealing from a 40mph roll.

If you want to do this though, have fun and be prepared to drop a few dollars but it's really fun and a good learning experience.
 
  #12  
Old 05-07-2010, 06:59 PM
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i am thinking of going for 400 horses for the front wheels in my car. is that a realistic goal, without blowing a ton of cash? i am thinking some simple mods, dual muffler, intake, spark plugs, pcm upgrade, synthetic oil, higher octane gas, and an turbo, etc, etc. will these help me reach that goal?
I would say no, its not realistic given what you have said. The two things I see wrong off the bat are 'some simple mods', and 'without blowing a ton of cash'. You're going to have a lot of money wrapped up into the setup, and a lot of parts too. The turbo is really the only major mod in that list- I wouldn't be worrying so much about the mufflers, oil, etc- I'd be thinking of a turbo specific cam, ported heads, ported intakes, etc- then what kind of turbo setup you plan to run (turbo size, intercooler size, etc)- and where you're going to get the turbo (does anyone even make a bolt on turbo kit for the 3400's right now?).

To give you an idea, a similar setup on a 3800 would probably run roughly $4000 for the turbo kit and supporting mods (injectors, etc)- and maybe another $4000 for a built trans. The stock tranny is never going to reliably run that kind of power. That's not really even considering any port work, pcm tuning, or any other mods. Unless you're a fabricator and can build your own turbo setup, and do your own port work and trans rebuild, this is going to be an extremely expensive project.

As far as being possible period- I'm sure it is, although I couldn't find any specific examples. But people have made more power with much smaller turbo'd engines, so I'm sure its feasible. Best I could find is a 358whp turbo 3400 cavalier (although its a manual trans I believe):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ibU1...eature=channel

One other thing- I'm not sure how strong the stock 60* bottom end is, you may want to research that first before you just dump 400 whp out of a stock bottom end.

I'm shooting for 400whp out of my 3800 and it's going to be quite an expensive adventure when I'm done.

Believe me too that you will need new tires. lol. All of first gear is useless to me if I floor it. I've had the tires squealing from a 40mph roll.
I totally agree here, and there is another important thing I want to mention. At this kind of mod level, you're really going to need a daily driver. With that many mods, and that much power- stuff will break eventually (be it from failure due to the power, or failures due to install error, or aftermarket parts problems). Plus, as Zipper said- you're never going to hook on street tires.

Even in my monte right now, with practically new BFG KDW2's (245 wide) up front, it doesn't hook at all. On the street, I'm sure significantly slower cars at the track (especially RWD cars that can hook better) could beat me from having to peddle for traction. There is a reason why no modern factory 2WD cars come with 500 crank horsepower (about how much 400 whp factors too with an automatic) and 225 wide tires- even RWD it would just be a burnout machine on street tires.
 
  #13  
Old 05-07-2010, 07:51 PM
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I have a quick comment for "zipper" (sorry to go off topic real quick)
But I absolutly love that CSC you set up. Very unique, very "catchy", overall the collest thing ive seen a 5 gen. wonderful idea/follow through. Good job man.
 
  #14  
Old 05-08-2010, 07:26 PM
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Thanks for the kind words wht02monte. I like the setup too Even though I have a 3800, I really like the 3400's as well. You guys have a nice engine and it has potential. I'd like to see what a 3400 will do, and as long as you have patience and dedication I'm sure there will one day be a 400whp 3400 out there. I'd like to see one of you guys do it though. Do it in a Monte
 
  #15  
Old 05-09-2010, 12:50 AM
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Originally Posted by zipper
Thanks for the kind words wht02monte. I like the setup too Even though I have a 3800, I really like the 3400's as well. You guys have a nice engine and it has potential. I'd like to see what a 3400 will do, and as long as you have patience and dedication I'm sure there will one day be a 400whp 3400 out there. I'd like to see one of you guys do it though. Do it in a Monte
i plan on doing it when i get out of college, and getting a 5.3 v8 monte as my daily driver =]
 
  #16  
Old 05-21-2010, 04:48 PM
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i see. well i did not think that through to well, dont get me wrong, i dont mind spending alot of money, i just i dont have the means to do so. i learn as i go i guess.

thanks for the feedback.
 
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