my dad has a 1989 v6 camaro what is the best way i can make it fast put a twin turbo in it or upgrade it to a v8? and does anyone know a website i can buy a full twin turbo kit. and what is the most affordable way

 

depending on what v6 is in it, you could upgrade to a bigger v6, larger fuel rails, injectors, performance ignition [distributor,etc]( helps alot, and accel if my personaly favorite), espark spark plugs, 8mm plug wires, do a little research and you might find out you can get the block decked,bored, and the heads ported and polished, Ive even seen people enlarge the valves, which gives good power gains. personally, i wouldn't do twin turbo's but i would put a centrifugal supercharger or a turbo in . with the above modifications done to the v6 (3100 and 3800 v6's are amazing and has a great powerband). with everything done to it. shoot see what tranny it has, and research different performance gains for it. and there is also the idea of changing the gears in the differential and putting a mini spool in it. depending on if you need all the seats or not, light weight the car. and pound shaved helps.

I do a lot of research and part comparison, to achieve the best hp and torque gains, as well as not totally blowing the mpg, with gas prices now a days. i like to have a nice somewhat fast car, but the main thing is the looks, and ride. if you want a super-fast car then build your own car for the dragstrip strictly. keep this in mind buddy. speeding 25+ mph and getting pulled over can result in your license getting revoked. so its much better and safer to save the speed for the strip.

 

Not really sure Supercharged is talking about the 3100 but they are not great motors. Your much better off switching to a 350. The 3100 has a little stronger bottom end than your 2.8 but the 2.8 can not handle much over stock. Truthfully the 2.8 can not hand the stock HP. I put more crank kits in 2.8's under warranty than any other motor. The flow on the 2.8 heads is horrible and with max porting it is still bad. This is why you will not find a kit for it. A common upgrade for the 2.8 and the 3.1 is the 3.4 short block, it is much stronger but head flow will still be an issue.

3800 is a good motor but GM did not put a 3800 in a 3rd gen Camaro. Depending on budget a 350 block built to a 383 is great upgrade for you 3d gen.

Edit, It just hit me, Supercharged is talking about the late 90 3100's they are different motors and have much better flowing aluiminum heads. To bad none of those parts are bolt on to your car and the block do not have motor mount like your car would need.

 

@ gorn, yeah i was talking about the 90's 3100's. I've never put one in a camaro, but i have helped put on in a cavalier, not to much bolt on power adders we found, but with what little we did to it { and a bunch of tedious labor hooking up the harness and fab'ing mounts} it was decently worth it. but i agree with the 350, i got an L98 tpi engine im putting into my 91. doesnt seem to make as much top end power as a carb'ed engine {comparing stock specs} but with some good after market bolt on's i'll get plenty of power to make the car very quick, but im going more for a good all around show car. im going to try and get around 600 hp, i believe its a reasonable goal. shoot, the engine came from an 87 corvette, so i know theirs tons of potential with it.

here's the project page for my camaro project. aptly name "Gamorrah"

http://www.facebook.com/pages/91-Cam...83871578294641

 

ok and with the 305 would i have the right engine mounts and hwo much would it cost to get a tranny that would work with a 305 and timing parts with the belt and all that will all that change to?

 

There is a lot to the switch. If you want power you do not want a 305. The 350 is a much better engine. The great thing about GM small block V8s is they are all pretty much the same. Mount off a 305 are the same as the mount for a 350. When you go from a V6 to a V8 there are a lot of decision that need made, that means a lot of research. You can go old school if your area does not have emission(least complicated), Install a year correct L98 350 which should pass emission (not super complicated) or install a more modern engine (Complicated)

It is really tuff to give you an idea on price because that depend so much on you. You can find Old school 350 with 350 turbo trannies for $400 and most likely buy parts here and there at flee markets and get everything working for $600. I have seen wrecked L98 cars sell for $1000, that car would have all the parts you needed to do the swap so if you do the work yourself and don't do any upgrade your could have as little as $1100 (your always going to need some stuff) But if you wanted to rebuild the motor and tranny and replace all the wear items it could cost you 5K.

If you installed a LS1 had the brakets you needed made, had the custom exhaust made replaced everything it could cost your 20K

So there is my quote for a v8 conversion somewhere between $600 and 20K. I can not say it enough, for a swap like this research reasearch research. V8 need More fuel, More cooling, More exhaust flow. That why I say the best thing is to find a complete car that has been wrecked. There are just sooo many parts you going to need, If you go old school carb you need to deal with the fuel system because it set up for high pressure EFI not Carb, If you switch to a L98 your going to need the pump and fuel lines from a V8 car and so on....

 

The L98 is a good solid motor, I have worked on a lot of them. It should be good up to about 320HP. 600hp is a dream that will not come true with out major funds. I think the ONLY part of a 600hp L98 that would come from GM is the block. Even that would need some custom machine work. I can not think of a single part you could reuse,,, wait yes I got one you could use, the timing chain cover.

A 600hp L98 would cost atleast 15K to build not counting the custom fuel injection system you would need. Your stock TPI is going to to be hurting you at about 280 hp your crappy GM pistons and rings will give up near the 320 mark unless your custom tune babies the motor. Stock rods bolts are not going to hold out much over the 320 point. Crank will give you issue at 400HP but your heads will not flow enough to get there.

 

i cant remember were i saw it at, but somewere i seen a tpi engine that had little over 500hp. but was completely redone, new aftermarket everything, and had to have turbo's to get there. personally, i've decided to keep the L98 close to stock. until i get the rest of my camaro customized the way i want, then switch to an ls1 or go old school and build a carburated engine for it. i'm not drag racing it or anything. i just want it to have an engine thats as nice as the rest of it. i personally dont like the tpi all that much.

 

Just wanted to put this out there....there is no such thing as a "centrifugal turbo". It is a centrifugal supercharger and it is very different from both a turbo and your traditional roots style supercharger.

Also, as mentioned before, your best performance gain would be to switch to a built 350.

 

ty for pointing that out. was a bit drunk when i typed that post. but now that i re-read my jumbled thoughts, do they make centrifugal superchargers for v6's? i cant say ive ever seen them, { i normally mess with v8's } i've always seen turbo's with v6's when i come accross an upgraded one.