How to Get the most out of 3.4L
CAI and exhaust are easy standbys for a little more speed but you have to remember that the 3.4 (and the 3.8, for that matter) are not fire breathers. Accept that your car is not that fast but gets good fuel economy. The 3.8 has more room to grow than the 3.4 but both require a lot of money to rival the power of the LT1.
Z28's go pretty cheap now. You would be much, MUCH better off selling your V6 and getting the Z28 if you want speed.
Z28's go pretty cheap now. You would be much, MUCH better off selling your V6 and getting the Z28 if you want speed.
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Turbos will not work well on the 3.4, the exhaust ports are to small to support much more hp then it comes with. The turbo will fill the cylinder but if you can not empty the cylinder fast enough it just chokes the motor. For that reason you will find very few people that have modified the 3.4 no less put a turbo on it. When you look at the HP to weight ratio in a 4th gen it is just not worth spending the money to end up slower than economy rental car. This is a result of the original design. Back in 1982 when the 2.8 (the 3.4 block) was released the V8s where under 150 HP and the 2.8 had 102 HP. No one ever though air flow would be an issue, nor did they think 185 HP would be possible.
This is also why there are very few manufactures that sell parts to modify your 3.4. Its tuff to justify even a cam swap when you are talking about a 15 hp gain. Even the 3800 that is known to hit 300 hp is getting hard to find part options for. The general public does not want to mess with a 300hp V6 when they can go to a junk yard and buy a 6.0 and swap the heads with a good set and add a cam and a tune and hit 500 hp and drive the car everyday if they want. Even the LT1 V8s are loosing support. If they had not put them in vets support would be mostly gone now.
This is also why there are very few manufactures that sell parts to modify your 3.4. Its tuff to justify even a cam swap when you are talking about a 15 hp gain. Even the 3800 that is known to hit 300 hp is getting hard to find part options for. The general public does not want to mess with a 300hp V6 when they can go to a junk yard and buy a 6.0 and swap the heads with a good set and add a cam and a tune and hit 500 hp and drive the car everyday if they want. Even the LT1 V8s are loosing support. If they had not put them in vets support would be mostly gone now.
Last edited by Gorn; Mar 20, 2023 at 06:15 AM.
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