I have a 1995 Camaro with a 3.4 v6 in it. The car is ragged, I'm at least the third owner and it only has 140K original miles on it, but they are long hard miles from what I've been told.
I want to do some performance mods to it but I don't know anything about what the engine can handle. I only know about sb 350's and know that those engines can take about anything you want to throw at them, but anytime I mention doing something to my camaro people freak and tell me the engine can't handle it.
I want the car to still be street legal.
Any advice?

 

The way to go is a cold air intake (CAI), a good exhaust system (headers and cat back), 160 deg themostat, and a PCM tune. But thats all i can tell you with a 3.4 i have a 95 3.8 could help you out more if you had a 3.8.

If you think there is anything i can help you with lemme know.

 

well....is the car fine the way it is running now? if it is, then start with the exhaust. But if it has a few things goin....i would replace those first. if it is all ragged i would start with replaceing the neccesities over performance. cause u dont want to spend $$ on performance if you no some thign s are gonna need fixing. But if its up to par.....i would start wioth a high flow cat and catback exhaust.... If you are a good mechanic get some headers. but they are a pain in the ..... trust me... put them on mine, but once there on there on.....but yea. That what i would do

 

the car has some issues (dead cylinder think it's a valve) we're pulling the head off tomorrow and replacing what ever is necessary and the water pump crapped out on me so that's getting replaced.

Mostly the car needs some TLC. It creaks and rattles and groans. I'm going to replace the suspension parts that are known to wear out.

I don't have a blank check to go do this all at once so I'm trying to plan it out so I can budget for it.

 

CAI are pointless

 

Lol Cold airs are not pointless. They allow more air to get to the engine. The more air in the engine the better it can breathe. The better it can breathe the less strain your putting on it. The engine needs air. There are alot of restrictions on your stock air intake. Resonator the box itself. Cold air lets it breathe and gives a a lil more power.

 

A couple questions, what was involved in your header work -- give us a taste of why it was such a pain -- might be instructive! ;-)

Apart from the high flow muffler and cat, why replace pipes from the cat back if not also doing headers? In this scenario, what would be the gain? just smooting out the exhaust flow via new pipes?

 

I can answer the question as to why the header install is a pain on this particular engine.........
The placement of the motor makes it extremely difficult to get the exhaust manifold off and the header on, from all I've been told you have to all but take the engine out to get it done. The first thing I had to fix on the car was the catalytic converter so I went to the muffler guy I've used since my first car and asked him about headers while he was at it. He told me and I quote "Header's are a royal pain in the ___ on this particular car, forget about headers".
It's the same reason I haven't got around to fixing the dead cylinder issue, almost as hard to get the cylinder head off.

 

for the stock pipes vs cat-back pipes, yes get the cat-back if you want to replace the muffler....they are mandrel bent so it flows better, but you wont really notice a difference (like most mods)

I wouldnt put money into a 'ragged out' car imo

 

It's not used up, just needs some TLC. Plus I only paid 1000 bux for it and to date I might have 1500 in it in repairs.