I need some more power

[Jonathan]

Well I went on a little trip today in my 96 GMC. My aunt paid me to haul a bed up to a condo owned by my family. About half the driving was in the ozark mountains. I found my truck to be lacking a little in the power department. The truck tops out at 93 mph, it's my understanding that these trucks are supposed to be governed to 99, mine doesn't even hit the governor, it just doesn't have any thing left at 93. I don't normally drive that fast, but I came accross some stretches of road where I could see for about a mile and couldn't resist. So my question is, is there any fairly cheap bolt-ons or free mods that can help me out? I know I'm gonna get a K&N filter, is the FIPK kit worth the extra money? I'm probably gonna get new exhaust as soon a I sell my K5, what's the best setup for power and I want it to sound good too, legality is not an issue (I live in Arkansas /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif )? Oh and it has a Vortec 305 with the non-granny-low 5-speed. Thanks for any help.

 

[Sandman]

Cat back exhaust, New air intake system, power chip, better gears, etc. There is lots of things you can do, but one thing would be to dump the 305 and get a 350 if its in the money.

 

[Shorts]

yeah, you'd be fighting a losin' battle pouring money into a 305. a few other options are to toss in a cam and intake manifold, and get your ecm burned...in addition to all the rest of the mods you mentioned.

 

[Jonathan]

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but one thing would be to dump the 305 and get a 350 if its in the money.

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It's not in the money.

I wanna dump the stock cat for a high-flow one, what kind should I get and would it be worth it? Which cat-back would you recomend? Does the FIPK offer enough of a power gain to justify the $300 or whatever it costs? What about ignition bolt-on's? Thanks

 

[Sandman]

It might be worth checking the yards for an engine. After $300 for a cat, $200 for an intake, $200 for a chip, you might be getting close to an engine which would most likely give you more power than those upgrades to a 305. I had a Flowmaster cat on mine before I went true duals and I dont know if it was worth it.

 

[HarryH3]

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Does the FIPK offer enough of a power gain to justify the $300 or whatever it costs? What about ignition bolt-on's?

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The answer to both questions is no. Neither will make more than a couple of horsepower difference on a stock engine. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif The only way to make a serious difference is to help the engine be able to move more air. There are computer friendly cams out there that will add 25-30 HP. To get more than that you really need to add better flowing heads and have a chip custom burned to match the new flow, or just bolt on something like the Vortech centrifugal blower kit. /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

 

[Twiz]

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About half the driving was in the ozark mountains. I found my truck to be lacking a little in the power

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Less air = less power, no way around that except to increase the cubes.
A 305 with it's smaller bore and tighter cyl-wall to valve clearnce will be really hurting (more-so than a 350). They just don't breath very-well. The vortecs cyl heads help out quite a bit but they can only do so-much.

I know Stock G.M. cam grinds are very kind to the valve train, all-though the vortecs do have roller cams, I think they are still pretty soft grinds. A slighly more agressive cam would probably help out the most. The only problem I know of with cam swapps is that they mess with the MAP sensor, makes the PCM "think" it's under a higher load than it really is. I'm pretty sure there are adjustable MAP sensors avalible, but I'm not sure- never had to play with those.