Need help adding some power to my pig

[chev4life]

As stated, my 87 is a pig...great offroad cause of the 700r4, but bad onroad cause of no power, heavy tires, etc...see sig for more info. I have throley headers, and will be throwing on a magnaflow muffler in place of my rusted flowmaster soon but I need more power. The engine has 135k on it and runs really good except my 10mpg , do you think it is worth throwing a little money into to get it going better? I was thinking the Edelbrock EFI systems since I can slap it on a newer small block later down the road...any opinions on this? Was also thinking of doing the RV cam...mild a little more power and I dont want to touch my heads. I am in cali and need to be smog legal also.
Thanks guys for any info you can send my way!

 

[Resurrection_Joe]

Maybe one of those entry level GM crates. Even the lowest end model is pretty powerful, and you can throw your TBI on it

 

[smokkey1]

http://www.cfm-tech.com/catalog/gm_tbi_performance_parts___accessories_126905_products.htm


I've heard good things about these products.

 

[chev4life]

I have thought about a crate, but with living in an apartment at present I dont have the space to swap a motor. Some day down the road I will drop one in. You know of good place to see what they offer? Who else makes good crate short blocks?

 

[Stoopalini]

1st thing I would do is start scanning and logging the ECM. This will tell you if there are any components that need replacing which are causing you power loss.

How about starting with the basics and take it from there?
Some basic things to do to a TBI motor are:

1. Replace O2 sensor(s)
2. install throttle body spacer
3. K&N filter
4. custom chip for the ECM

The TBI should be plenty for a stock motor, not sure how much gains you would get from changing that out without doing any head/cam work.

Thomas.

 

[chev4life]

I have replaced everything on the engine pretty much....
fuel pump
gas tank
injectors
o2 sensor
egr
temp sending units
plugs
plug wires
distributor
coil

also have...
throley headers, k&n intake, flowmaster, highflow cat

I have thought about the spacer, but dont want to get it if I go mutliport...the rest I did because the truck was running like crap so I did the "replace everything I can get my hands on" rutine
I just dont think I have enough power...I am way better than stock..but stock wasnt very good to start with and I drive hard. The tires and heavy 14bolt hurt in terms of excel...maybe could got to 4.56's over my 4.10's

 

[Stoopalini]

Do you have the ability to scan the ECM? If not, I would recommend WinALDL for a free scanning solution.

This will show you things like the mixture and BLMs along with any timing retard due to knock issues (maybe false knock due to the headers is causing a power loss?)

Thomas.

 

[spearchucker]

Maybe step up to 4.56 gears. The 4.10s you have now are good for mileage but make it seem like you have less power with 35" tires.

 

[chev4life]

Sweet, thanks for the link...I have been looking for something to scan. I havent noticed any running probs after the headers, but I will check it out.

 

[dyeager535]

You made sure to change the gears in the tranny to match the setup you are running now?

 

[chev4life]

PorQue?
Change the gears in my tranny...why would I do that? The diff gears in combo w/ my tire size puts me a final drive slightly better (lower) than stock. No reason to tear into tranny.