well a while back.. my girlfriend had purchased a car for me

96 Black on Black 5spd

the car ran great.. or so it seemed... and it looked good, and for the price of $2500 I thought it was a steal... well anyhow, a week after getting the car, the head gaskets crapped out on me. So it was smoking white smoke... we've come upon taken off the old engine... and building a new one out of 4 spare engines... my question is... I'm gonna keep the 3.0 for now... I need a car... I'm tired of asking for rides..., but I do want some performance work done.. if its possible while we have the engine apart.... so far while working on the car, we've found that the axles have crapped out... the radiator needs replacement(has that crappy jb weld looking gunk around the trim),and while we're at it, might as well replace the motor mounts...

Raxles: $250
Griffin Radiator: $350
Cattman Motor Mounts: $200

soo far............

so what else can we do to the motor to get some more HP out of it... we're cleaning off all the gunk/oil/carbon build up, out of everything we can... even going about polishing the engine, and the engine bay... so far the only thing I can think of is

Phantom Grip Lsd: $300 (it works)
Port/Polished Heads: $????
Block Off Egr Valve: (easy to do)
Weight Reduction: (just a couple of things)
Possible Port IM: $?????
any other suggestions?

As far as mods go... I'm probably just gonna buy some Cattman Heads... reason being I'm picking up a 3.5 block, Pathfinder TB, and 3.5 IM for roughly $350, and I dont want waste money on parts I wont be able to use in the swap.

I just want to have the car running as good as possible without soo many extra mods, until I get the 3.5 then I can work from there...


Raul

 

Wait, wait, I'm sorry. You're being incredibly stupid here. I heard you call her your "girlfriend" and not your "fiancee."

Marry your girlfriend.

Now.

Then worry about the car.

 

Why do you want a Griffin rad? From what I've seen on here, a factory replacement rad should work OK unless you're going to be boosted...?
As fas as what Morpheus said, you probably should marry her, but remember they have a nasty habit of changing once that happens!!

 

the car is gonna used at the drag strip alot... just trying to put as many performance parts as possible.. for now i'm gonna running Nitrous on it..... and most likely later on boost it.


Raul

 

I would sand and POR15 the entire engine bay to get rid of the rust and prevent future rust. Search GOOGLE for POR15 and you will see what it does and how to use it.

Replace the steering rack with one from a 97-99 too.

 

why would you block off the egr.. it doesnt work at idle or wot... so at the track it wont even open so why have bad emissions for normal street driving??

 

Replace with a 3.5? Just maybe........

 

Sorry to hijack, but what is the difference in the 97-99 steering rack?