3400 performance gains expected?

[baggedcavi]

Hi all....I just joined, as I am soon buying a 2000 grand am GT with the 3400 engine. It has a cracked head, so I figured, while I had it torn down, what better time to do some performance mods? My ideas were to do WOT tech ported heads, their Sportsman ported heads with valve job, competition ported upper and lower intake, and maybe a 65MM TB, and a set of pacesetter headers, a tune, and EGR block off....my question is, what kind of gains can be expected? Also, on the milling option on the heads is there any gain from milling? Not sure what that is, unless its decking the head? Any help and advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[bob442]

It's resurfacing the heads basically, or decking them. How ever you want to look at it. You will get noticeable gains. But it won't pick up much till you get a complementing intake. Otherwise your on the right track.


Sent from my iPhone using my iPhone at work cuz I have nothing to do

[baggedcavi]

Ok. I know they recommend 0.05" decking, to ensure sealing..was just curious.

As far as the heads and intake, the upper and lower intake im looking at are a step up from the i guess you could say grade of heads im getting...im just getting sportsman heads, while im going competition upper and lower intake, as the competition heads are $700 more lol. So, My thoughts are, since the heads are basically useless without a good intake and exhaust, im going to upgrade to headers, and the ported upper and lower intakes.

One thing that just popped in my head...will I see any benifit from going to the competiton port on the upper and lower intake, since the heads are only sportsman? I would assume, the intake would be able to flow it, but, when it gets to the cylinder heads it would be like hitting a wall as far as flow since the port size is going to go down a bit....just a thought..

[SappySE107]

The sportsman heads are cheaper base price because you are paying for cleaning and porting only, no machine work, no valvetrain. There is no port shape difference between sportsman and competition parts. We have done a lot of flowbench testing to verify that our intakes are awesome with both stock heads, and ported heads.

We are working on a test vehicle to get the kind of results you are asking about. Dynomation tells us so much, so I could give you an estimate, but everyone wants dyno sheets. You will want larger injectors to support the increase in power. The tune is going to be necessary, and we can help with that as well, especially once we do our in house tuning.

Ported heads work best with headers and ported manifolds, but they still improve efficiency a noticable amount by themselves. Even a complete sportsman setup on stock heads and exhaust manifolds makes a significant improvement.

[baggedcavi]

Oh...so the heads come bare? No valves, springs, ect??

Just curious what your dynomation resaults are??

Also, that is good to know. Im guessing ill have to go to L67 injectors? It would be handy as I have a set and fuel rail, FPR and all sitting here from a GTP. As far as tuning, I have HP tuners, so tune wont be a problem. Curious to see what a decent tune, injectors, TB, upper and lower intake, heads and headers will gain....my goal is somewhere around maybe 240-250WHP...

[SappySE107]

http://wot-tech.com/shop/gm-60v6/sportsman-ported-3400-cylinder-heads/prod_54.html

Those are bare heads, cleaned and ported for $400. I didn't run the simulation on pacesetter headers or sportsman parts to see for sure, I just know that heads, manifolds, TB, and headers will put you in the range to max out injectors. 240-250 whp is going to require better headers than pacesetter, and a good size cam, such as the strip or race versions. L67 injectors are a bit overkill for NA but those will work fine and can be tuned no problem.

[baggedcavi]

Wow...just checked...they get pricey with valvetrain...might be rethinking the heads...may end up just being an upper and lower intake and headers...lol. I guess I have some decision making to do.

[robert 1980]

If you want to see gains you need to spend money.I had ben port my heads and they come out awesome.
Stay tuned dyno number this spring=)LOL

[SappySE107]

The sportsman heads are now on sale for $100 off. Upgraded valvetrain is necessary for a camshaft. If you never want to put a cam in it, no problem. Take the stock heads and the ported heads to a machine shop, and tell them to make the heads flat and machine the valves and seats back to new condition. New valve stem seals, reuse the stock retainers/keepers and springs. I did a similar build for a friend of mine, sportsman heads and manifolds with 56mm TB, LS6 springs, and 3500 valves. It was a lot of fun to drive, and had a nice powerband. He sold the car to finance his move out west, so not much is known now.