College Budget

[BlueFlame]

Hey guys, I just bought a 1994 GTP with the better part of my life savings. I love the car and it already has pretty good performance, but, like most people on this site, I want to build it better. I am eighteen years old, am fairly mechanically inclined, but don't have a machine shop or anything. I am wondering what should I try and tackle first? What is going to increase fuel mileage? What's going to give me the best bang for my buck? Keep in mind that I am in college now and have already spent most of my money on the car alone.

[RebelGT]

Since you're in college, I'd save money for repairs/maintenace and beer money. Leave it alone till you get a good job, at which point you may or may not just want to get a new car entirely.

[SappySE107]

Yup, save your cash for maintenance. Watch ebay for the timing tool kit, since you will eventually need to do your timing belt. When you do it, you can alter your timing for better performance then.

The 3.4 DOHC is not good for college students but if you are capable of doing your own work, thats much better than not. Its expensive to have it worked on and the alternator isn't that easy to deal with unless you drop the rear of the subframe down. If you have a garage to work in or at least a driveway with lots of tools/jack/stands/etc to work with, you will be alright.

Gas milage mods, i dunno. Timing and chip are the 2 things, and im not done with the chips yet. Performance, better mufflers and a high flow cat will help. underdrive pulley will be a good cheap mod, as is the billet dogbone from fastfwdperformance. Look for a strut tower brace from a 94-95 convertible DOHC, as that is a good mod to do as well for handling.

[BlueFlame]

I already had an underdrive pulley installed when I bought it, and yeah, my dad and I had to pull that alternator out on my sister's 93 SE, not a fun deal. Anyhow, I heard that the timing belts should be changed every 12000. Any thoughts? How about CAIs? Good ones/ bad ones, worth the money? How about the TB coolant bypass? I forgot to mention that I do have the leaking O-Ring and will probably be replacing that really soon, so if there is a fairly cheap upgrade available while i have half of the motor out of the car, that would be cool. Now correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the throttle body cast with the upper intake and thus unremovable? If it is removable, are there any bolt on upgrades I could pull at a junkyard and if not, are there any modifications that can be made to it? I also heard that MAF sensor should help some, but these seem a little pricey for the amount of gain. Any thoughts? Also, the transaxle seems to shift slowly, will the chip speed this up or just alter shift points? Thanks a lot guys. Oh, and sorry about putting this in the pushrod section.

[Dave96z34]

I think its every 80K but but dont qout me on that. Save your $.

[Fierobsessed]

12K is rediculous, thats once a year for most of us. somewhere between 60-80K is more realistic. The belts usually make it to 100K anyway, but not always. So what if you loose a belt, odds are you just change it for a new one, along with the pullies and you are good for another 60-80K. Unless you are one of the rare unlucky few that ding up some valves.

Throttle body line bypasses, larger throttlebodies, Cold Air intakes= little gain, if any. Besides, the TB water lines are part of the lower and upper intakes, you can only block them off by plugging the orifaces with a pipe plug of some sort (IIRC, Im a 96 guy myself) You are right about the Throttle body, its not removable. Still some people choose to have them bored out. The effort may not be worth the gain, The 96's throttle body witch is considerably bigger, along with the intake manifold and exhaust and higher compression still only makes 5 more horsepower then your 94!!

So, I've concluded that unless you have access to a machine shop, or are a gifted fabricator, and have a decent budget, enjoy the engine exactly the way it is, cheep mods don't usually get big or even noticable gains. The real potential in this engine is with custom intake manifolds, exhaust manifolds (headers) and dialed in cam timing with supporting ECM modifications. Or the other option, boost, but thats always a budget killer, at least if it's done right. It seems like you already have a full plate considering you are going to change the oil pump drive assembly O-ring or distributor plug thinggy, whatever its called! You are going to need a set of head gaskets, HEAD BOLTS!!!, cam carrier gaskets prolly a good idea, Intake gaskets... Quite a job, expensive unless you dont mind compromising every seal on the top end.

[grandprixgtp_91]

well i know that the belts only last 100,000 km here in canada, thats about it, and they snap. i would not go any longer than that.

Jake

[SappySE107]

GM recommends 60k intervals.

I had a nice long reply but it got killed for some reason. grrr. Here is the short version

Don't do the TB coolant bypass on 91-95 setups. Its difficult and fucks with the flow.

If you have to do the O ring, you should pull the rear head to get at it properly. Otherwise you may end up needing to tear it down again (happened to me cause I thought I could take a shortcut).

If you have to pull the rear head, you may as well pull them both and replace all the gaskets. Then have the heads checked out to be sure all the valves are sealing good.

For mods, id at least get the lower intake ported while its all apart since thats more difficult than pulling a plenum later.

Its possible to get the stock TB bored to 69mm but for what its worth, i would just get a 96 intake manifold setup (need fuel rail, coolant line, TB, TB arm, and both manifolds. It flows better than the 91-95 setup. The 96 TB is the same size stock as 91-95.

[z34phoenix]

yeah i was going to say the TB is the same size from 91-97 cause i grabbed a throtle plate from a pre 95 car for my 96!

personally i would recomend a good cold air intake such as a FWI. and then a good flowing exhaust system.

if your artistic/ mech inclined you can try P&P your own intakes... i have pics on my website of how i did mine. but i would deff recomend getting a spare set at a junk yard... the 91-95 engine is much easyer to come by then the 96-97 so you got a pretty good chance at getting your hands on one.

and if your going to do the Timing belt, do the head gaskets and adjust the timing. and fix the oil leak... but this is a lot in parts and will take a bunch of down time.