I'm new, and I have performance problems

[Kuhat]

Hello all,
My name is Chris and I am a college student who loves cars, especially american muscle! I drive a 1995 black Camaro 3.4L, and unfortunately it is slow. I have come to this forum to get some local help with how to increase my cars performance. But as I said before I am a college student, and so thus far the only thing I have really done is research, and it never goes well. I have found people who have done mods to their cars with new cams and port polishes and all, but no one that I have found has put their car to the dyno to show performance increases.
the fact is, I love my car. I would love to see it go fast (without swapping out the engine to a v8, I know they are cool and also very expensive... so it is not an option, not until i graduate at least) I am sick of being worried (which I really do get nervous about this) that some piece of nothing car is going to gun it off the line and smoke my car (and its a Camaro, an iconic american car, it should be able to outrun most cars on the road... but it can't)
SO, who would like to help me on my mission to do a "budget build" of a 3.4L V6 Camaro engine? I need to find local shops (I live in Kalamazoo) that do honest work with honest prices. recommendations on how to improve performance is always welcome, unless you tell me to swap out the engine with a v8 and tell me that I have a sissy car... thats no help and honestly if I had the money I would put an ls1 in the car... but I don't.
Hope to hear from you soon!
your fellow Michigan enthusiast,
-Chris

[Chicklet]

Well by the title of your thread I was gonna offer you viagra...

Welcome!

[Kuhat]

HA oh man, didn't think of that when posting the title... oops

[97BlackBird]

Helluvan intro. Welcome Chris.

[WMCC Gary]

Welcome Chris, Enjoy the site.

Well by the title of your thread I was gonna offer you viagra...

Welcome!

I guess we all know where robins mind is today.

[meissen]

Welcome to the site Chris! Unfortunately with the 3.4L you're going to get limited responses. It seems most of the performance v6 is shifted towards the 3.8L rather than the 3.4L. But, I think you're on the right track with a cam, some port work, maybe even forced induction? None of which is cheap, though, and I do hate to say it but there's only so much you can do with a 160hp 3.4L v6 to make it so it won't get smoked off the line by random v6 cars that in today's age puts out 250+ hp. Travis - 97rs4life - would be your best guru on here as he rebuilt his 3.8L v6 to get some performance out of it. But, like you're finding, I don't know if I've ever heard what #s Travis has put out?

[DETROITMUSCLE]

I agree with Brian and others its hard to get much of a performance gain out of a 3.4 and thats probably why you don't see very many dyno numbers throw around, they are going to be much lower than a stock LT1 and you've paid a pretty penny to get to that point. As much as you don't wanna hear it my best advice would be to keep the car as is and save up for a V8 car down the road. Its just not worth the time and $ your going to spend to still be slower than a lot of cars.

[OIF1VET]

Welcome to the site! And I was with Robin, Viagra was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title..

[Kuhat]

Thanks 97blackbird, and everyone else that has responded.
I have noticed that almost no performance upgrades are out there. I could potentially do a swap for a 3.8L engine, if I found one at a salvage yard and the price was good enough. only problem is that I don't know how well that engine will run, and since my car is a daily driver I cant afford to have it sit around while I try and figure out how to rebuild it myself.
what I have found is that on the 3.4L Camaro, the heads, headers, and intake manifold all suffocate the engine, producing a max of 160 hp. then a cam upgrade and bigger fuel injectors would do the trick. but that is very expensive to do, and I dont know what the performance increase would be. the fastest 3.4L I have found did a 12 second quarter (which is pretty darn fast) but it had a turbo installed, and the part alone is $700 not to mention the installation. and I am not sure a turbo would do much with all stock parts. (due to the poor components talked about earlier) according to the guys at Berger Chevy, the 3.4L that is in the 93-95 camaro is still used in vehicles today (well, the block is) but has been bored out to as much as a 3.9L (which I have never heard of) and produces as much as 250+ hp.
an LT1 would be nice to throw in the car, but I have heard that the conversion gets really expensive. if it were as easy as just swapping out the engine itself I probably would have done it already. I have heard that the 3.8 drops right in though. but I have also heard that it has intake problems, is that true?
by the way Meissen your car is one for the books. I really like what you have done with it. usually aftermarket parts look cheap and tacky to me, but yours is very well done.

[Kuhat]

I agree with Brian and others its hard to get much of a performance gain out of a 3.4 and thats probably why you don't see very many dyno numbers throw around, they are going to be much lower than a stock LT1 and you've paid a pretty penny to get to that point. As much as you don't wanna hear it my best advice would be to keep the car as is and save up for a V8 car down the road. Its just not worth the time and $ your going to spend to still be slower than a lot of cars.

that might be my best option.

[ktl711]

Yes, Chris, the 3800 is prone to intake manifold gasket leaks, which will let coolant into the bores and into the oil. Most 3800 cars have been fixed by now, but some are getting their second fix because the earlier replacement gaskets were not much better than the factroy original ones. Also, the problems were exacerbated by the notorious Dex-Cool coolant. I just had my 172K mile 3800 fixed last week, and with a coolant flush and metal-backed gaskets it cost just over $600.

With the 3.4, you should just relax and enjoy the car for what it is, and not get too worked up over what it is not -- and what it was never (as a V6) designed to be. Remember, it may not be the fastest 4th Gen ever, but no LS1 ever returned 31 mpg either!

[csmith4153]

Welcome to the site.

As stated a couple times. Save your money, sell your car an buy a V8 car. It will save you money and headaches.

[bri2203]

Welcome Chris, Enjoy the site.


I guess we all know where robins mind is today.

and she has a date tonight!!

[ktl711]

PS -- WE WANT PICTURES OF YOUR CAMARO!!!

[WMCC Doug]

Welcome aboard, Chris.

The first thing that helps most any engine is to free up the intake and exhaust. So, a CAI (cold air intake setup) with a low restriction air filter, combined with a free flowing cat-back exhaust (headers too, it they are in the budget) will get you the most out of what you already ahve. If there's a computer tune available for that engine, that will help too, but without getting into the internals of the engine, that's about it for low cost mods.