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Horse 🔋 power

5K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  TGO 
#1 ·
How do I increase horse power...I put a k&n intake on it....thinking about. Chip tune...is pcm for less a good choice...94 caprice...
 
#2 ·
We don't have "chips." You have a PCM. There are many threads about increasing horsepower here. Installing a K & N CAI isn't necessarily going to gain much if any. Get your wallet out and start at the back, Catback, gears, correct headers, PCM tune. Spend some time reading the threads. Before you start, make sure everything is in good condition stock. Plugs, wires, properly functioning Opti vent harness, wiring and grounds good. Good luck.
 
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#3 ·
I would say along with the filter to do a TB airfoil, and aluminum elbow. That is simple stuff. From there progress to headers and gears which are more costly. After the headers and or gears get a tune. I suggest Solomon.
 
#4 ·
Airfoils and aluminum elbows are simple and also ineffective. Do not do headers without first doing the Catback. There are very good reliable posts from people who have been here a long time and have proven results. There is no cheap route to more power with these cars. The best way to start is get your car into excellent stock shape. That is worth some power in itself. Take advice from those guys.
If you have had all those ball joint failures, you already have some work to do before you worry about more power.
 
#5 ·
I doubt they are ineffective. They may not make big gains but cleaning up the airflow before the intake is never a bad idea. If you can't get the airflow in smoothly you can't get it out. One thing builds on another. Take this from someone that knows something about aero and fluid dynamics.
 
#7 ·
Please explain how they are ineffective? And if you are paying $125 you are out of your mind.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/LT1-LT4-Al...an/251825905976?hash=item3aa1fe6138:rk:1:pf:0


Smoothing out the airflow is never a bad thing. Take a look inside a stock rubber Elbow and see all the cavities that disturb airfow at a critical point right before the TB. My car with CAI(filter,straight tube, aluminum elbow, airfoil, coolant bypass mod) headers and a tune made 295hp at the wheels with a header gasket leak. Which mean over 300hp if not for the leak. Now stock should be 210-225 at the wheel. Soare you going to try and tell me headers and a tune got me 75+hp alone and that the CAI intake did nothing? And that the elbow and airfoil are ineffective? Whatever that means.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Yesterday, three hours before you posted this, I suggested to you that you use the search function because this topic - PCM4L in particular - has a lot of threads here. You appear to have ignored that advice. I would encourage you to reconsider.

Here is how you do it:
 
#12 ·
Some things work, but don't give a big enough bang for the buck to be considered worth it.

Meanwhile, some other things that should work, have a reputation for not giving a damn about customer satisfaction, or even blaming the customer after the customer demonstrably proves that the tune actually made the car run WORSE.

Personally, I doubt I'd ever buy a TB airfoil, but I'm at least 101% certain I'd buy a TB airfoil before I allowed myself to buy a reprogrammed pcm from Keith.

TB airfoils and pcmperformance.com both have a much better rep than Keith.
 
#15 ·
Here we go again, same old Shyt again. We just went through something like this and lost a Friend. (Mike) This is a "To each their own" sort of deal. Lets be more civil and talk politics.
Stickman, was that your 4X4 hearse?

Happy Thanksgiving all

Mark: Snowman-33
 
#17 ·
I do not own a 4x4 hearse no. That is not to say I am against it. I wouldn't convert either of mine as they are to good for street cars and tooling around. Now we are converting Sarah's Buick Box body hearse to a carb'd LT1.
 
#16 ·
".....be more civil and talk politics."


Good one Mark. Talk about the epitome of an oxymoron. lol Garr own teed not never noway gonna happen with the seething divisive rhetoric and posturing currently touted by 2 branches of our government. But Happy Thanksgiving outta be something the whole tribally divided country can at least agree on eh.


Back on the car front, I like to pretend the mincing here is just good clean Socratic debate. However, from driving B/C/D/E fat heavy bodies the past 1/2 century I've held fast in my conviction it's much better return focusing on driveline and suspension to actually transfer power onto the road v. the cheapest way to eek out 1-5% more hp to dragrace 2 seconds faster to the next stoplight.

As you say to each his own.
 
#18 ·
Back on the car front, I like to pretend the mincing here is just good clean Socratic debate. However, from driving B/C/D/E fat heavy bodies the past 1/2 century I've held fast in my conviction it's much better return focusing on driveline and suspension to actually transfer power onto the road v. the cheapest way to eek out 1-5% more hp to dragrace 2 seconds faster to the next stoplight.

As you say to each his own.

I don't see why you can't work on all fronts. I am very pleased with my driveline set up with a Pro Race trans and 9.5 inch 14 bolt with 4.10 gears and a billet TruTrac helix gear diff. Now I only have less than 500 miles on the new engine and have yet to get anywhere near WOT but it has chirped the tires 1st to 2nd atleast 3 times at part throttle. As for suspension it's just lowered with UMI uppers and lowers. But not much else I can do to make this car handle. It's big heavy and tall.
 
#19 ·
Top 10 list of HP mods to NOT get:

1. Hooker headers
2. Electric supercharger
3. Hypertech
4. AIT plugin chip or JET chip
5. Air Foil
6. Aluminum elbow
7.
8.
9.
10.

Add to list...
 
#24 ·
Top 10 list of HP mods to NOT get:

1. Hooker headers
2. Electric supercharger
3. Hypertech
4. AIT plugin chip or JET chip
5. Air Foil
6. Aluminum elbow
7.
8.
9.
10.

Add to list...

And yet I have the Hooker headers, air foil and aluminum elbow, plus a tune and made 295 hp at the wheels with an exhaust leak. Not because of the headers but because the previous owner decided to only put in half the bolts.
 
#20 ·
lol
7. Granatelli MAF?
8. LT-4 knock module
9. Vette servo
 
#21 ·
20. fuel magnetizer?
 
#25 ·
That's exactly why they are on the list-Hookers are such a pain to install and maintain.
 
#27 ·
No it all has to do with the previous owner doing things half assed. That is just one of many things I have had to correct. I have no problems with them.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Anything metal will take longer to heat up than rubber or plastic, but it will hold on to that heat for far longer. Once its warm, you will have a heater directly in-line with your intake air, and that heater is far hotter than ambient air outside your engine bay. Underhood temps can exceed 180 degrees in the summer and 190+ isn't unheard of. I have heard "100 degrees above ambient" is the norm. All of that heat is being absorbed by the metal intake elbow and transferred to your a/f mix. But hey - some folks say they look cool. For reference, drop the temp by 11 degrees and increase fuel density by 1%. Under the absolute worst conditions, you'd be looking at a 7% +/- gain or loss - so either way, its not a massive factor.

I have a RAISS and the air-filter pan has been lined with gold heat-reflecting material on the engine-side. My intake air is rarely above outside ambient. (Here in Atlanta, that ambient air can be 120 degrees +/- down near the asphalt). If you get one of the systems that has a heatshield and places the intake inlet over near the PCM and behind the headlight, you're doing it right. My RAISS was part of the car when I bought it but I've had thoughts about moving the intake back behind the headlight with a proper shield. The main reason for this is that last summer my filter got so soaked during a crazy-heavy rainstorm on my way home that the car started cutting out due to the water getting on the MAF.
 
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