what are other "Inexpensive" ways to increase the horsepower of The King's Car!?

Question

Chevy Monte Carlo
3.8 liter
I already have SLP exhaust from front to back
K & N airfilter

2003 model year

Answer 1

A cam is cheap and as well an upgraded ignition system like MSD components. You can also index the plugs (more for burn efficiency). Opening the exhaust up further with some custom headers. Exhaust doesn't really make power it frees it up.
From you post I assume you are talking about a newer Monte, not old school Monte. If you are not concerned with fuel economy you can always use the correct ohm resistor on your air temp sensor so the ECM thinks the incoming air is always at 36 deg, that will cause the ECM to feed more fuel for combustion resulting in increased power. You'll have to research the correct resistor yourself, I can't make it that easy for you. If you put a Jet or Hypertech programmer to it with the resistor you could potentially gain up to 70 ponies.

If you use the ECM Mods just make sure you detune it before testing time.

Answer 2

Basically there's no inexpensive way to increase your HP (other than maybe 5- 10 HP). If your looking for large increases in horsepower the most cost efficiant way to do that is to install a turbocharger and higher pressure fuel injectors. All in all though that will probally cost anywhere from $1,500 to $3,500 depending on what type of increase you want. The Turbo charger will also majorly increase your torque as well.

I hope you find this answer somewhat helpful.

Answer 3

their is no inexpensive way to get more HP those "cold air" intakes don't do anything for a stock engine and people who up grade their ignition wires to like 8mm or 9mm are wasting their time because the stock ignition was designed for smaller wires.
I have no idea what year your car is but if it has fuel injection not
TBI injection but MPFI or some thing else than you can tune the computer. On OBD 1 cars you are somewhat limited to the amount of HP you can Gan but 10 HP is better than nothing.

Answer 4

Nothing.
The only way to squeeze HP from a 3.8 will be to throw bags of money into it with major engine mods or a supercharger (which is pretty major).

Answer 5

Get some lightweight carbon fiber doors, hood, and what-not. Won't increase horsepower, but might improve acceleration.

Answer 6

The poor man's supercharger is NITROUS OXIDE!!!!! I forget who makes a progressive way of releasing it for the start to finish but just ask and install that too

Answer 7

Nothing is enexpensive, all those dollar store tricks don't work. Buy a supercharger (2-4K dollars), or a turbo kit (2-4K) or an engine swap (5K+).

Answer 8

engine swap with the Grand National (GNX) 3.8L turbo. That engine is badass

Answer 9

bigger cam and pistons


EC