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ENGINE PERFORMANCE
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Well before I get into what has been done to the car, let me answer the most common question & comment about RAIF' power plant.... Why the V-6, and not a V-8...!

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The biggest reason...
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The car has been a daily driver and has to get me to work everyday!!!!

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The rest....
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In the begining, the mechanical end was beyond my reach. This is why the v-6 remained through the early trials & tribulations. I refused to pay someone else to do a v-8 swap. Due to both the expence and the lack of hands on experience that would give me! I wanted to learn & do the swap myself & w/ the $ saved, I could turn around & put extra $ into performance & have a 500+ hp motor.

Then, once I met Joe, a v-8 was now in my reach, but the car was still my DAILY DRIVER. Realistically I had to think... the time the car would need to be down to PROPERLY perform V-8 swap was not available. We are talking new engine, new ECM, and making sure the thing would pass emissions, all while still getting me to work everyday. UH, NOPE, not really feasable! So it would take a lot of time, some real planning, and a good bit of $ to do a v-8 swap on this car at this time. Then I got to thinking....you see V-8s all over at shows... tune ports, LT1s, & now LS1s... I want something that stands out, which means if a swap happens, it will be to a Grand National or Turbo TA 3.8 Turbo motor! But that itself will still require tons of time and its not like these motors are cheap!

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Moving on to what has been done...
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First let me note...
It was not easy doing any performance mods for the v-6, as the aftermarket options are limited on the performance end. There is no researched perfect combo like there are for v-8 cars. Or at least, what was out there, only resulted in so-so gains. Hence peoples' reluctance to even try anything more. They feel it is a waste of time. So our performance combo was formed by trial and error and a lot of time doing the modifications by hand ourselves. Alot of hunch playing was used. Most of it was taking everything a step or steps further then most would recommend or have tried on TGO and other message boards.

NONE of this work was done at shops!!! The shops wanted too much and most said that engine was not worth the effort and refused. Joe was more then capable and willing, so he and I tackled the upgrades over the weekends.

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BASIC UPGRADES
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We accomplished what upgrades we could on the 2.8, while still keeping it drivable. Most were simply replacing what was old and worn out with new upgraded versions. Joe and I did the typical mods you would find on any V-8 (cam, headers, ported & polished intake & heads,...and other goodies) Then we seemed to hit a wall with the 2.8. Nothing we did seemed to matter.

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3.4L V-6
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Close to giving up, we thought about the 3.4L block swap. See the 3.4 is to the 2.8, like the 350 is to the 305. Same family of engine, so you can use all your accessories and top end on the larger block. As it turned out there was an internal balancing problem with my 2.8, due to a shotty dealership rebuild. So, I opted for an upgrade to a 50,000 mile 3.4 V-6 out of a 95 Camaro. This really woke up the car and it allowed the whole thing to be a simple weekend swap, retaining all my original wiring and accessories.

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EXHAUST
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Originally, the factory set up the 2.8 cars with 2.25 inch exhaust. So I got to thinking once I got the 3.4... I had a 2.5in Flowmaster installed with a high capacity 2.5 inch catalytic convertor and 2.5 inch cut out, but the rest was 2.25. The 3.4s stock got 2.5 inch systems, and alot of stock 3.4 guys upgrade to cast off v-8 2.75 systems. They all have gains and no problems with the exhaust being too unrestrictive. So I'm thinking my 3.4 is modified, bet I could go larger still. After some research on the Dyno, & thanks to the cut out, we found my non-mandrel bent 2.25 inch exhaust system was infact too restrictive!

So we tweaked it... I upgraded to my idea of a 3in mandrel bent system! The combo gave RAIF a deeper, louder grumble. At idle, with the exhaust & the nice lopey cam, he sounded like a V-8, especially with the cut out open!

The layout is this... PF&E headers to a custom 2.5 to 3in y-pipe flowing to a 3in Flowtech cut out...then you move to the 3in Magnaflow high flow catalytic convertor, which joins the Flowmaster American Thunder series 3in madrel bent cat back system...topped of with dual 2.5 inch custom madrel bent quad exhaust tips! And to let you know... there was a significant gain performance wise... to the tune of: 15hp and 18TQ at the wheels!

Now the real tune!

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Here is Raif reving up with my full mandrel bent 3in exhaust system closed. Cat back is a 3in Flowmaster American Thunder system.