3.0 upgrades

[r_towle]

What are the common, tested, and worth the effort upgrades for a 3.0?

Street car.

Larger displacement,
Larger pistons?
Different heads, or ported heads?
Bigger stroke crank?

Etc etc

[Nditiz1]

SSI
M1 cams

[911hutch]

$?

[Jeff Alton]

Are you looking at taking it apart and upgrading, or is it already apart and needs some attention.

What is your budget? What are your goals for improved performance? How do you use the car?

Cheers

[icarp]

What is the weight of your car? year? type of engine as it sits?
What is your driving experience , what is the fastest you have ever driven ?
Do you know what it is like to drift a car?
What horse power to weight ratio do you think makes a car fun to drive ?
Does 230 hp sound like a lot?
Are you changing the brakes ?
Tires, small and fun? or large and super sticky so you will never loose grip?

answering these questions will help you decide

Just my thoughts
Ian

M1 cam and ssi is enough to entertain me , 3.0 cis

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by r_towle

What are the common, tested, and worth the effort upgrades for a 3.0?

Street car.

Larger displacement,
Larger pistons?
Different heads, or ported heads?
Bigger stroke crank?

Etc etc

depends on you budget
98mm p/c make a 3.0 a 3.2 you can also add some compression at the same time

74.4mm strock C 3.2 crank makes the ss 3.2 a 3.4

You can add cams but selection there is limited by CIS ability to function w/ more cam

SSI and free flow exhaust is standard first step unless you are going to 3.4 or more in which cast you need the bigger 42 mm versions of SSI

best bang is to toss the 3.0 and put a 993 3.6 in there,

None of this is cheap

[Reiver]

Euro 3.0 930-10 w SSI's/sports 2 in out muffler.

The real addition was adding lightness by removing 'things' like sound deadening, AC, etc...so at 2300 lbs with prob 220 HP.

That entailed an '83 930-16 to an '83 930-10 engine swap but the rest was 'disassembly'...inexpensive (traded motors) and got what I wanted.

[Trackrash]

Going to carbs, or EFI, better pistons, better cams, and SSIs is the way to wake these motors up.

But in some locations changing the intake or exhaust may cause problems with smog laws.

[MichaelSJackson]

What have you been driving?

[Reiver]

Originally Posted by Trackrash

Going to carbs, or EFI, better pistons, better cams, and SSIs is the way to wake these motors up.

But in some locations changing the intake or exhaust may cause problems with smog laws.

True, where I live there are no smog checks and if you have collector auto insurance you get a pass where they have them...Merica!

[spunky.goat]

I’ve seen the M1 cam pop up here, along with a few other threads as I consider the same subject as the OP.

For those running the M1/SSI combo such as @icarp and @nditiz1:
1) do you have small or large port heads?
2) are you running stock pistons?
3) Is the CIS completely stock?

[icarp]

1980 3.0 small port heads , Cis pistons @ 8.0 to 1 measured , Melissa , M1 or "aka" Kermit cams , all other internals are stock . SSI and Dansk sport muffler . The big change I did was to make an adjustable fuel pressure regulator , this is the key to supplying enough fuel to match the demands, or potential of the camshaft . 230 hp @ crank 2250 lbs makes for a ripping fun car . Others have run this cam with ITB's and it runs even stronger.

[mike sampsel]

Originally Posted by r_towle

What are the common, tested, and worth the effort upgrades for a 3.0?

Street car.

Larger displacement,
Larger pistons?
Different heads, or ported heads?
Bigger stroke crank?

Etc etc

I went with this:

98 mm pistons/cylinders (9.5 CR)
Web Cam 20/21 billets
Active sport cat (Rarly Brian B, alabama boys, "Crotchety Old Bastard" )

The active sport cat is more environmentally friendly and stinks a lot less than the cat bypass I had, it bypasses the mufler on full throttle but not the sport cat. If SSI is better, performance, I would not know. I know the changes I made really perked things up. Pretty sure I went from 180 Hp to ~ 210 Hp (no dyno run though) just my est.

Carbs or EFI and a (20/21 is about as wild as you can go with CIS) wilder cam and headers would be performance additions for me. Doubt I'll ever do any of it though.

[GaryR]

Originally Posted by r_towle

What are the common, tested, and worth the effort upgrades for a 3.0?

Street car.

Larger displacement,
Larger pistons?
Different heads, or ported heads?
Bigger stroke crank?

Etc etc

For what?

[MichaelSJackson]

Rich,

Just wondering why you're asking about a 3.0? Don't you have an '84 Carrera? Already has EFI and is 3.2. Did you find a good deal you can't resist?

Michael J.

[na2ub]

I am crossing this bridge now. My stock 79 SC is in the process of getting SSIs, dansk sport muffler, and Al's RHD ITB setup.

I considered new pistons with higher compression, and cams, but decided not to get that deep. Maybe down the road.

For now, the upgrades have cost more than I paid originally for the car, in 2000.

Losing weight is not to be overlooked. I would love to get to 10lb/hp for silly fast, but I have certainly shed some weight that the car came with.

[mikedsilva]

Originally Posted by na2ub

I am crossing this bridge now. My stock 79 SC is in the process of getting SSIs, dansk sport muffler, and Al's RHD ITB setup.

I considered new pistons with higher compression, and cams, but decided not to get that deep. Maybe down the road.

For now, the upgrades have cost more than I paid originally for the car, in 2000.

Losing weight is not to be overlooked. I would love to get to 10lb/hp for silly fast, but I have certainly shed some weight that the car came with.

You'll like the setup but if it were me, instead of getting the SSI and muffler up front, I would have gotten cams and compression to make some use of the ITBs.. (assuming you didn't want to spend so much in one go).///later, you could then do the SSI and muffler.

Either, way, you'll still be happy.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by r_towle

What are the common, tested, and worth the effort upgrades for a 3.0?

Street car.

Larger displacement,
Larger pistons?
Different heads, or ported heads?
Bigger stroke crank?

Etc etc

Hello neighbor! (I am in Westford, MA)

The mild upgrades I have done to mine while keeping CIS are:

DC15 cams (had my SC cams regrown do by ‘Camgrinder’)
9.3:1 compression pistons (original is 8.5:1)
SSI style HE (from a 74)
Removed a/c, air injectors
Sport dual exhaust (200 bucks on eBay)

I have large port heads already, since it is a 78.

Best,
Aurelien

[HarryD]

Originally Posted by r_towle

What are the common, tested, and worth the effort upgrades for a 3.0?

Street car.

Larger displacement,
Larger pistons?
Different heads, or ported heads?
Bigger stroke crank?

Etc etc

Going against the grain here.

Best value for your money?

Tighten up the nut behind the wheel. Attend a bunch of HPDE's and Autocrosses.

Learn to drive the car you got at its limits and then decide if there is any need for mechanical upgrades. You may discover you need nothing more than a second set of wheels and stickier tires.

[GaryR]

Originally Posted by HarryD

Going against the grain here.

Best value for your money?

Tighten up the nut behind the wheel. Attend a bunch of HPDE's and Autocrosses.

Learn to drive the car you got at its limits and then decide if there is any need for mechanical upgrades. You may discover you need nothing more than a second set of wheels and stickier tires.

Which is why I said "For what?".