I know I won't get much performance out of the 3.9 and I could swap a V8 in but I want to work with what I have besides I like challenges. I want to know what yall have done to yalls V6's. My plans are as follows (no order):
1.Edelbrock 10" air cleaner
2.E-fan
3.Fastman throttle body
4.180 t-stat
5.trans cooler
6.possible oil cooler
7.High flow radiator
8.re-work heads for 2.02 intake and 1.06 exhaust (or could I co better safely)
9.HS Roller Rockers (should I get 1.6 or 1.7 with a cam)
10.Hughes re-ground cam
11.Custom Intake manifold
12. JBA or Gibson headers
13.Single in/dual out Flowmaster 40
14. High flow cat
15.Different push rods
16.High flow water pump
17.FMS 4 hole Injectors
18.Anything I'm forgetting?

How much horsepower would these mods make?

 

With a cam, get 1.6 RR's. With stock cam, get 1.7's.

1. Air cleaner won't get you much, if anything.

2, 4. E-fan is the most worth-while mod IMO (Do the 180 stat with it)

18. SCT is the best HP/$$ ratio

6, 7. oil cooler and radiator won't gain you anything

8. reworking heads is $$$ you don't want to spend. $100 says yours are probably cracked somewhere. I say that because they were that poorly designed, they basically shipped ready to crack

5, 18. trans cooler on it's own won't do much. But it will let you get a custom convertor. The 42RE doesn't have any performance kits, trust me.

10. Hughes makes custom cams for the 3.9, so does bullet.

11. Good luck on intake manifold. Not worth your time.

12. they make headers for the 3.9? Yea, not worth it. Look at the stock manifolds and you'll understand why. About the best designed thing on the 3.9 besides the crank itself.

13. flowmasters will gain you some, but the sound is slightly puke worthy. They make it scream V6. Loudly.

15. don't change pushrods. They're good for an RPM the crank will never see.

16. water pump again won't get you anything

---------------

1. 0
2. 5 (via clutch fan delete)
3. 3-5
4. 0
5. 0
6. 0
7. 0
8. --
9. 8
10. 15+
11. --
12. --
13. --
14. 3-5
15. 0
16. 0
17. unknown
18a. High Stall Convertor: 0 HP native, but lets you launch faster
18b. SCT: 10+ HP

Total: 44-48 HP increase. Most of it being in the cam.

Be ware that the 3.9 has been ran to 6000+ RPM, but I wouldn't trust a split-pin crank past 5500. The stock cam comes alive at 2000 and dies very suddenly at 4800. I'd get a cam optimized for 1500-5000 RPM and a custom convertor to match.

 

As magnethead said, talk to Sean at hemifever tuning. Tell him all the stuff you've done and he can write you a custom tune for pretty cheap to really make your engine come to life. I've got a SCT tune on my basically stock 3.9 (V8 tb and efan, 10" edelbrock air cleaner) and it was a pretty noticeable difference.

 

I say in truth is all the $$$ worth the small HP gain not to mention the extra stress the engine will be under as you will push it to get what you want from it. A stock engine design was for durability not Max power and of course SMOG

Aftermarket parts have a bad habit of not being as durable as OEM mainly as you push an engine to max performance durability goes out the window.

With stock you have a very high probability of longevity aftermarket not so.

 

What is sct? Sorry I've never heard of it

 

super chips tuner i believe

 

Hemifever tuning

hemifever@aol.com

http://www.hemifevertuning.com/Default.asp

 

remember the 3.9 is just a 5.2 with 2 holes hacked off. All that is different is the split-pin crank and subsequently narrower connecting rods. The 3.9 inherits the pitiful cylinder head design, and I wouldn't trust the split-pin crank to 5500, even though I've seen it ran to 6,000. How much power the split-pin crank can harness is a great question, and I think would be inverse of max RPM. IE it may be good to 5000 RPM stock (my limiter is at 5200 with the SCT), but with a cam and other power adders, I wouldn't second question setting the limiter to 4500. Especially a big-lift cam and heavy valve springs, I'd set the limiter closer to 4200. Reason being that there's alot bigger chance of snapping the crank at the cam gear. One of our racers did that on his small block chevy last year- crank sheered clean off at the crank sprocket. With the split-pin crank, you have alot less holding that crank together, and i can break alot easier.

I can't find a picture of a pulled 3.9 crank, but here's the jist:

 

I see what you mean that doesn’t look to strong

That’s what I was talking about by pumping up any engine you risk catastrophic failure as you are pushing it past its intended purpose in the old days you could get away with doing things like that but with many engines built now they are already close to peak performance levels.

It’s called weight reduction

 

I have a superchips tuner and i like it. SCT is another tuner that is good also. i believe SCT will give you a custom tune for your mods but superchips will not.