Well, my dad recently picked up an '01 SSE, and the subject of pulling some more power out of it came up. I told him I'd do some research and find out what'* out there for parts, and I'm having trouble coming up with much. We're looking to pull probably another 30-40HP out of the motor to start with. He'* not looking to spend a ton of money, I'm guessing he wants to keep the bill under $500 but I'm not sure on that. So basically, I'm looking for a good source for some basic bolt-ons for now, chips and cold-air setups, the simple stuff. Of course I am going to try and get him to go beyond that, which leads to my next question...

What are the differences between the N/A 3.8L and the */C motor? I'm guessing it wouldn't be a bolt-on affair to get it up to speed with the real deal, but I really don't know. Are we looking at forged pistons and computer swaps? Or just bigger injectors and a few little bolt-ons? I'm hoping if I can get him hyped up to do some work on this that I can also convince him to slap a blower on there, so if anyone has info on doing the swap, I'd appreciate any help you can give!

Welcome to the club!

Go up to "techinfo".........Lots of good stuff to do

Hope you have all the luck I'm having here.

NA > SC is not easy, but can be done! I'm doing it as we spaek! The basic differencies are small but expensive! EPROM chip, Fuel Injectors (different rate of Fuel delivery), Final Drive Ratio in Transmission, Pistons (SC uses lower combustion ones), Intake system of coarse, etc....Most GM'* now a days are pre-wired on the assembly line for "Full Bore" though these days, as it'* easier to just not install the part then to rewire the entire car!