I am sure you guys gets this a lot but here it goes. I am turning 17 in 6 days. I am a good driver and my dad has agreed to let me start putting money into my 1992 Bonneville SE. First thing I would love to make my Bonne faster/quicker. All I know though is that it is a 1992 Bonneville SE v6 with 155k miles(I hear Bonnes are strong cars lasting until 300k miles) w/little rust under driver door. when I took a peek under the hood on the engine it says 3800-tuned for port injections(not sure what that means, I don't know much about cars,is that 3.8L?) I will have about $500 to put into my car. Where to start??? Forgot to mention that friends think it is a ***** car and it is time to shut them up! Any help is greatly appreciated---Jake W.

:Welcome

The age of the car and being a non supercharged engine you are limited on what can be done. There are other members that are far more knowledgeable about your year then I am. The car is still quick for a 4 door car.

ok but I believe that I can get a supercharger for my model now would that A-Harm my car and B-would it open up more mod options and I have been looking for mods but where should i look for upgrades for my make/year/model is there a specialty performance website?

*/c'ing a 92 can be done, and we have alot of the GP guys do it more then Bonnes. Alot of haters of the idea and it does seem to wear the engines quickly. @ 155k miles, I wouldn't. Going to be alot of cost, work, and you arent going to see 300k with the stress an */C is going to put on it. The ones that make it that far are really well cared for. I ssume you don know the resal history of the engine. I had one @ 217k ran so so in an olds, one in a Lesabre **** at 137k, and one in a Park Avey go @ 168k. Dont expect fantastic gains, you cant pulley far, and any subsequent mods, "not many to do' are going to put the engine that much closer to fail.

I was looking a supercharger and a performance chip. The supercharger has a switch to turn on when needed and to turn off when not needed and the performance chip can be turned on full/half/off which would keep the stress on engine to a minimum....should I go about doing this?

What you are talking about is NOT a supercharger.

A REAL supercharger is going to cost you thousands to in parts/labor to buy/install etc..

I am guesing you are talking about some fake electric supercharger that you install between your air filter box and the throttle body, being you said you can switch it on and off, Adding one of these will not do a thing for your car, it will only cost you money and make you another victim of purchasing something that absolutely does not work.

Sorry bud my advice it to not purchase either..they both will do nothing.

Unfortunately for $500 there isn't much you can do to make your car noticeably quicker...My Bonneville while quick for what it is, easily falls into the category of one of the slowest vehicles I have owned, my solution: I'm planning to sell it and go back to driving a car with 350+hp stock that is meant to be fast and easy to modify.

I know that is not the answer you wanted to hear, but take it as advice from someone who wasted money on lots of things on my cars when I was your age too.

I'm not sure that could make sense to most, but overall it seems you're looking to keep the BBV open for daily driving and then shut it for performance. Agrazela is looking to do that, but his engine being with the newer Series 2 PCM makes it a lot easier.

You should get a 96 Bonneville/Riviera harness or a 97 Grand Prix GTP harness so it would work with your transmission. Then get all Series 2 L67 sensors and a new throttle body with a custom adapter plate. Plug in all the sensors and then have someone do some massive amounts of tuning to make it all work. That'* the simple way to do an OBD2 switch. In the past it was tried with sensors from the Series 1 setup being made to work with OBD2, but that is actually more complicated I think.

Once you have the sensors all set up, throw on a lower intake manifold, supercharger, fuel rail, injectors, all the other little things, the custom plate, and the new throttle body. Then you can run supercharged/NA all you want until your engine goes away to a permanent junkyard vacation.

Haha, man I even got confused reading through that the first time. That is a sweet idea if someone could get it to work.

Pretty sure what you are talking about tho is about 1,000,000 X more complex than what he was reffering too.

See my last post.. I am guessing he is refferring those plastic electric "superchargers" (electric fan is what they really are) they have all over ebay and other places that you turn on and off, along with a chip you also see all over ebay/internet..

New Computer, throttlebody, sensors, tuning, REAL Supercharger etc.. would cost him Thousands..and how quick would the car even be after that? High 14 second car? Not to mention the high miles on the car to begin with and that the transmission would never hold up very long so there is more money to put into it..

Yes modifying these cars can be fun and make you unique, but to THAT extent and at that cost for not a lot of performance he could take all that money he would spend on the car, along with selling the car and be able to buy something that is quicker to begin with. Hell you can get a Nice LT1 F-body for less than 5 grand these days.

Just my opinion of course..

It would be way faster than high 14s. The 93 SSEi that runs low 14s is doing absolutely nothing for tuning except playing with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator and then reading a wideband O2. And this is with home-ported heads with no flowbench and stock exhaust manifolds.

The transmission should hold up just fine. I think unless he just destroys it by going WOT the whole time, it should work. If not, I have a spare 4T60E-HD in my garage. And 2 M62 superchargers as well. He just needs a LIM, some new gaskets, and some sensors.

Sensors/stuff:
• throttle body - $20
• TB adapter plate - $100 or so? It would be $300 new with CAD
• Series 2 L67 MAP sensor - free/$10
• IAT if it'* not the same plug or so - free/$10
• Other sensors like the coolant temp, O2, etc, should transfer over but are easy enough to put in
• PCM & wiring harness - $50/100

Past that, PRJ Performance either flies out to tune the car or he comes to PRJ. It'* $50 for the first hour and $25/hr after that. Not thousands. Plus, his parents probably gave him not an F-body but a Bonneville because they want him to be a more careful driver. You can't fight the man in a rebel car if you're not rebelling by doing so!

????Your both out in left field somewhere. Pretty sure he means can he do an M62 top swap. Doesnt take 1000'* of $. Also sure he isnt referring to an E-supercharger, lets not assume and make members out to be that gullible without substance. M62'* are a dime a dozen in the wrecking yards. Reflashed PCM'* are $100. Lets please remember the age of the thread originator and actually help him. Rad, I'm sure PRJ has done some great things for you, but @ 16 and a $500 War Chest, lets keep our help real. Tired of rhetoric in threads like these does no one but the writer any good.