Performance upgrades for 90, 348ts

Hey Guys, what's the best Bang for the Buck to increase the HP to my1990 348. She is completely stock has 82k and last compression test is 130psig on all cylinders. The overall condition is great so she's worth spending so time and money, but I don't want to get carried away, nor do I wish to turbo, I do most of the work myself and have set a budget for performance materials at $15k.
So Guys what ideas are out there?
Roger

 

I've owned my 348 for 12 years. Here is my opinion. $15K isn't enough money to get substantional performance gains unless you fabricate your own turbo system. Since a turbo is not an option, you are better off using that money to buy lighter wheels (Challenge wheels) and doing maintenance and cosmetic work. Maybe delete the cats if that works in NV. Just make her beautiful and mechanically perfect. In the end you will be more satisfied.

 

Hi Roger,

See my thread here with dyno results for 348 Sport Cat and Catbypass

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355/422335-dyno-results-348-a.html

We are continuing development on this particular car and are hoping for over 300HP to the rear wheels when we are finished.

 

The catalytic converters are a great spot to start to free up some performance. Keep an eye out for the upcoming headers as well Getting a nice set of Suspension, lighter brakes and much lighter wheels will totally change the character of the car! Focusing on weight savings as well as handling and performance upgrades makes for a very well rounded set up that can really change a cars character.

 

Go on a 20# diet???




Kai

 

I just replaced my test pipes with the Fabspeed cats last week. It passed our (Houston) emission test today.

 

Thanks Guys, but is there a EEPROM chip for the ecu's?

 

I thought at one time there was someone on here that had the code for the 348 SS chip and could flash the EPROMs. Anyone else remember that discussion or person?

 

Selling your 348 and adding 15k could perhaps be enough or at least close to upgrade the car and jump to a 355. That would be a nice performance upgrade !

 

Isn't 130 compression pretty low? The spec is 150 psi minimum on a F355.

 

pop a couple small turbos on that thing with some new head bolts, O ring the heads and let it rip

 

Here is a list of what I've done that works so far.

1) ported intake runners
2) tapper ported throttle bodies 57mm-62mm
3) 200 cell metal core high flow cats
4) free flow exhaust
5) custom tri-y headers
6) ultrasonically cleaned and tested my injectors
7) larger diameter full pump fittings and fuel lines
8) MAF screens removed
9) spider/SS EPROM mapping

My car is making 332hp at the crank. The cost? Those improvements where about $7600 for everything. So with his budget of $15k he has PLENTY of cash left to go get a custom grind on his cams, better fuel injectors, better fuel pressure regulator, and even have his ecu's custom tuned on a dyno. Or put the leftover cash into brakes and suspension tuning. Especially since he's gonna turn his own wrenches most of his expense will just be on parts.

Before you start the mods go get a baseline dyno. Then after each mod you can go retest on the same dyno to see the improvements.

 

And.............crickets...........

 

Best mod for the 348 is to reduce the weight........

 

Been there done that.

My car is in the 2800-2900/lbs neighborhood, maybe even a little bit lighter. No carpeting, no sound deadening, no headliner, no rear bulkhead liner, no windows, no inner door liner, no trunk liner, no mad mouse belts, and one seat. What is surprising is how heavy all the sound deadening is. It must have weighed 65-75/lbs, and that isn't including the carpeting. Next heaviest are the seats, about 80/lbs each. The glass windows aren't all that light either. I lost a load of weight from the mufflers, and headers too. The dual cans are about 72/lbs if I remember correctly, and the stock cats about 10-ish/lbs each.

The problem is it gets noisy inside the cabin.

Sure it's lighter, but it's also no longer quiet inside. If you thought you could hear stuff while you were driving before, you hear EVERYTHING on the road now. Even the engine noise is louder inside the cabin. So be for warned of the noise level.

Out of curiosity, what have you done to lighten your car Marco?

 

What does a used 355 motor run, around $8k? They did all the work for you, ITB's, titanium con rods, more head flow (and an extra intake valve), aggressive cams and a little more displacement and squeeze.

 

I for one am not willing to give up the superior torque of the 348 motor for that 5 valved lump.

 

Dunno what you mean by 'superior torque', but the 355 has 30 lbs ft more torque than the 348...

 

Pretty sure we had this debate before Pete, but I think the 348 made more of its torque at lower revs than the 355, so the issue re torque is more useability on the 348 I'd need to do some research to confirm but I thought I posted some stuff previously??

 

Well, to each their own. I doubt the 348 has much, if any, more low end torque than a 355, and even if it does it doesn't do anything for the speed of the car as if you want to go fast you won't be operating either one below 4k rpm, above which the 355 has more power and torque. Besides, half the fun of driving these things is shifting gears. This doesn't help the OP at all as he mentioned nothing about wanting more low end torque, but more power .

 

!

 

We ran 94 spider ECU in the 348 Challenge part # 156536, factory rpm increased to 8,000
I have a set available if you are interested send me PM message.