3.4 inch pulley question

**Agentlongwood** · 02-23-2011

I was reading through the "safely modding your 3800" sticky and I couldn't find the answer to this question exactly. (Lots of great info though) I want to know if I can run the 3.4 pulley without replacing the stock exhaust manifolds. I do have a 3" ZZP downpipe, and I just made myself an open cone intake. With the addition of cooler plugs, a 180* Tstat and getting the PCM tuned at a local shop is that enough to run a 3.4 safely and with zero KR? Yes I mean getting the tune once the 3.4 would go on and not before lol. I feel like that is as far as I want to mod this car and basically if I dont need the headers I can skip the headache and 200 bucks. Thanks for any help yall. I appreciate it.

**TheOtherNick** · 02-23-2011

I would find a used plog for the front first.

**blueguy** · 02-24-2011

You'll want to mod it further once you get the pulley on...I was there once...3.4" setup gets boring pretty quick. Depeding on the tune...I don't see why you can't just use manifolds...its just safer to let the car breathe better, that's all...which is why I always recommend headers since they are so cheap and are cheaper than a PLOG/DP setup and flow tons better.

**Agentlongwood** · 02-24-2011

The reason I don't really want to mod further is because I have a plan for what I want when I have money to build a really fast car. It involves a Mazda Miata and a chevy LS3. Untill then I just want to build my grand prix to be decently quick as a daily driver.

**blueguy** · 02-24-2011

Get a 3.6"...and run more timing.

**JoRoW99** · 02-24-2011

Sell the DP and get headers. total difference of like $75

**blueguy** · 02-24-2011

My 3" DP 3.6" car with like 20* of timing would be fastah...

**footballplaya3k** · 02-25-2011

Originally Posted by bluegtp91

Get a 3.6"...and run more timing.

I would do this, but you could run a 3.4 with like 10* if you really want, it would be slower though

**Bio248** · 02-25-2011

Originally Posted by footballplaya3k

I would do this, but you could run a 3.4 with like 10* if you really want, it would be slower though

super high cylinder temps make for not a healthy running motor. i would NEVER run less than stock timing unless it was temporary.

**Wrongwayislost77** · 02-25-2011

I would recommend shooting for 17-19* with NO KR and choosing a pulley accordingly; proper tuning will get you more power than throwing pulleys at it. And better fuel economy, reliability, etc. Something to consider with 100k+ miles.

**Agentlongwood** · 02-25-2011

Go ahead and call me noob but I really dont know much about timing and pcm tuning. I know just enough to understand that getting a smaller pulley (And tune it accordingly) is probably the last mod I want to do. If I understand it correctly yall are saying that on my setup (3" ZZP downpipe, open cone intake, cooler plugs, 180* Tstat and proper tune) the better choice is a 3.6" pulley rather than the 3.4"?