I got the V6 3300, 160 horses, not bad, but the torque sucks. How can I improve it?

get an "UDP" (under drive pully)

free-flowing exhaust, cold air intake will start you on your way...

I've been looking for one and all I can find are some god damn carpet sets. Were can I get one for my car?

is flowmaster free-flowing?

... Flowmaster is the name of a company that makes aftermarket exhaust parts. I guess most of their products are more "free flowing" than stock... so to answer your question, Yes.

however if it's low end torque you're looking for, opening the exhaust way up is NOT the answer! Too little restriction on exhaust flow can definitely hurt low end (torque) performance.

Ma car is front wheel drive, not rear. that what sucks. I was wondering though, if i put some weight in the engine compartment, wouldn't that weight down the car giving it more friction, thus more torque?

no... unless you are spinning your tires when you pin the throttle, more weight in the front of the car, or more weight at all for that matter, will only slow you down. Get less weight, and make better use of the power you already have. Take out excess weight like your spare tire (unless you are planning to hit the highway) and heavy items in your trunk, and you might notice a slight difference in acceleration.

For a good scientific explanation of torque, go to Realoldspower.com. There was recently a thread on there about horsepower and torque and one of the guys gave a very good scientific definition. If I were to give an everyman's paraphrase to that it would be this. Torque is the work an engine can do measured in some mathematical way, and horsepower is also a measurement where torque is part of the equation. So, you need torque to get horsepower but not the other way around. Some of the things described earlier are generally accepted ways to get more "power" from your car. Truly though, the only way to get more torque from the engine in your car would be to rebuild the engine and change some things from stock. I don't think that is what you are looking for though and to be honest, most of the established Oldsmobile gearheads are experience with the older V8 engines. Some of the things some of the younger guys are doing in the "import" crowd could probably be applied to your V6 but then there may not be the parts available to do it. You want to spin the tires easier, get smaller tires, or a better gear ratio in the transaxle, but I don't know what are available for your car.

I have rambled on here too much, I hope I didn't complicate things, just go to ROP and search the words horsepower and torque, you will find that post I referred to, it's good.

k guys, thx.

you'd just be working against yourself. are you having trouble getting the power? or having trouble putting it to the ground?


for the flippin 40 lbs that your spare tire weighs, leave it in there. it's not going to make a difference you will be able to notice. (unless you're trying to shave .001 off your 1/4 mile time I personally would rather have it and be able to change my tire if I needed to.

Hey I just thought of something.... why don't you mount your spare tire under the hood, so that way you'll get the extra weight on the front wheels you want! (j/k)

i got 160 horse, whihc isnt bad, and possy traction, so it takes a lil time for the car to get moving quik. so to answer 73delta88's question. im having trouble puting the power to the ground.

you have the 3300 with 160 hp. you should be able to launch that car off the line with no problems. i had a grand am with a 3300 and that b!tch flew
and my 3.8 is unreal. i am unsure what the torque is (3300) but its probably in the 180-190 range. and when they say that the 3.8 is 160 hp that is a crock it seems like 170-175 maybe 180. put it this way...its fairly equal to my buddys 66' mustang and his 289/302 (unsure of engine size) comes with 200hp stock. so if your having some trouble get up to speed i would get it looked at... just my two cents

Hi GraveReaper0, ahondadriversnightmare, hello all
I don't think you are spinning your tires from a stop, so I am thinking you are getting your power to the ground. Under or overdriven pulley sets are a lot of money for a little gain.
Flowmasters are not made in a small enough size for your exhaust and are not the best performance choice for big V8s either.
As was stated above, you might find some more in the car by making sure it is running as well as it should in stock tune.
A good understanding of how the entire drivetrain works, and a minimum, do it yourself skill level will save a lot of cash.
Decide: how much you want to spend, how much more power you want, why you want it, and what you will do with it.
Then you can design a combo that will do what you want.
The old saying applies now as it did in the 1930s: "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?". Was your Grand AM the same car (except for badging) as GraveReaper0s Cierra?
Horsepower ratings from before 1972 were not even close to accurate. It was at that point the Federal Gov't issued rules as to how HP figures would be measured. Alone, Torque/HP numbers are not enough to measure one cars performance against another.
'66 Mustang came with 289 cubes and was a slug (probably slower now) when it was new.
Regards, Norm

So then i guess all the late 60's muscle cars HP and TORQUE ratings were complete BS...right. GTO's being rated around 340 hp must have been an under statement, or even the buick skylark..and so on..this is like the one time i was trying to find out if the 3.8 would bolt up to a 3.1 5 spd and most tranny shops said that it would and they were 100% sure that they were rite.being the brainless,dickless,trying to compensate for something that isnt there type of retards and that they are too egotisical for their own good crackjack box technicians. so i called up the dealership and they said that it will not mate to the 3.1 5 spd...point is that im sick of people trying come off like they are the ones that designed every freakin engine,car,mod,...blah,blah,blah.... Just my two cents

P.S ive seen my buddys '66 take out alot of modern late 90's v6's and alot of them have 200 or more hp..it depends on 3 factors
1-the driver
2-the gear ratios in the trans/rear
3-the maintenance history of the engine.