you do know that walbro makes the gm pump right?

For what its worth, I bought a 82-92 strut bar/bay brace. I installed it today and to my surprise, there was not enough clearance for the hood to close due to the bar sitting too high. When I called them up, and talked to Jim, he was very patient and tried to help troubleshoot the problem. The folks at TPIS seemed to want to help.
I also noted in most of peoples complaints that they purchased items from the "Garage Sale". It is noted on the site that the products will not be refunded. People, no matter what, should be weary of that even if the company is excellent. Nothing is ever perfect and people need to realize that. I have delt with parts I have bought from numerous Third Gen sites that have not been totally correct and have learned that if you can't get the help you want, try to fix it yourself or resell it to some sucker .
-Peace

well that's a decent point and on most levels i do believe they mean well for some things however their high priced items that are suppose to be superior are handled through trial and error at the owners expense which isn't right.

fact of the matter is there are more people with problems then not which is why there is cause for concern. i think every situation is different and should be handled appropriately and in a mature manner but being in that position myself of having such problems with them i can certainly understand when these people are getting ripped off by them.

i think if your going to buy entry level items or smaller dollar things they have decent equipment and service like the next company but i would not trust their parts on any major level for your projects as well as their programming as those pieces have begun to go down hill drastically.

I think the TPIS MiniRam is about the meanest 'F'ing intake I have ever seen. But $1200+ for the whole kit makes me think of Holley Strip Dominator, 750cfm Race Demon, Russel fuel line kit, Holley Red electric fuel pump, get some Taco Bell, go see a movie, get drunk at the local pub, and still have money left over. And I'll have to agree with the comments about TPIS overcharging for other peoples parts. I looked through their online catalog and quickly entered www.summitracing.com into my address bar.


I'm no expert machinist but judging by the design of the MinRam, with its box on top of 8 runners, it isn't a very intelligent design. I'm not saying that it isn't an effective performance part, I'm just saying that there's no way it took them so much money to research and develop an aluminum box with a few holes here and there that they have to charge so much money for it. The only thing about the design of the MiniRam that impresses me is that it is one piece. That's the only thing that could make it so expensive. And it has almost nothing to do with design, research, or development. It has to do with the castings that the part is made with.

I don't know about TPIS. I think they are simply taking advantage of the fact that most parts on Camaros, Trans Ams and Vettes are unique, especially Gen III stuff. The slightly above average Vette enthusiast has so much money that I'd like to slap him in the face. They'll go on TPIS' website and buy away because TPIS gives the impression that there is no other place to get this stuff and all the parts they sell are actually theirs, which we all know isn't true.

As you can tell I am very stingy and I live by the KISS method. You can get 400+ hp out of your TPI. I will get twice as much with a carb for half the price. You are not only paying for performance parts, you are paying for performance parts that are almost street legal. Who 'F'ing cares about street legal. After 450 horsepower you can kiss a practical street car goodbye. No sense in bolting more and more crap onto your fuel injection. Just going to make your car heavier.

i removed the double post above from buymytransam.

be very careful if you buy something from a clearance rack at the speed shops..... they usually have a policy of no returns on clearance items.

i know summit's clearance rack says that. it's posted right on one of the sides.

sorry about the double post. i must have hit the back button and it automatically posted again. oops

the price fluctuation is interesting on the miniram as it didn't always cost that much....it's believed that the miniram was the driving force behind gm's lt1 intake which is very similar on various principles however many people have also claimed that the miniram was a stolen idea....

it is known that gm typically has things on the shelf years before its produced so whos to say whats right or wrong. one thing is for certain the price of the intake compared to what it does isn't really a very practicle thing. i would definately recommend cheaper alternatives seeing as how you can get very close in power for alot less it only makes sense.

but for those who have money to blow or find one for cheap they do work well after some slight modifications.....plan on spending some time to make them show worthy though as the casting isn't pretty.

My first order with TPiS went perfectly. I got in two days. And they've been pretty good about responding to my emails about their products, too. So I can't complain.

I already praised TPIS on this board earlier, but I will do it again. A suspension part I ordered did not work with my car so I called Jim up and asked if I could exchange the part for another one. Went off without a hitch and got the part about two weeks later no thanks to UPS's crappy *** ground service. Anyway, the exchanged part did not work either and so I again called Jim up and said that I was returning the part and asked for a refund. No problems were had and he even suggested other companies to try. Got no complaints about TPIS from me.

I got it after reading a few reviews about how it was great for tips on tuning TPI.

All I see it to be is a catalog with some additional bragging. A lot of "We do this, so does company XXX, but ours is better".

The air box mod thing was useful, as a few other things, but I would have been better off going through their catalogs than paying $20 for the tips it gave.

so let me get this straight....just because in the end you were refunded your money you have no complaints about the products that were defective. i agree that the least they could do was take care of you but you shouldn't have had to go through all that in the first place. if they are suppose to be the "specialists" they claim to be people shouldn't have to go through such things. luckily they took care of you, had you spent more with them you wouldn't have been so lucky.

you were just grazed by their "laziness" fortunate enough for you they gave you your money back, next time you may not be so lucky.

As a matter of fact, Jim and I spent some time discussing the problem because the part did turn out to be defective, I sent him some pictures of the problem, and again we discussed what the problem might have been. In stead of the "laziness" Kandied91z you so mention, that was not what I experienced. The folks at TPIS took their time dealing with my problem and were patient with me. The matter is not that they refunded my money, which they didn't have to, but that they took their time trying to help me solve a problem which in the end could not be fixed. They even suggested other manufactures to try since their part was not adapting to my car. Maybe after all the complaining everyone does, TPIS may have payed attention. I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

so you were lucky then.........carry on with your luck and play the lotto. your one out of 10 who got lucky and in doing so you praise them for their good work which is due respect obviously if they treated you that way. however they don't treat the majority of people that way. i think it is as fair for you to "praise" or complement them on doing you good as it is for the rest of us who have been burned to say so which is what will happen until they are out of business.

at least the word is out and people are starting to see that TPIS may not be what they claim to be. so long as people have places like this to inform them and make their own judgements the right thing will be done.

I ordered a set of tpis plug wires for my 89 GTA L98 and got Taylor 8mm wires instead. I even asked them if they all have 90 degrees spark plug boots due to my slp 1 3/4 headers and they said yes they all have 90 degree boots. They came in 14 days later ups ground repeat 14 days later and the wires have 3 out of 8 with straight boots? not all 90 degree boots and are taylor wires not the "our custom wires" they boasted about from the early 90's to now in there secrets hint book and online ad and pics . If i knew this i would of purchased them at summit for cheaper and got them shipped cheaper too and in 3 days!!!! Now thats what i call misrepresentation. Live and learn i guess!!!

wow

Holy back from the dead batman.
You have to realize that TPIS was one of the first aftermarket online companies out there.
Online performance companies were not common like today.
The name alone "tuned port injection specialties" alone shows they came about decades ago. Today the name sounds outdated when everyone is going LSx. But at the time a yahoo search for TPI (no one heard of google back then)
would bring them up first.
I give them credit for staying power but these days I doubt they really make much money on TPI anymore as everyone has moved on with the times.
They probably don't care about the 3rdgen crowd like they used to when we were the new kids on the block.

Has this really been alive since 2001? How does this happen?

If you're not happy with them send them back for a refund and buy the Taylor's from Summit......that's what I would do. I have Taylor's on my car and they work great and I've had no issues.

Oh heck, since we are reviving long dead posts, I may as well contribute. The customer service issues have a lot to do with who you speak to. Example, I have done business with PST(Performance suspensions Technology) a few times. The first few transactions were everything you expect from a good speedshop. However, my most recent one was not so great. The salesman treated me like dirt, and was rude. The only reasons I did not hang up were #1, no one else made the product I was out to buy specificly for a G-Body in that price. #2, I couldnt exactly call back and get a different rep, its not a big enough store where they have hundreds of phone reps.

I am happy with their products for the most part, but the guy on the phone makes a huge difference.

You make it sound like no one builds SBC's anymore lol.

Knight Rider will never die!!!

I could not resist lol

Look a zombie thread. I'll throw in my two cents to keep it alive. I originally bought a set of headers and complete exhaust system from them (TPIS) in 2004. They were more expensive than from some other places but it all fit. I just received a miniram with fuel rails and they fit. The instructions were complete enough to easily install them. TPIS is not cheap, if you can find the same parts elsewhere you probably will get them cheaper. I use the word "fit" a lot because almost every other after market part from other manufacturers I have bought has to be massaged to fit and the instructions interpreted with a ouija board. But I guess it does not matter since I probably am the last person in the world dumb enough to build a Gen 1 anymore. Maybe my next project will be a flathead.

Its pretty evident TPIS is not a good place to buy stuff I will not do any buisness with them!

well here's my 2 cents on the matter if u are purchasing an item from the garage sale and u can email them why don't u ask them for a pic of the product that u are purchasing or thinking about purchasing. so that way u might be able to see any defects and see if it's actually worth it buying it or not but thats if they would be willing to/can take pictures of something like that for u.

This past year, I ordered a panhard rod, torque arm, lower control arms with brackets, 4 rotors, both sets of pads, and a thottle body plate, all was top notch, all was fast to deliver, and all fit well and to my expectations. My girl ordered the parts for me and she said the customer service isn't great but the parts are what I care about. Oh well, to each his own.

I hacve to tell you they are a joke! I brought my 85 i-roc to them cause i couldn't get it to start after i put a 350 in it. They tell me no problem i can get it running. 2 weeks later i still have no running car. so i pick it up they charge me 200 dollors and tell me what i already knew. That the injectors were getting no pulse. So i get it home and do some searching and you guys on here help me out in a matter of a few days. It was the main power wire runing to the battery. You would think that speacialists would have looked there first but now. Also get my car back and the computer is down they didnt even give me the car back the way i gave it to them. I will never recommend them to anyone. tpi speacialists my ***!

I was one of the original posters all those years ago, and I'll throw my $0.02 I got from the gov't stimulus. I did not buy the miniram II from tpis, instead I elected to go the lt1intake.com route with John Millican. Glad I did, IIRC the intake was purchased modified from him for around ~$400 or so. Same tuning issues with the miniram off-idle lean backfire, but a little tuning in the Accel Enrich and %TPS Power Enrich tables and that cleared right up. Monster will spin up 6000 rpm+ with msd ignition and coil. I still have the car and the intake and glad I didn't go the tpis route. Can't say the lack of their response on this forum hurt their chances to earn my business. It was a bang-for-the-buck decision in the end.

just wanted to throw out an opinion im from minnesota and have dealt with alot of tpis guys through the years just random help with motor builds i have and they are very helpful i cant say ive bought anything from them because i price shop for the best deals i can find at the time but for chevy information they are great guys just a superstitious old man here but i remember myron cottrell from way back in the days as "boom boom cottrell" because alot of his motors blew up so i have my motors built by another well known minnesota builder but besides that all the guys at tpis have been great to me

I haven't purchased anything major from them yet but the small stuff has gone pretty well. They sell IAT housings on eBay that are nicely anodized and don't have the water passage on them. I've purchased several and had the transaction go smoothly each time. I also acquired an older (1998 vintage) Miniram as part of a used car purchase. The car had never been run in the intervening 10 years and some small pieces were missing. They have been very helpful in getting those pieces squared away so that I can eventually install it.

Would I pay full price for a Miniram intake from them, probably not. But I can't fault the customer service I've received on the dealings I have had with them.

ordered a few things from them, and so far im pretty satisfied

Count me as a dis-satisfied customer... They repeatedly lied and even yelled at me on the phone like I was 5. I was spenging $1000 with them A$$holes... No more...

Rafael

Details?

My experience with TPIS has been very good after ordering directly from their web site and off of eBay. They were extremely helpful when I called to correct a mistake that I had made. Very high quality parts and workmanship. As a small business owner, I can appreciate in a small way the investment that goes into the development of custom parts and the fact that you have to make that back by pricing the products accordingly (plus paying staff, etc.). Many of us in the USA want to pay low prices for great quality and that is why almost every manufacturer has been forced to move production to the far east. It looks to me that some of the TPI aftermarket companies are getting out of this engine series (SLP) so I'm glad they have the parts that they do. On the Mini-Ram - I'm in the process of setting up a "high flow" TPI intake and let me tell you I will have a lot more money in it than if I had just gone with the Mini-Ram. but I wanted the stock look so that's why I didn't.

Some good, some bad. Like many companies I suppose.

They offer USPS shipping to Canada. I ordered a Big Mouth from them a few years ago when I lived up north. Couriers will RAPE you on shipping internationally. The post office doesn't. A lot of performance part people won't do USPS.

I have a SuperRam. I like the midrange power and looks. But I sure did wish I had a MiniRam when I needed new fuel injectors. Same thing later on when I changed the EGR.

On the other hand, my ACCEL manifold has bigger ports and smoother ports than the Big Mouth. Some of their parts are overpriced (like injectors). I queston the "gain 95 HP" advertising of switching from TPI to MiniRam on an otherwise stock car. 311 HP? Really???

I know I'm commenting on a zombie thread, but I have a very specific issue with TPIS products.

Their adjustable fuel pressure regulator for TPI is junk. The fitting on the side backs out on its own regularly. Don't buy it.

I had good experiences with their tech support. I also have no problems with their big mouth manifold.

I've actually had horrible experiences with their tech support. Order a TPIS Big Mouth and AFPR, and finally get them 5 weeks later. And the Fel-Pro gaskets (1256) that were included were cut and unusable, so I contacted Jim from TPIS, and he assured me that he would send out a replacement. Guess what, still to this day I have not seen them. So I had to purchase the same gasket from my performance store and it cost me $30.56 cnd, so I messaged Jim and told him I want to be reimbursed the money and for them to send me a decal. And guess what, no reply. Those *** *******s can't even reply to an email even to say, we'll just give you an online credit. Theyre pricks, i'll never deal with them again just because of their lack of communication.

hmm i live about 20 minutes down the road from them lol