Im look for pics of people who had TPI and swaped to LT1 intakes. Specificaly im looking to see how you route and mount Collant lines and T-stat neck, etc. Thanks

I doing one myself,the best I've seen was the coolant lines tapped at the rear of the intake with 90* outlets pointing toward the front with the remote water outlet mounted below the TB with a straight outlet.I think it was on this fourm.

I did some more searching on here and found a lot of good pics

tpi_roc had a nice setup, with the cooland lines coming out of the heighest part of the head, but I'm not sure that would work with a serpentine setup. If you have corvette lt1 covers, you can almost hide how ugly the hoses are coming off the back of the intake.

The LT1 conversion is good stuff, but I just couldn't justify NOT spending a few hundred extra bucks for a miniram. plus the miniram is a true air-gap intake, which i've always had a sweet spot for.

-- joe

The stock lt1 has lots of passages and a tin shield. I doubt the air gap on the MR does much more for heat control. The big thing is to keep the oil off the bottom of the intake so it doesn't make hot spots.

You don't think air rushing through the front and sides of the intake don't help?

hrmm.. ok.

-- Joe

Air disapates heat more than anything I can think of.

That would depend on the temperature of the air.
And most intakes have air going past the sides so that's moot.
Where I used to live, 105f to 120f ambient was common.
I had an air gap carb intake. Runners burned my hand every time in the summer. Note that's a carb intake with evaporated fuel in the runners....
And my point that you missed was, that the bottom of the stocker is insulated by the vac passages and the tin shield. Does an MR have a tin shield stock? If not, then I'd say all that hot oil splashing up on the MR would negate any potential benefit from the air gap design.

I have spent a little time staring at the bottom of a stripped Lt1intake.... it takes some time to drill all those holes.

Water??????

Air is an insulator. Moving air dispates heat. Heat flows from hi temp to low temp. In theory, an air gap should work better.
Currently the best apples to apples comparison is the Edelbrock RPM carb intake in std and air gap design. There are several people that have had both on the same BBC and felt little if any diff. and certainly not enough to warrant the price difference.

The air gap makes people feel better. It may or may not be of much benefit.

bump, anyone got pics of the swap? lol

and miniram isnt just a few hundred bucks more.. its aLOT more. 1000 bucks more in some cases

I got my miniram on here for $960 shipped to my door with fuel rails. The intake was new and never used, the rails connected right to my stock fuel hoses. I've spoken with folks that have paid upwards of $600 for a LT1 with the coolant mods, and all that. I'm not saying an LT1 is bad, I like the idea and love the fact that people are making their own intakes. Heck, I did that a few years back and it ran GREAT. I'm just saying for an extra ew hundred bucks I wanted to bolt on a better (in my opinion) intake. I've seen the LT1 next to mine on the bench Looks kinda sorta similar from up top, but the miniram is a much better design (in my opinion).

In the end, it's up to you. I'd forget about the money and choose the intake based on performance, and how you want your engine to look. tpi_roc has a really nice clean LT1 setup (using lt1 heads).

-- Joe

i have a pic but it will not let me reload it or something search my name... and it will come up

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/at...rans-incar.jpg

Looks like one of your spark plug wires goes to the master brake cylinder.

why yes it does its for that extra boost.... flip a switch and its like having 9 cylinders haha... thats the coil wire... i mounted the coil over there for more room

i ran my hoses to the back around the back of the block to the holes tapped in the rear of the intake and over the driver side header but i need to buy some either header wrap of heat shielding so they dont burn (already melted one on the header) i also need to make a better RTH braket.

You're comparing the cheapest miniram setup deal to the most expensive LT1 intake deal. Come on now..........the LT1 intake could be much, much cheaper if you did the work yourself.

1) Not everyone can do it themself.
2) The coolant setup with the remote thermostat is still ghetto (yes Im biased, sue me)
3) What's the cheapest you ever pumped out a complete package for - intake, fuel hoses, coolant bypass stuff, and the 'modifications' to make it work ?

I'm not saying anythings wrong with the LT1. I'm just saying I passed, and I've stated my reasons.

-- Joe

bringin this back up. anyone have any pics of how you routed the vacuum lines and such for the LT1 manifold?

I'm looking for PCV valve setups and also what to do with the 2 holes on the passenger side of the manifold.

Also what to do about the MAT sensor thats in the TPI plenum? i'm thinkin of using one of the holes in the passenger side of the LT1 manifold

I drill and tap one of the rh side ports for the mat sensor.
Maf cars don't really need the mat so you could leave it laying on the fender or something.
The two rh ports are for the FPR and A/C controls or similar.

thanks! do you know what size to drill and tap for the coolant temp sensor for the remote thermostat. i heard 1/2 NPT but it clearly looks smaller than that.

Are you making or selling the dizzy spacers? I talked my buddy into doing an lt1 intake conversion on his l98, and he needs a spacer.

-- Joe

Yes I have plenty of spacers in stock after I swapped cnc shops.
I'm switching jobs so I'll be able to start working on intakes again.
Still on a limited basis though until winter. I still have to catch up around the house after 9 months of 6-7 days a week of work. And get my 3 car built out back.
I had 2 cars in a 4 car before and now I have all my stuff in a 3 car with 3 cars in there too. I spend hours looking for things.

Here's my engine.

I love that blueish hue on the manifold and valve covers.

Almost makes me wanna rip the ole Tuned port off
and mosey over to LT1 territory

Awesome!

It must be the light in the room, cause it's actually a dark grey. I wanted to keep the same stock theme with the light grey, but that is the only paint they had at the store.

Loks real good. I am going Red with mine. I will post picks when finished.
Later

I am using this harness to relocate my Ait Temp Sensor. It is sold on ebay, and comes with the sensor.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...5208691&rd=1,1
It is a good price to make your system work correctly. It is important for your system to know what the temp of the incomming air is if you drive your car every day on the street. That is how it adjusts for how dense the air is. I guess if you drag race, and never go any distance, it would not make a differance.
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New Reply Posted on thread

i've been working for about a month now on this LT1 swap and its a huge pain in the ***.

i ran into alot of problems not covered in alot of the threads on here that i read.

the outer bolt holes are not quite in the right location... but most importantly the angle is WAY off. you need to really grind out the bolt hole to get the small block heads to work. they are at such an angle that i dont think i can reuse the stock TPI bolts since there is no way to get a torx head on them.

i'm almost done with the manifold itself and it may find its way onto my motor if my HSR that i got for a good price dont come in soon. else i'll be trying to sell the LT1 stuff. i just want to get it to work right on my motor to know its good working order before i try selling it.

Amen brother! I actually took the pcv port right off with a grinder and then filled it in with JB weld. I had to grind in on the pass side side too to make the bolt holes fit. The guy I bought the intake from did a really shoddy job of the bolt holes. If I had more time, I would've JB welded every bolt hole and then drilled new ones.
I also got beveled washers made so that the angles would all be right.
More money spent
I'll post a pic tommorrw of the long gone pcv port. It actually looks not too bad.

I am using AFR L98 cylinder heads. The center bolt placement is the same as the post 86 heasd. Basically straight down when you are installing the intake. They are part #1040. They have better flow than the regular 195's dur to revised exhaust. I hope not to run into this problem.
Who did the holes for you? I just do not want to run into the same problem.

Here is the pic of the port that I rubbed out and painted over, you could barely tell that is was there.
Before


After

I have the #1034 afr 195's, so they are the pre-86 bolt pattern and straight plug. I am not sure who did the holes on my intake, but they weren't even close

OUCH!
It looks like they spent alot of time smoothing, to not use a jig to assure the holes were right. I did not fill the PCV, because I planned to use it. I hope I didn't make a mistake.
I went ahead and did the metal work on mine before I sent it out to be drilled.



The actual gasket surface was crap, but after I welded (actual weld, not JB weld) the holes I milled it just enough to get a good flat surface. I opened the Throttle Body openings to twin 58mm and all the inside area was blended and smoothed. As soon as it is back from the powdercoater I will post pictures
I really can not afford a Mini Ram, and I can pick these up for $35 all day long, or as long as the local parts yard has them. If it works, it will save me a ton over the Mini Ram and it should flow enough air for my 383.
I also filed the lines for the IAC housing and cut it off smooth so there is no open barbs where the water used to go in. After all this if it does not work I am going to be a little bent.

Here is the routing for the TPI, Remove the EGR, and what ever else you are not using, and You can make it work for this application.

Here's a shot of mine I have been using for a few years now. I love the performance and how it looks.

who ever said to leave tha MAT sensor hanging in the fender is a dumb a$$ if your calling it a MAT its really and intake air temp that the car needs inorder to run properly get the i belive later intake snorkle on a z that has a BUNG on it and screw it in or drill a hole and put it in the intake ducting further up stream like right behind the air filter or something dont just leave it hanging because while crusing the temp lowers due to more air rushing over the sensor as apposed to is "sitting" in a fender.... so you will get a propper a/f ratio....

No, it's a MAT. TBI has an IAT (intake air temp sensor). Stock TPI has a MAT. If your using it as an IAT (in the intake duct) you NEED to make a few table changes, as well as use an IAT sensor. (MAT is the same as a CTS)

-- Joe

If you look further up in the thread you will see I posted not only a picture of this conversino, but that I give a p-n-p harness that comes with the sensor. It should be a direct replacement, but you will have to drill a hole. I am using this setup on my 383 with no problems. My harness is a 1990 Z using speed Den setup, and programmeed chip.

Or for just the cost of a IAT, you could relocate it yourself, like I did, for half that cost. Hel, I left my TPI IAT in place, to plug the hole, rather than having to find a plug to fit.

here is mine

Very nice Mr Nice. I see you had your EGR boss completely removed. I am using a Small Distributer, so I am just having mine cut enough to fit the small cap. It looks very good. What type of cam did you use, and are you using a Stock TPI fuel setup?
Most of all, How does it run?

I running a Comp cam XFI 268 grind 520/515 224/231 flat tappet hyd,fuel pump stock,lt1 injectors, remote aeromotive afpr. It runs very good,But I still need a chip done.

If I can make a suggestion,
http://westers_garage.eidnet.org/
This is where I am getting my chip done. They have a good reputation. They are not just bob's garage somewhere. The price is reasonable.

I am going with Alvin at PCM for Less,he has a good rep on the cf board for a good mail order tune.

Snakeoil has a good rep with those idiots.

-- Joe

So are you saying Alvin's chips are snake oil

they are hit and miss sometimes. as with everyone out there. but pcm4less and madz28tune have some great tunes for LT1 cars. madz28 i dont think does older TPI stuff. But they should beable to apply the same concepts to older GM ecms

MR, Nice, i see your car is a Vette setup. is that the stock dizzy?

yes it is the stock dizzy.

Everyone needs to go with who they are comfortable with. I was going to go with the guy from Kentucky who changes the chip so it can be adjusted while you are driving, using a factory computer, but what I know about programming an ECM you can fit on the edge of a Razor blade. I can build an Engine, but this is my first trip through using EFI. I do not want to burn up a very expensive motor because I screwed up with a fuel map. I am sure you understand that. Who has money to just throw away. I sure don't.

I'm in the same boat,If it does not run right he will burn another.From what i researched he does a good job.

Nope, I'm saying taking advice from folks at CF is not the greatest of ideas.
Most posts start out with 'my mechanic said', and the few guys who do turn wrenches think they're a lot better than they are. Good group of guys if you want washing + waxing tips. Just not performance suggestions.

As for Alvin, I can't comment on his stuff, but my opinion on mail order tunes in general are not too good.

An example. I've been chasing down a few Gremlins with my vette tune, and Scott (Z69, guy who owns lt1intake.com, and has done a lot of work on Super-aujp) has been trying to help. But even him getting my logs, being a better tuner than I, etc doesn't help the handicap of him not having the car to feel, listen, and drive. It's a hit or miss, like suggested above.

-- Joe