TPITuned Port Injection discussion and questions. LB9 and L98 tech, porting, tuning, and bolt-on aftermarket products.
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I wanted to post a thread and see what you guys think of my new setup. I've been putting pieces together for a while to build this motor, but I should be wrapping it up this year. Here are a couple pics of the project as it stands. I just laid the TPI on it for test fitments of some accessories and what not. What do you guys think?
Will
__________________ 89 IROC-Z As seen on TechTV August 2003
ZZZ Short Block/AFR180's/XFI268 Smog Legal!
Best Run of 13.8 @ 98mph w/ 1.9 60'
No, these are the old Accel Lingenfelter runners. They've been ported by lingenfelter, along with the base and the plenum has had all the junk inside removed. The intake ports on the base are really smooth, and I think this setup is going to make some good power. I can't wait to get it running and get some numbers posted up.
__________________ 1987 Chevrolet Camaro Sport Coupe-assorted shades of rust 13.75@102.2mph on 2.1 60'
"rust rocket" ...someday hope to install FAST EZ EFI... 1999 Chevrolet Camaro Z28-Artic White, Flame Red Cloth Full Bolt-Ons, Tuned by Frost, Hurst Billet, Bilsteins, Zr1s
I have heard it all before, but I chose to stick with TPI. I know I can get more, there are lots of different ways, but I chose it because I want the car to look semi stock, yet perform to the limits of mildy modded TPI. I think she will do just that.
The whole setup was beadblasted and then primered with 800' enamel, 2 coats, and then 3-4 coats of 500' silver enamel, followed with a couple clear coats of 500' enamel.
I wasn't saying at all to ditch the TPI. I have a TPI on top of the small block in my Z.
I was refering to getting rid of the MAF setup that came with your car (I.E. computer and wiring harness).
You will get more power out of your TPI motor with a 90-92 Speed Denisty computer and harness and even more power if you went with a digital fuel injection computer/harness.
I know man, no hard feelings. I wanted to stick with MAF for it being more forgiving to my mods initially. I have a 730 ecm , and I will most likely convert after I get it running decent.
That sounds really good man. I remember years ago a friend of mine put an LT4 hotcam in his LT1 and I really liked the sound. Your car sound wicked and I cannot wait to get mine running. What kind of exhaust are you running? Headers?
Wow that engine is nearly exactly the same as what I'm building. I can't wait to see what power it will make. I will be very interested how you will go tuning it as I have just bought the gear to do my own chips.
Do you guys think the afr heads are the best for this type of set up? They are very expensive over here but if there the best I'll just have to save for a bit longer.
I wouldn't say AFR heads are the "best," but they are very very good heads, with a reputation to back them up. I chose them from the get go, because of their good flow characteristics. If you can save the extra coin, I would say go with them. Other heads can be made to flow better or make more power, but out of the box, there aren't many that compare to AFR.
Thanks for the reply. I'm after something I can just bolt on and get good performance from. How do you think the valve springs that come with the heads go with that cam? Or did you change to the comp springs?
norcalz28, that intake looks great! Was the "junk" in the plenum removed by grinding, or? Was the inside bead blasted & painted? It looks really smooth.
AUS-IROC,
I have AFR 195 Eliminators, equipped with the standard springs. These heads will be installed along with Comp's XFI268HR13 cam (.565" / .570" lift w/1.6 rockers). The standard springs, which are LS1 springs(?) are said to handle .600" lift & ~6000 rpm. Check www.airflowresearch.com for further details.
Bill
The inside was cleaned out by Lingenfelter. All three pieces, plenum, runners, and base were done by LPE. I purchased them for a member on here earlier this year, and I am glad I did. They cleaned up nicely and after paint, I couldn't ask for a better looking setup.
In regards to the springs, I am using the 1.530" OD spring upgrade that was offered for these heads. They are good to .600" lift as well, and I think they will handle the cam just fine.
Do yourself a favor now while you still have the engine on the stand. Get rid of the stock harmonic balancer and get an ATI super dampner or one like it that eliminates the rubber inertia ring. When I spun my motor to ~6,200 rpm's, my stock balancer spun the inner piece shooting out a couple chunks of rubber. I got lucky that it didn't come all the way loose and shoot the outer steel ring through my radiator.
It was more difficult install, installing the ATI balancer with the motor in the car.
Hello.
Looking good!
But do you have a part nr for the heads, and valve springs?
I have a post, wondering what to do with mine Tpi...
Please answer...
not many in Norway know what I should do, keep it original they say!!!
That cam sounds real good for only a 268. I have heard 280's sound milder. How bad was it to tune for that cam? I was looking to run around 268 but having a hard time chosing between the XR or the XFI grind. Seems like the XFI would be hard on valvesprings.
Been having a hard time all together with camming my car actually. There is nobody in my area that can tune OBD1 worth a _____. I tried reading up on DYI prom burning but just seems to dry for me to learn.
norcalz28--how are you goin to pass emmissions with that cam...i was told this big of a cam would be very hard to pass. im lookin at doin the same setup only goin 195afrs and runnin ported slp runners. i cant wait to see the progress on this setup! how much longer tell its in and runnin do you think?
So it's been a while, here are a couple pics of the setup in the car and the work that's been done so far. Hoping to get the car running before spring.
Will
__________________ 89 IROC-Z As seen on TechTV August 2003
ZZZ Short Block/AFR180's/XFI268 Smog Legal!
Best Run of 13.8 @ 98mph w/ 1.9 60'
So it's been a while, here are a couple pics of the setup in the car and the work that's been done so far. Hoping to get the car running before spring.
Will
heya, thats a very nice lookin build! i was wondering some stuff: whats your displacement, 350-383...? and also, whats the inner diameter of your runners, and are they fully siamesed? i also noticed that in your early pics, the plenum's runner divider hasnt been siamesed. did you end up doing that, or did you leave it there? also, what size TB did you go with.
im curious, cuz im going to build a 383 tpi and was torn between a 52 and 58mm TB. im currently making some runners that will be fully siamesed, along with the plenum being worked over completely, and i didnt know whether to go with AFR's 195 or 205's. id love to list the build sheet, but that would be too much. neway, good luck with your build, it looks fantastic!
Last edited by ModPog84z28; 02-07-2009 at 04:19 PM.
Looks nice. I noticed your distributor is about 90 degrees off. That's if the motor is at #1 TDC of course.
Yes, it's just sitting there for now, have not ajusted the valves yet or got the timing halfway set.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JR350tpi
Get that girl naked when she is in that car man i wish my girl was the nice espicially my car
LOL, that's a good friend of mine, no offense taken. She is beautiful, and that pic has gotten her a fair share of attention over the years!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ModPog84z28
heya, thats a very nice lookin build! i was wondering some stuff: whats your displacement, 350-383...? and also, whats the inner diameter of your runners, and are they fully siamesed? i also noticed that in your early pics, the plenum's runner divider hasnt been siamesed. did you end up doing that, or did you leave it there? also, what size TB did you go with.
im curious, cuz im going to build a 383 tpi and was torn between a 52 and 58mm TB. im currently making some runners that will be fully siamesed, along with the plenum being worked over completely, and i didnt know whether to go with AFR's 195 or 205's. id love to list the build sheet, but that would be too much. neway, good luck with your build, it looks fantastic!
It's a 350 ci motor, AFR 180 heads, comp xfi268, 52mm BBk TB.
The only reason I went with a 52mm is because I just wanted a new TB and I've always wanted a BBk piece. To be honest, you will never need a 58mm TB unless you are making HUGE power. The point has been made several times that GM's Ramjet 502 motor makes 500+ hp and it still uses a 48mm TB. I think 52mm is ok, I probably would have been better off with a 48 in the long run, but 58mm is just too big for most people making less than 500hp, and even then.
The runners were put in just the way they looked. I did not mod them anymore, with the exception of shaving some metal off on each piece to make it clear the fuel rails. The runners were ported to match the ID of the accel superram runners, and so was the base manifold and plenum. I don't have exact numbers but that will give you an idea. They are a bit larger than stock.
As far as heads I would say 195's are plenty big for most applications. 205's are starting to get a little large for anything less than racing an all out power. I chose the 180's because they are a good bump up from stock, but not extreme. They keep things nice and torquey and match the rest of the package very nicely.
gotcha, many thanks for the info! especially the TB stuff. the only reason i considered goin with a 58mm was that i eventually wanted to add a supercharger. u may laugh at this, but i have some schematics that i made for a chain driven supercharger, and when i go to school this fall, i plan on making it. but neway, well see. ill prolly go with a 58 neway, i wanna see how much i can squeeze out of this thing. thanks!
ps, still kinda curious about the plenums runner divider, did that ever get siamesed?
No, I did not siamese the divider, i opted to leave it as is. I think your idea is cool, and I'm all for trying out new stuff like that! Best of luck with it. Just try and think about a bigger TB the same way as people think of exhaust. If it's matched to what the rest of the combo needs, you'll be fine, but imagine you have three sizes of hose and you want to fill a glass at a certain rate. The small hose will fill it slowly, the medium hose faster, and the larger hose may be too fast. It's a silly analogy, but it helps understand what happens when you go too big too fast. If your motor simply can't use that volume of air, it's wasted, and may actually hurt your performance. Best bet would be to do the math, study flow number, and add parts accordingly. I have never seen a street driven TPI that was "choked" because of a 48mm TB. The TB is not the restricting factor of TPI, but rather the LTR design. I would say try a different intake with a small TB and you might be surprised how well it performs
Will
__________________ 89 IROC-Z As seen on TechTV August 2003
ZZZ Short Block/AFR180's/XFI268 Smog Legal!
Best Run of 13.8 @ 98mph w/ 1.9 60'
I'm using the 58mm BBK TB. If you're building a 383 go with the 58. Bigger cubes need more air flow.
think i will go with the 58, not too undermind neone elses opinion mind you, but i can get it and use it when i get my supercharger setup and use the massaged stock one i have for the time being if i dont like the 58mm. i plan on building it pretty modded, not just a mild build. it will be in a street car that weekends at the strip, so it will definitely be done up purty. thanks for the opinions guys!
Do any of you guy sknow how much they charge to port the plenum runners and manifold
its spendy to have a machine shop do it. i asked a couple places around here, and they stopped doing regularly not long ago, but said that to do a set of heads and a carb manifold would run me 700-850 bux .
if you get a die grinder and a couple Standard Abrasives kits, then follow ppls directions on here and on the Standard Abrasives website, you can do simple to mid-level porting yourself. its time consuming, but worth it, and it can be kinda fun to DIY. plus you save a ton of money. a really good electric die grinder will be bout 70-120 bux, and the SA kits are 70 bux a piece, and one kit has enough stuff to port a set of iron heads, so two of them you could do the whole top end with. (im doing this now, so its coming from experience. like i said, fun, but time consuming.) GL!
Do any of you guy sknow how much they charge to port the plenum runners and manifold
Find out which machine shops can do extrude honing. It's kinda pricey but greatly improves airflow. For those of you who don't know what that is Extrude Honing is flowing abrasive liquid under pressure through the part which smooths out all the insides.
__________________ 1992 Camaro RS 383 Stroked SuperRam
Check it out here at CarDomain.com
Last edited by pwdbychevy; 02-08-2009 at 02:54 PM.
i could do it, but i wont even be able to finish all of my projects till the end of summer, possibly fall. im a paver and im starting work in canada in about 4 1/2 weeks. ill be 12 days on, 5 days off for work schedule, so it wouldnt be for a while that i could get to another set. ill try to keep in touch with you if you dont end up getting it down else where.
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