I am currently installing a TPIS Mini Ram on my former TPI engine. The front of the TPI base has 3 bungs, 2 for sensors/switches and one for heater hose. The TPIS MR has only 2, one for heater hose and only one sensor/switch. Do I have to get rid of one of the sensors/switches or do I relocate it somehow? I am using a stock 1988 MAF ecu. I am also retaining air conditioning. Anyone run into this problem? TIA

 

Very easy to drill & tap more holes.

Just be careful that wherever you do that, it doesn't locate the sensor in the path of a belt or something stupid like that.

You could also drill & tap at the rear of the intake, for the heater hose; and elminate one of those snaking all over the top of the motor.

 

I was also thinking of drilling and tapping, but the thing that was holding me back was doing it on a a brand new $900 intake

 

I believe that TPIS eliminated the coolant sensor that has the injector type connector. That is why they did not drill and tap it themselves.

Rob

 

OneBadZ is right. One of the sensors is for your cold start injector. That is eliminated with the mini-ram.

 

Oh I see!! That makes sense! Thanks for your guys help!!!

 

Keep in mind, you might have a crank-forever condition. You might want to update your memcal to a $6E version (1989).

You're probably gonna have to tune anyway. My car lean pops like nothing else with the miniram because I havn't dialed in AE yet.

-- Joe

 

Also, make sure you mock-up the intake on the car with no gaskets and not bolted down and bolt up the thermostat housing.


If it's like the 3 I've seen in the past, then you will have to get it cut and re-welded to clear the coolant hose and serpentine belt. TPIS is clueless about alot of things.

 

Are you saying that the thermostat housing has to get cut and rewelded or a part of the intake?

 

Just the thermostat housing.

 

Yep, my miniram needs the thermostat housing rewelded, same situation. Any other flaws that I am not aware of?

 

If you bought their fuel rail kit, the fuel fittings at the front of the intake will hit the tps sensor. You either have to bend the hell out of the hard fuel lines or buy braided lines and fittings. I bought the braided lines.

Besides that and the thermostat housing, that's all I have found. Like any speed part, it is not a simple 'bolt-on'.

 

Does anyone have any pictures of the modifications done on their Mini Rams?

 

Do you mean the thermostat housing? If so, then you will have to mock it up and put the radiator hose on it, then lay the belt under it where it would normally go, then mark the thermostat housing where it needs to be moved to. The upper radiator hose and serpentine belt are in the way of the housing, so you need to cut and move the housing so that the belt doesn't rub through it.

 

TPIS sells a fbody thermostat housing that clears the serpentine setup, and a y-body one that is lower. I'm running the fbody one on my ybody and it's stupid high.

If anyone would like to trade for an fbody one, let me know.

But this isn't TPIS's fault, its the fault of the guy who orders the wrong intake kit

-- Joe

 

TPIS must have told you that. When I called them and told them it didn't fit, they told me to have it cut and re-welded to clear what I needed it to clear, and both of my buds who have miniram's were told and did the same thing. Do a search on corvetteforum, you will find many others who did the same thing.

TPIS will tell you whatever is convenient for them. The guy I talked to was even rude, as though I was annoying him and should have known to just 'make it fit'. I had the invoice in front of me and I ordered the f-body kit. He knew they were in the wrong, so maybe they re-did the f-body housing to make it fit now, but back in 2001-2002, their response was 'just cut it and re-weld it'. Exact quote.

Don't ASSume.

 

No, dude, your not listening to me. I HAVE THE FBODY ONE. So do a bunch of my friends, which clears the fbody serp setup with NO PROBLEM. It is way tall on the ybody setup, I know another guy who has the ybody neck and it fits his ycar a little better than my fbody neck does. TPIS is rude on the phone, and the guy you talked to was probably an idiot. But I know there is 2 necks available. I'll happily trade mine for a ybody neck.

Now, in 2001-2002, you may be absolutely correct. I'm not going to pretend to know what they did then, but I know absolutely for at least 2004 onward their is 2 necks. TPIS are retards, but the miniram is the best horizontal draw intake available..

-- Joe

 

Hmmmm, I just ordered mine a couple of weeks ago and told them it exactly what the application was. I hope they sent me the "correct" thermostat housing. I'll take pics of it. I'll let you guys decide wether or not its the correct one. I spent almost $1,300 for this including the fuel rail kit and you would expect the housing to fit.

anesthes, would you be willing to trade if I've got the wrong one?

Joe

 

Show me a picture of the thermostat housing you have. I'll snap one of mine.

-- Joe

 

But TPIS sure are polite and helpful when you are ordering parts from them! like............. "Sure I'll take your money, that shouldn't be a problem. Anything else I can help you with?"

 

Exactly, when I was like "hey guys, I have the standard fuel rail kit, not the corvette one with the saginaw adapters ". Guys like "oh sure no problem, that will be $50 sir, have a nice day!"

-- Joe

 

My f body housing fit great on my f body. I ran braided fuel lines to the back of the fuel rail. You need a couple of elbows but I likke the way it stays away from the heat. I can't get a pic right now.

 

Ok guys here's what I got. Will it fit the serp belt?

 

And here's the back of it.

 

I have no idea on the fitment, just wanted to say what a NICE looking set up ya got - Great Pix!!!

 

You have to put the intake on the car to find out if the thermo housing fits or not.

 

I bought a used Miniram years ago with a "modified" T-stat housing (as the previous owner had a supercharger). As I am naturally aspirated, I just bought an T-stat housing from TPIS for the F-body and I had no problems.

Joe, I thought you had an "alternative EFI intake"? I ask this because a friend of mine is thinking of dumping his Miniram and going a carb-style intake converted to port EFI.

 

Glenn,

I ran a home converted street dominator with a vortec truck throttle body for 1 season, ran 119mph on the formula... Then I ran a holley singleplane with a 4bbl throttle body + a new motor combo on a '91 firebird, with intercooler.. Didn't get any passes in at the track, but the car was a hair faster.

One thing to note, I've run TPI with every mod possible, then going to the singleplane I picked up IMMEDIATELY 10mph. (and it wanted tons more AE btw), and all 8 plugs looked to burn at the same AFR.

When I bought the vette, the holley setup didnt fit under the hood so I sold it and the blower, bought a miniram. (which is still alternative to TPI, heh). And built another motor combo, I'm now playing with that. (and dealing with weird lean pops).

If the singleplane woulda worked on the vette I'd keep it. It's a better intake by far, but I wasnt willing to cut holes in the hood.

-- Joe

 

Thanks for the info Joe. I was wondering if we were making a mistake dumping the Miniram and going with a carb-style intake setup such as you had.

FYI, it's funny, but one of the reasons my buddy wants to convert to the Miniram is because he would like to have "cold air". With the Miniram and his Iroc, cold air is not as effective. With a carb-styled intake and a 4bbl TB, he can use an aftermarket Iroc hood with a cowl-induction.

He's forced to get rid of his current Miniram because he wants to use big port heads and his Miniram is already hogged out with the Competition Ported AFR 195s he's using. His 195s are actually closer to 205cc intakes due to the porting. Since he needs to replace the current Miniram, we thought "Why not look at something else other than buying a big port Miniram"?

 

A big port singleplane is def the way to go, especially if its a 700 or so hp car (kinda sounds like what your doing?). You can go crazy big on a 4bbl throttle body, but with the progressive linkage it doesn't make the throttle on/off like a really big twin will. I was really impressed with the holley 4bbl I got off lo-tec. It worked great.

I wish there was more options with the vette but, if I went with a stupid intake elbow I'd be restricting airflow, so miniram was really the only intake I could run with such a low profile hood. the hood almost rubs the top of the distributor..

-- Joe

 

Joe was that MPH you had mentioned a gain with the single plane over the MR? My SuperVictor conversion intake is suppose to arrive on Monday, all converted with bungs and rails.

I took your advice, and passed on the Victor EFI when I looked at the rails, and the way they were designed.

Im running a 118 MPH now N/A. I'm starting to feel real good about this conversion. Sounds like its the ticket!!

 

Hey,

The the 10mph gain (110-119-120) was from a fully ported and siamesed edelbrock tpi lower, slp runners, plenum, and 52mm throttle body. Spent 2 years tuning, porting, tuning, porting and ran consistant 110mph every pass. Built the holley contender singleplane, with shabby injector bungs, a throttle body adapter a buddy milled for me, a vortec truck throttle body off a 4.3l truck and with some ae, and a little bit of ve changes car went 119-120 EVERY PASS.

Then it exploded.

-- Joe

 

Well that explains it, so much for $$ in R&D in their product.

 

It's almost done Just gotta rewire some stuff.

 

I installed a MiniRam II on 415 CID in my 86 Vette last month and here are a few things I had to deal with. Don't know how much of this will apply to your install, but for what it's worth.

I had to buy and install a "T" fitting to be able to connect three sensors at the front of the intake. One was for the stock coolant temperature sensor the ECM uses, the second was for a heater hose and the third was for an in-dash AutoMeter coolant temp gauge. Ace hardware had what I needed.

I used the stat housing from TPIS for my year Vette. I had to remove the coolant passage on the underside of the throttle body in order to gain the needed clearance for the stat housing. The instructions that came with the MiniRam said that had to be done or interference would result. My saw-all made short work of that passage.

Years earlier I had eliminated the 9th Cold Start sensor and had my PROM re-programmed with an 89 file.

Had to use buttonhead throttle body to MiniRam bolts. Anything with an head, like hex or allen, wouldn't clear.

I had to use a wheel alignment shim to create the correct angle for the distributor hold down to lock the distirbutor so it wouldn't move. Before, there wasn't enough of an angle for the hold down to keep the distributor from moving with moderate hand turning pressure.

I had to bend the factory fuel lines to make them meet the steel, pre-bent lines from TPIS. I just bent them a little at a time with a phillips screwdriver stuck into the metal lines. I driver gave me the leverage I needed. Simple to do.

BTW, the connectors from the TPIS lines to the factory lines seemed really tight when first started. I called TPIS and was told that's normal, not worry and just use two wrenches (one as a back up like when changing the fuel filter) to tighten them.

I'm running the big cap HEI, So I had to manipulate the hard fuel lines in order to gain distributor clearance. Before doing that, the distributor wouldn't drop all the way down to set flush with the MiniRam.

The TPIS AFPR came with a really low pressure setting, but it's easy to reach and adjust. I removed the Schrader valve from the fuel rail and installed my old trusty AuotMeter fuel pressure gauge to set the pressure. It was a tight fit, but cleared.

Sensor-Safe Silicone sealant on both China Walls and on both sides of the intake gaskets around all the ports - intake and coolant.

Alvin at PCMFORLESS.com re-burned my PROM daughterboard for $50.00

Hope some of this helps.

Jake

 

Weird. I didn't have to do ANY of that on my '87 vette. Maybe you got a crappy molded MR....... weirdness...


-- Joe