Hey everyone I would like to know if someone could tell me how to build a 400+ hp and torque 383. I know how to build it. I just need to know what components to use. Heres what I am looking for. I want a good size cam that will give me a small lope in my idle (Just cause I like the sound) but still be a good street cam. My car will not be driven every day. I want to stay with TPI so I will need to know what to modify on my TPI. I would like a good solid 40o+ HP and torque that has a good power curve. I need to know what heads and intake would be best. I need to know what I will have to do to my car computer wise. I know absolutely nothing about the computer. when I first got the car I wanted to sell it cause it was giving so much trouble. I am not really on a budget but I would like to keep it conservative.

Better yet, The reason I don't care about a budget is cause I work almost 100 hours a week and I have been saving money for a house the last 3 years. But I would like to put a new motor in my 1le. But since I work so much I don't have time to do anything. If anyone knows the name of a good engine shop I could call and tell them exactly what I want that would be great. I have called around my town but I just get the feeling that all the old guys around here will either rip me off and don't know much about all the computer and TPI stuff. So I would love to know the name a good shop that has a good reputation with TPI that could do it and not rip me off. Even if someone on here could do it. Either way I just want to get it done in the next couple of months and put it in while its in storage for the winter.

Any info would be greatly appreciated. I have learned quite a bit just from the people on this site. The most interesting and stupidest thing I have learned is that NO matter what exhaust shop you go to they wont put true duals on a third gen even if your gonna put new cats on. I HATE THAT. If I had a mustang it would be no problem.

 

Never heard of anything like that. Certainly not through a search in this forum. Uh uh, no way.

Sorry to be a smart @ss, but geez louise...

S.

 

Not really a smart @ss, just an @ss. For crying out loud he has 8 posts, you could give him a break. As far as a shop to have it done, I dont really know, but if you are looking to make 400 hp I would go with a miniram or super ram because the tpi doesnt breath well at high rpm. I prefer the miniram myself because it breaths higher than the super, but if you are just looking for something with a little lope to it a super might fit your car better and retain more low end torqe. The good thing is both of these will work with your stock computer and wiring, but you will probably need a chip custom programmed for it. As far as the torque I was told that that it is really difficult to make a tpi 383 make less than 500 lbs. As far as the chip is concerned I would talk to the people at www.fastchip.com

Ben

 

Get a respectable Machine shop to siamese port your lower plenum and port match to your runners as well as cleaning up the upper intake. This increases upper RPM power dramatically. Don't waste your money on a superram or miniram. Get a holley stealthram or LT1/LT4 intake... they easily match up with either a superram or miniram and cost so much less it's not even funny (although I would keep your TPI setup if I were you, it's always nice to have a semi sleeper ). AFR 190cc heads or Trickflow 23 degree aluminums fully built and ready to go. AFR is gunna be more pricey but they are better heads, although the Trickflows are very nice as well. Get yourself a good cast steel crank, some forged pistons and good cast steel rods and you will be set. Make sure everything is balanced very well! The computer is your friend. With a laptop computer you can get your A/F readings with a decent o2 sensor and then burn proms for your TPI setup based on your readings. It really isn't very hard I promise. Cheap laptop on ebay = 100bucks and is more than powerful enough. Do a search on the PROM board, they had a really good newbie thread going on over there that listed everything you need. The other option is you could get a complete DFI setup. Those are pretty pricey though. You don't need one either, but it's nice to be able to change your curves on the fly . If you DO go with a TPI harnass (which i think you should) make sure you get a speed density version! This came on all the 90+ models and you can buy a new harnass for about 300 bucks from painless wiring. As far as your cam goes I'll leave that up to someone who knows more about them... ALSO!!!! IMPORTANT!! you need aftermarket runners... the stock runners just don't really suffice. SLP runners are good, but you generally need to port them before you will really notice the gains up high. With this much power though make sure your tranny has a good cooler and is in good condition... you might wanna install a heat sensor on it and run it to something on your dash or console or whatever. There are a few little peices on 700r4's that really should be upgraded if you want to ensure your tranny lives a nice long life . 700r4.com is where I ordered my new tranny from... take a look at what they put in their trannys to get a good idea of how it's done right...
btw it will cost u less in the end if you end up burning your own chips (believe me when i say its not hard guy, there is some advanced stuff that is more tricky but you don't really need to touch it to get nice performance gains..). Some guys have shaved over a half second off their 1/4 times doing their own prom because really its hard for someone else to do it for you... They don't REALLY know your A/F ratios.. they just make an educated guess based on your altitude and whatnot. Fasterproms does get you to take readings for them though, and they are a good place to go if you really don't have the time. They will burn you a few chips until everything is running well. Better than most aftermarket chip companies.

 

Ok thanks for the info. I do have a 5 speed tranny that will be getting rebuilt. I was told the t-5 in my car can handle a lot of power. if not I can always go to a t-56 6speed. I kinda want to anyway. it would be nice to have that extra gear to grab on the highway. Hear everyone drive like 90 and if I do I am at 3000 rpms and I can pretty much watch my gas gauge go down.

Thanks again. any other info someone might want to throw in would be great

 

I would have to say if you dont go with a mini or super ram I would go with an lt1 intake. Go to www.lt1intake.com This guy modifies them and sells them and the stuff needed. You can make gobs of torque with a tpi but the hp is limited even on a ported version and buy the time you pay to have the stock pieces ported and buy new runners you are already running into aftermarket territory as far as price goes. As far as chips go I also would say that burning your own chips would be best but it takes a lot of time to experiment with. I know if I was working 100 hrs a week I sure would not have the patience. I am working around 60 now and that is enough for me. As far as the dfi option, if you are going to actually take the time to set up stuff yourself I would go with the stock setup because it provides at least as much functionallity if not more than the dfi systems. Also, about the t-5, the world class models are rated at about 350 ft lbs of torque and the older ones are closer to 300. If you leave it behind that motor, you will have to take it easy on it(no clutch drops or beating on it to hard). There are people on the boards who have destroyed them with stock motors fairly often. As far as the motor its self, there are some real nice crate motors out there if you are not looking to spend the time to build it yourself. I would imagine it would be cheaper than to have a shop build you something also depending on exactly what was done.

Ben

 

Actually a complete DFI setup will offer far better functionality than the stock setup. The TPI intake can makes gobs of HP properly ported. I'm pretty sure if you fully siamesed the intake you would probably be right up there with an LT1 et al. There are guys running in the 11's with NA TPI setups so they're not all that bad . Just gotta get the ole die grinder out hehe.

 

400hp where? Crank or rear wheels? With a 383 at the crank, thats an easily doable number. Use the LT4 hot cam, some good heads or well ported stock heads, should be real close if not already there.

 

Er actually, if you talk to the people who burn their own chips they say that you have just as much functionality with the tpi computers as dfi if not more. Also, the siamesed intakes work really well, but still will not flow near as well for the high rpms as a lt1 intake or miniram. I guess, it all just depends on what rpms exactly you want to be running, and how in love you are with the tpi look. If you want to stay with the long runner design, I have heard that the AS&M runners are about the best out there, and the slps are good for the money. I would siamese whichever you got along with the base. If you have an idea on what rpms you would like your motor to work it through that out, and it may be possible to help you better.

Ben

 

I actually would like to stay in the same rpm range I am in now. I have great power from idle to like 4000 rpm. I redline at 5500 and hradly every take it that far. so I guess I would like to have as much power from idle to 5000 rpm as possible.

Really what I want is for the car to pull hard through out the entire rpm range. I hate having lots of power of the line and nothing top end. I have a 1970 Cutlass with a w-30 spec 455. it has almost 500 lbs ft of torque and like 360 hp. Which isnt bad but I hate not pulling as hard at 4000 rpm's and as I do at idle.

 

Well, then a ported long runner style setup might work good for you. The only thing I worry about is that with the long runner setup that a problem that many run into is not pulling hard up high. If you were to port and siamese a base and runners, and port your plenum I have seen people that could pull to around 5500. I would look for people who have done it, and see how far they siamesed the base and runners and see how it worked for them. After you find out what you want to do exactly, I would call a cam company and tell them exactly what you are wanting and see what they reccomend. You will probably need something with at least a 112 lsa to keep the computer happy but the rest depends on exactly what you are doing.

Ben

 

I dont really agree about a siamesed base not pulling as hard as an LT1 or miniram. The one I have pulls extremely hard way past 6000rpm. It doesnt die off until around 6500. I think thats more valvetrain and cam limited anyway with the setup I have.

I'll have to get a dyno with the upper RPM range visible here soon just to show everyone.

 

Im sorry, I could be wrong. I havnt really kept up with the tpi stuff much lately because I am going carbed until I can afford fi. When I had been looking into the stuff intensly was when people were first starting to siamese their intakes on the board. If it will pull as hard up high that would be cool, I just didnt expect it to. Good luck, and I would like to see your dyno when you get it. It seems like I remember seeing one siamesed dyno where the power kept going up for a while but then was flat for a long time. It was like it wasnt forced down, but their wasnt enough air for it to reach its peak. Anyway, like I said I want to see that when you get it dynoed. What cam/heads do you have anyway?

Ben

 

I was the first to post about the siamesed intake, although there are others who did it first and didnt say anything or back-back test it like I did. You might have seen my graph, had to shut the car down early I heard a loose rocker and as it turned out it was loose so it was probably a good thing I didnt look for the power limit that day Anyways, we figured the HP peak would have been around 5400 IIRC, a guess. I have my suspicions it might be higher than that. And that was with a stock TB, stock plenum and stock dented runners.

I have a SLP cam 224/232 (230? Somethin like that) with ported vette heads, 10.3 compression. Still trying to sort some things out on the car and get it to where it should be, but thats another project I'm collecting parts and thoughts right now. I think it'll be where I want it in the next 6 months.

I can understand the carb route, I think TPI is still not going to make as much power as a carb would... personal opinion. The stealth ram looks like a nice setup though and isnt so costly.

I should add that I think at 6500 its pretty close to done, I wanna see a graph though. Maybe my imagination is taking over I also think those heavy roller lifters are flyin around pretty good at that point too, kinda scares me really but so far everything is looking ok inside the engine after a few excursions to there and even past there.

 

Yes, I do remember seeing stuff about you doing it but dont remeber if it was your graph or not. As far as it pulling that high that would be really cool, especially since the tpi looks so cool, and also people just dont expect you to pull those rpms with it. As far as reving that high, I saw a rev kit for the lifters in my afr catalog. I was wondering if you can use that with normal heads or if the afrs have some special provision for it. I know traxion has the rev kit but he also has the afr heads. Oh, and I still havnt totaly figured out what gas is needed for what compression ratios, so I was wondering what you run in yours?


Ben

 

AFR's rev kit will work on other heads, I know Kevin91Z is using them on his vette heads. There are for sure other companies that make a rev kit besides AFR though, I've just never looked that hard. I do want one for this car though, added insurance. To do it right I think I'd be changing my valvesprings too.

Compression is a funny thing. You can measure static compression all day long and still have it not work in the car. The cam, swirl, and sharp edges in the combustion chamber all have an effect on it. I'm running 91 octane on this car, but I could get away with more compression if I wanted to. It'll run on 87, but doesnt particularily like it. I know it makes less power with 87, and on hotter days there are occasions where it knocks. I think I could make a few minor changes to the head and piston and run close to 11:1 on 91 octane with what I have now. Many times though its better to be safe than sorry, nothing worse than setting up an engine to find out it wont run on pump gas when that was your intention.

You can ask Pablo about how well the car pulls through the RPM range. He was riding as passenger and felt the car die off and was thinking, oh, thats 5000RPM. Little shocked I think when he found out it was past 6000. He asked me if the tach was accurate (it is).

 

airflowresearch.com

They say the hydrarev kit will work with just about any heads, aftermarket or stock, but there are exceptions so you might want to read what they have to say on their website.

Also, madmax, how far did you siamese your intake? I have seen guys do as little as 3" and then others who do almost the entire intake. It's ALWAYS nice to have a stock looking car that really isn't imo .

Interesting that some people are saying the stock TPI setup has more capabilities for tuning than a DFI setup. Could you point me to some threads that maybe compare? How about a really nice DFI setup like a Motec... Anyway

 

Oh ya about the true duals... Just take the plates off and tell them it will be a race only car. Make sure you don't drive it to the shop though . Then they will do it for ya (in all likely hood). True duals probably aren't really necessary for you however. You might want to consider a nice catback system instead.

 

5"

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=47263

 

What is a rev kit? What does it do?

 

Nothin if you dont need it

Its basically a bunch of little springs and a plate to hold them in place. They go on top of the lifters and under the head to keep the lifters on the cam at high RPM's. This allows you to use less stiff of springs on the valves and helps prevent valve float on hydraulic lifter setups. On solid lifters it would be useless, you just run stiffer valve springs.

 

So, does the rev kit only work with roller blocks, or does it work on flat tappet cams also? I have only seen them used in conjuction with roller blocks is why I ask. The motor that I am putting in right now will only go to about 6000 anyway. I have a roller 350 in the garage that I would eventually like to make a 383 out of though.

Ben

 

Nah, you can use them on anything. A friend of mine has them on his 351C, I think they were made by Moroso. I think if youre only going to 6k RPM you dont need it.

 

Yes, I know I dont need it, I was just curious. However I would like to build a motor that did need it sometime. Just having a v8 screaming that high is awsome. Also, you said something about you could use lighter valve springs if you have the rev kit. How do you know how much lighter?

Ben