I need a new motor and I want to know if you can put TPI on a zz4 crate motor?

 

yes, you can put TPI on a zz4...

IMO, you shouldnt put a stock tpi on a crate engine at all...the stock tpi wont allow the engine to run very good above 4500 rpm's or so.

just my .02

 

i know it wont run at full potential but my 305 just blew up and I need a new motor and I dont have much $$ so I was going to get the zz4 and choke it up for a while with the tpi and then put somehing good on it when I get some money.

 

i say sell the TPI and buy a nice Edelbrock Air Gap RPM intake and edelbrock 600cfm electric choke carb. much cheaper and you will get alot of performance with that.

 

But carbs are so primitive! Gas mileage, adjustability, throttle response... not to flame carbs I admit they perform far better than stock TPI. This would be a good time to start messing around with porting the stock TPI. You can make it so that the ZZ4 is not choked. You won't see 6,000rpm but then again you won't top out at 4500rpm. Unless of course you don't care about the drawbacks of a carb - alot of people don't seem to care - because the carb would be the simplest way to make sure you don't hold the ZZ4 back.

 

my 305 didnt top out at 4500, I used to shift it at 5000-5500 and it still had more so idk why everyone always bashes the tpi. It is a good fuel injection system.

 

for one thing, that zz4 will need to breath more than your 305 did. the stock tpi off your old 305 won't feed that engine enough so it will not rev near as high as your 305 did. another thing is, not to flame the carbs, your car will never pass inspection if you put a carb on it.

I'm no expert at this, but the zz4 crate engine already comes with the intake manifold and all that, in order to put the tpi on there you would need to take that manifold off, and put the tpi manifold on there (that can be done right, with the heads on that engine?) Anyways, I would look into getting a better one that flows more. since its a 305 you should get some bigger fuel injectors maybe. also look into getting larger runners and doing like the other dude said some serious porting can always help.

I always thought the idea of a crate engine was to just drop it in and slap a carb on it or whatever it was designed for. The zz4 was designed to be carbed I believe. How expensive is that engine? You might be better off spending the money on having someone build you a 350 tpi with some good intake mods, bigger LTRs, porting plenum, and put some good heads, cam, etc....

I'm really totally new here and don't know all that much, I just say back what I here from other people. If someone else has another opinion about what I said then you should listen to them I guess. Good luck though with whatever you are doing. I'm in the middle of figuring out what I want to do with my engine too.

 

Thats why I wanted to put the TPI on it because I need to pass emmisions and it will probably pass with the tpi. I know it needs to breathe its just temporary until i can afford a good intake

 

why don't you try goautocenter.com's $1955 TPI 350. It's designed for use with a stock TPI unit, makes 300 HP (which is what a ZZ4 choked out with a stock TPI unit will make) and it's got an unbeatable price and a 1 year warranty. For the money saved buying that (a couple thousand) you can get some performance parts and make it embarrass a ZZ4 while passing emissions.

 

Speaking of emmisions, if you change a motor like what was just mentioned or me were I would want a Ram Jet 350 swapped for a stock 305 TBI will it pass smog. I am guessing it would fail visual if the smog guy actually now what he is doing.

 

From what I hear, a Ram Jet 502 will pass emissions with a cat converter. 350 is guaranteed.

 

No way!!!
So if I put a Ram Jet 350 in my 92 RS that originally came with a 305 TBI it would legally pass smog in every aspect. I heard when you buy the engine it comes with everything you need, even the computer?

 

350 for sure, GM High Tech Performance did a test of the ram jet 350 and they said it was very very clean. Don't quote me for the 502 though, i'd be pushin it with a big block lol.

 

I would never put a 502 in my car because it would be a bitch to work on. My only concern is whether or not it is smog legal because I live in Cali. I would be more than confident that the car would pass emmisions but the visual is what I am unsure of since it would not have the TBI setup on there. Usually when you change a motor that has a different setup there is all kinds of other **** you have to do to make it work. I think that when they designed the engine they set it up to work on most applications but I will have to further research it. If worst comes to worst I will just put a 385 ZZ4 with the TBI setup on there. It should create just as many horses or close to it I think?

 

If you put a carb in a newer, supposed to be, fuel injected car, it will not pass visual inspections.

 

that's why you put it in after inspection, work for a year, buy a nice fuel injection system, and then put it in before the next inspection lol

 

Back to the original question:

I have a fellow 3rd gen co-worker who started with a ZZ3 (same basic engine as ZZ4), put in a ZZ9 cam w/1.6 rockers, had the heads CNC ported, block zero-decked; then put on a Big Mouth base (Vette style for the EGR system), runners, ported plenum (had that all extrude-honed together with the heads), 58mm TB. Custom PROM in a SD setup. Dual-cat system.

Passed visual inspection, then dyno sniffer with "fast pass" because of low emissions.

It runs 14.0's at this altitude (translates to 13 flat @ sea level).

Yes, it's possible. Figure on significant changes to get it to run properly.