Hey guys, Havent owned the car for over a month yet and I am already looking into tearing her apart. Anyways...I have been searching the crap out of this forum looking for answers but havent found the specifics I am looking for. Can you fellow west coasters tell me what is the best heads/cam combo for my 87 TPI that MUST pass Califonia smog??? I will more than likely be running a Accell super ram but need to find a good set of legal heads/cam that will go well with it. Thanks for any help.

Well the heads - most smog people don't know how to check heads so go wild with those. I don't even know the laws on heads but I assume it's like the rest of cali and needs a carb number. I don't know anyone running aftermarket heads with a carb number though.

The biggest you can go with the cam and reliably pass emissions is about 220/230 @ .50, .510/.510. That's the numbers on the CC305 and it just barely passes emissions. I'm going with something a bit bigger and will need some tuning to make it pass.

for heads to be legal they need a cross over for the egr. AFR, trickflow, edelbroke, etc all have emissions legal heads

I don't know how cam specs go with smog but I hear the hot cam can pass as will the zz409(226/226 520/520) with all emissions hardware and through cats

yeah, the gm lt4 hotcam grind passes admirably. But you can go bigger. Best bet is a custom grind for emissions. You can make some great power with a cam matched to your setup and expectations.

Starchild 86 Red Z28, 355ci, (Super Ram, Big Mouth Manifold Extrude Honed), Lunati Cam 226-234, Lift 565-565 with 1.6 Roller Rockers, Trick Flow 23* Heads, 10.59 compression, G-Force T5 Trans, 3.70 Gears, Dual cats, SLP 1 3/4 Headers, 12.56@109.62, 1.72 60ft. 370RWHP-403RWTQ and it still passes smog

well my stock l98 tpi with the zz4 cam and passed smog on stock chip with ease i also have edel tes headers with air tubes they have carb numbers also so there legal.

now im gonna find out if my tpis zz9 cam with brodix str heads and my fuel pressure at 48psi with my stock chip will pass smog also in the next month or 2.

keep me informed on how your smog test goes. I would really like to slap a super ram, afr or trick flow heads, and a cc305 cam on my l98 motor but I just want to make sure it will pass smog with that stuff before I do it. I recently had a problem getting my old truck (99 S10 4.3 motor that ran a 13.2 in the 1/4) to pass smog and I dont want to have to go throught that crap again.

stupid smog

i agree

hers my california combo

canfield heads(if you have to ask you'll never know)
stealth ram
224/230 duration cam
350+33ci

Told you motherf*****s that my old s-dime was quick haha

Was it a 5spd Tom?

As far as a cam reccomendation goes, under 230/230 dur is a good standby.

no it wasnt a 5 speed. When I bought the truck I looked all over for a 5 speed but they are hard to find. I settled on a 99 s10 xtreme with a 4.3 motor and auto tranny. Damn thing ran like crazy when I hooked a 150 shot of N20 up to it

hey bro I'd like to gtg sometime and check out your xtreme. I have an 01 myself and have been thinking about giving her the big squeeze. Would be nice to check one out with a setup like yours!

Will

I wish you could check it out man, but i just sold it to a kid that lives down in San Jose for 10,000 big ones!!! I loved the thing to death but I had done everything I wanted to do to it and I have always had a soft spot in my hear for camaros (my first car was a 4th gen).

Was yours the black with gold stripes that I kept seeing on CL for like months?

yup, that was mine!!!!

man I didn't think you'd ever sell it. Congrats on that though. Guess we'll have to gtg and check out the IROC's when mine gets out of the bodyshop

well my car passed smog with flying colors

wow thats awsome. Congrats!

Cool Mike.
What exactly is in your combo?
You switched to a zz9 from a zz4, why was that?
I don't think I've heard/read much about it, probably because it's always been away.
I just know it has a nice blue color to it.
Why don't you give us a run down of your car (e.g., miles/mods/plans/expected 1/4)

I think he thought he was in a some F1 car or something a spin the zz4 to high and a lobe broke. something like that. and I know he has the brodix heads

canfield>afr>all

Even the F1 car blows up at "8 grand"

3.49275073856823576943 has the ZZ9 "million dollar" cam now to compliment his "million dollar" heads. I like the lope but not the price

ok my car is a 89 irocz 350 tpi car with 148.000 miles on the body, i had the L98 rebuilt with the zz4 cam and headers but that setup got fuked so i rebuilt it again and added a tpis zz9 cam, brodix str aulminum heads, full compcam vavle train, 1.6rr, tes headers, magnaflow muffler with a 2.5 intermediate pipe, tci 2200 stall, all freemods, the rear was a 2.77 9bolt rear but i swapped it out for the 3.27 9bolt rear,the stock t00n pAwT, and a hypercrap chip along with hypercrap cooling ****, some other minor stuff i forgot.

mods that still need 2 go on soon are my probuilt transgo shiftkit that i have sitting collecting dust and a 3inch intermediate pipe with no cat then i can start my interior work like sealing my ttops and replacing the ttop center molding and fixing my subs and replacing broken **** before i start motor work again like hsr and nx mods.

so its running?

i bet vin can take him again.

Nice Mike, thanks for the refresh.
Sounds like there's a handful of you guys going to be hanging around the high 12/low 13 marks this spring at the track.
I better get my slow butt in gear eh.
Would be fun to go around town too and have some fun with unsuspecting LS1's and the like.

ya i cant wait to rape some c5's

yeah for some reason taking a win against a vette, older or newer is always fun because those guys always think they are so untouchable, especially by our gen.

i remember a period before heads and cam just stealth ram and injectors i raced 3 c4's on a highway run within a 2week period. and i won everytime. damn tpi's have no top end unlike the ls1's haha