right now i have an 87 Trans Am GTA with a 355 tpi and i love it! The only thing is that i bought it rebuilt at 3500 miles. Right now it has about 9000-10000 miles on it and i'm almost positive a piston is going bad.

I just found a 355 tbi engine that i am going to take a look at. I was wondernig if i would be able to use the parts off my tpi engine and use them on the tbi to convert it to a tpi. Would i be able to do this and whats all involved?? Would i need to worry aboput hood clearance? Thanks a lot for your help and comments!!! I need my baby for the spring!

 

You can swap over the TPI set-up onto the TBI motor. All small block chevy motors have the same major bolt hole locations and external dimensions. That means a TBI and TPI are basically the same thing (well internals changed over the years but that has no effect on applicability) minus their respective inductions. The only thing that would inhibit a "direct" swap would be if you are running a pre '87 intake on post '87 heads. If that is the case you will have to modify the four center intake manifold bolt holes a touch. Also, you need to make sure both motors have the same type of valvetrain (hydraulic roller '87+ or flat tappet pre '87). Assuming they are the same you can transfer the cam as well. However, if it isn’t, you can still use the motor. If the valve train types do not match I would buy a flat tappet cam that resembles the cam you had in previously. That way the amount of additional chip work that you would have to do to dial your set-up in would be minimal.