Sooo I have been wanting to upgrade my stock 1990 5.0 TBI Camaro RS for a while. I know some of the weak points are the exhaust the intake manifold and the stock heads (I read there the WORST flowing of all stock heads on the third gens). I plan on doing an open element/ cowl hood swap soon, and then the exhaust, along with some upgrades to the stock TBI. The thing I need help deciding on is, from what ive read the 87 and up Iroc 5.0 TPI heads flow a lot more. Knowing that I found someone with an 88 5.0 TPI selling his engine and Im wondering if I should buy the heads, have them ported and just throw them on my engine when im ready? Is this a good idea?

 

Some members here have had both the the swirl port and non-swirl head flowed and in reality the difference between the two heads is a bit of a wash. If you already had the heads off then I would put the regular port heads on but in my opinion it's not worth the time and head gaskets to put them on.

The non-swirls flow slightly better on the intake for obvious reasons, but the swirl heads have a much better exhaust port and a because of the swirl are a more efficent design. We're talking less than a 10hp difference between the heads.

By the time you port the tpi heads, have a valve job done (required if you do any porting), get new guides, and have the heads decked you are going to be pushing 300-400$ in machine work. You would be better off saving your pennies and getting a set of new vortec heads, and matching intake. The vortecs will give you a solid 30-40hp over stock and you are planning on replacing the intake anyway.

I'll go ahead and throw in my usuall suggestion of learning to burn your own chips. TBI is a speed density type FI system that is blind to engine modifications. So anything you do to add power is going to throw the tune off. Luckily there is free software and cheap hardware out there that will let you have full control over your ecm and allow you tune for any mods you will do in the future.

 

Thanks for that I didnt know the exact advantages over the 2. What about the World Products S/R Tourguer heads do you know how they are in comparison to the Vortec?

 

someone said Patriot are a best buy. i see Summit has their own brand now? check that out.

 

S/R stands for "stock replacement", so as you might imagine they aren't the best head out there. Vortecs will make 30 more hp than these heads. There was a head test in chevy hi-po a few months ago that tested almost ALL chevy street heads under 1000$, the vortecs didn't get beat untill you got into the 950-1050$ heads. Even then it was only the larger 200cc heads that made more power, vortec's only have 170cc ports so they will make lots more bottom end torque. I think this article is online, might want to search it out.

 

hmmm thanks guys I think I'm gonna go with the vortecs, all I have heard is good about them. Although I'm going to have to change my intake as well and there are very few TBI intakes that will fit the vortec design right? Who makes these intakes and are they going to be expensive/perform well? Also doesn't having Vortec heads limit your choice of headers as well?

Thanks for all the help I could have made a horrible decision.

 

Vortec TBI intakes are stupid expensive, I would just run a peformer vortec intake along with a TBI adapter. Cheapest and best performing route except for the performer RPM, no way to get the RPM under a camaro hood.

Exhaust is the same as any other small block head.

 

thanks that helps me a lot. Now when I get everything together I know what to buy.