First off this post will be long, so please bare with me. Ive been gaining info and/or posting on this board for almost 4 years, and do to certain circumstances (marriage, going to war, and Cali emissions), ive gone through 3 fbodys in the process, 1 third and 2 fourths. Enter the present, i find myself with a saturn ion, a 04 yamaha R6, and the urge to get back in the fbody game. My main goal is to have a reliable, good looking third gen, thats emissions **** legal (CALI), and put at least 350 rwhp. Heres is the basic plan I have recently thrown together:

1. buy a thirdgen with tpi and a decent body (i want it to be a
sleeper
2. slap on vortech supercharger
3. enjoy untill motor explodes
4. rebuild into a forged internal 5.7 thats still emissions legal
5. repeat step 2

As you can tell, the master plan is not specific at all at this point, but i want to keep the price tag as low as possible as I now have a baby on the way. My real question is how much work is involved in supercharging the TPI engine? I need someone to point me in the right direction so I can get the ball rolling on this. I dont have any real restrictions on ideas, but with CALI emissions, i think the only way im going to reach my HP goals is with a CARB exempt blower. Also, should i only look for 5.7 tpi's, or can the 5.0 tpi be swapped to a bigger motor? Hopefully someone here can help me out. Thanks.

 

A 305 is different from a 350 only in bore size, and uses a crank that is balanced accordingly. Everything is externally identical.

In my limited understanding of CARB, I believe that the allowable emissions level is based on the engie that was originally installed in the vehicle. If you find a ThirdGen that originally had a V-6, and decide to swap in a 502BBC, you may have trouble with the emissions test. I'm guessing that there is a means to register the vehicle differently after the swap, but I'm not certain if and how that can be done. If that is the case, you should be able to find a vehicle with either the 305 or 350 and have your way with it.

As for the details of the installation of a centrifugal blower, you may find good information in the Power Adder forum.

 

I understand the difference between the two blocks, I was more interested in whether the TPI setup was the same for a 5.0 and a 5.7. So if I purchase a LB9 car, when it comes time to put in the 350, what will have to be changed. Also are there any setups that are Cali legal with out a blower, like a heads and cam set up that will put out around 350 rwhp?