Hi guys,

I have a 91 camaro RS. I am planing a 350 swap. keeping the TBI on the top of it.

I would like to get as much performance out of it as i can, but i have a tight budget. I have a hooker super comp exhaust, with hedmann headers, and a custom made y-pipe with no cat.

Should i get a cam, or something else. to get the most bang for my buck. and what kind part #'s etc.

Thanks

What heads are going on the 350?

It is much less of a grief-laden exercise if you do the cam and heads at the same time. You save time and parts and skinned knuckles and ...

Any reason you want to keep the TBI junk on top? I ditched it for carb and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Worried about gas mileage? Don't sweat it.

I have the cc305 cam and I almost feel like I want to go bigger at times
It's completely streetable, and very fun.

well i have the stock heads, but as far as i know heads would put me way over my budget. if i am wrong correct me.

The TBI was staying also to save money for the time being. if you have a combo that wasn't to expensive let me know

thanks

I think what he means by the TBI set up being "junk" is that it has the heads that really are junk. Even when shown a good porting they will not flow very well. The TBI throttle body is not very performance oriented either. You can read more about it on the TBI boards, but in short you would need a holley or 454 throttle body if you were going for higher performance. There are other things about the TBI's that may hang you up too.

There are cheap heads you could buy and have professionally done (ported) or you could follow an article floating around. You could find a pair of iron or aluminum L98's, a pair of 081s, or a set of vortecs.

Make sure you do all of the free to lightly expensive free stuff for TBI's first too.

Well i really don't plan on doing heads right now.

If you can afford the cost of a comp/crower cam then you can afford a set of used heads and a porting kit, maybe even a set that has already been ported. Heads are an easier swap than a cam too. If you are not willing to do heads, better hold off on a cam. Look into some other stuff like suspension and rear end. Aset of higher gears in that LO3 will make a difference in traffic. Anything is better than 2.73's.

well any ideas or rough estimates or where to go for cheap decent heads????? any input appriciated.

and i already have 3.23 in the rear, and the car has 1 1/2" semi stiff lowering springs in it.

Check on ebay and the classifieds on here for the heads I mentioned earlier. If you do some searching on here for good heads or porting articles you WILL find a wealth of knowledge. If you want to do some suspension you could get a new panhard, torque arm or LCA's. They all give noticble improvement in handling.

Won't i need a different intake if i put different heads on it??

Everything needs to be matched to work together. Don't put a cam in a stock headed TBI car....you're not going to get much more power out of it and you'll lose driveability. A motor is only as good as it's weakest component. TBI will make a set of good heads look bad. A set of cheap or stock heads will make a good intake look bad. First find out what's in your budget. Find a set of heads within your budget, then pick a cam that will compliment the heads and give you the power and driveability you need. Maybe a set of World heads (budget iron heads, flow decent), Hot Cam or similar, Air Gap intake, Holley 650.

I have to disagree with portions of this post. Chevy High Performance magazine just did a build-up a couple of months ago on a 90's rs camaro with a T.B.I. 305. They swapped it out for a 350 with Vortec heads, but kept the T.B.I. unit. When they were done they were spanking LS1 & LT1 Camaro's and toying with Mustang Cobra's. They did all this with a cam with 212 duration for the intake and 218 for the exhaust. Another point worth mentioning is that the Holley 670 cfm unit uses 2 inch throttle bores. Any intake other than the pro-jection intake will require mild porting to match. You would also need a custom prom chip burnt to make it run right. All in all, T.B.I. isn't as bad as you think. It's gotten a bad rap, but that's because of how it was designed. Accel, Edelbrock and various other companies offer injection unit based loosely on it. The main difference is that they put the injectors in the intake, the way it should have been from the start.

I can agree with you. I had a 305 TBI once that I put World torquer S/R's on. It really woke that car up compared to what it was. I only disagree on the point that if you can beat an LT or LS powered F-body, you can beat a cobra. There are some TBI guys that are running decent times with a TBI set up. It is not stock of course but it is TBI none the less.

I think this is the answer you are looking for: In 1987 the intake bolt angle was changed slightly. So the 86 and older heads have a slightly different bolt angle on the middles than the 87 and up heads. You can still use a pre 87 angle on a post 87 though, you just have to slot the intake a little. Takes like 15-30 min. Not hard.

As far as heads:

vortec
461/081 heads ported
are all "cheap" type of heads, if sitting bull would have posted his sig, you could've looked into how he ported his own heads, and got some pretty sweet gains. Chances are you'll be at least spending cash on valve seals, springs, and other valve train parts, so the heads themselves aren't the pricey part. A cam and heads are the biggest performance upgrade you can do.
I'd go with a carb too, but that's just my opinon, easier to tune etc.

Are you referring to the back cut on the exhaust valves on the Vortec heads Sonix? When you're talking about the sweet gains Sitting Bull got, I mean.

err no, I guess I didn't read the whole thead much... I just meant as far as getting heads cheaply, and feeling gains. He didn't want to cough up huge dough, and sitting bull was the first response in this thread, so I figured putting 2 together...(porting your own heads)


*did someone even mention back cut valves before? it's a good idea anyhow...*

Also like to add vortec heads also require a different intake setup.

LT1 cam

Sorry if I confused you Sonix. I thought that maybe one of the mods Sitting Bull had done on his Vortec heads was back cutting the exhaust valve to sneak a little more flow in. I've heard of people doing it and receiving some extra power.

The LT1 cam isn't too bad, but the duration figures are a little low. The ZZ4 cam wouldn't be a bad choice though. With 208 intake and 221 exhaust duration it wouldn't bother the stock T.B.I. either. You'll need a custom burnt prom, but the Vortec heads will work nice with the longer exhaust duration.

whoa-ho! sitting bull ported-n-polished 601 castings, quite similar to 416 castings from what i've heard.... just to avoid confusion...
Sitting bull, post your sig already!