Ok, my car is an 88 iroc with 350tpi. Its realitivly stock with the exception of a few bolt ons and 3.73 rear gears. I like the torque of it a lot, but as with all stock tpi's it falls flat on its face at about 4500rpms. I'm looking for a car that is a fun weekend warrior, something fun to drive and streetable, but also impressive at the track (aren't we all?). I like the tpi, and if I keep it it will have a stock-ish look, but that doesn't matter too much to me. The car is currently my DD but after the new year I will be buying another car so I can park this and work on it.

I've seen online where some magazine company (I think superchevy) supposedly took a 350 fbody tpi motor and rebuilt it to put out 409hp for a little over 1k (if you want to find it type 400hp tpi motor and it will be a result). Building a tpi to make that power would cost considerably more. The budget build, dubbed chump change I believe had 409hp and around 410 lbs tq. I did say it cost them 1k, but I should note that IS including the engine, which cost them 250.

So first, do you believe that? Seems like if it was true a lot more people would have 400hp! But I certainly would like to think its true, I might ecen do it. I'm not a novice to carbs, to be honest I prefer carb over F.I. but the TPI is growing on me for sure.

I have not made a definite decision on this either, but I may be switching from auto to manual.

I would appreciate all opinions/comments on the matter, I think the 1k build is interesting but I'm not sure how true it is; id just like some more opinions on it. And which has advantages over the other.

Thanks, Adam

 

No realistic hope of acheiving that goal w TPI. Period.

Duplicating whatever that "magazine" claimed in terms of HP and $$$ is even less realistic, unless it involved about a 150 HP shot.

The problem isn't so much "rebuild the motor", as it is, TPI.

However, that's not the same as saying, "get rid of EFI and put a carb on it".

Look at EFI alternatives to TPI carefully. Stealth Ram, MiniRam, etc.

 

I read the article, they used procomp heads, a 280ish comp hyd roller cam, a single plane intake and a 750 holley to build a 400 horse hand granade on a junkyard shortblock. You could use their combo on a stout bottom end and get good results, but you'd have to budget for the exhaust system and a looser converter.