O.k. here is the deal,I have a $3000 budget and I want to build a high horsepower high torque 350 tpi but I want to keep it California legal.Any suggestions?

 

do you have a short block? long block? any block?

 

If you stay with CARB parts, you have little to worry about. I believe edelbrock e-tec heads, TES headers, and hi-flo runners & base are all CARB exempt. If you dont pass smog, I would think tuning should do it. The parts however will pass visual because of the exemption. The e-tec heads flow well with a little cleanin up work before installation. If you started with standard L98, you'd probably get about 300RWHP and a lot more torque with this combo. Stock cam even.

Just my first idea to your post.

 

Right now I have a 305 and I am going to have my machine shop put together a 350 long block.He said he could put in a hot cam,flat top pistons,and some head work.

 

I'd go with AFR 195's and a LPE 219/219. You will need some TPI upgrades as well. That should get you around 400HP

 

What kind of tpi upgrades do you think would be best?I want to ring as much power as possible out of it.Is there really a difference between the l98 and regular 350,block wise?

 

depends what year 350. L98's had a 1-piece rear main seal. all 2-bolt mains as well.

dont forgot about trans and rear end. its kind of pointless to spend all your money on a motor that isnt putting all the power it has to the ground. up-grading your TPI with new injectors, new intake, prom burning will be pretty expensive.

 

I have a 9 bolt 3.27 rear and I'm swapping in a manual tranny.I have about 6500 to spend on the car but I want to buy new wheels and a ram air II hood so the rest of the money will go to the engine.I'm planning on a new intake possibly a mini ram.

 

How about the Holley stealth ram?They say you can see a 62 hp gain on a stock 350.

 

He wants to keep legal for Calli .

 

AFR195 heads will eat up half of that $3000 budget easily. And I dont think the Edelbrock ETec heads are CA smog legal.

A better setup would be a set of Trick Flow heads with the double spring upgrade. Make sure you're getting a roller cam block. Its worth it for the increase in power and durability. Remember you'll need a custom chip, and I dont mean one you email someone your specs and they send you something in the mail.
For camshafts, I like either the ZZ4 or LT4 HOT cam, but with the HOT cam the car will idle rougher and will require a custom chip no matter what.

That is some basics. For more, you want to do a search on this board and look at other people's setups. There has to be at least 100 people here running low 13's or better and can still pass a CA smog test with TPI.

 

For some legal HP, look around for a used Super Ram intake and base (Ebay), get a big throttle body while you're at it. A 2032 cam is legal, and pretty big (with 1.6's). There are a few options for aluminum heads (edelbrock, trick flow, AFR) , but vortecs (nor E-Tecs) are not an option yet (no EGR, and the external EGR kit doesn't have an E.O. number yet as far as I know). You can get away with different injectors pretty easily, but that'll require chip work, and that is pretty much never checked. Rocker arms of any type are pretty much considered replacement parts, and will not be checked, so go with some 1.6 Pro Mag rollers (again Ebay for <200, and once the heads arrive and are installed, measure for some killer pushrods - don't skimp here). There are several header options, only SLP has legal 1 3/4" primaries AFIK, but they have small Y pipe primaries, compared to Hooker 2055's and the Hookers are lower cost.
Happy shopping!

 

Yay, my first double post!!

and my first emoticon!!

 

You have a 305 now right? You are going to blow that on your shortblock. If you need more power now, start buying the TPI stuff now, like the baseplate et al now and then you can transfer them after.

Do you want to keep the stock look of TPI? AS&M base with their large LTRs is a nice set up and looks stock to all but the initiated.

If you don't mind a tad different, you can use a set of SLP siamesed runners and port the crap out of them, or use AS&M semi-siamesed. If you just want power and don't care about the TPI look, (but need CARB) go with the superram. As others said, use the search, you'll find lots. HTH, good luck.

 

I don't mind changing the look.It runs really strong right now so I'll drive it the way it is for now.Has anybody had the 350 tpi from scoggin dickey?I heard they were not legal in Ca. though.By the way thanks everybody for the help in deciding what to do with the engine.feel free to give your opinion on anything.

 

I have a set of the E-Tec 170 heads.

They are some sweet heads but they are not CARB exempt.

I know when I bought them Edelbrock was petitioning for a CARB # number but have no idea how that went.

Also you should make a best effort to find a Superram plenum and runner set to bolt up, it leaves all the other TPI stuff way behind.

 

Hey where can I get a set of afr 195's?What do they run?

 

Anybody know?

 

AirFlowResearch.com has a listing of dealers. The 195's will run you 1299.00 (Suggested Retail).

If you are building a 350, I would say it might be worth stepping down to the 180's, make up a little more torque.. just my opinion, what does everyone else think?