i got a christmas present i did not ask for. . . my head gasket blew on the driver side, and by blow i mean really bad (their was coolant on my windshield!!! I immediately turned the car off and had it towed to my shop. the oil is green tint, the exhuast smells, the whole nine yards. The internals of the motor should be ok. . . no knocks, good psi, plus car had syntethic and synthetic lucas in it with a 107,000 miles and ran great before. I will be fixing the car, but now i have a reason to let the fun begin its basically a stock 350 TPI with
headers, exhaust, cold air intake, msd stuff, 3.42 4th gen rear, 2500 converter, built trans, sfcs, and other basic mods.

But if im going through the nightmare of this kinda job, i might as well gets some heads, cam, rockers, lower intake, runners and some custom chip work. . . money isnt really an issue but
time is, the car was my daily driver so now im driving my 82 regal which is not practical (i pray it does not snow).

So here it comes, prob a question you have all heard before but i guess ill be the jerk to ask it. . . what kind of cam and heads should i use so the car is still daily drivable, retains the fuel injection, but could maybe click a high 12?? The car was going high 13's as it was and emissions is not a concern for me. I cant do anything crazy as far a custom machine work (no intake converstions or major head changes) , i will be sending the prom out to be
tuned for what ever parts i do get and im getting the distributor rebuilt, but other than that i was looking for off the shelf parts to put this together. Will i need new injectors or a new fuel pump (please say no to the pump haha) to feed this kind of set up. I know alot about carbed motors but this is my first tpi car and i want the right parts to put on it ( i have some camel humps laying around but thats not happening) so that it is still as easy to drive , semi reasonable on gas, and reliable. So any ideas, inputs, or combos would be a great help

thanks for listening and happy holidays!!

joey

 

Well, at least your head gasket should be happy...

If you have the time, drain the cooling system and oil ASAP, refill with fresh oil and spin on a new filter (or at least remove and drain the old one), and start the engine (with no coolant) and run it for a minute or so to distribute the fresh oil and clean out any antifreeze that may be in the lubrication system. Hopefully, you can prevent any damage to the crank, rod/main/cam bearings, and other bare metal parts that mave be exposed to coolant. That may make the difference between a repair and a full rebuild.

 

If your just looking for a quick repair while gaining power, I would probably skip the cam and just slap on a set of vortec heads with vortec base or vortec stealthram. Though after I say that, I think about the old timing chain, then think may as well swap the cam, and if you go that far...... Sometimes its hard to decide where to draw the line.

 

We all know the syndrome.

"Since I already have the intake off, the cam is right there. It would be foolish not to look at it."

"Since the cam is out, it doesn't make any sense to go back with a stock grind."

"With that new cam, I really should do something about the springs and studs."

"As long as the heads are off and valves are out, it would be silly NOT to clean up the ports."

"Since the ports are going to be flowing better, those valves are starting to look a little small, and I'll never get this chance again. Besides, I'm already machining for better springs."

I very commonly find that my "parting line" is the deck. Once the rocker covers come off, unless it only needs rocker adjustment, it's probably going to the deck and cam. If the bores look decent from the top side, and don't show appreciable wear or taper, the block stays in. If the bores aren't "pretty", it's likely going to get pistons that fit the new bores, and the requisite reconfiguration of the crank and rods to maintain some semblance of balance. Of course, if the crank isn't pretty, and it's cast, it may become a doorstop.

At one point, I had a spare set of ported and prepped heads ready to go, for just such an occasion. I haven't got around to replacing them "in stock" just yet, since the aftermarket heads are getting so much better and cheaper.

Yes, we've all been down that road.

 

ok i drained the oil and coolant, put fresh oil and started it up. . . . no noises, good oil pressure, and ran fine!!!

so heres my ideas:

get stock heads decked, ported, valve job and new high lift springs my machine shop quoted me 350 for all that

crane computer cam
somewhere around a 218, 222 508" 514" in that range somewhere, i only looked briefly (ideas anyone?)

timing chain (obviously)
replace lower intake (maybe port?)
slp runners
port upper plenum

rebuild the distributor

get a custom chip burnt
new valve covers

should i go with injectors??

this (minus the injectors) puts me in the 1500 range, which i am willing to spend. . .

im hoping this can get me a high 12

any input or maybe a better choice for the heads?

thanks

 

anyone? haha

 

If you don't mind spending $1500 then I'll repeat the old saying.......... The one place to spend big money is heads. Since your replacing them anyway I would get a set of AFR's at www.tenperf.com for about $1250.

 

ok i picked out a cam. . . . comp cam roller 224, 224 525' 525' lift

is this cam too big for stock injectors? should i get a chip made for this setup? the cam specs seem to be pretty nice, and i have the drivetrain for it i just hope that my fuel injection can keep up with it. . . i really cant afford to do injectors, fuel pump, and what ever else the tpi is gonna need to run this cam besides what i already mentioned that i want to do. . .

 

Too much cam for tpi, the max I would go would be around 215 degrees.

 

my 305 has a 212 218 .444 .444 cam in its and its fine with stock tpi

 

Sounds like you are where I am right now. I am going cross country and wanted to enjoy the drive more. I did.......
Ported stock plennum,
ported SLP runners,
ported TPIS big mouth lower all gasket matched
58mm TB
TPIS ZZ409 cam(287/287, duration @.050 226/226,
Lift .520/.520. 112 LSA, and 1.6 rockers-so lift is over .560) and
TPIS said I could still go more radical with the cam...EASILY.
Edelbrock centerbolt valve covers
Hardened pushrods
Custom chip by TPIS
TPIS longtube headers
Edelbrock double roller timing chain.
and much more, Everything is going in Monday, can't wait.....

Also let me say that I had the intake pieces ported by Mike Graycar, he is a member here, and did an AMAZING job, for a GREAT price, you wouldn't believe how much he opened up the stock plennum and SLP runners especially, the interior actually looks like a different set of runners he ported it so much, and he matched the plennum to it so its 4 big holes instead of 8 little ones now. I'll let you know how it goes, BTW I'll send anyone Mikes email if you would like.