Don't know if you guys saw this already, but here's a cool article from Chevyhiperformance.com about Scoggin-Dickey’s TPI Intake:
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...ead/index.html

 

Has anybody here ever installed one of these? How were your results? Also, what kind of gains can be expected by swapping the stock heads for a set of vortecs?

 

Yes, the Votecs flow good, can add some power, but...consider you need to spend about 500 for them (new) and another 300+ for an intake that matches them...you're about 75% on the way to a set of AFR's-etc which will out flow the Vortecs as well as shed 50lbs of weight in the front of your ride.

 

I hear about it a lot on the Southern California boards--check out Dyno Don's sig. I'm thinking about doing the Vortec head thing because of my budget or lack thereof . There's some EGR nonsense to worry about, but it seems like a good, cheap way to bolt on some power.

 

Been awahile since I looked into this, but is anyone marketing a CARB legal setup for the EGR? IIRC, the Vortecs don't have the crossover, so EGR has to be routed from the exhaust manifold/header into the intake like the Vettes use, back in the day unless you "knew" someone, you couldn't get it to pass visual...maybe that's changed now?

 

The Vortec base is not technically approved for use in CA. It will pass the sniffer no problem, but not the visual inspection. From what I hear though, most smog guys will pass you if everything is hooked up and looks cleanly done. It's kind of a "use at your own risk" situation.

Whoo hoo! Just got "Senior Member" status!

 

Well let me be the first (and probably only) one to give you a "Heck Ya" on the Sr. Status

 

Well we had one of the TPI Vortec intake manifolds test flowed. Out of the box it was not that hot. The ports measured from the mid 220's to the mid 230's cfm wise.

As an example the standard Edelbrock TPI intake manifold will flow in the 240's cfm wise out of the box. However let me say there is a lot of potential in the Vortec intake manifold. With a little work in the pinch area I would expect the flow to pick up quite abit.

The article probably failed to mention that there was some "clean up" work done to the manifold.

 

I used the Edelbrock TPI Vortec intake and it came with a kit for egr similar to the 87-91 vette egr setup that mounted off #8 exhaust port. I even picked up a used set of vette exhaust manifolds to hook it up with.

 

I have this setup on my car. (Vortec heads, matching intake, SLP runners, LT4 Hot Cam). Over all I am very happy with the setup. I did not get the 1.6 rockers yet as I know there was some issues with the valve springs around the same time I got my setup.

Right now I am sitting at about 270 HP and 330 FTLB to the rear wheels. I was expecting around 285 + based on the article...but then again, I do not have the 1.6 rockers...

For the money it is not a bad setup. It is very close to the LT4 specs with very good low end torque. It is a good match for the car.

The AFR head are really not worth it on a stock TPI setup. (IMO) AFR are one of the best heads on the market....You just can't flow that much air using a stock TPI setup and those heads really start to make good power after 5000 RPM with a good cam selection.