I'm planning to buy Aluminum heads and headers and a compcam 08-314-8 for my 350tpi but I wont have the money to upgrade my tpi right now I'll do that later, so I wanted to ask you what Alu heads that fit on stock tpi base? My plan was to buy Patriot freedom 195cc but I dont know if it will leak. Can you be so kind to fill in what Aluminum heads you have tried with stock tpi base that works and which gasket you use?

 

All Gen 1 small block heads will fit, as long as they are non-Vortec. There are two different intake bolt patterns though - '55-86, and '87+... yours is likely '87+ but it only takes bery minor modifications to your TPI base to use the '55-86 style as well. (only difference is the 4 center intake bolts are straight up on '87+, but the same angle as the rest on '55-86. The bolts are in the same location though)

 

Thanks for the answer but I was thinking more about portsize, sometimes the intake port on the heads are to big so you need to add material on the base mainfold to avoid leaks but maby thats only on bigger heads like 220cc? Please post what heads you have and how big they are (cc) with stock base tpi

 

Find out what intake gasket size the head ports are on the ones you are looking at. They will usually give you a Fel-Pro gasket number that matches their heads intake ports.
Sometimes you can find a larger baseplate for cheap. Call around to some shops and keep an eye out on ebay/craigslist. Many machine shops have stray parts like that just laying around. Sometimes they just have a minor problem like a stripped bolt hole that's easy & cheap to fix.

 

If you're going to have everything apart to upgrade the heads and cam, save your money a little longer and get an Edelbrock TPI intake as well. Its VERY worth it. (Edelbrock makes the intakes for everyone else now, they're all the same) Why do the same work twice to swap intakes later?

 

The only problem is that I live in Sweden and the shop here doesnt have that laying around so I have to order it and in Sweden this cost $690 for an Big mouth manifold only. If I shall buy it from ebay it will cost around $350 then I have to ship it to Sweden $200 then I have to pay customs 12% and then on top of that 25% VAT so thats not an option. So I start with heads cam and headers and upgrade the tpi later.

 

Thats the problem with hodding any car...it costs money. If you are new to this get used to it...if your not then find a creative way around the problem and dont whine about the cost of things. We have all been there.

 

honestly i would start with the manifold then work deeper until a cam as the final step. you can get very noticeable difference with just installing 1.6 rockers and if you go and throw the heads and cam etc. in your just going to realize your choking it off with the stock manifold after you get disappointed with the results. Every engine builder will always tell you to match your parts or you are wasting your time. If you start at heads then work back to the manifold it will be a ton of effort, and money, for minimal gains compared to what they should produce.

 

I'm using Procomp 190cc heads with the stock tpi and standard gaskets. Currently I'm in the process of porting/polishing the plenum and adding a 58mm TB, but I'm leaving the intake manifold alone for now.

 

Hey Stinger, I know that you probably don't wanna hear this but.....
The original Intake manifold will be a bottleneck in your system if you buy great flowing heads...... and a good exhaust......... therefore you would be spending a ton of cash with little effect.... because the air can't get into the engine itself in the first place.

If you were gonna boost the engine with a supercharger or turbo then by all means keep the smaller intake....... I guess.....

The 195cc intake runner is quite large for a 5.7L ...... Don't get me wrong, other members use them, but the airflow would be sluggish inside the port itself until you're really spinning the engine.

By the way I can't find that Camshaft anywhere???
What is the duration and lift figures....?

I guess my question is what do you want out of the car as far as performance goes?