Hey Guys,
I've decided what my plan for the 85'T/A is....
Pending any negative feedback I'm going to order the Holley Stealth Ram MPFI kit complete with injectors and computer.
As far as I can tell its fantastic value for money, and it saves me a whole heap of trouble playing trial and error to work out whats wrong with my setup.
Now all I need is a recommendation for heads and cam that will give performance with the stock TPI intake etc, but will see big improvement once the MPFI system is installed. Also if they have the part numbers and price that'd be awesome.

So..... Firstly, is this a good road to take for getting say 400hp out of my car, and is there anything else I'll need?
My engine is supposedly a 1986-95 350TPI and I've been told LT1 and L98 heads are incompatible, i just want to make sure this is compatible with my current engine and what heads i need as well.
Also if somkeone could check the site and confirm if the stock distributor from the tpi setup ( dizzy with remote coil) is the one that is compatible with this or if i'd need a new distributor as well?
http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=6&pcid=268

 

In 86, you couldn't get the TPI on a 350 in F Bodies. Maybe in the Vette though, not sure.

The 350 TPI motors ARE L98's, so not sure why someone would tell you L98 heads won't work. ...but you're right, LT1 heads won't work.

I'm not a fan of piecing together a motor unless you're the one choosing the components. Nothing wrong with not knowing, but.... Two choices are A. having someone build the motor for you, or B. Buying a crate motor. There's no possible way anyone here can simply spout off a parts list that'll be good for you. Too many choices and options. Too many different combos. It's like having someone look at the menu and pick out your dinner.

All the info you need is already here on TGO. Reading and learning is free, plus you gain knowledge, AND are more likely to end up getting what you want.

 

Yeah, unfortunately I just don't have the time or brainpower left.
I was hoping someone with a similar car or setup could suggest what they've put in if they were happy with it.
Its an 85 TransAM but has a 87 TPI motor and ecu etc.
Thanks for clearing up the L98 issue, but that same person is pretty much the only choice for getting the engine built for me..... so you see why I'm not too enthusiastic about trusting him.
The car has been going to the same place for the past 3 years, and I have a feeling its why it idles rough and doesn't sound feel or go how I want/expect it to.
They've put a 305intake directly onto a 350, it wasn't working so they chipped the ecu and adjusted it from there leaving the 19lbs 305 injectors etc on the car doing a half-assed job at an egnine swap.
They charged the full-*** price tho.
I was just hoping for some feedback on the HSR setup and maybe a cam and head set to match.

 

Latest Opinion is this:
The Holley Stealth Ram Kit comes with everything you need for the installation.
The kit # 91503201 is designed for engines 300-385 HP.....this would be best suited for your combo.

I don't think i wanna spend this much tho to get another 85hp out of my current engine. I was hoping for more 400-450hp... but I dont want a stall converter, and would rather not have to do any mods to the parts I'm ordering.
Is it possible to get 400-450hp out of bolt on parts? or am I gonna have to rebuild the motor with stronger pistons rings valves etc and do additional work to the intake/heads?

 

No-one can answer any of it?
*sigh*
Also may be willing to go to a 1800stall converter

 

why? stock is 1600. you cant buy an optimal cam for the tpi and hsr as they are completely different RPM range intakes,, either a low end torque cam and keep the tpi or get one which will do well till 6000+rpm which will use that hsr well. Sure you can find a middle ground but it wont be great for the tpi or hsr. AFR has some real nice heads. You have to do some work though, either search the boards(as this has been discussed many times) or figure out which intake your using and call your prefered cam and head company and talk to there tech line. FYI the lt1s are not compatible heads with the genI sbc. If I were you Id go with the AFR 180 heads, compcams 268xfi or 280xfi, HSR, 17/8" headers,2200stall...268xfi would be more of a middle ground for the TPI and HSR than the 280

 

Well most people have said I can't get any decent power out of the egnine without going a stall converter and i dont want anything too outrageous the absolute max i would go is 2500 but would like to avoid it if it was possible.
As for cam and heads, forget TPI. I won't put them in until the HSR is going in anyway, so it'd be a cam and heads specifically for the HSR setup with 30-36lb/h injectors.

 

Ok HSR kit with 36lbs injectors, and commander ECU etc, 2500 stall,
Dart Pro 1 230 Aluminium heads ( http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Chev-V8-350-3...1%7C240%3A1318)
and a Speed Pro 224/234 cam
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/CHEV-307-327-...1%7C240%3A1318

First are they compatible with my l98 350, and secondly, how would they go togther HP wise?

 

first off if you are wanting to throw that much power through a 20+ year old engine you will probably want to have to bottom end redone. a big no no to throw more power at worn parts. make sure its what they say it is before anything, no way to tell a 305 tpi and a 350 tpi by just looking at it. run numbers to be sure.

secondly you need to get the engine running the way its suppose to before adding anything to it. this will make tunig new parts easier. just throwing parts at it to make mire power is the wrong road to follow.

thirdly your looking at the whole deal the wrong way. a tpi is not a HP engine it is a TQ engine. to get to the numbers you want it going to take more than bolt ons, (i.e. bore and stroking, lighter rotating assembly, etc.) what your wanting to do will get you in the neighborhood of 300-350HP, youll need alot more work to hit 400 w/o using juice.

finally use parts that work together, dony just buy something b/c some said it was a good part, probably is just not a good part to use w/ something. a engine combo is ment to work together not as individual parts.

 

engine was rebuilt 13months ago.
The fact of the matter is that I've wanted this car since I was 2 and now that I've got it, i want to put a bit of cash into it to get it running strong and then leave it at that.
I don't want it to be a project car thats off road for months at a time. That defeats the whole point of having it.
Thats why i want bolt on parts that can be installed over a weekend, and don't require advanced mechanic skills.
As far as all that goes I still don't understand how you can pay $2000 for aftermarket heads which you still need to port and work on, isn't the whole idea of aftermarket parts to already be worked?
As for a stroker kit, i've thought about it but I'd rather not if I can help it.
And the whole reason I'm getting the Holley stealth ram kit IS to get the car running right.
I don't have the time or knowledge to sit there testing injectors sensors ecu's etc because at the end of the day I still won't know for sure which parts doing what.
I'm doing a compression test to make sure the bottom end is ok, and then putting the hsr kit on with new injectors spark plugs and sensors and ecu to start from scratch.
The previous owner has royally screwed with the wiring, the aldl plug is non-functional, and i just want to yank it all out and start again.
Now while I'm taking parts off the engine, I thought I might as well get the most out of it and put in a cam and possibly heads to give the car some more *****, If throwing $5500-6000AU isn't going to get me to 400hp+ then I might as well get a replacement motor on carby and be done with it.

 

also the motor is a 290hp crate motor that was put in 13months ago, so saying if i put $5000AU of part in for 10hp isn't what i had in mind

 

My understanding of TPI "crate" motors is they may not have the best TPI cam installed. Apparently, tuned ports require a cam grind that will time the airflow pulses inside the plenum for the best flow rates. I think that's why the Crane cam at the top of the post was suggested. You may not need the fancy heads if the right cam, 1.6 roller rockers and a good set of headers gets you where you want to be.

 

so cam and HSR will help?
I mean if i can get 370hp out of it I'm happy
If i can get 400+ with a set of heads and just bolt them on...
i'm happy with that too

 

you said it had a 87 tpi engine in it. thats not a 290HP engine, 245 at best. then you said it was rebuild and a crate engine, rebuilt w/ what stock parts or performance parts?

having the car off the road for a period of time to get it done right IS the right thing to do. if its not running right now what makes you think that it will after putting aftermarket parts on it. parts are ment to work together. the point is fix whats broken b4 you dump a ton of money into it then be pissed b/c its still not running the way you want it.

you made this comment earlier "doesn't sound feel or go how I want/expect it to." you will not achieve this goal w/o having what you already have running correctly. look at it this way, an engine is like a puzzle w/o all the correct parts in the correct place dong their job you can not put it together to get what it was ment to be.

a compression test will not tell you that the whole bottom end is ok.

if you dont trust who has been working on it then you defiently need to be more concerned w/ what is wrong w/ it first, then go from there.

 

According to the details I've been able to get the engine is a"86-95 350TPI chev 290hp motor". The TPI setup is from a 305Chev, 1987 model i think, and the motor itself doesn't have a tension adjuster, the distributor has a remote coil, and from the looks of it it uses the 1987 serpentine belt and a seperate belt for power steering/ a.c.
That's why I'm leaning towards it being a 1987 motor.
It been rebuilt so i don't know what parts have been put into it. And I dont have a set of ramps so I can't put the car up to see the casting numbers of the block or the heads, and the headers get in the way of everything so I can't see anything from above.

In order to get it working, I have to check/replace:
Injectors, spark plugs, leads, cap, rotor, wiring harness
IAC, TPS, O2,MAF, knock,EGR,MEMCAL, ECU
I might also note that I'm in Australia and parts for these cars/engines are extremely scarce, meaning that everyone that has them jacks the prices right up, and there's no wreckers to scavenge parts from, and a very small base of ppl who own the cars spread out over a large area.
So purchasing the HSR KIT, takes care of injectors(22-46lbs), wiring harness, sensors, ecu (and tuning cost which is charged at $US90/hr), and gives me a new setup of everything I need and more potential for power.
If there's something wrong in the bottom end I always thought you'd be able to hear it, some noise out of place but the engine revs to 5000 and doesn't make a sound out of place. it just idles rough.

True but I'm seeing this as thinking some of those pieces have been broken or lost, so I'll buy a new puzzle with half of it already done, which only leaves the bottom haslf that could be the cause.
how can i test it without taking the motor apart?
The problem again is I'd be swapping one idiot with a wrench for another. All the mechanics know nothing about these motors or cars in general. They don't diagnose, they replace parts and see if it makes a difference. I'm not paying some clown hundreds of dollars to do something I can do at home. The cost of getting a mechanic to go through the car, test everything and replace the necessary parts will by far cost more than buying all the top end stuff and putting it on.
Yes maybe at the end of the day I'll put all this stuff on and the car will still run rough and have a problem. But then I have all the new stuff, and I just need to buy another 350 block and go from there. I won't be happy with it, but If the bottom end is stuffed I'd still have to replace it anyway and then I'd just be back to stock power.
Better to buy the parts and take the gamble that the bottom end is good and I'll come out on top, then spend cash finding out out if it is, then adding the cost of the new block on top of that yeah?

 

Ok, its booked in for tuesday for a dyno sheet.
So we'll see what we're dealing with then, and at the same time i'll get them to put it on the hoist and get the head casting numbers and engine casting numbers off it.

 

290 maybe out of a vette tpi, but not in a 3rd gen. check the homepage of this site in the tech articles and you'll see. those numbers are from GM. keep in mind that those are an average of 3 engines tested at the time so it can vary HP by a couple of horses depending on the engine.

why not just buy a crate short block and start fresh, if you are already getting all the top end stuff.

if and when you get it running smoothly and its not knocking in the lower end you should be ok. no way to tell how bad parts are worn unless you disassemble it. a knock or low oil pressure is a good sign of it.

if you dont trust mechs you have available learn yourself. its really not as hard as you may think. get a chiltons or haynes manual or a chevy small block book and learn yourself. theres tons of manuals to find to help you.

finally your on the right site for the right info on these cars. i have learned alot of what i didnt know about these cars from this site.

 

From what I'm reading... Evil has a 290hp truck replacement crate engine that has been topped with a 305 TPI. If that's the case, he's got a carb cam like I had before and will need to swap it out and probably get a new ECM. Guess when the casting numbers get sorted out we'll know for sure.

Cam choices require a LOT of study. I needed tons of torque and chose a stock grind with 1.6 ratio roller rockers for a little extra lift. For 400hp, without fancy heads, there's gonna be a lot more lift required and some port matching. I'm interested in how it turns out.

 

TPI didnt come in anything but F-bodies and vettes. he said it was an 87 TPI engine.

 

383 large journal reground and crack tested crank. Cost $250, 8 balanced rods $160
That a good price?
What else would i need to stroke my 350?

 

going to need vavle train work and the right cam.