does anyone have experience with these and is the gained performance worth the combined price tag of roughly 800 bucks?

 

Do a search! This topic has been discussed many, many times over the years.

 

right on man, sorry im a little new to this whole thing.

 

Yeah, searches are your friend!

but It's always a fun discussion so.....here are a few quick questions.

What's your current engine situation? 305? 350? Stock? (OK, nevermind, I see this in your sig. Stock L98 350)
What's your budget?
Daily driver or weekend warrior?
What are you plans/goals?

Without some background, your question is impossible to answer!!!

 

Stock 350TPI all the car has is a flow master exhaust and a SMOG delete happening here soon. the car is registered to my home in Nevada so emissions isn't an issue but id like to make mods that i dont have to change the computer. the car is a daily driver, but id like to make a few passes now and again on the weekends. plus i have a brother with a 69 mustang that i have to keep in his place. the driveline does have quite a few miles on it so i know im not going to throw down massive power, i'm just looking for a few small gains to start off while i look into beefing up my tranny and rear end for later on.

 

"i'm just looking for a few small gains to start off while i look into beefing up my tranny and rear end for later on"

IMHO you would be much better off upgrading the exhaust system first. Headers and a proper Y pipe will be a good improvement. Then you can move on to the intake system.

 

the exhaust is half done, i have a flow master system installed and im looking into headers and a Y pipe, the cat is also gone. i figured the logical next step after an exhaust would be intake to match the flow. the stock airbox seems like its very restrictive, but thats another topic entirely.

 

If exhaust is almost complete, I would upgrade heads, cam, and then intake. But then any mod worth doing will probably need a new tune.

 

Headers and exhaust is typically considered the "first" performance upgrade you should do. Maybe subframe connectors. Not the point, anyhow.... ....I've got a ZZ4 cam, massaged (stock) heads, a tune, full suspension etc. etc., and by far, the biggest seat of the pants upgrade was the rebuilt transmission and 2400 stall converter. Still totally streetable. ...the second was probably the 3.27 gear that replaced my stock 2.77 gear.

....when it comes to the engine, ya gotta think big picture because just one piece of the puzzle doesn't do a whole heck of a lot.

Another important factor to consider is that the TPI, which uses that gorgeous Long Tube Runner (LTR) system, isn't really state of the art anymore. It really limits upper RPM flow. Now my opinion is that on a mild to modest build intended for street driving, it's a great option. But opinions are like......well, you get the idea. Assuming you decide to stick with this type of LTR intake, I beleive the edelbrock is currently the only manifold option, and it's much better than stock. The runners are pretty good out of the box, but since they're cast, they can be ported as well. It's a pretty good system as far as LTR systems go.

 

If your going to spend that kind of money I would look into getting a FIRST intake, it still a TPI looking intake but just much bigger and should work with your stock computer.

 

I'm not familiar with a FIRST intake. i'll do some research. I was also told a possibility could be a holley stealth ram set up, but im not sure if that would accommodate the stock computer. I'm fairly mechanically inclined this is just the first build i've had a computer to consider in my decisions having run Air cooled VW engines offroad.

 

First website.

Much better than Edelbrock.

http://www.firstfuelinjection.com/products.htm

 

The First runners are 1-3/4 stock and only fits the FIRST base that flows 300cfm out of the box. (I checked a friends last night compared to my ported Lingenfelter super ram runners that are only 1 5/8 ported.) I wouldn't waste your money on the Edelbrock base. If you are goin to do that, just port your stock base instead. Especially if you are going to buy their Vortec base as the injector bungs impede flow because the go into the intake air steam. I would consider their runners, but a better option would be the AS&M or TPIS runners.

 

I personally would do everything at the same time. If you do the cam, and them the intake later, that means you will be removing the intake a total of 3 times. Once to replace heads. Again to replace cam (only way to remove cam is by removing lifters and such). And again to do the intake. So just get everything at once so that you can apply silicone to the china wall once as well as saving on gaskets because it's ALWAYS recommended to never reuse a gasket. Just a thought.

 

Lol. I just realized that this thread is well over a year old. Duh.