What would you do to your TPI setup while its off of your car? Just looking for some things to upgrade it a bit while the head is getting fixed... I am thinking of ordering an EGR block off plate in a few minutes. Any real benefit to doing so? If not I will likely just put it back together after being bead blasted and cleaned up...

 

is it ported and opened up? do you have a little cam in the car? Can we assume its stock? How much money do you havce to play with? Do you want to increase your hp some?

AS for the egr im not to sure it will do much i know if its not on your computer will throw a code and it may not run right till you fix the computer but im not 100% sure

 

The car has a stock rebuilt 350 (355 now, assuming a stock replacement cam as well) and would only spend a few hundred dollars on the induction setup. I'm kind of tied up with cash on fixing/reinstalling the head, and finishing the exhaust system. And yes, ideally free up some horsepower.

I guess I'm just looking at cost effective upgrades without buying a HSR. As much as I know its a superior induction system, I'm just not ready to do it just yet.

 

Mods arent cheap for these cars as im sure your well aware. Is headers part of your full exhaust?

 

Yeah... Hedmen (68478) Shortys, matching y-pipe, some universal high flow cat (haven't decided yet...) to a 3" Flowmaster American Thunder Cat Back.

 

CAM! I was where you were at and terribly regret not installing a cam! Its big time worth it!

 

Man, I've been thinking about that. What cam would you suggest? I've been wondering about how effective it would actually be with the stock TPI.

 

good im glad someone said it besides me that was my first thought, cams arent that expensive either just a little time consuming, and you have full exhaust that is one of the best mods for a stock tpi car. What are the guys doing to the heads?

 

The heads have less than 20k on them (Stock LB9 rebuilds). I pulled the one off because I broke off an exhaust stud (see the camaro thread I have in detailing and appearance for pictures...) Basically, I broke off an easy out after trying many other ways of extracting the dam* stud. All failed, so here I am with a naked engine ha.

About the cam. What cam can I run without upgrading all corresponding components and additional head work? Remember, at the moment money I can play with is tight.

 

If money is tight, bag the cam, bag the heads, go for an intake rather than try to massage the stock one. THere's a number of options. I've been working with FIRST lately, and they seem to have a good solution. There's others.

If you do a cam/heads without doing the intake you're not going to realize potential.

 

yeah this is true and i agree with you but he said he didnt want to do the intake yet in the 3rd post so he might have to work backwards as money is an issue

 

I know...just throwing it out there.

 

I had already known I wouldn't realize the full potential of a cam as I said there. That is the largest reason I would like to wait til I can afford the HSR swap and supplemental components.

I would just really like to hear some ideas for how to upgrade the TPI system while its off the car. I'm not afraid to go cam it later on while doing the Stealth Ram swap.


So what you are getting at is don't waste time with TPI if I'm chasing performance? Makes sense to me! A set of runners is the same as the bare stealth ram haha... I will just clean up the TPI for now.

Thanks!

 

Hp can be had with the tpi system but its expensive hsr is so much cheaper but lot of guys in so cal making great numbers with modified tpi if the car was running fine to begin with then put it back that way.

 

While its off you might as well:
1) Base - grind the lip from the lower base intake where the runners enter (you'll see it when the runners are off), make that opening a little larger than the runner exit, then smooth out the rough casting the full length of the runner - spend some time blending in the round to square transition in the runner.
2) Plenum - take out the egr "wall" from the plenum (port the plenum)
3) Stock Runners - bevel the edges around the stock runners (like a bell mouth opening) to make the runner opening at the plenum a little larger than the plenum exits
4) install an adjustable fuel pressure regulator while you're doing all this if you don't already have one.

Even if you've never used a grinder before, none of this is hard to do and you can do it with a dremel and extension wand (air grinder and 6" shank burr is best) and a drill using a 1.5" sanding roll to sure up the round opening edges.

If you're able to get a good used set of SLP runners, you can typically get your money back when you re-sell them,, maybe more if you're good with a grinder and do a full port job on them. That's what I'd look into doing,, get a used set of runners and grind the divider down to about the half-way point. I think you'll be very surprised at the power with a properly ported stock base and plenum along with the SLP runners.

 

Pull the rest out!!! and drop a 455 pontiac motor with a 200r behind it!!!!!!

 

Leave the EGR on your motor will like you for it.