Hi all, as my 85 305tpi LB9 (maf) has a terminal knock I'm getting a 350 built up to transplant. It will have forged flat top pistons and run between 9 to 10:1 comp ratio. the heads are 993's with 2.02 & 1.6 ss valves with a port job and deshrouded etc and planed to get the reqd comp ratio. Initially I will be using the LB9 tpi gear with 22lb injectors, new knock sensor and Eprom and would like to be reccommended a suitable flat tappit cam bearing in mind I will upgrade the breathing capability in the future as I can afford it, eg manifold,runners and plenum, throttle body. I already have shorty headers, egr deleted, no air or cat, custom y pipe and would like to think this engine will yield 300plus hp but my cam choice will be crucial, thoughts please from those of you who are well versed in this kinda stuff? Some reasearch shows Crane compucam 2032 to be popular? Is this a good one? Thanks in advance Simon

Do your heads have valve-springs already?
If so, then which ones? How much valve lift are they set up for?

Hi 305sbc, heads still being worked on, will be machined to fit appropriate performance springs per whatever cam is used. forgot to mention am using 1.6 com cams roller rockers and screw in studs, hope this helps, Simon

The Crane powermax 2032 should work well for you if the heads are ported and you plan to do some tuning.
http://crane.carshopinc.com/product_...d/15861/104224

If the heads don't flow so well and you want to do minimal to no tuning, then you should probably use the powermax 2030.
http://crane.carshopinc.com/product_...d/15915/114122

The idle will be smoother and your fuel mileage will be better with the smaller 2030 cam.

crane 2032 is a great cam for a motor that has the stock heads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmAOjTj03yU

Thanks guys for the advice, 2032 Crane is the winner!
Cheers Simon

Another question, has anyone any experience with the TPIs 276/286 flat tappit cam called the Torque Secrets cam? its for tpi 350/383 Duration 221/ 231 470 lift and 112 lobe seperation. Its less than half the price of a Crane 2032 so I'm interested to know if its any good for me?
Cheers Simon

What sort of HP do you think a stock L98 with a 2032 Crane cam and short headers would make?

Remember that the stock springs are good to about .470 lift,but if you add 1.6 rockers then i would go with springs that can handle more lift.

That is a lot of duration for tpi

the 2032 looks like a decent cam

does your car have a roller cam from the factory?

Your 85' may not be a roller cam. The 2032 Crane cam is roller. You better be sure.

Yep, pretty sure that crane cam is a roller... if you want a flat tappet, look for something around those specs. I like the comp cam stuff in the 218/224 range.

If you plan to upgrade the intake later, that torque secrets cam 221/231 would be a great cam.

I was referring to his stock cam. If he didn't already have a roller cam then he may have to get the area in the lifter galley
drilled to accept roller.

Yeah I understand that, I'm just going by the OP's first post saying he needs a flat tappet cam and everyone is recommending a roller. Good cam, but its a roller cam. Not gonna work in his 350 transplant IF its a flat tappet only block. His 85 isnt a roller but doesnt matter anyway because he doesnt have a 85 350, its a 305 car originally

exactly, 1.6's add approx .030-inch lift so keep that in mind when calculating overall lift. .470 is max on stock spring so they wouldn't work on a .470 lift cam with 1.6 rockers b/c your lift would be around .500.

Thanks for clarifying that, I assumed I was being reccommended the 2032 as a flat tappit cam, no wonder it is so expensive, its a roller! I require flat tappet. Someone mentioned the torque secrets cam as having a fairly big duration for Tpi, will it still be ok withe the std intake until I have upgraded?

You can run whatever cam you want for now, as long as its tuned good. Doesnt mean it will make power or run well, but you could still run it Too big and it will have some low end driveability quirks, but 220 deg isnt too big. I've been in a L98 with a 230 cam and it has plenty of power to drive around.

If you will upgrade intake later to something that flows abit more, and has a larger cross sectional area in the runner, and/or shorter runner length like siamesed runner SLP system, superram, miniram or stealth ram, then you should cam up abit more. Torque secrets cam is a good match for those intakes

993 heads suck but if you have to use them, then you have to use them. They are an old open chamber head and really have poor chambers. I'd rather run a vortec head if on a budget, but you'd need the intake at the same time.
Even a factory L98 head would be a better choice IMO.

Why don't you just get a computer compatible flat tappet cam. Tuning your chip won't really be required ,but of course it will always run much better if you do.

MAF system may run good without much of a tune, but he's got an 85 system which isnt near as tuneable as the 86-89 stuff. Can easily do the swap, just need the components.

But with 993 heads, its likely going to need a completely different spark curve and fueling to get it to run best. So really doesnt matter what cam you get. Cam may be compatible with a stock L98 but this isnt a L98 build anymore.

Well the goalposts have just been moved! took your advice and bought a set of vortec heads inc inlet manifold. But.... its a manifold for a 4 barrell and now I have to decide weather I go carbed, so a different cam will apply ( luckily no cam purcased yet) or spend more and purchase a vortec tpi base, to stay with the setup already in the car. I was lucky as these heads rarely come up for sale in New Zealand but it costs a shitload to import a base here new from Summit. I think I would like to stay tpi as thats what I'm set up for and trawl around for a second hand tpi vortec base in the US to try and offset the freight costs. Better still and win lotto and ship in a vortec holley stealth ram setup from the get go! I wish! I see vortec heads are limited in valve lift so I will get the guide tops machined and pull the rocker studs to fit guide plates to use my roller rockers. Ithink this will end up being Quite a nice engine.

Yeah you are in a tough spot due to location. vortec stealth ram or vortec single plane efi are 2 great swap pieces that can bolt in and use TPI electronics. If you want TPI, you need the sdpc vortec base...I dont know what shipping to NZ would cost but I imagine its not cheap. I've shipped an intake to Europe somewhere, i forget where exactly but it was definately expensive.

Like I said above, if you had to run 993's due to budget reasons or lack of parts availability, then its ok just dont expect much power out of them. Not sure what you are looking for with regards to power but TPI is a limiter regardless which heads

You can run carbed for now just to get it all running, but upgrade to vortec TPI later. Just dont cut up the harness too much. I'm not sure what all needs cut up if anything to run a carb, but try to keep everything in tact as much as possible. You can run the same cam with either setup. May not be optimal carb cam, but it will work. My friend ran a stock LT1 cam with a vortec head and performer rpm carb intake and that motor ran strong! EFI cam actually worked ok.

Summit sells a flat tappet with 214/224, .442/.465. only $54.95
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-1103/

Send a message to the eBay seller of this advert.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CHEV-CORV...#ht_562wt_1181

He's based in Brisbane and specialises in TPI gear. He definitely has SDPC vortec base plates, as well as Minirams and Superrams. His name is John Bondok.

Thanks for the tip Cogburn, seems he has a good stock of Tpi gear alot closer to home!

Am gonna stay TPI, I do like it. Have just seen a Comp Cams flat tappet Tpi cam with very similar specs to the torque secrets cam at a better price plus reasonable shipping. Its a XE268H
adv duration 268 280
at 050 224 230
Lift at 1.5 is .477 .480
114 deg lobe sep
Anyone used one of these and can comment would be appreciated
Cheers

.. Even the stock cam for a TPI 350" at 207/209 duration @ .050" was too big for a stock TPI setup... that cam wants to HP out at 5200 RPMs... but the stock TPI setup whacks it off by 4500 RPMs...

.. So any cam with more duration than that is just going further too big... you're giving up lower RPM torque and MPG and not gaining anything on the top end RPMs...

.. So, how much bigger you go kinda depends on long before you get bigger intake and runners... and just how big those parts will be...

.. An alternative to bigger parts is siamesing the stock runners just inside the base manifold... or at the bottom of the runners...

.. Also, in the mean time, headers and freeflowing exhaust will maximize your current setup by recovering 20 - 60 HP lost to whatever stock exhaust setup you have....

Yes I already have headers and custom free flow system. Now that I have vortec heads going on, the internals have been upgraded to a steel scat crank, I beam rods, forged flat top pistons and a minimum of 10:1 comp ratio. Am going to fit a vortec hiflo tpi intake base first off. Have purchased a XE268H cam which I hope will come into its own once I build my own hiflo runners and plenum. For now to get it drivable again it will start off with stock runners and plenum.Have a spare complete tpi system and I think it would not be too hard to siamese stock runners from top bottom inside and outside which would add alot of volume. Something to play around with and see how it works out. Would be quite easy to add volume to the top of the plenum as well. Time will tell!

this man speaks the truth...
we are currently trying to put together a cam setup for my tpi car.
I was really thinking of just trying find a stock cam and put it back in the motor with a set of e-street heads.
but the 88 is a center bolt valve cover,so that e street idea got thrown out.
i would like to run the vortec heads,but i wasnt sure on what to do about the intake lining up to the vortec head...? (ANYONE)
i havent researched that deep yet.

You still can gain hp throughout the mid range with a larger than stock cam with TPI, even tho TPI tends to have HP peaks at or below 5200 rpm... The design will not lose that much tq down low with a mild step up in cam size. The midrange increase and top end increase will make up for any loss you might experience. Short runner intakes lose more peak torque than TPI but yet those setups are still fun to drive due to broad torque curve. Larger cam in TPI will just extend the torque curve farther out, helping it hang on instead of falling off like a rock.

I agree dont go too big on cam but 218-224 deg isnt that big on a 350 motor. I like cams in the 218 range for aftermarket TPI, and some even bigger can still work good. All depends on what you are looking for.

Well you can get new valve covers or if you want to keep it original you can get a vortec TPI base with the vortec heads. Thats a decent budget setup since the heads can be found for cheap, make decent power, but the intake is expensive at 400-500 bucks now... kinda outrageous IMO

ok...
thanks
vortec heads are out of the question to.
i guess i will try to find a set of l98 heads and port them myself and do a really mild HR cam.

.. I think you can get E-Street heads with dual/either valve cover bolt pattern... $909.99/pair on Jegs or SummitRacing... Don't you have any stock heads on it? They're good for 375-390HP... Need headers and about a 214/224 cam... Or GM 'Hot Cam' roller cam...

.. I'm considering getting a used tunnel ram base, modding it for injectors, and modding my plenum to fit on top of it... for a budget version of a Holley Street Ram... with little RPM restriction and still great torque and still EFI...

.. I've also seen that done for a BBC as well... They called it 'TPI'... " Tunnel Port Injection "... Makes a BBC look almost stock in a TPI F-body or 'Vette...

problem is we dont have anything other than a motor,ecm wiring harness and 3 tpi units... LOL
was thinking of running the truck heads "FUELIE" i assume thats what they are called....i am not trying to make this a street strip motor,just looking for a good running motor,that doesnt require extensive tuning.
i have not found anyone locally that can burn/tune this this car when it comes time to get it up and running.
sorry to hijack someone elses thread,but the my topic at hand is relevant.
thanks
Ed

.. The 'fuelie' heads were the iron 'double hump' ones used on 1960's Mechanical Fuel Injection 360HP, 370HP, 375HP 327" Corvette engines... the 'fuelie' valves were the 2.02"/1.60" ones used in those heads...

.. However, the 1995-2000 iron Vortec truck heads will easily outflow most of those early fuelie heads despite their smaller base level 1.94"/1.50" valves... that's because the Vortec heads have bigger, better shaped ports, bowls, backcut valves, 5-angle valve job, and fastburn combustion chambers...

.. Above in the TPI 'stickies' is a beginner's level thread labeled "Performance Proms, etc" on burning your own ECM chips and doing your own scanning and tuning with most any old $50 used laptop and free software that will be far better than any $250 - $500 chip you can buy... and also fun to do...

cool cool.
i was thinking of the wrong heads anyways. sorry no double humps either. lol
i have cam up with my solution's.
i am going to install a lt1 cam cut down the pin on the snout to fit the timing gear. (LT1 because there are free ones laying around)
getting a set of fuel injected heads redone with new valve job and and springs.
hopefully it all works out just fine

Have purchased my vortec 3817 tpi manifold thru Amazon of all places! The shipping was less half I could get one anywhere else, 69usd to NZ. Stung me a bit on the exchange rate but I'm still way better off, even the purchase price was cheaper than scoggins or jegs! I need to know what would be the correct intake gaskets for this base? My reasearch shows I need Felpro 1255 gaskets but there is so many variations of this in thickness and port size. I have 906 vortec heads which already had the valve guide work done fortunatly, just doing the screw in studs and guide plates. Any help on this would be appreciated.
CheersSimon

.. I would think just the ordinary Vortec intake to Vortec head gasket would be fine...

.. Sounds like this is going to end up a very powerful engine now... 400-425HP...

Wow! that sounds like a lot of Hp! Started building up this 350 because the 305 was dying with the expectation of 300 ponies which would be nice. Now that I have gone vortec the boundaries just keep moving and its been a heap of fun researching and procuring the parts for the build. A plug for third Gen here, This is an awesome forum for info and advice and sorely needed by me as this is my 1st ever SB chevy owned (85Z28) and its gives so much pleasure as there is probably less than 6 of these in the city where I live so they really stand out! What a wealth of Knowlege in this forum and its all at the click of a mouse! Now looking at fitting 24lb injectors rather than 22lb and a 52mm throttle body to enable me to take advantage of future breathing upgrades. Will port my plenum myself and found a really interesting article on cutting the front and backs out the runners and welding on flat sheet to siamese them all the way down to just shy of the base, adding a lot of volume, looks doable so I'm gonna have go at it as I have spare runners i can play with. Why are after market hiflow runners so expensive? same price or more than a base! Can't see the justication myself. Then there is shipping for me to add, its no wonder we play with altering making parts ourselves in the antipodes.Cam arrived today and vortec base is in the country so its all coming together nicely.

So What's An Estimate On HP Gain After Adding A 2032 Cam With Stock Heads?? I Have Edelbrock Headers, Full 3" Exhaust, Edelbrock Intake Manifold, BBK Throttle Body A 255LPH Fuel Pump With Upgraded Injectors If That Helps Estimate It A Little Better

you will need to get it tuned. new chip burned. You just cant throw 24lb injectors on it. It will run overly rich and lose power. Either way, even after you add better breathing capability to it. The chip will need to be tuned.

I'm not so sure custom tuning will be needed on a TPI/MAF setup.

When it goes into a closed loop the system should reduce pulses to the Injectors if it gets too rich.

It's a pretty flexible system, and rather than making it run richer, I think bigger injectors would just avoid the situation of running lean due to a lack of flow thru the Injectors when pushed hard.

Custom tuning is always needed anytime you make major changes. The system is flexible to a point,but 24lb injectors are going to make it run overly rich. You would need to turn down the fuel pressure to make it work and it still wouldn't run right. Adding bigger injectors is what people did before the days of tuning as a bandaid.

2032 search you tube to see what it sounds like...sounds nice

It Sounds Sick When It's Idling, But Does Anyone Know Approximately How Much More Power It Makes??? I'm Looking For At Least 20+ RWHP Out Of A Cam Swap So If That 2032 Can Get Me 20+ More Wheel Horse Power Then Hell Yeah I'll Go With It.

Well finally the 355 is in and running and I'm very happy with it!It sounds fantastic at idle with a offbeat staccato note. Am running my stock 305 tpi maf system on a ported 3817 hiflo base and a 85 tpi vette thermomaster chip and 24lb bosch 3's with no issues or engine light. no egr, no air, no cat, vortec heads. 1.6 rollers and with headers and man does this thing go! Still running it in at the mo so have not explored the full rev range but it pulls to 5k no sweat and wants to keep going up but thats as far as I've taken it momentarily and wow I'm impressed it makes the old 305 seems like it was a 4 cylinder! The XE268H-14 cam doesn't have any quirks this engine is very smooth around town or on the hiway with that awesome idle.Its like another world as far as power goes, not sure how its gonna be when I get my 52mm throttle body and hilfo runners and ported plenum as I'm really enjoying it now. Plugs run a nice colour so is not rich and currently getting a shade over 21 mpg and I dont baby the throttle cause feeling that power is so much fun!Not sure what my compression ratio is but they are forged flat top pistons 15 thou in the hole with a 23thou head gasket giving me a nice 38thou quench, 64cc vortec chambers and double valve reliefs in pistons, 7cc? I guessd maybe 10:1 comp but have not done the math yet.Upshot is, Am very happy with this engine, seems like a different car now, thankyou all above or is it below for your help and advice Cheers Simon

Thats good to hear. Thats a very popular cam for vortec heads and seems to work well from most ppl I've seen run it. That motor will respond even better with a custom chip tune and aftermarket high flow runners to go with the base.