hello i recently bought a 350 tpi and i'm planning to swap my old 305 manual transmission to put in the 350 the problem is i want to find a cam that actually puts out a good amount of power as i said earlier im new to tpi's so i wanted to know if there are any cams that wont break the bank but still have enough amount of power to kick my friends 91 trans am's *** any cam suggestions? BTW i'm a high school student so my budget is $300.00

 

Intake is the main power restriction on TPI's ; a cam swap will do little without other mods
Buy a set of long tube headers and a free flowing exh 1st
Upgrade intake and do a cam swap to suit then

 

Welcome to TGO. I agree with Vette, the first mod need to be exhaust. Headers, and everything else all the way back. You also have to decide how far you wanna go with your mods as well. I had a 350 TPI with nothing but full exhaust, and opted to do a zz4 cam swap. It sounds better, and certainly gave it a kick in the pants, but I wouldn't do it that way again. TOO much work for too little improvement. At the VERY least you need to improve the intake, but I'd look into heads as well.

This topic comes up from time to time and it's really hard to recommend a cam, because as I said, quite frankly if you're ONLY going to put a cam in it, then my recommendation would be to NOT put a cam in it!!! ...and if you start modding the intake and heads, well.......then we need to know what you've done before we can advise you on a cam.

Good luck! ...READ, READ, READ as much as you can here!!!!!!!!

 

I disagree. Do the cam while the motor is out of the car. You can do intake/runners/exhaust after the motor is installed. You do need to develop a solid plan now so that you can pick an appropriate cam, but since the motor is otherwise stock, keep the cam fairly mild, maybe something like a 210/220 or 215/225 hydraulic roller with a 113 or 114 lsa. It won't make a huge difference in performance yet, but as you free up other restrictions, you'll see greater gains.

 

And, as much lift as you can get away with.

 

Just make sure your heads and valve springs can handle whatever lift your new cam has.

 

Ya know what, Jim is right. While the engine is still out of the car, a cam swap should be easy. When I did mine, it was in the car, and a huge headache for what it was worth, but out.......should be easy.

 

Just do a tune up, some basic maintenance and call it a day. 300 bucks won't go very far. Just enjoy the car as is.

 

I was under the impression that the $300 was just the cam budget, but I agree... if that's all that's in the total budget, save it for gas money. If that's just "cam" money and you'll have money for other mods, then great.

 

i already bought shortie headers and messed with my exhaust i've done the basics now im trying to find a decent cam for it

 

right sorry about that the mods that i've done so far is
cold air intake
headers
catless exhaust
40 series flowmaster
thats about it

 

yeah 300 for just the cam its self

 

right sorry about that the mods that i've done so far is
cold air intake
headers
catless exhaust
40 series flowmaster
thats about it

 

I would be very careful with what cam you are using. I bought a rebuilt engine with a .292 Comp cam and it was too big for the tpi. I think the biggest you can go is .236 Any bigger and it affects the sensors and I was told the computer cant recognize the intake signals. I would call summit racing and talk to them.

Its not a simple as just a cam swap. Barns and noble has a book on camshafts that shows you the profile of certain duration cams. Then you can add in roller rockers at 1;5 1;6 or 1;7 to give it more lift or ive even heard of guys mixing and matching them for better flow.

Overall, I dont think you can really add that radical of a cam to fuel injection. If the engine out is already out, sure why not.

Be careful of the advice you seek: i went to a racing shop and the guy told me to ditch the tpi because it was "outdated technology" and he advised me to put a carberator on it.

Carberators are way more out dated that FI- but I was dumb and made the swap and now hate it and will be going back to tpi.