Hey Guys,

I got a 89 trans am thats been my slow project car for 5 years. I was able to buy some ASM runners last year as i am trying to achieve these kind of results from the engine when i am done:
http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/eng...tpi-induction/

I want to get my plenum ported next but not sure where to go, especially since Canada is not big on cars or anything like that for modifications.
I heard Jantzer Performance is bad and i actually can't find any contact information to them.

Anybody have any ideas on options?

Thanks

 

Not sure where in Canada you are located but I had my edelbrock intake, runners and plenum ported by Mississauga Engines in Streetsville. Ask for Cesar.

 

Well, get about 80 bucks in tools, electric die grinder and a bit for it. About all you can do is knock the humps down behind the TB, then match the runner holes to the size you want.

If money is an issue, all can be done with a few files and grunt work.

 

I saw a video recently that Richard Holdener did comparing some TPI intakes, and the extrude honed intake did very well. I'd definitely look into extrude honing if I were going to do a factory TPI setup. You'd probably have to ship it out and go without it for a bit, though. I'm not sure there's a ton of places doing it.

 

First - not going to get the results if you try to mimic that article. The heads were Trick Flow 195s with a XR288HR-10 cam - if you believe the original article he wrote and pulled the pictures and HP numbers from. Read this for more info.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...naturally.html

No need to pay anyone to port the plenum. You can get a large burr from a local hardware store ($10-$15 in the US) and use an electric drill - it'l go fast enough for removing aluminum.

Gasket match the runner openings to fit the larger runners and make it look like this in the front

 

It really is not that hard to do. I tackled it myself without any prior experience and I am very pleased with the results. I also did my base. That was a little more difficult and time consuming but I wanted both the upper and lower to match. Below is a link to my thread where I did the work, took lots of pics along the way.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...the-build.html

 

Why waste your time with all that work? Just get a FIRST TPI manifold for $1050 and be done with it. Sell the runners and all the stock TPI parts to recover some costs. You'll be time and money ahead and the FIRST manifold can make all the numbers you are looking for out of the box. Bonus - most people can't tell the difference between a stock TPI and a FIRST manifold.

I pulled 400 HP out of my stock iron Vortec heads, stock 350 bottom end (rebuilt) with the FIRST manifold, cam, and valve train. Aluminium heads, 383, etc would easily make more than ANY stock TPI manifold regardless of porting - there's not enough material in the TPI base to make it as large as the FIRST manifold base via porting. It would literally have to be ported out of existence.

GD

 

You sure the stock base has no meat in it? i think you'd be surprised. Could be the OP may have smog restrictions, kinda wipe out the FIRST intake, could be he doesn't want to drop over a grand.

Stock runners are the hurdle that can't be over come.

 

The FIRST manifold can accommodate all the factory emissions equipment. And between buying runners, and all the labor, $1k is very little. Selling the aftermarket runners and the entire stock TPI setup would net at least half that - likely more. So there's really very little reason to prefer the stock TPI parts other than purist beliefs, fear of the unknown, etc. Additionally the FIRST manifold can be machined to accept much better components such as LS injectors for which you can get accurate data.

GD

 

I have a FIRST for sale in the classifieds.