Hi, for a 91-92 5.7L TPI, I was looking for some decent cams with just a bit of chop to them, nothing serious. I just really don't want to have to change a whole bunch of stuff and haven't ever done a whole lot of engine work before. I don't even know where to begin. Like I said not looking for a huge boost in power but I like exhaust sounds from cams and I like the little bit of gains it gives you. If anyone could help me put together a kit I need to buy and some nice cams that will work with stock stuff or even explain to me why that doesn't work that'd be great. And again I've never really worked on an engine so when you start throwing acronyms my way, I will more than likely have no idea what you are talking about. I also plan to buy some headers and exhaust.

 

Please be easy on me lol, im only 19... had my first 91 firebird that had a built 350 chevy small block already swapped into it with a shift kit installed already... i was forced to sell it or I'd still have it today. Thankfully away from my mother now. Don't get me wrong, I have worked on cars before. Had a 96 crown vic police interceptor that was sitting in a trailer park under a tree leaking gas and brake fluid yet started right up and drove an hour home with me having to constantly pump the brakes just to stop. Lots of parts had to be replaced on that car.

 

Anything with a "choppy" idle is gonna require other mods, and will be doggish in the low-RPM range.
All cams are a compromise or trade-off. The best option if you don't want to mod other things is a cam with a higher lift (but not too high), short duration, and lobe separation of at least 112 degrees.
Stiffer valve springs will be required...

 

Plus the pressed in rocker studs on the stock heads may not be able handle a much more radical cam that would produce a choppy idle.

Then you have to worry about tuning. 90-92 speed density cars are sensitive to significant changes in engine configuration.

But assuming you can get the chip recalibrated, I'd probably go for something like a ZZ4 cam. It'd give you a performance boost since it's operating range is pretty well matched to a stock TPI. Plus it's easy to recalibrate for since it's a relatively mild cam.

It probably will sound stock though (especially since you have a 350 and not a 305).

 

BTW, don't be embarrassed about your age or asking questions. Everyone here should be thrilled a young person is getting into the hobby, as it seems to be getting less and less common these days.

I got into it at 16 (I'm almost 49 now) when I bought my dad's 1971 Camaro off of him as my first car... and I still have it!

Experience and other people have taught me a lot, but I didn't know 1/10th of what I know now when I was your age. So yeah, definitely a good thing that you're here and getting into it all.

 

I Like to be helpful, so i'll copypasta a post I made to someone asking a similar question instead of telling you to go read that post. here it is:

Before you replace anything else in the car, upgrade the exhaust system and O2 sensor. that is the main power constrictor on these cars (the single wire O2 sensors require LOTS of back-pressure to work correctly. If you don't care about horsepower and just want the lopey muscle-car engine sound, they just buy whatever you think sounds coolest. with not TOO much duration on the cam-lobes (back-pressure required to function correctly) if you do not perform an exhaust system upgrade first, including upgrading to a 3 wire O2 sensor, then your car will run like **** in anything but a stock configuration, no matter how hard you tune. expect and 30+ HP boost with a new exhaust system, new high flow cat and mufflers, or straight-pipe. the TPI engine does not have a downstream O2 sensor and does not care
(Edit: any and ALL modification to the engines of these cars usually requires a re-tuning)
(Re-Edit: I have an ADS superchip from back in the day in my car and it works fine with my high flow cat, the stock one... not so much [tho that could be because that chip came out of a corvette TPI {I am operating under the assumption that all TPI PROMS are compatible with same ECM same displacement same transmission donor cars} Tho that car may have been a manual])

 

Had a customer run one of the comp cams, it was either the 212/218 or the 218/224 XE grinds in a 89 tpi car. Sounded good and ran pretty good, not a lot of power gain on stock motor but was torquey

 

I agree with all of this except for the last sentence. A 305 sounds no different from a 350 all else being equal. They have the same stroke, same firing order, and the intake valves on a stock 350 (1.94") are only minutely larger than the 305 valves (1.84")...

 

Increasing cubic inches tend to smooth out larger cams.... that's all I was referring to.

 

How bout a ZZ4 cam ?

 

I'm a fan of TPIS super profile L98 cam. Put a couple in mostly stock setups recently.