I was well in the process of buying TPI parts for my 77 L48 when a guy I know had to let go of his 383 project for some cash. I have a 88 stock Camaro polished MAF TPI system with the painless harness and just about everything else to finish this swap into my 2 bolt main 350. Now I have this newly machined 4 bolt .020" over block that is clearanced for the stroke, Trick flow heads, polished Edelbrock performer intake with a polished Edelbrock 750 carb, compression is at 9:7.1, all parts are new and ballanced, the engine is complete less tin and assembly. I now want to install the stock TPI onto the 383 and sell the intake and carb, I know how restrictive the TPI can be but I will not be racing this engine and it is not a daily driver, what I really want is a strong street engine that can run well on 92 octain gas and has street maners. "Sooo" I have two cams, one from the tpi project and the other cam came with the 383, after looking at the cam cards I wonder if the cam from the 383 carb system will work better with the TPI, I've got a th350 trans, 336 gears with a 25" tire. This is odd for me, in the past I have always built engines to the cam, now I seem to be going in two different directions. I am conserned about the lobe seperation on the Trick flow cam because I will be useing a computer driven TPI. What cam should I use?

Cam spec's are

Cam #1 (TPIS part #700-134)
advertised duration intake= 286 exhaust= 276
durationin @ .050" intake= 221 exhaust= 230
lobe lift intake= 3027 exhaust= 3027
lobe seperation= 112 deg
gross valve lift intake= 484 exhaust= 484

Cam #2 (Trick flow part #oem0872)
advertised duration intake= 266 exhaust= 272
duration @ .050" intake= 210 exhaust= 216
lobe lift intake= 2934 exhaust= 3027
lobe seperation= 110 deg
gross valve lift intake= 440 exhaust= 454

Thanks

 

id stick with the tpis cam,what injectors are you going to use the stock 22 lb?

 

I've got 22lbs injectors but they need cleaning and calibration, I was thinking about spending a few more bucks and getting bigger injectors.

 

Stick w/ the TPI cam. While the TPI is a GREAT torque monster the long runners flow poorly past 4800rpms. Mind you the engine will rev past that but the flow is slow do to the long runners. Switching to a Super Ram made a world of difference on my '91 TPI Vette.

 

First cam is too much for stock runner intake, runners will die long before cam gets going...if used, think about aftermarket base/runners and hogging them out, along with 180+cc intake runner heads.... and decent 2800+ stall convertor, 3.5x gear ratio and stouter.

Suggest #2 of the above two...even with the 110LSA...assuming mild head combo.

BTW, 9.7 CR should be fine on 87. data log it, might get some knock reatard, but *should* be able to pull it out in the programming...89 will run fine..no need for "HiTest".

 

It's been confusing for me, the Trick flow cam comes with all the matching components ie Roller rockers, push rod, lifters, valve springs ect. to the aluminum heads, the heads have 195 runners, I questioned the TPIS cam because I think it might be a bit big even with variable duration lifters. Thanks

 

I wonder if I should post this over on the c4 board due to it being TPI? Are they friendly to us c3 people?

 

Those are used when you want to run a big cam but keep low end power, in this case you will lose low end power and lose the cams upper end power potential since the intake will be out of breath before the cam gets into its max power range.

 

Crud, why do I have the felling that I'm getting a third cam :o

 

Cam 2 would prolly work pretty well with a stock tpi but is a little tight on the lobe seperation, tpi's like 112+ to give a good vac signal at idle. I bought a few books on swapping tpi's and EFI in general, although I have not done it yet on my vette, I use the knowledge on EFI Formula and will use on the vette when the time comes.

I have a summit cam (part # sum-1103) in my vette right now and I am thining of just swapping in the stock tpi set up since I am going for a low to mid range power cruiser and the cam is pretty much ideal with a little more lift (1.6 rockers give .471/.496 with this cam), best part is the cam is only $60 and if you have not used the lifters from one of the other 2 cams you can use them.

 

I like the numbers of that cam but it reads "computer controled - no". Obviusly if I expected this TPIS cam to run in a 350 than I should expect it to run even better with more cubes, when I was shopping for the cam all I could find was small cams that listed for computers, this TPIS cam is the only one I could find with any kind of real duration and lift and is designed for TPI computer controled intake system, now I think it's to big Isn't there something about a dual vs single pattern cams with TPI?

 

That cam will work well with a Accel superram (or miniram), Holley Stealth Ram or retro fitted LT1 intake (www.lt1intake.com) but not a stock GM TPI intake.