Merry Christmas All,

Planning an engine rebuild this spring and want to stay with the 350 but i want to add a better cam. The engine will have the stock intake and heads with bigger valves, 1.6 rr's and stock exhaust manifolds with no pre-cats and 1 main high flow cat, and muffler elem.s. I am looking at the TPIS zz-9 cam or a Crane "compu cam."

Car is an '89 auto 2.59 rearend.

The car will be semi-daily driven and would like a bad azz set up and reliability

Please let me know what you guys are running and how you like the results.

 

Hey Kev your on the right track with the better cam but kinda killed it when ya said you want to keep the stock heads and intake and exhaust. Your new cam is gonna want to take in more air but the stock intake will restrict that part of it. The more air in + the more air out = MORE POWER Ya need a better intake manifold, runners plenum and Throttle Body maybe some minor port matching from the intake to the heads and definatley need a good exhaust to help it exit quickly Then your ride will have some punch to it. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR UPGRADES Pipe

 

Well said Pipe

 

Kev,
You will "get by" with the stock heads, the GM ZZZ-ZZ4 engines did, but as pipe has said, some porting will enhance the mods you have planned. I would go the ZZ-9 rather than the compucam, which I believe have now had a name/range change. The ZZ-9 although expensive, always seems to perform well in a TPI. Some go for the LT4 Hot cam, which is a little bigger and a little cheaper. Your choice!
The standard exhaust manifolds can be cleaned up quite a bit, by removing them and removing the EGR and air pipe stubs that protrude into the entries with a die grinder and a rotary burr. I found the EGR pipe in the R/H manifold of my 87 was a substantial restriction and protruded nearly 1/2" into the runner. The air pipe tubes were up to 3/4" in the runner but of a much smaller size tube, they can however still be removed. (Be careful not to grind off too much though, you don't want to go through the welds or the tube walls.
My L/H manifold seemed to be better made and welded than the R/H side one and needed less work. Probably a better operative/welder made that one. Point being, you can improve what you have, without going the long tube route. You can also clean up the other end of the manilolds as well, you may find a lot of welding spatter etc in there and can open up the exit an 1/8"+ or so if you are careful. You need to check what you have. As for the manifold and runners, they will work, but I think you would be better off going the Big mouth/ larger runner route for best results. However what you have will still work, it just wont give the best results. Don't forget either, you will need to change valve springs with either cams and must verify valve retainer to guide/seal clearance. If you don't have enough clearance, you will have to cut the guides down. I had to cut the guides on my 87 '128' heads for a ZZ-9 cam you might want to choose a Lingenfelter/Accel 74216 a little smaller than a ZZ-9 and 0.462"/0.470" lift, which will fit without any guide interference. Your 89 '113' heads may well have enough clearance. You will have to check! You will also get by with the stock throttle body, but if it has seen a lot of miles, the bushes will probably be worn and again as has been said a 52mm may give a minor improvement, but with your proposed set up, either will do. You may also want to consider a custom tune when you have finished your mods to round everything up.
Good Luck

 

Kev, if you want to keep the stock heads. Then I would invest in the TPIS D113 ported heads. You can get them as an exchange for your stock heads. These are a good alternative to a set of AFR or other aftermarket heads. Then have your stock TPI base ported, and add a set of high flow aftermarket runners such as SLP or ASM. For a cam with that combo I would use a LPE/Accel 74211 which has a 211/219 intake and exhaust duration. Lift is .500/560 respectively. This would give you a very good increase in low and mid range Hp and torq. And will also improve the top end. Plus it would even pass emissions.

 

Dollar for dollar, money invested in cyl head/ and or porting, is money well spent.

 

You could benefit from reading "John Lingenfelter On Modifying Small-Block Chevy Engines". I just got a copy from www.half.com for $9. He discusses the L98 at length and really knows his stuff.

 

If my car would be a 87 or later roller block, 211 cam would be my first choice, period our cars hate duration and love lifts and this 211 cam fit the bill. the lift numbers for 211 cam are with 1.6/1.6 RR's so through a crane or comp cam 1.6 RR's, 211 cam, headers, Hi Flo single cat, 3" cat back exhaust, Ported heads/plenum by Tpis (ur core), 52 mm TB by Tpis (on ur own core), Cut lid w/k & N filter, Tpis Big mouth intake, Ford #24 injectors, Accel 8.8 plug wires, Hypertech Coil, Ac delco Cutback rapid fires plugs and last pcmforless or tjwong tuned chip---will yeald 375 Hp and 400 torq, replace TPI with SR intake (plenum/runner) same combo will yeald 400-425 hp and be done with it.

My car has tpis 224/224 dur and .525/.525 with 1.6 RR's, car kicks power from 2600 rpm , less than 2600 rpm car drives very nice but no UHH step on will scream. So, choose intake duration less than 220 to punch power from 1600-5500 rpm range. With 211 cam u will see power at all rpm range. Hope this helps.

 

Also Lpe has nice products but they DONT answer all of ur questions, where as Tpis has excellent cust service let Jim or Eric will help ur questions in lenth and they do have Tpis package deal too for i think 3750/ that includes everything what i mention above
u can mix or match. call them and dont afraid to ask any questions.