Planning some minor engine changes...Need a little input...

[95BlackTahoe]

I am planning to change a few things on my 95 TBI 350.

I thought long and hard of the vortec heads, but I really don't wish to have to hunt down special manifolds or use tbi adapters. In the department of the head change, I am thinking L98 heads off a TPI 350. Keep in mind, I am looking for more power than the TBI heads can do, but I am not building a race car either...

Cam choice from what I hear is a cam from a LT1 engine. Yep roller cam. I am just hoping my block is able to be used for the cam. I also read the Melling MTC 1 is a good choice, and should work fine with the TPI heads.

I wanted to get a gear drive, but from what I understand, they don't like the knock sensor very much, so that idea may be dead.

I already have done the TBI mods, and have the Edelbrock 3704 manifold on it. Stock exhaust manifolds as well, but was thinking about shorty headers.

So, at least at this point it seems like lt1 cam, tpi heads, and put her all back together... Any suggestions if I am heading in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

Shawn

 

[retorq]

I wouldn't waste your time with TPI heads, the gain isn't going to be enough to be worth the money or the effort. Not to mention those heads have TINY chambers, that will send your compression ratio thru the roof, which means 93 octane or a cam with lots of bleed off. There are no special manifolds to hunt down, there is an off the shelf Edlebrock Vortec TBI intake if you don't want to use a carb manifold with an adapter. 4BBL Carb manifolds flow better then those designed for TBI so I think you are leaving something out by refusing to think outside the box and not do this properly.

You will have to address the coolant bypass with Vortecs on our trucks, the easiest is to drill the 7/16ths hole and use the inblock bypass. That is the route I'm taking on my next Vortec head engine.

95 block should be drilled, tapped and machined for a roller cam, although you will need to hunt down the dogbones, retainers, cam plate and roller lifters.

Can't really say much about the LT1 cam other then it's old and there are much better grinds out there now a days.

You can do a gear drive, you just need to tune out the knock sensor or get a less sensitive one. There was/is a knock sensor that came in either a Vette with the LT4 engine of some sorts and that knock sensor will work with a quiet gear drive. Is it worth it though?? You'll pull up next to someone with your engine whining like it's got a blower and yet you don't want a racecar engine ...

I think you need a real exhaust before you do anything else to that engine. If you aren't looking for a race car then that may be all you need and you don't need to go ripping the top half of the motor off ... before my vortec top end swap I had a Bank kit on it and it ran really well for what it was.

 

[95escahoe]

In terms of exhaust if your gonna do headers doug's tri-y's or long tubes, shortys not really gonna gain alot with the trouble you go through, there are some nice cat-backs out there or have a shop fab one up

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[95BlackTahoe]

I wouldn't waste your time with TPI heads, the gain isn't going to be enough to be worth the money or the effort. Not to mention those heads have TINY chambers, that will send your compression ratio thru the roof, which means 93 octane or a cam with lots of bleed off. There are no special manifolds to hunt down, there is an off the shelf Edlebrock Vortec TBI intake if you don't want to use a carb manifold with an adapter. 4BBL Carb manifolds flow better then those designed for TBI so I think you are leaving something out by refusing to think outside the box and not do this properly.

You will have to address the coolant bypass with Vortecs on our trucks, the easiest is to drill the 7/16ths hole and use the inblock bypass. That is the route I'm taking on my next Vortec head engine.

95 block should be drilled, tapped and machined for a roller cam, although you will need to hunt down the dogbones, retainers, cam plate and roller lifters.

Can't really say much about the LT1 cam other then it's old and there are much better grinds out there now a days.

You can do a gear drive, you just need to tune out the knock sensor or get a less sensitive one. There was/is a knock sensor that came in either a Vette with the LT4 engine of some sorts and that knock sensor will work with a quiet gear drive. Is it worth it though?? You'll pull up next to someone with your engine whining like it's got a blower and yet you don't want a racecar engine ...

I think you need a real exhaust before you do anything else to that engine. If you aren't looking for a race car then that may be all you need and you don't need to go ripping the top half of the motor off ... before my vortec top end swap I had a Bank kit on it and it ran really well for what it was.

I already have the exhaust in place, with the exception of the Y-pipe and a high flow cat. I believe there is some serious restriction there.

Taking what you said, I believe the simple solution to give the added power I want is simply to use a vortec short block, and maybe do a cam change in that, if it would even be necessary considering they were good for 50 hp more than tbi from the start, then simply do as you suggested and "think outside the box". My concern was the intake, but that seems to be solved with what you suggested. The other issue was if the tbi went too high on the manifold, I may not be able to use the Volant cold air setup I have. Might be a little steep of an angle to hook up right. The idea here is to do this right. The old girl has a lot of miles on her, and I want to make it as good as I can, without breaking the bank.

Shawn