What to do first....

[stevehayes01]

Ok so I am getting used to the new truck and now I am ready to start looking at some performance upgrades for it. In searching on the forum I mostly find 350 upgrade options and have not found allot on the 454.

The truck...

1990 3/4 Ton R2500 Suburban 454

So some of the things I have been thinking so far...

TBI Spacer
Open Element Breather
Chip Tuning ( i have a burner and eproms already and know TunerproRT pretty well)
Headers
CAM Swap

Long term thinking........

Single Turbo setup w/intercooler

What I already have so far...

3" Piping from the Cat back
3 Chamber 24" Magnaflow muffler


So any feedback would be greatly appreciated so thanks in advance!!

 

[stevehayes01]

So think I have narrowed it down to a TBI spacer and Open Filter to start. I have also been reading on some of the other forums that people have pulled 20-35HP out of just eprom tuning so its time to bust out the Willem programmer and the 27C256 chips and get to tuning.

 

[92GMC]

from what ive heard and read tb spacers dont do much so i would save the money and put that towards somthing else. IMO headers, cam, and tune would do the most. i had an opent element edelbrock air cleaner on mine and it didnt do anything for it other than make the exhaust louder. in fact it made my truck get worse gas milage. the factory air cleaner with the lid flipped is just as good as an open element IMO. some people will argue that but thats my .02. good luck!

 

[stevehayes01]

So i have seen allot of mixed things on the TBI spacers and I am on the fence about them. I know that on my SAAB a Phenolic spacer on the manifold works well to help with atomization but that is with an injector per runner so different worlds but should be the same principal.

Gotta say that I find the whole TBI fuel delivery very odd too.......2 giant injectors just dumping fuel down the throttle plates.

The one thing I have to say is that I am glad to see that the 454 has low compression though...I keep seeing it rated at 7.9:1 and/or 8:1 which is perfect for boost. Although I cant seem to find very many boosted 454's.

 

[darren250r]

from what ive heard and read tb spacers dont do much so i would save the money and put that towards somthing else. IMO headers, cam, and tune would do the most. i had an opent element edelbrock air cleaner on mine and it didnt do anything for it other than make the exhaust louder. in fact it made my truck get worse gas milage. the factory air cleaner with the lid flipped is just as good as an open element IMO. some people will argue that but thats my .02. good luck!

A throttle body spacer on a vortec or motor with a dry intake manifold is worthless. They are effective on the TBI motor.

The downfall with an open element or a flipped lid is that you are sucking in hot air from the engine compartment rather than cool air from outside.