350 TBI vortec head swap and smog questions

[Mdauch]

Just wondering would 6.0 vortex heads fit or just 5.7? Also plan on doing a new cam too, something with a nice lope. Suggestions other than lt1(looking into). I can deal with rough riding till tune. My plan is to also put a bored out throttle body on there probably 48 or 50 mm and I have to switch to BB injectors. Any other ideas or advice?

 

[Chris6060]

How realistic would a TPI setup be on one of these trucks? TPI is OBD1 compatible, so how is this done and who has done it?

 

[ccreddell]

Just wondering would 6.0 vortex heads fit or just 5.7? Also plan on doing a new cam too, something with a nice lope. Suggestions other than lt1(looking into). I can deal with rough riding till tune. My plan is to also put a bored out throttle body on there probably 48 or 50 mm and I have to switch to BB injectors. Any other ideas or advice?

No, 6.0 heads are an LSX type GEN III and IV and they dont fit on GEN I motors. And 5.7 Vortec heads are different than even the 5.0 Vortec heads and you should check the casting #s to be sure youre getting the correct heads. TBI computers cant accommodate lopey cams-which is why I recommended the LT1 cam, you cant go much bigger and tune for it. Tou dont have to switch to BB injectors-and shouldnt unless your calcs call for them. You just up your fuel pressure to get more flow. Before you can use a 48 or 50mm TB, you need to do exhaust work (build a decent Y pipe) and make sure your tranny is going to live behind the new found torque.

 

[ccreddell]

How realistic would a TPI setup be on one of these trucks? TPI is OBD1 compatible, so how is this done and who has done it?

Works really well-especially if you go with a 411 swap at the same time. Look for Tinbender59s posts on various truck forums (GMT400, GMtruck central, etc) as he has perfected it.

 

[TylerZ281500]

Yeah, you loose all the advantages of swapping to the Vortec heads in the first place...

no you dont

 

[TylerZ281500]

tinbender used an lt1, not a tpi setup, overall tpi isnt as great for a truck as tbi, can it be done yea but theres much more worthwhile injection swaps.

you can run a fairly meaty cam on tbi most people just dont know how to setup valve train geometry, want to swap valve springs and all that and so on, with a bigger cam your gonna need a head with more breathing room

as for the tbi itself just do the ultimate tbi mods to it. big block one isnt necesary until yourpushing alot more hp. make sure your cam will fit what your wiling to do to the trans too otherwise your truck wont be happy running at all even with a tune.

 

[ccreddell]

no you dont

I guess that depends on what you think the advantages are.

 

[ccreddell]

tinbender used an lt1, not a tpi setup, overall tpi isnt as great for a truck as tbi

In his personal truck, yes, but hes done 3-4 other swaps with L31s-and they work quite well. TPI is designed to work in the 1000-5000RPM band, and it does so very well. Way better than a TBI-unless you keep the TBI heads, then theres not much difference. If you stick with the restrictive TBI heads you get great grunt-but thats about it. If you change (to almost anything else) the TPI will do way better tha TBI, but especially if you go Vortec.

 

[TylerZ281500]

are we just talking about heads or the whole injection system, tpi and vortec heads are great on a tbi i wont argue that one bit, but actually using tpi on a truck isnt all that worthwhile, both setups are around the 1-5k range,

with vortecs you can still keep tbi you just use a carb intake and an adapter, with tpi heads use a carb intake with adapter for the tbi

theres alot of abilitys the tbi can have, most dont care to look into it at all and either carb swap it or buy a vortec truck due to laziness.

dont understand your statement that tpi is better in the 1-5lk range and its way better than tbi unless you keep the tbi heads, the heads are junk, literally almost anything you put on a tbi truck is better than stock tbi heads.

as for cams, melling makes a nice one, ive run both an lt1 and lt4 cam in a tbi as well as a 421/444 as well as a 460/488 cam on a tbi truck, they can handle alot of things with a proper tune and some datalogging.

 

[Mdauch]

My 700r4 was built for 550 horsepower, I'm fine there. My exhaust is Hedman headers with dual glass packs. And I'm just going by the guide for fuel pressure on tbichips.com