Low buck TBI truck Cams

[dannyboy0225]

What power level are you looking for?


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[Erik the Awful]

Trying to stay under $2k?

If it were me, I'd hit the local Pull-A-Part with a wire brush, a magnifying glass, straight edge, and a dial caliper. Try to find a set of clean, straight heads with no cracks. Rebuild 'em yourself, but be sure and replace the valvesprings. Get a cheap stock crank with good, stock journals. There's no shame in running a stock-stroke 350.

Use a brand name rebuild kit and bearings from RockAuto/eBay/whatever.

If you have the provisions for a roller cam, roller cam it. You're insisting on Comp Cams? Fair enough. Call 'em and tell 'em about your heads and induction setup and they'll get you the best cam.

You'd be at about $500 with a fresh motor and a nice power increase. If you decide to use Vortec heads, budget about $300 more for a Summit intake with a TBI adapter.

 

[66NovaSS]

What power level are you looking for?


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Trying to stay under $2k?

If it were me, I'd hit the local Pull-A-Part with a wire brush, a magnifying glass, straight edge, and a dial caliper. Try to find a set of clean, straight heads with no cracks. Rebuild 'em yourself, but be sure and replace the valvesprings. Get a cheap stock crank with good, stock journals. There's no shame in running a stock-stroke 350.

Use a brand name rebuild kit and bearings from RockAuto/eBay/whatever.

If you have the provisions for a roller cam, roller cam it. You're insisting on Comp Cams? Fair enough. Call 'em and tell 'em about your heads and induction setup and they'll get you the best cam.

You'd be at about $500 with a fresh motor and a nice power increase. If you decide to use Vortec heads, budget about $300 more for a Summit intake with a TBI adapter.

Going for as much power as we can squeeze out of this motor as possible, sending the heads of to get cleaned and magnafluxed to determine if their any good, after that same with block, (looked really good though) after testing all rough edges/ oil galleys/ coolant passages are going to be opened up, the block does have the provision for the roller cam so most likely going to take that route, aswell diecided to scrap the TBI idea at this point its more " after head work biggest possible cam to run on 193/TBI heads" Looking into ordering just a summit/jegs new forged crank.


The entire idea of this build is we want as much as possible go for as little as possible dough and do 80% D.I.Y

And i mean porting block galleys, hand port heads, having a local guy who used to run a performance shop in Bakersfield CA but moved back home to KS do a valve job on them. Like i said earlier we still have alot of other areas of the truck to attend to its been off the road since 2016 so financially CANNOT throw ton of money at the motor and not have a good platform

 

[Schurkey]

" after head work biggest possible cam to run on 193/TBI heads"

First two mistakes. 1. "Biggest possible" cams don't make usable power in a heavy vehicle.

2. Every dime you drop on TBI heads is money you'll never get back. For the dough you're wasting on those heads, you could get Vortec heads and be WAY farther "ahead".

Looking into ordering just a summit/jegs new forged crank.

More wasted money. Nothing wrong with the OEM cast crank for your application.

The entire idea of this build is we want as much as possible go for as little as possible dough and do 80% D.I.Y

And i mean porting block galleys,

Wasted effort.

hand port heads, having a local guy who used to run a performance shop in Bakersfield CA but moved back home to KS do a valve job on them.

Wasted effort on TBI heads.

 

[66NovaSS]

First two mistakes. 1. "Biggest possible" cams don't make usable power in a heavy vehicle.

2. Every dime you drop on TBI heads is money you'll never get back. For the dough you're wasting on those heads, you could get Vortec heads and be WAY farther "ahead".


More wasted money. Nothing wrong with the OEM cast crank for your application.



Wasted effort.


Wasted effort on TBI heads.

TBI heads are are literally called "Swirl-Port" The Swirl the air like small tornadoes and make GREAT bottom-end torque

technically they are first gen Vortecs, the term "Vortec" is just a ad/marketing ploy used by GM to promote the new head Redesign, try finding a non-cracked pair of "96-up "Vortecs"" then porting them they will crack in due time they are great out of the box and that is IT.



Next time ad somethimg more constructive other than " junk, trash, waste of time/money."


This is meant to be done with STOCK everything, minus the toast crank in this exception because well its JUNK mains bearings are toast if you would have watched the video i clearly left in previous message.

 

[66NovaSS]

First two mistakes. 1. "Biggest possible" cams don't make usable power in a heavy vehicle.

2. Every dime you drop on TBI heads is money you'll never get back. For the dough you're wasting on those heads, you could get Vortec heads and be WAY farther "ahead".


More wasted money. Nothing wrong with the OEM cast crank for your application.



Wasted effort.


Wasted effort on TBI heads.

And as to this, of course you arent gonna get your money back out from doing anything performance especially non-competition racing like i do. Seems like you suggesting i should pay someone else to do all of this and get high-dollar aftermarket parts when ive already stated hell its in the dam title "LOW-BUCK" Sorry but i dont have access to Dad and Mom's CC

 

[dannyboy0225]

You might wanna add high flow oil pump and an oil pan that holds more oil. Windage tray should also help keep the going longer. Are you trying drag race, road race? It will help to figure out parts to suggest.


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[Supercharged111]

You might wanna add high flow oil pump and an oil pan that holds more oil. Windage tray should also help keep the going longer. Are you trying drag race, road race? It will help to figure out parts to suggest.


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I road race with a stock oil pump and stock oil pan in my LT1 Camaro. OP is not gonna be road racing, so wasted money. I'd do Vortec heads and a stock crank all day. I have 3 spare Vortec heads in the garage and I'm pretty sure I got them all for free. They're old and cheap and easy to spot where they usually crack between the valves. I'd be out what, $30 to have them checked? Bang for the buck they'll CRUSH the old swirl ports. Past 1000 RPM they won't make more torque than a Vortec head, but it's your money and it's clear your mind is made up.

 

[JCribb]

I gave $100 for my current Vortec heads and I had them checked out, they’ve been in use for four years next month. Between these heads and the horrendously expensive vortec/tbi intake with the rest of my mods, I’m happy how my build turned out.

Did I overspend on several areas? Absolutely.

Did I make purchases that could have been cheaper for other pieces?
Yup.

Did I learn a lot along the way, and know how to do it better next time?
For sure without a doubt.

 

[Erik the Awful]

TBI heads are are literally called "Swirl-Port" The Swirl the air like small tornadoes and make GREAT bottom-end torque...

This is meant to be done with STOCK everything, minus the toast crank in this exception because well its JUNK mains bearings are toast if you would have watched the video i clearly left in previous message.

When a manufacturer says something "Makes GREAT bottom-end torque", it usually means it doesn't flow worth a crap. I gave away the set of TBI heads I had. I don't have a flow bench, but reputable head builders have said they are near bottom of the barrel for flow and not worth porting. There's a reason the Vortec heads were the hottest thing ever when they came out. They flow far better than ANY head before. They outflow the camel humps! If it weren't for the cracking problem, they'd have the best reputation of any GM head, ever. They just don't tolerate overheating. Keep 'em cool and you'll be fine. I understand if you don't want to make the switch to Vortec heads and intake. If that's the case, please, please, find somebody's good condition ex-circle track heads or some TPI heads. Or stick with your TBIs. It's your motor.

I don't believe anybody said to keep your trashed crank. We said to buy another stock crank in good condition from a pull-it-yourself yard. Buy a stroker crank and you're immediately in for a $200 set of raised-pin pistons on top of the crank's $300 price. That's $500 compared to the $30 my local yard charges for a crank. I had the same choice on my motor.

A longer stroke combined with "bottom-end torque" heads sounds like a good combo, but if you're building a performance motor, horsepower from 4000-6000 rpm will beat torque from 2000-4000 rpm every day of the week. If you're towing use the TBIs and build for torque. Just don't expect to race and win.

You're asking for advice, we're just giving you the best of what we know. Please don't take it like we're throwing stones.