Hey guys i have a few questions of which motor i should go with? I have a '87 iroc-z and its got a 305 and i was wondering should i put a 350 built with a 150 shout nitrious or should i build a 383 stroker built strong or a 400 small block. And does anyone know what those cost and if i could put my TPI set up on the 400?
Thanks for all the help anything can help at this point!

 

I like the 400 myself.But a 350 would be cheaper.

 

Pricewise you're looking at anywhere from $3000 to $6000 or more.

HP wise, yes you can use your stock TPI intake, with larger injectors. Expect to be about 100 HP less and 100 TQ more than a higher flowing better intake.

 

if your cost minded go with a nice rebuilt 350 or even possibly a crate motor. but if your going to use nitrous you had better use forged internals if you want any reliability.

383 is alot of $$$$

the fastburn 385 is a crate motor that you can pick up for under 4,000 that will give you forged internals and a good amount of power...you could use a tpi intake, but it would do just what was mentioned.

save a little less money and you could get a ZZ4, essentially the same as the fastburn 385 minus some aluminum and forged parts....but that is almost a grand less.

or you can go custom build which will cost more than the two combined.

eitherway your looking at at least 3,000 just to get into the game and probably 8,000 tops to have an extremely impressive setup....name your price and find your medium.

 

I talked to a machine shop and they said theyll port my tpi set-up for $300. id like to build a custom engine. i found a 383 kit for like $350, does that sound wrong to you guys? i want this car to run low 12's or high 11's if possible do you think those engine combos will work? and does anyone know where i could get a copy of desktop dyno free? thanks for all the help.

 

If you are going to be happy with running low twelves or high elevens you are not going to need to spend much money. I would suggest picking up a cheap 350 one piece seal engine then:

Prep the block
prep the crank
check the rods and fit with ARP bolts
Attach a cheaper forged piston such as the TRW's
Call comp cams and tell them your planned engine combo
if you have the money throw on some aftermarket heads, if you don't rebuild the stock ones
ditch the stock tpi and throw on a stealth ram with the stock throttlebody and some 24# injectors.
And finally plumb in a 150 shot of the good stuff.
With a good aftermarket head and assuming you had traction you would have to be a pretty bad driver not to run mid eleven's. With the stock heads I would say you should be somewere in the twelves. I really would not suggest using a forged crank or rods until you get over 500 horse. While I don't suggest doing this there is a guy on the board who has run high nines on a stock crank and rods with only an ARP bolt upgrade and forged TRW's. That was with something like a 300 horse shot though, but it still took the hits. You could build an engine using the above parts for way less than a crate engine and have better performance. Good luck.