Im not sugesting at all you go to a carb remember TPI does not represent a fuel injection motor in our cars it represents the setup where they have the stock upper plenum, runners, and intake manifold. Go with the holley stealth ram, get a descent set of heads ported and a matching cam should be able to do all of that for a couple g's no problem. And then you will have a efi iroc that beats the crap out of those idiots. Also remember if you are running into the low 12's youre going to need to seriously beef up/replace the stock tranny/rear end....thats the worst part of modding our cars is there is so many weak points....youre also going to need a set of sfc's to make sure you dont bend the chassis....and some rear suspension mods or youll never hook. The discouraging part of our cars has nothing to do with the engine it has to do with everything else.

 

Stick with AFR or the LPE Ported Vette heads. I would not even use TF heads for a boat anchor if they gave them to me

 

As said before, stealth ram and some good heads are the way to go. You should definetly invest in some headers and possibly a good stall.

You could do it with the tpi but it would cost much.

 

Since you don't plan to drive it much, or at least very far, i would start my removing as much weight as possible from the car. Yank the front sway bar, the rear seat, the spare tire and jack, AC and anything else you can find that you won't need. Get a good rear gear, some sticky tires and some lightweight wheels. A good stall converter will really help too.

There are stock eliminator guys going 11.40's with the stock TPI, throttle body and 305ci. Granted they have a lot of money in the drivetrain to make the most of their available power, but you can make up for some of that because you have no minimum weight to make.

Getting the chassis to work right will go a long way in getting to your goal of low 12's with the stock TPI setup. It will be quite restrictive, but as the stocker guys have found, there are ways to use it. Also, if you are going to use a hydraulic roller cam, get a custom one from MORE Performance. Hydraulic rollers usually cost $240 or more, so i would recommend spending the extra $60 and get a custom grind for your application. The extra horsepower and better design might make up for the TPI's limited airflow.

 

Horsepower is directly related to airflow, you can have the best custom-ground cam on the planet, but the engine is still going to be pulling air through 17 inches of narrow intake runner.

Just ditch the TPI noose and be done with it, youll be better off in the long run.