My friend is completing an engine swap involving a tpi 350 motor. the motor is completely rebuilt and he has fully ported heads. he has a ported plenum, ported intake base,stock tb, 2200 stall converter, open rear 3.23's (ouch), headers, exhaust, afpr, comp 1.52 rr's with 7/16's inch rocker arm studs. he has thought seriously about putting an aftermarket camshaft in this motor and trying to run mid-low 12's. what does he need in order to do this? what camshaft grind would maximize his current set-up and allow for growth in future mods. he wants something that will benefit from the tpi's long runners as well. could someone please suggest a camshaft for him??

thanks guys

thomas

 

First things first. Get some traction cause more power won't do squat if you can't hook it up.

With that said I would go with a GM ZZ4 cam with the stock intake. Also a set of headers and a good chip made for the combo would make it hit the 12's and maybe then some.

 

pulling mid to low 12's is difficult with TPI N/A. Stock runners will not cut it either. Id go with the Lt4 Hot setup I know for a fact that cam can get to the 12's be it high, also he will also have a hard time with that stall, believe it or not but 2800 will actually do good at the track with TPI and that cam.

 

he was looking at either the zz-x or the zz-9 cams. what do you guys think about these cams??

 

I think that those cams are too big for TPI and stock displacement. They have too high of an RPM range and the TPI won't be able to keep up.

The key here is to build the combo around the TPI's power range. If you don't over-gear it or take it out of its power range it should run good.

 

BTW- Whats your buddies car turning in the 1/4 as is? It should be in the high 13's I would think.

 

he hasn't finished his car yet, he is almost done and now is thinking about a cam. i told him do it now while the car is still somewhat apart. what cam would you suggest?? he wants it to lope hard so we were thinking of maybe a custom grind on a 112lsa but i don't know much about cams for tpi motors so i am not sure about what duration he should run also what lift would benifit his setup the most. changing springs is no isssue as long as the heads can stay on the car.

 

also---he plans on replacing the rear with a 12 bolt or a 9 inch in the near future. he was thinking or running either 3.42's or 3.73's with mt e/t streets on draglites.

 

You won't get a noisey cam and a TPI induction at the same time and have it work right. You will need lots of duration to make the lumpy noise, but with duration comes a higher power range. Which is not possible with a stock TPI. I would say go with a ZZ4 cam but it will require the heads to be machined and new springs installed. It will work well with the TPI and the stall converter, and will also work well with the stock 3.23 rear end. I would still have him upgrade from that one-wheel-peel though....

I happen to have a stock ZZ3 cam which is slightly smaller than the ZZ4 for sale. It will also work well with the TPI. It has 2000 miles on it and I'll take $85 shipped for it.

 

can you post the specs for those two cams (zz3-zz4) so i could compare them. would the zz3 need bigger springs or would the stockers be fine. also what kind of times/power with his mods could he make with the zz3 cam? thanks for all of you help.

thomas

 

He will need bigger springs on anything over .450 lift.

Heres a link to cam specs. Look at the notes on the sidebar and take a look at the ZZ3 specs...

http://www.malcams.com/legacy/misc/CamData.htm