TBI Horsepower/Add on Advice

[chris]

Hi,
So i'm thinking about doing some upgrading to the tbi over the next few months. Just wondering really how much power I could gain with some heads, intake, possibly a cam? Or if anyone has suggestions on some stuff to throw into it. I was already planning on getting a chip for it regardless and have talked to eagle mark about it a little. It is a Goodwrench 350 TBI, with an open air intake and some shorty headers and it has about 65,000 miles on it. Other than that, i would say its just about stock. The trans is a 4l60e i believe and has around 25,000 ish miles, i'm assuming it would be able to hold a few extra horses. Any help would be great.
Thanks, Chris

[dave w]

It usually comes down to budget. A cold air intake, and headers are good upgrades for the money. A "Tuned" chip will make a huge difference in performance!

dave w

[chris]

Alright, yeah i'm floating between actually putting this stuff on my current engine or picking up a junkyard motor in good shape for a few hundred bucks that way i can work on it through the winter. My budget will probably be around $2000-$2500 for the engine and tune and everything. And then i'm thinking i might end up grabbing a beefed up trans before i end up dropping it in to be safe.
Thanks, Chris

[dave w]

The budget seems more than adequate to make some decent performance, depending on how much work your going to do yourself. Some of the parts your thinking of installing, cold air and other bolt on parts, could be installed on the current engine then installed on the replacement engine.

My own personal experience for a budget built performance engine was to use the short block assembly form a 1996 ~ 2000 Vortec 350 engine complete with a factory roller cam setup, using rebuilt TBI heads. Vortec heads will improve performance, but add cost. The roller cam setup from a Vortec 350 is money well spent for performance! The roller cam setup from the Vortec 350 works great with a TBI system, once the chip is correctly "Tuned"!

dave w

[chris]

Okay. I'll be doing all of the work myself, except for any machining that will need to be done on the heads. So how much horse power, roughly, would that setup be able to do? Going with machined vortec heads and stock cam setup. Would going with an aftermarket mild cam and lifters be to hard to tune with tbi, or would that be do-able?
Thanks for the info dave ,Chris

[dave w]

If your an experienced "Chip Tuner" most any RV type camshaft that is computer firendly can be used. If you need help from someone to "Tune" the chip, then a stock or nearly stock cam is the "BEST" choice. The stock Vortec roller camshaft will make about 275 flywheel HP with a TBI heads and about 300 flywheel HP with Vortec heads. If you decide to use a stock Vortec roller camshaft with TBI heads or machined Vortec heads, an experienced "Chip Tuner" is usually required to get the engine to run correctly!

dave w

[chris]

Awesome, thanks for the help. I have a better idea now of what i'm going to be buying/doing then over the next few months.
Thanks again, Chris