illegal87

I am considering rebuilding a vortec 350 to replace my 87' Lb9. TPI. I still am going to use the TPI. Anything that is differant than a standard 350 swap here? Ex. 1pc vrs 2pc rear main. Manifold, intake and ex.? Help, in a hurry. Motor is going fast and not in a good way.
Thanx,
Ray

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The TPI will not mount properly to the Vortec heads due to port mismatch. To date, no Vortec TPI manifold has been sighted.

Otherwise, you're good to go...

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R. 2.93 limited slip. Cat-back from '91 GTA, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 w/LB9 block, ZZ3 cam and intake, WP 305 heads ported & polished, Hooker headers & y-pipe, 3" Catco cat).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. 0.030 over 396, Weiand Action+, Edelbrock 1901 Q-Jet, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" headers, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & Trans-Scat shift kit, 3.08 8.2" 10-bolt w/Powertrax, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Best 15.1 @ 5800' Bandimere. Daily driver while Camaro was being put together.

OBE

I don't agree with the 57kid... sorry.
The ports on the Vortec heads are not different, but the intake manifold bolt holes are different. In the Chevy Performance catalog it is printed that you can drill and tap (new bolt holes) your vortecs for the old style bolt pattern using an old intake gasket as a template... I am currently doing a similar swap.

Rig

You WILL need a Vortec intake. GM hasn't released it yet, but the TPI-Vortec intake is due out any time.
Asode from the bolt holes, the intake runners are raised on the L98 heads, making it nearly impossible to match the old intake. Try it for yourself; you will see the upper runners peeking over the edge of the intake.
Why mess around when you went through all this work to put the new engine in?
If I were you, bolt the old heads and intake on until the new GM manifold becomes available, or wait.

R.

RyanSS

I have a friend who dropped a vortec 350 into his 88 tbi firebird. he did nothing else to the motor, only put it in. It ran in the 13's. Too bad it was totaled. it would burn out forever. I did a huge burnout and managed to hit the only sign within a mile. (i'm not the one that totaled it.) any just me two cents.

Mark W. Winning

The intake ports on the Vortecs are different. The are higher on the head than a stock Chevy head. This is why you have a gasket seal problem, when trying to make a normal intake fit a Vortec head.

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1992 Pontiac Firebird 350/Six Speed
1987 Toyota Pickup 383/500+ HP

JoelOl75

The vortec intake holes are wayyyyy different. Very tall and shaped different (in length and width). Too much for a stock intake to be ported to without building up alm. weld and reporting it.

Good idea if you have a friend that welds aluminum and you know how to do simple porting.

Jaysz28

iTrader: (30)

Alright, the vortec heads are different. Cool thing is that Scoggin' Dickey Chevrolet out of Texas has a base that will work on the vortec heads for our TPI units. It was in the latest issue of Chevy High Performance. Also Edelbrock is working on this too. Won't be too much longer before everyone will have one. Look up Scoggin Dickey Chevrolet in any GM type performance mag....

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-Jason
"Get this, no man with a good car needs to be justified."