Yeah I've heard about everything when it comes to the induction on any TPI car. Whats a better set up Mini-Ram or a Moded TPI set up

 

A mini ram is going to make alot more top end power than any TPI with every possible mod. You will lose some low end torque but it more than makes up for it with the top end gain. If you want your car to look stock keep the TPI and mod it, if not just get a mini ram or you can run an LT1 intake there is a company that modifies them to work with a SBC.

 

We shall see. The worst flowing port on my stock First TPI intake manifold is 301 cfm and that is about to change. What does the Miniram flow?

You can also tune a modded TPI to pick up the 3rd harmonic induction wave. That is what I have done so it is still "tuned port" but to the 3rd wave. The stock TPI unit is tuned for the 2nd harmonic wave and that is why it starts to peter out above 4500rpm.

I believe the runners are to short on the Mini Ram to pick up the 3rd wave unless you wind it to the moon.

 

miniram or bust!

 

I am also going to be running a fairly ported TPI setup, and I am interested to get the dyno and see how it breathes. 89GTA, can you tell me more about the harmonic waves, or point me in the direction. That's interesting stuff

Will

 

dirty,

The mini ram is a nice mani but there are some things to keep in mind to have this mani running to its potential. They are the following;

First you must upgrade the cam to something like the zz409 (atleast). Anything smaller and it just seems like there is something missing. For example I was running a 1204 mini on my 350 with the 219 219 560 560 112 cam and a set of trickflows 180cc and it just seemed like it didn't have any mid range let alone low end. I do have to say it did spin freely to the mid to upper 6k with no worries.

Secondly is tuning. With our l98 s fire all at once and this does not work well with this type of manifold. It needs what the LT1 has with is sequential fire. There also was a member here who addressed the split blm issue by drilling in some air piping from the underneath of the plenum.

Third is you will not pass smog with this mani what so ever. No egr provision is the killer.

Im sure there is more that people would like to pile on but I do have to say it does breath nicely at the cost of low end which can be made up by gearing correctly. So at the price of doing all of this you can do some serious mods to your tpi or first injection to breath up top as well as retaining your low end torque. Just like what 1989 said you can really get that tpi humming if you just do some research on opening up that tpi properly.


Rabi C.

 

if you plan to keep it stock internally, then full bolt on TPI may make just as much power as the miniram, but TPI will have more torque so the car should be faster.

mild cams and heads setups, a properly ported TPI setup will be nice to have on the street with its peaky midrange torque curve.

for more wild street setups, mini ram is the way to go. it flows more and has more potential to make power than TPI as described above in other posts.

It all comes down to what you want the car to do.

 

In doing a lil search, I found the following. So far it is a very interesting read, albeit, a highly technical read.

http://speedtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1163

Check it out for yourselves.

 

Cat59, that is the exact thread I was going to cut and paste. There are formulas on the 3rd page of the thread that are interesting.

 

if i keep my TPI set up where do i take the penulm to get ported or can i go to a local machince shop and how much does this usually cost
or should i take the route of buy and new and if new what type of runners flow the best

 

Do a quick search and it should give you a couple of reputable websites of people who do this. I know Lingenfelter used to do very good work in the past, I have the proof, but I do not know if they still take TPI for porting. Seems they have little interest in the L98/LT1 market anymore.

Will

 

We had same combo above, Mini, LPE219 Cam and TF heads. Best dyno to date is 366RWHP and 381 TQ

If I had to do it again with the mini, I would choose a new XFI Cam or the LE2 Cam from Lloyd Elliot