Author Topic: The Bear  (Read 23653 times)

Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #15 on: April 14, 2016, 10:58:23 PM »
This is a great project.
I'm a huge fan of TPI motors, especially in 73-87's.
How did you get your TPI intake so clean? Was it bead blasted?
I always thought that the stock runners could not be powder coated because they have epoxy joints.  I could be wrong on this
I could never figure out how so many runners get dented.  I assume  its from people using chain to pull motors out of the cars.  It looks like you used the balls you can buy on ebay to remove the dents, how did they work?
  What are you going to use for a wiring harness & computer? Are you going aftermarket or using GM parts.
I'll be keeping an eye on this build.
Thanks fitz! I've been torching on these things all night. They're definitely not held together by epoxy. Lol.They are welded. I guess people don't know how to be careful with fragile parts. But you can't hardly find a set that doesn't have dents. The guy I bought them off of had them blasted for unknown reasons to me. The kit worked pretty good aside from the alignment issue. The reviews for the kit were really good but not one mention of this complication. I've got a guy with a harness and ecm out of a formula. He's supplying me with those and the rest of the serpentine  setup. As far as parts... which parts are you asking about? All I've thought about so far are the injectors. Planning on using 24# LT1 injectors.
I used to have a 91 Camaro, it was RPO code B4C police model. It was a traffic enforcement/pursuit car for the police department in the town I grew up in, my mom drove it as a traffic officer for the same department. It was a Z28, RS body kit, 4 wheel disc brakes, 4L60, and TPI 350. That car hauled aces. That thing was stupid fast. It was a great car. We bought shortly after the department retired it. Had it for about 8 years or so after. I drove it for about 6 months while I was putting an engine in my truck. That car was a lot of fun.
That's the goal LTZ, to haul aces!! And with the upgrade cam and heads on this she should move at a pretty good click for a 4wd.

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« Last Edit: April 14, 2016, 11:00:45 PM by XrayTedd »
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Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2016, 11:04:58 PM »
After a few beers and several heat cycles I was able to realign everything.
And just to reassure things I assembled the three and did a couple cycles on the whole unit.

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Offline LTZ C20

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #17 on: April 15, 2016, 12:38:00 AM »
Looks good. What color will it be coated? I'm guessing aluminum gray or black or did you have a more colorful option in mind?

I have a Vortec block with upgrades, good torque producing cam, aluminum heads and a completely factory big block TBI and the system all together works great. Producing well over 400 ft lbs for my C20 to use as needed. The technology might be old but it was once new and ground breaking and high tech and still works. I can't complain.
LTZ Cheyenne C20

Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #18 on: April 15, 2016, 09:08:55 AM »
Looks good. What color will it be coated? I'm guessing aluminum gray or black or did you have a more colorful option in mind?

I have a Vortec block with upgrades, good torque producing cam, aluminum heads and a completely factory big block TBI and the system all together works great. Producing well over 400 ft lbs for my C20 to use as needed. The technology might be old but it was once new and ground breaking and high tech and still works. I can't complain.
I'm doing a chrome coat on the lower intake and the runners and plenum will be bright red. I'll be painting the throttle body black.

Ran my setup on my desktop dyno. According to it I'll be making 375 tq @ 2000 rpm and a peak hp of 325 @ 4500 rpm

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Offline LTZ C20

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #19 on: April 15, 2016, 09:26:18 AM »
That should look nice. My truck makes about 365-375 hp tops @ about 4500 and 425-435 tq @ 2500-3000.
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Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #20 on: May 17, 2016, 09:47:35 AM »
Got my intake back from powder coat. Then I started tapping up the throttle body and painting it. Finished up some final details and now it's ready for "show and tell".


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Offline LTZ C20

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #21 on: May 17, 2016, 10:53:21 AM »
That looks very nice.
LTZ Cheyenne C20

Offline fitz

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #22 on: May 18, 2016, 05:27:10 AM »
Thats a great looking TPI set up.
What did the powder coating cost?

Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #23 on: May 18, 2016, 08:15:28 AM »
Thats a great looking TPI set up.
What did the powder coating cost?
It cost me about $30 in shipping. $15 there and $15 back. I had went and pulled some parts for a guy on my other forum. So instead of paying each other, we basically did a labor swap. I couldn't be happier with the turn out. It looks way better than the pic can show.


Thanks guys!

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Offline jjdruffel

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #24 on: May 20, 2016, 10:45:33 AM »
I have a pair of headers I dented in a wreck and I want to pull the dents out, I was wondering how you pulled the dents out of your tpi runners.

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Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #25 on: May 20, 2016, 08:34:51 PM »
I have a pair of headers I dented in a wreck and I want to pull the dents out, I was wondering how you pulled the dents out of your tpi runners.

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I used a kit that I got off FleaBay. It's a series of balls that you basically pound through them. The runners are aluminum so I'm not sure how well it would work on steel.

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Offline jjdruffel

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #26 on: May 21, 2016, 03:22:57 AM »
Thanks! I'll find some large ball bearings and give it a go.  They are useless dented, so I'm not going to lose anything by trying.  I like the idea, I was going to resort to a spot welded rod and a slide hammer.

Offline fitz

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #27 on: May 23, 2016, 05:40:38 AM »
That powder coating job came out great.
I'm looking forward to seeing this motor up & running.

Offline XrayTedd

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #28 on: June 14, 2016, 09:39:51 PM »
I received my corvette valve covers that I won on the cheap off FleaBay. Placed the minimum bet of $40 and that was the only bet placed on this auction. I guess I scared all the others away with my "high roller" bet... here's the purchased merchandise. Got a little work to do on them.
First up was removing the hunters safety orange paint. For this I thought I'd try my hand at some aircraft stripper. First time using this product, and dang this stuff ain't no joke!! I have to say it scares me a little.

After they were stripped I looked them over real good. There was some pitting in the metal. Nothing a little bondo couldn't fix.
Then it was time to paint and detail. First I laid the primer, then a base coat of red. While the red set to cure I started striping the intake plenum. My best option for this was using pin striping.
After doing all that work under the radar and trying not to spoil the end product with early pictures for you guys. Today I go to lay the final coats down and had nothing but troubles. It was way too humid to be doing any painting. It screwed everything up and now I have to strip it all off and start over!!! It was not a good day for me. I was very pissed off. So much so that my wonderful lady bought me a cheesecake chimichanga at dinner tonight to cheer me up. (I'm thinking I should have mishaps more often.) Well it's not my best work by any means but I did finish it out just so I could get you guys some sloppy pics of what the end idea will look like.

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Offline LTZ C20

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Re: The Bear
« Reply #29 on: June 14, 2016, 10:25:28 PM »
It all looks really nice. It's an interesting idea, using red and black with opposite color stripes. I also just noticed that the heads are black and the block is red but the intake is bare aluminum (possibly silver paint). My I ask, why red and black? I'm just curious, it does look nice.
LTZ Cheyenne C20