L82 Mini Stock motor questions

[DafnieLDG]

Hello! I race a Beretta in my local Mini Stock class. For this season the race club has relaxed some rules related to our engines. I have done a fair amount of searching around this site, so this post is about clarifying what I have learned and getting answers to questions that are not usually fielded (because there are typically more effective solutions than what I can apply)

The current engine is a rebuilt LHO. One of the rules changes was increasing the max advertised HP from 150 to 160. My first option is to swap this out for an L82. What makes this swap difficult is access to an engine lift, as well as getting the motor out of my local pick and pull. They no longer use the front-end loader to remove an engine from a chassis and load it into your truck, so it becomes a lot of work few are willing to help me with.

The other option I am considering is the head/manifold swap. It is easier for me to pull some 3400 heads, but the rules force me to use the L82 intake manifolds. I can remove the EGR.

So my questions are...

Will the L82 manifolds bolt up to the 3400 heads?

Are 3400 head gaskets .045 thick compared to 0.060 for the LHO? What kind of C/R improvement can I expect?

Is there a worth while benefit to converting from SFI to MPFI?

Does anyone have other suggestions for me?

With all this I am permitted to have the chip tuned. WOT Tech seems to be the choice.

I appreciate any help.

[LeftVentricle]

The L82 lower intake should bolt on to the LA1 heads. I'm pretty sure the bolt holes are in the same locations.

You would need a cam position sensor and a computer set up to accept that wiring in order to convert to SFI, I believe. I don't know that the LH0 block can even accept a cam sensor. You'd have to use an L82 block, most likely. I think one year of Cutlass Supreme had an OBD1 computer with an L82 (1993), but it was something of a rare option, and also had an electronic transmission, which may add some difficulties to tuning. It would probably be easier to just keep running the engine MFI.

[DafnieLDG]

Thanks for the reply.

It doesn't seem switching fuel injection units is worth the effort. I prefer simplicty of what I have.