Swapping carbed engine to a tpi
11-10-2016, 12:35 PM
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Swapping carbed engine to a tpi
Hey guys I'm looking at buying a 85 camaro that has a blown 305 carbed engine. I have a 305 tpi that came out of a 88 firebird. Will this drop in and bolt up? I have the wiring harness and computer as well. Anything else I would need to do the swap?
11-10-2016, 06:06 PM
#2
Re: Swapping carbed engine to a tpi
If you have the complete harness, ECM, intake, engine, etc. you should be about 90% of the way there. The carbed fuel pumps aren't adequate for TPI, so you'll be replacing the fuel pump. I'm not 100% certain, but I think you will also need a different fuel line setup from the tank to the engine - IIRC you need to run a return line back to the tank. That's covered pretty thoroughly on the forums.
Transmission: not sure if you can bolt the 88 replacement motor to the 85 tranny. The wiring harness is going to be slightly different too, so you might run into some issues with different style plugs and that sort of thing.
Accessories and accessory brackets may not swap over exactly, you should check to see if the belt routing is the same. If you have both sets of accessory brackets you can probably make something work with a little trial and error.
IIRC 88 was the first year for VATS. The 88 computer is going to be trying to read the VATS "chip" in the key, but the steering column won't have the reader or the wiring to connect to your Passkey module (hopefully you have the Passkey module from the '88, otherwise you'll need to reprogram the ECM or use a VATS bypass).
Those are the areas I can think of; someone else might know of more potential problems. In any case, that should be a good start for you to start looking into things. There's a ton of information on the forums, but unfortunately it's not going to all be in one specific place.
Good luck!
Transmission: not sure if you can bolt the 88 replacement motor to the 85 tranny. The wiring harness is going to be slightly different too, so you might run into some issues with different style plugs and that sort of thing.
Accessories and accessory brackets may not swap over exactly, you should check to see if the belt routing is the same. If you have both sets of accessory brackets you can probably make something work with a little trial and error.
IIRC 88 was the first year for VATS. The 88 computer is going to be trying to read the VATS "chip" in the key, but the steering column won't have the reader or the wiring to connect to your Passkey module (hopefully you have the Passkey module from the '88, otherwise you'll need to reprogram the ECM or use a VATS bypass).
Those are the areas I can think of; someone else might know of more potential problems. In any case, that should be a good start for you to start looking into things. There's a ton of information on the forums, but unfortunately it's not going to all be in one specific place.
Good luck!