Would appreciate some insight here from some board members...Have a 350 build going with a pretty aggressive cam and vortec heads on a late 60s 350 block. I was intending to go carb and perhaps swap in a 3rd gen f-body. In terms of smog, will I be pretty screwed if I go that route in terms of smog?
Wouldnt it be ok in an 82-85 (?) when they had the option for the carb? Or is it still a no because it was a computer controlled carb? Didn't 82/82 have the optional standard carb engine?
There's no way you will be allowed to bring in a Canadian car, or one from any other country, without converting it to Federal emissions standards, at least. So that idea is out.
Using a 60's block is out because the dipstick on 80's cars is on the passenger side, and earlier blocks have it on the driver's side. But that's been known to slip by the tech. However, if you have a carb setup, it must be a computer controlled carb like a LG4 or L69 setup with a quadrajet. No holley carb is going to get passed the visual inspection.
You can convert any 82-87 f-body to LG4/L69 carb, but there would be no point in changing an 85-87 TPI to carb. That would be good for an 82-83 CFI car.
Having bought an original 1987 T/A with a carb motor, you don't want a smog legal carb under any circumstances! The amount of extraneous plumbing that Don and I pulled off that thing to convert it to tpi was crazy. I went by the original owner's house to show her what I had done to the car after the conversion and paint. She said the best mileage she had ever gotten out of the carb motor was 13 mpg, and around town she got 8-9 mpg. In addition to bad mileage, you also get impossible driveability. I can't understand why anyopne would ever want to go back to a carb after trying efi!
