N8Miller

StylnCamaro was talking to me about switching his stock TPI unit over for a carb motor.
i got to thinking....how much would it take to tear that TPI motor and carb unit installed? He would sell the TPI unit to make money off it, and use that toward motor. He can get some Vortec heads/matchin RPM intake for cheap from my cousin, but how much more would he have to swap?
Fuel pump?
Distributor?
what to do with TPI unit?

any help would help
thanks

Davidgou

iTrader: (2)

I have an 81 Camaro with a 350, dual feed, double pumper 600 Holley carb, and also the car on the signature below. I like them both, but I would never switch from TPI to carb in I can prevent it, it's so much better (the TPI I mean)!!! But, that wasn't your question, yes, he would have to replace the intake manifold, the heads are not necessary to replace, but you need a special intake manifold for the right angle of the center bolts, the distribuitor has to go including the shaft that moves the oil pump, and on top of all that, they're some issues about sensors, radiator fans, tranny and converter lock up, etc, etc, etc, to deal with. Like I said, I wouln't do it, unless I had no other option. You can check in the carbs and tpis tech boards to find more info on this. Good luck!
PS. Forgot to mention the fuel pump puts too much pressure for a carb so you would need a special fuel regulator or even another fuel pump maybe, not sure.

Joshua Leslie

I did a TBI to Carb. swap, but its pretty much the same.

you will need:

HEI distributor and possibly oil pump drive shaft(I bought an older engine block, so I dont know)

proper intake manifold

carbeurator

rig up a lock TC switch, or just leave it be, it wont hurt anyting, however, its about 20 minutes to rig a lock up, check the tech. articles.

sensors: you will most likely need an aftemarket mechanical gauge, I couldnt get a sending unit to clear the HEI unit.
the coolant sensor and tach. shoud work with no problem, however, I used an older style coolant temp.sensor, and it bolts into the head, but the wire still hooks up.

Fuel pump: either a 3 port regulator, or an aftermarket electric like the Holey red. I used the Holley red, didnt remove the intank pump, I have no problems. Others on this board may say that it wont work, mine does.

The fan may not kick on, I dont know, mine didnt work before I did the swap, I rigged up a toggle switch.


its a fairly straigtforward swap.

on a side note, if I had TPI, I would have left it on there.

RedFirebird

Why would you switch from tpi to carb? For the amount of money and time you'd spend going from tpi to carb you could modify the existing tpi system to more than suit you needs, without throwing gas mileage and driveability out the window, not to mention saving yourself a big hack-job.

StylnCamaro

b/c TPI I would need computer work eventually for what type of motor I want to build(400hp for now)and with carb, sky is the limit. See i don't want to have to deal with trying to find someone to do the comp work especially in this area b/c ask N8Miller the area I live in is dead, plus even if we did find someone to do the comp work, they would deff rape me on it. So I'm thinking about long run too. Besides how much can the stock computer hold in hp and torque wise(if torque makes a diff)B/c I was told anything over 400-450 I'm gonna need comp work for the car to run right. Or what would a chip be costing me for a motor like that?

StylnCamaro

or do you think a stage 5 custom chip from TPIS would do the trick? B/c it'll be a 383 all bored out, valves, heads, ect just about everything maxed out

86IROCNJ

fastchip.com aka Ed Wright $350 for a custom chip for anything you can dream up i would imagine! That should be the only real "computer work" you would need, is to swap out the chips. Besides tuning that is! Hope it helps with your decision.

TomP

You can probably score all the stuff needed to burn your own proms for that price- besides buying a cheap $100 laptop off ebay. And once you buy the equipment, you can just buy a bag of chips and keep burning & burning & burning until you get a program you like. Read thru the messages on the PROM board; the guys over there have already done the hard work for us (figuring out the chip's programming)- it's just left to us to tune what they found out.

gruveb

I was thinking the same thing. I had a post a while back, thinking of going from carb to TPI. When it boils down to it, the grass is always greener on the other side.

They both have their benefits and tendencies, but for daily driving, I'd definitely stick with TPI!