Hey all, I have been searching for my first car, a Camaro ever since June. I made the search down to two cars today. But today I called and guess what, one car is sold. The car sold was a 91 RS 305. Now the other car I have left is an 87 Z28, its auto, 305, 100k miles, but one thing its Carbureted!

Growing up I have been told carburetors are terrible to todays fuel injection. You have to keep fiddling with it, just to tune it right. I personally don't want to keep tuning it constantly. Oh yeah, also I heard you have to "pre-warm the car" so the carb can work right. I don't want to turn the car on earlier then it should. I just want to turn it on and go.

But I also heard you can "dump" fuel into the carb to give you great acceleration and be able to peel out. I'm really confused with these carburetors, I really need someone to enlighten me. I need someone to convince me that carbs are not bad, and they're are actually better. But I don't know, please try to convince me that carburetors are underrated. And if ya could tell me the goods and bads of them, that would be most helpful.

All opinions, help, advice, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tom

 

Carbs aren't underrated at all infact, I believe that lots of people will agree they are the way to go. I don't know who told you that you gotta keep fiddling with the carb, because that is entirely untrue. First off if the carb is stock on the car ('87 is the last year of carbs) then its computer controlled and as long as the computer is in check it will run great... you will get slightly worse mileage (2-4 MPG less) but you will be better able to make mods to your car and to trouble shoot... all in all you will have a much easier car to understand. Carbs should give you the most power in N/A engines, because (correct me if I'm wrong) the engine will take in the maximum ammount of fuel it can (leading to the "inefficiency") at the second you want it to.

FI cars need to do some thinking to feed the engine and that is on a preprogrammed schedule of delivery made to the spec of the manufacturer not the consumer.

There is nothing at all wrong with Carbs, so don't let people scare you away, how well the car has been taken care of is what really matters.

Edit: The carb does need to warm up a little when the engine is cold, but you can drive as soon as you get in... just don't go racing around 'til it gets up to operating temp... The choke should help it warm up faster though.

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1984 Firebird - Daily driver, 305 LG4, T5 - Hurst short shifter, Edelbrock 600 CFM Performer Carb + Intake - Edelbrock Pro-Flow air filter, gutted cat, IROC 16x8 Wheels, AIWA bargain basement (from Sears of course) CD player, Eight-ball shift ****
Check out my ride here - My $1300 Toy

"IT'S SNOWING! TO THE HIGH SCHOOL PARKING LOT!" - The Mustang and Firebird face off in the dead of winter.

[This message has been edited by ChillPhatCat (edited October 15, 2001).]

 

I've been driving my '86 LG4 305 q-jet 4bbl for two years now, started with 123k, now has 143k. The sum total I've done to "fix" or "adjust", in other words, all of the "fiddling" I've done with it is




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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R4. 2.93 limited slip. 2-1/2" cat-back, ZZ3 intake, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 CC system w/'87 LB9 block, ZZ3 cam, ported World 305 heads, Hooker 2055 headers, 3" Catco cat & 3" catback, restalled TC, Spohn SFCs).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. '66 396, 9.7 CR forged TRWs, Weiand Action+, Holley 750VS w/4150 conversion, GK 270 cam, Magnum rockers, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" Hedders & 3" Warlocks, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & Trans-Scat shift kit, MegaShifter, 3.08 8.2" 10-bolt w/Powertrax, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Idles smooth @ 600 RPM in D. Best 15.02/95.06 @ 5800' Bandimere (corrected 13.93/102.4 @ sea level).

 

FWIW, Chevy High Performance has been doing a series called "My Generation Camaro", taking an '87 LG4 with auto, 2.73 open rear, and building it up (emissions-legal). If you follow their path, you'll have a decent performing ride when you get finished.

 

thing I like the most with carbs is that with a pair of screw drivers, you can tune it on the fly...well almost...FI, unless you run after market systems, you can't tune it on the fly...gotta burn chips etc...alot of parameters are involved...the carb, take out of the box, slap it on, you are good to go (on average). Either way, both systems will require fine tuning for best operation and perf. I just think the carb is easier and cheaper to tune...