Was it worth it changing from TPI to carb. How hard was it to tune everything. What kind of hp and TQ gain would I get out of changing a 350 TPI to carb.

Thanks for any advice.

I converted and gained 3 tenths, but those 3 tenths were probably due to the fact that my TPI was really messed up. I didn't convert because of power, I converted because I took the cost of getting my TPI to run right (several bad things wrong with it) vs the cost of ripping it all off and carbing it. Carbing my motor cost way less so thats what I did. I have no regrets, yet. One day I will go back to FI though.

I don't have any gain numbers b/c I didn't test before, and I added a lot of go-fast-goodies. I did it for the dollar issue, as well as I am better with a screw driver, than a computer.

The money is one of the big reasons I was thinking about changing. My TPI is fine, but everyone tells me that a carb would make more power.

The stealth ram and the accel setup is just way too expensive in my eyes, and money could be better spent.

Dont get me wrong, I like my FI, but I want to make power. Maybe add some vortec heads. The TPI base for the vortec head alone is 400 bucks. Add a little more and I could get a killer intake and carb setup.


How easy of a swap was it? Did all of the gauges work after the swap?

Thanks for any help.

The only gauges of mine that worked after the swap were the tach, volts, and water temp. I bought a $9 oil pressure gauge from Wally-World, and my speedo never did work due to the ECM being removed. I now have all my Ultalite's in now. The swap was pretty easy to me. The hardest part was getting the wiring delt with. I didn't want to trace all the relay wiring, so I cut it out, and replaced it with new wiring and new relays. The rest is pretty straight forward.

All my guages worked fine. Some years had electric speedometers though, mine was mechanical. You just need to get out a haynes manual or something that has wiring diagrams and make sure you don't cut/disconnect the wires for your guages. I think if your fuel injection works fine then just work with it. I'd much rather have a really fast "hitec" fuel injected car than a really fast old 1950's technology mechanical car but whatever you wanna do, do it. I'll be able to answer just about any question on the swap because my car is cursed ...everything that can go wrong will go wrong on my car.

if your 88 roc is all mechanical guages im sure my 88 SC is to...im about to go TBI to carb which im sure is alittle easier since its almost the same setup. i hear all my stuff will work i cant wait to get that 305 out of there hopefully it will be gone by the end of summer in place of a fresh lo5 with cam, intake, and carb