well, i recently got my car (1991 305 TBI camaro) and i was wanderin what i should get for christmas. well for 1, i was thinkin about getting the whole TPI setup because I've been finding people selling everything for cheap. either that, or get a new intake manifold and holley carb and shortly after get a 350 engine. what are some benifits of going one way over another? which will give me more power? just wanderin before i go and put a bunch of money into it.

 

A buddy of mine purchased a late 80's L98 (running rough), and was saving his money for a Super-Ram. In the interim though, he removed the stock TPI system (the roughness was MAF related), and threw on a Carb set-up, temporarily....

To make a long story short, he got the car so dialed in with it.... that to this day, you couldn't even pay him to go back to fuel injection (he's running low 12's, without breaking a sweat). The Super-Ram is a distant memory from him.

I believe he spent all of that money he was saving for a set of TT2's in it's place...

 

ok cool. i hear its cheaper to do that too, to go carb. It might be a little more work, but i have time should i take the electronics out of my car like the computer and stuff and get a different distributor?

 

Keep the computer no matter what route you go. Carb is definitely less work than TPI. TPI is more streetable/daily driven performance in many cases. I personally will never run carb, but thats just becuase I have more experience with fuel Injection. FI has better gas mileage too I believe. I'd say search, this topic must be covered alot.

 

Keep you're stock distributor. You're going to want to take advantage of you're ECM's Electronic Spark Control (ESC).... by keeping the ECM in a constant state of open-loop.

Have a chip burned to achieve this, then throw on whatever Carb you desire. As for gas mileage, when a Carb is set up "right"... the same gas mileage is achieved. However, in reference to various starting 'conditions' (eg; cold starting), EFI dominates.

 

ok well i think that is the route i will go. i really don't have to worry about cold startups because we don't have cold weather down here in florida. it barely drops below 50! (when it does, its for a short period of time) right now its about 70- somthin degrees

 

Wanna go fast for little money? Go carb. Wanna spend more money, tuning, etc becasue you like fi, go for it. For driveabiity, a well tuned carb should not be too far behind tpi in that department. I think you have to decide what the car is going to be. Daily driver with some go=tpi. Weekend warrior=carb. Just my opinion (my car used to be tpi, I switched and have neverl ooked back)

 

Most likely you can modify the TBI for the 350 and get it running well for about what it would cost you to go carb (with new parts).

The best results are typically obtained by modifying what you've got, whether that's carb, TBI, or TPI.

 

carbs are alot more simple in design and parts, but also alot more tempermental ( to big changes in elevation, climate, need proper tuning etc). IF,..... IF you know how to tune carbs they have alot to offer. but if not, you may want to research it a bit more before going to something "moody" like a carb.

 

You might get an argument about simplicity of design between TBI & carb. From a moving parts count, TBI wins hands-down. From a total parts count, it's probably even.

Whether it is simplier to fire up the laptop or pull bowls, that's an argument we probably don't want to start.

 

let me clarify then = in MY opinion, carbs are simple. i grew up dealing with them on dirtbikes, then harleys, then cars. now as far as electronics go, i think something as simple as an ipod is complex to operate (not literally, but i get too frustrated dealing with electronics). i'm sure that plenty would argue that electronics simplify some tuning aspects. maybe its that i'm too ignorant to learn about electronics, but to sum it up = i find carbs more simple.

i'd rather turn screws and mess with bowls, than to burn chips and plug wires and such. this is an opinion based forum and thats my opinion

 

ok cool, well then i think that i might go carb, because its alot easier in my neck of the woods to find someone that knows about carbs rather than a TBI. i mean i could always go on here and see, but alot of my older friends know about carbs and how they work. i also think that (from what i've researched) that a non CC Carb will get me where i want to be. so thanks alot all of you for your help.