Ok, I've got a '90 RS with tbi, I'm planning to put a 350 in but can't decide which route to go. At first I planned on staying with tbi and it's not completely rulled out at this point(must be able to get 300RWHP min.) But since I'm not sure this can be done with tbi I'm thinking of some type of multiport fuel injection.

So considering everthing such as cost of swap, power level obtainable, how complex the swap will be and also which would give the best gas milage what do you guys recomend?

I really like the idea of an LT1, but everything must be swapped for this. I may have to have a shop do the motor swap itself due to knowledge, time and tools. Because of that sometimes I think TPI may be the way to go since I could possibley convert the 305tbi to TPI myself then have the 350 put in later.

I would really like to stay emissions legal.

Sorry this was a little long, but I need alittle help deciding and the more I read on this board, the tougher the decision. So everybody tell me what you think.

Later, Mike

 

If you can't do the swap yourself, don't do an LT1 swap, its not worth the money to pay someone else to do it. For the money you would spend on labor alone you could build a badass TPI engine.

 

I'm not really a fuel injection type of guy because I'm young and am broke. I really dont understand why people praise lt1/ls1's. Yes they make good power, and can be modded to make great power. I guess they are reliable as in the sense that on cold days itll still idle the same, or will not need to be tinkered with here and again. But unless you are driving this thing in the winter I see no reason not to convert to carb. No computer, no hassles. Bolt on, couple turns of the screws, maybe a test and tune, bam you're done for a while.

I am venturing to say that you can make more power for half the price of an lt1 swap. But I could be wrong and people are scoring some killer deals which would then maybe come up for consideration, but unless you get a good deal, i say go carb or stay FI with a used TPI setup.

 

Because carbs are old school. Simple as that. I want the ease of tuning and less guesswork afforded by fuel injection and some tuning software. My brother has a '78 T/A with a carbed 462. He's had the engine in the car for about 6 months and he hasn't been able to get it running 100% since day one. Except for some minor programming problems in my LT1, I haven't had ANY tuning or running issues that I didn't know exactly what was wrong by checking the error codes. Tell me you can do that with a carb. Do you get almost 30 mpg on the highway, 15-20 around town, and still do the 1/4 at 109 mph? You're right, carbs are cheaper, but fuel injection is cleaner and more efficient.

 

I dont disagree. Fuel injection is the way to go if you can afford it. I am no ECU tuner but I do know a few things about upgrading. I think carb setups are the way to go in a performance application (Unless it starts with fuel injection that can be modded correctly) until the point where you can afford to upgrade to an aftermarket system. Like AEM, FAST, DFI and there are several others. These systems give such control over how your car runs that its pretty amazing and will work so much better then a Carb will on a street car.

I'm just saying, you can reach power levels much cheaper with a Carb setup. Just to think, upgrade a little bit, need more fuel, well there's 400$ for injectors, then, another fuel pump, well couple hundred more and you have to drop the tank. This may not be enough you'll have to buy an inline another couple hundred. It adds up real quick, but at this point carb isnt really economical or cheap either.