hey guys, i'm havin troubles researching lt1's with carbs.. right now i want to switch from fuel injection to carb because i put a gen II lt1 inside my 1983 camaro, and i really do not want to mess with wiring and splicing etc. i was told i can get a intake for the lt1 so i can use the carb, and the distributor that goes in the back of the intake rather than this optispark. I actually would rather have a carb anyway, is this possible? Or will i ruin my motor ? Reason i am curious if i can harm my motor is because i know on the newer ecu theres a knock sensor, but on my old one i dont know much about it.. my plan now was to use my old harness and old computer and just slap a carb on and go. Is there anything i need to know as to what else i would have to do as far as changing over?

Thanks.

 

You won't be able to use the computer if you go carb. GM performance parts makes an intake for gen II heads.

 

i have the old computer and harness already

 

Carbed Lt1

Buy an aftermarket harness instead of throwing cash at an intake and carb for the Lt1. You will not have the gas mileage, reliablility or power if you go with a carbed Lt1.

I even saw an aftermarket harness go for $165 on Ebay about 3 or so weeks ago.

 

Double

 

lol, i dont know, i already sold my optispark, and the only reason im able to get the carb and intake is because im selling the intake with the fuel injectors and the ol harness and computer, id still need alot of sensors and stuff, i spose if it was going into a 4th gen id be sticking with fi , iunno =/ ive already started now
the major reason i was worried was how to wire in the ignition and gauges .. is that what the aftermarket harness does?

i called painless and they said i needed two harness' one for hte fuel injection and one for the rest of the engine harness, they wanted like $700.00
but ill keep you guys updated, ill push alot of power out no worries :P

plus if i had the chance at the time to ge ta 350 gen 1 i would have, but i got this lt1 block new for so cheap it was rediculous :/, like a family deal :P... i wont be too disappointed , i can always switch later when i got more money down the road , thanks for the input though

 

I dont get how you people turn these things into such an issue, oh wait i know how, its all the people in the process, or have speculated about it but havent actually done it posting that confuse everyone.

1st, the only two gauges that even get their input from the computer is the speedometer and tach, man thats scary and hard....

2nd there is no reason whatsoever to pay $700 for some aftermarket harness which is almost exactly the same as what you have already with a few pigtails labeled, the computer needs a small handful of things hooked up or spliced in between the stock harness and the LT1 wiring harness, you'd spend more time tuning some carb than to actually hookup the 7-10 wires for the LT1

Some people just need to stop posting on what they dont know about

 

yeah , i know what you mean, ive pretty much started from scratch, so mostly a bit worried about having every part, everything seemed to plug in fine as far as the harness went, but i think i was missing part of the harness that goes to the battery , dunno, ive never had an lt1 to look off of, ive seen pics and have some nice logs but still doesnt give me enough. I honestly want to go carb though , call me stupid yah, but im gunna try it out. going carb now also saved me a bunch of money since ive yet to buy some of the sensors that i needed, granted i probably could have found them used for a bit cheaper, i dunno , its late as hell ive slept like 3 hours in he past week, ill be seein ya all later, thanks for the replies!

dave

 

I'm going to chime in here, I have a LT-1 motor that I dropped in my drag car. it didn't come with the harness or computer so I just pulled the FI off of it an dropped on a carb manifold and holley carb,but remember, it's a track only car so I didn't have to worry about every day drivability. with the carb intake you can use just about any distributer you want as long as it's a SBC style, I used a MSD pro-billet and it works great. the only intake you can get is from GM performance parts as stated earlier. just remember, the LT-1 has no place for a fuel pump so you'll either have to install an electric that runs at low pressure or regulate a high pressure pump down, also, the LT-1 has no way to mount a mechanical fan so you'll have to install an elect if you don't allready have one.

on the other hand, I have a daily driver that has a carb on it and I hate it. I am in the process of building a TPI 350 for it as we speak. I'm just tired of always tweaking on the carb to get it to run right, hopefully, FI will help with this problem.

in short, there are good things and bad about both setups. LT-1 parts and sensors aint exactly cheap but once together they are the cats a$$, either way your going to spend some money to put it in. the easy way is to drop the carb and intake on it and go but I believe in the long run you'll be disapointed with the way it runs. Heck, you know your financial situation better than anyone else and EVERYTHING revolves around that.

I know I haven't helped alot but I'm just trying to give you something to think about.

 

my 305 is carb and i dont have any probs with it running right... albeit the carb is performer 650 cfm and its reg'd all the way lean to keep from flooding. my 350 in puting in will be carbed too unles i can find a FI kit( i need everything from the comp to the parts) for super cheap

 

$700??? Jegs has it for : $369.99 (non-4l60e).
The 4l60e version is pricey at $599.99
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...33&prmenbr=361

www.musclemotors.com would probably be even cheaper.

There is no additional harness necessary for the gauges and fuse panel. For that, the original harness from your car will do.
Or, to pocket the $$$ like z28***** said, do it yourself...it is not that hard at all.

 

No you covered some good points, i have the electric fuel pump, electric fans, and luckily, its no where near my daily driver . I really do want to go carb, its not just the money or time, we'll see, it'll be a fun project to see how good i can get it to run =p