I am thinking about a 350 crate motor with a carb instead of the more expensive injetion for the time being. My car is L03 now and I wanted to know what would have to be done to convert it to the 350 carb. I know the computer in the car controls the fire, fuel/air mixture, etc. Thanks.

 

It's not too big a deal. The power wire now going to your coil goes to the positive or batt. terminal of the non-CC distributor you're going to need. You need to make sure the transmission TV cable attachment is of the same geometry as it now is with your throttle body. And, you'll need some means of locking the torque converter clutch, either a manual switch or a kit available from Jegs & the like.

 

And of course, there's no partiucular reason you can't just keep using your TBI. All you have to do is get the injectors out of a TBI truck, and you should be pretty close.

It's alot easier to sort out a motor swap, without a computer hack at the same time; especially if you're not familliar with doing either one. Making only one change at a time improves your success odds dramatically.

That would be FAR less expensive than a carb swap besides.

 

Will changing the transmission to a race ready 700R4 with a stall converter fix this? I am not quite sure what you are talking about.

Will the stock TBI flow enough for a crate rated at 350? The crate is recommended to be ran with a 700 or so cfm carb. Would a L05 throttle body work better?

 

I don't know about what difference the crate's "ratings" would make, like if that's its weight capacity or whatever; but if what you mean is that the motor that comes in this crate is "rated" at 350 HP, the L05 (truck) TBI stuff should be enough to at least work.

In the meantime, you can put the motor in the car, and get it running; and then deal with hacking up the wiring and whatnot later on, if you decide you just have to.

I don't know where you got the idea that a carb would be cheaper than using what's already there. You gotta get a carb, and a distributor, and an intake, and do something about fuel delivery; and of course the converter lockup would be wise, especially if all you're doing is swapping out the motor (which by itself will surely lead to a disappointing result). Because of the gears that car came with, you can be 100% sure that the converter will be slipping 100% of the time, if its stall is very much more than stock. Keep in mind, your motor is doing about 1600 RPM or thereabouts at highway speed right now; if you put any converter in it with a higher stall than that, it will NEVER EVER reach full coupling at normal road speeds, it will be slipping, which means you'll be needing a trans fluid cooler bigger than your radiator to keep from smoking the transmission.

No, a "race-ready" transmission won't fix that.

There's ALOT more to making a car fast, and even more so making one fast and reliable at the same time, than just jamming more motor between the fenders. That is rarely more true of a car than it is of that one. Start with the exhaust. EVERY SINGLE PIECE, from the heads to the street, needs to go; or your 350 HP "crate motor" will be lucky to squeeze out 225 HP, no matter what's sitting up on top of it out in the open where you can see it. The things you can see, like the FI or carb, aren't what's making the car slow, and therefore aren't what you change to make it fast. So if the "expense" of FI is scaring you off, you would be wise to forget the "crate" for the time being, and concentrate on all of the things that are actually making the car slow, and will keep you from getting anywhere near the full value of whatever money you DO spend on it.

 

That is what I meant by the rating on the crate motor. 350 horsepower. (Like the GM ZZ4)

I see what you mean about locking up the converter. Slippage is not a good thing. I was going to get a "race-ready" trans because it is a rebuilt transmission with all hardened parts. I meant race-ready as stronger than stock.

I know about the exhaust. I am planning to have the entire exhaust replaced - Hooker or SLP headers, dual three inch pipes, two Flowmaster or something of the like mufflers.

The expense of the FI wasn't scarring me because of TBI. I didn't think that I could use throttle body to flow the 350 and I thought that I would have to use something along the lines of TPI or whatnot, which is more expensive than a carb/intake/etc.
My dad has been into building reliable street cars and strip cars since the 60's. He has two '69 Camaros and a '73 Corvette - all carbuerated. Neither one of us are as up to speed as we need to with injection on street cars. We were tring to plot the best course for this motor swap and helpful advise is really appreciated.

 

Do I need just the truck injectors or the injectors and the larger bore throttle boy? I think that the L05 throttle body had a 2-inch bore rather than the smaller L03s. I found this on ebay. Is it what I would need if I go TBI on the 350?

 

Yes, that.

That's too much money. You can probably pick one up for a third of that $$$ at your local boneyard.

 

OK. Thanks. I was just making sure that I knew what I needed. There is one from a 454 truck for less than that. I think that I will look around here first. There are 7 junk yards within a 30 minute drive of my house. I think I can find one somewhere. I'll need the big throttle body, too?

 

What about the computer? Can I use the Camaro's computer for the 5.7 throttle body? Do I need to use the one from the computer for the motor to work right?

 

AFAIK a whole TB will cost you the same as just the injectors; removing the injectors renders the TB altogether worthless to the boneyard, so they'll charge you for the whole thing, and basically you'll just leave behind any parts you don't want. Personally I'd take the whole thing since it won't cost any different.

You can probably use a 454 TB & injectors. You can use 350 ones for sure, and the stock chip that goes with them as long as it's the same ECM (7730 or 7749 or whatever you have) for a starting point. The 454 injectors will probably be too rich with a stock 350 chip, but who knows. Get the chips out of a few different vehicles, make sure they come out of the same ECM part # as yours, and try them and see what works the best.

 

Where do I find the ECM part number? What about shift points. My L03 makes max horsepower @ 4200 RPM. The new crate engine makes it around 5500. I would hate to shift out at 4500 when I have 1000 more RPM to run through. Thanks alot for all your help, I really need it. And will you explain the torque converter lockup thing again? I found this but it says for non-ECM vehicles. This work? Or this ?