For the sake of not hijacking someone elses thread I'm going to start my own. I am in the middle of my 305 to 350 swap. The 305 is ouy and as soon as I get done sorting out the harness and other things, the 350 will be in. One of those things Is the fuel delivery system. My 350 will be carbed.

Here are my choices:

Retain the electric pump and rewire it to work with out the ECM. For this I would need to buy a fuel pressure regulator. I have looked at the $25 holley budget piece part # 12-803. I have heard that this will not work and that it will work. It is a non return type. I could spend $75 bucks and get one with the return but that is a little more than I would like to spend.

OR

I already have a mechanical pump, rod, and seal. All I would have to do is remove the electric pump and reroute the fuel lines to the appropriate side.

My question is, which choice would be the most wise? Money is a concern. I would like to use the electric pump but is the $25 holley piece a gamble? It's time for me to choose what to do because I haven't driven my camaro in a year and I'm begin to feel the withdrawl.

 

I would get rid of the in tank electric pump, some people have had good luck with them but I would feel better about reliability having a new pump. The in tank one you have now is probably original and they seem to be prone to failing. You could go to a junk yard and get a new pick up tube from a carbed car(just get the whole assembly that screws into the top of the tank). Then you could use the mechanical pump you already have pretty easy, I prefer electric though but a mechanical would work just fine. For mild performance I would recommend a carter electric, they don't require a regulator and are very quiet. Theres a couple of good tech articles on this site about doing this if you haven't seen them already.

http://5finger.8m.com/tpi2carb/tpi2carb.html
https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/carbswap.shtml

 

I may get a verbal whooping here,but I'm thinking you can simply unhook the in tank pump and pull fuel through it with a mechanical pump.I'm not positive of that,as I have read otherwise on this board,But I know that it works on the TBI pickups when converting to carbed.I've also done this on both of the S10s I put V8s in.
While I've never done it on a 3rd Gen,in these other cases I checked fuel pressure,and it was completely unaffected by the in tank pump.

 

Hmmmm, well my car was a TBI. GM was good about using the same parts everywhere. I'm guessing, without looking it up, that an S-10 uses the the same pump. If that is the case then I would just have to get the lines the put the fuel on the right side.

 

Well I think I've decided to just go ahead and use the mechanical pump. All I have to do is figure out how to plumb the lines to the correct side. It shouldn't be to hard.

I am still interested in hearing if anyone has used the holley regulator number 12-803. Or any pressure regulator for that matter. I did some searches before I put up this thread and couldn't find much.

 

vrtc350,
On Saturday, my son and I installed the stock lines for a mechanical. We got them from a J.Yard Z-28. It was easy since the engine and tranny we're still out of the car (both fuel lines cross over the tranny). One thing to watch out for is where they come up into the engine compartment on the inside of the frame rail. Once the engine was installed we noticed our headers were in contact with the lines. Major PITA to bend them up and real close to the fire wall to get some acceptable clearance. We had to bend them up and push them under the A/C condenser after the engine was in place PITA PITA PITA.

If your going to use lines that follow the "Stock Path" do whatever you can to get them up into the fold at the edge of the firewall BEFORE the engine is installed.

Sincerely,
Kurt

 

What year did you rip the lines from?

 

vrtc350,
My son writes down all the serial numbers and important info about the cars we take parts off of and I will double-check with him, but I'm quite certain it was an '85 we took them from.
Kurt