Foster382

I got a 91 bird with a 305 tbi, i found a 350 tpi from a 89 camaro that i wanna put into my bird. would i have to replace my dash harness cause their from two differnet cars and two different years? what kind of problems would i come upon?

camaronewbie

You would have to replace the pass side harnes, both inside and outside the car, as well as the ECM.

We already answered this for you a few days ago - why ask again?

Foster382

because im hearing different things from everyone. it's confusing me. im just flustered with all thats going on with school and cars.

camaronewbie

OK - so your plate is full. If your car is running now, then drop it for awhile and lower your stress. You have how ever long it takes to mod your car. Being in a hurry, and stressing over it, makes it worse, not better. You want to have fun - 'getting done' with the car is not the desire of 'hot rodding' - it's the journey NOT the destination that is the fun part. If you just wanted to go fast, you could borrow mom's minivan - the 6cyl engines in most of those will blow away any stock 5.0 GT Mustang (I love racing Mustangs in minivans, it REALLY adds insult to injury!)

Now - about the TBI to TPI - you will have to change harnesses, computers, etc. TPI has 8 injectors that fire at different times, TBI has 2 that fire at same time. This fact alone means a whole different computer 'box', different computer chip, and entirely different wiring.

What is your goal for the car? And is that goal realistic? I read a ton of threads from folks saying they want 400hp. It's well apparent that very few folks actually have a clue what it takes to get 400hp. I've seen many LSx cars with thousands tied up in motor that just do break the 400hp line - it's not easy, and it's not cheap.

What kinda budget do you have? Whatever you 'think' something is going to cost, double that. For example - I bought a 350 used, carb to pan, for $600 - great deal right? Drop it in and go! BUT - it cost me another $1000 to accomplish that, in motor mounts, linkage correctors, fuel pressure issues, torque converter issues, and on and on and on.

What kinda time do you have to work on it? Is it your daily driver or do you have another means of transportation? Sure, alot of folks are able to do a 'motor swap' in a weekend, IF they have help, IF they have all the right equipment, IF they have every little part they need already on hand - and then all they managed to do was actually swap the motor - if anything is getting changed (like induction, exhaust, etc.) then they spent weeks or months afterwards finishing to a point where it was again driveable. It took me several months to get my car driveable after my 350 carb swap, because of work, family, and life in general. You need alot of time without having to rely on the car if you are going to do anything major.

I'm by no means trying to discourage you. I'm just being realistic. You have to assess YOUR time, YOUR budget, YOUR goals, and most importantly YOUR ability. On the flip side, whatever you do can be changed later - it's all just parts, time, money, and effort - all those things are changable.

I've had my car 5 years, I've spent $15,000 thus far on it - I might, just might have 275hp. But she's pretty - interior fully restored, exterior fully restored and painted. It took me 5 years to get here, it'll take me another 5 years to get where I want to be. And I'm tight - I've done ALL my own work, haven't spent a dime on anyone's 'labor'. And after 5 years, this is the first year that I've actually been able to drive the car much at all - until this year it's spent it's life on jackstands

If you need this car to be running and driveable, then I highly recommend you forget most motor stuff, and concentrate on interior, suspension, exhaust, and the 'other' stuff - these things are easily done, and are '1 day' or weekend projects so you can be back on the road to school. There is alot you can do to the 305 to add a bit here and there, and alot of it will swap later to another motor (like exhaust).

I hope that helps some. It sounds like you need to take a deep breath, assess what you want that is reasonable with your time/budget, and go from there. Just know that, we 3rd gen folks aren't here for the horsepower - this was the slowest, most limited, most 'held back' generation of F-Body ever built. We're here because we love the car, we love the lines, the design, the look. Any of us could have taken the cash we tied up in our 3rd gens, and just bought an import or Mustang that has tons more 'go fast' - but it's not what we want.

Think it over some, and let us know what your time, budget, goals are. Let us know what legal restrictions you have (like emissions testing). And we'll go from there with our recommendations. Let us know exactly what you've got now, and if anything currently is not working properly, and we'll go from there.

And keep in mind - this is still the internet - it's not easy helping when we can't see, feel, hear YOUR car - you have to take everything posted here for what it's worth - free recommendations from folks around the world that you've never met and you don't have a clue if they have any clue either. But 90% of the time you'll get good solid answers here on TGO.

Foster382

I understand what your saying.

Im not trying to hit a 400Hp mark, thats way out of my league.
Im just trying to get it over 200 without doing a alot of bolt on's.

My car is a daily driver and the only problem i have with the engine is that the head on the left makes a ticking noise, which i think it's bad rockers and i get a SES light when im heavy on the gas.

you made my understand that it will be way tomuch work for me to do. To much for me to chew with what i got on my plate.

Should i replace my heads (seeing that one of them are messing up) with soem from a tpi engine? for better flow that the swirl port tbi heads.

camaronewbie

May not be anything wrong other than a simple valve adjustment. Have you tried adjusting the valves?

And use a paperclip and pull the codes to see what's up with the SES light:

https://www.thirdgen.org/service-eng...ht-error-codes

92droptopws6

iTrader: (10)

Like i explained, in order to do this swap without going through a ton of changes you can use the entire '89 TPI engine swap the harness from the firewall motor and into the car to the ecm Get a 90-92 TPI harness and ecm to replace it. Swap the fuel pump to TPI style or walbro340.You will need to use the TPI manifolds and try to get the y-pipe from donor car or buy a set of hooker/heddman shorties have a y-pipe made. TBI interior dash harness is the same as TPI...
I have done many of these swaps when these cars were new....v6 cars require complete dash harness and engine harness for swap plus mounts ac lines etc.

Cool part is 88-92 TBI cars only need the engine harness,fuel pump and ecm however the 89 birds changed to VSS instead of cable driven speedo like the camaro till 90 then they all became VSS....

If you have alot on your plate dont get into this conversion just yet.It can become time consuming and stressfull especially if you do not have the knowledge....

bigmike87

ill keep it simple for you man because people try and over explain technical stuff that means nothing. switch the fuel pump and lines from the camaro into your bird ( switching the whole tank is much eaisier) you need the pump and lines because the TPI's run higher fuel pressure then the TBI,s. as for your harness, dissconect from the D/S power block on firewall, pull the motor with the harness on. drop in in your bird. now if i were you i would hunt for a wrecked bird the same year as the camaro and get the entire dash with harness attached (not hard to remove). slam that dash into your car, hook er all back up with the camaro ECM and your done. What i like to do in regards to the tail light section of the harness when you remove the dash is cut it half way down the inside of the car and splice the new one in. all the wires are the same. as for the headlight harness its seperate and can stay in your bird. so remeber dont try to take the harness off the dash or you will want to shoot yourself in the face. just switch the whole dash and harness over its real easy.

bigmike87

o yeah and dont listen to peoples lies about the TBI dash harness being the same as a TPI because trust me....it is not.