Ok, i have a 1985 z28. it has an early 90s 350 sbc in it with a carb. the harness looks like a bunch of chicken wire under the hood. can anybody tell me if they are using the computer? do i need it? would it be hard to eliminate it? if not, do i need to get a different harness? please let me know any thoughts, thanks

 

You need to keep your stock factory computer and carb setup - it has the best performance and the best mileage you'll ever see from any carb setup. Just clean up the wiring. Get some loom, some tape, some extra wiring, extend wires, or cut them shorter, whatever to clean up your bay if you desire.

In order to go non-computer controlled, you'll need:

1) different carb $250 - $500
2) different intake $150 - $300
3) vacuum advanced distributor $125 - $200

then, if you are an automatic tranny, you'll need:

4) method of locking torque converter - free - $150
5) geometry corrector for the new carb linkage $22

So - as you can see - swapping to a non-computer carb is neither easy, nor cheap. And in the end, you get worse performance and worse mileage than with the factory setup.

 

Post a picture of your carb.

 

not sure if its the original

 

It's original.

 

I could not disagree more. I removed the wire harness from the computer all the way out to the engine bay in one piece. The harness was not linked to the cars electrical system at all. With all the parts you described my 1984 LG4 went from a 17 second joke to 14 second fun car that is very easy to tune and adjust. I got around the emissions by registering it classic and now only have to have it safety inspected once a year. I live in Philadelphia. I dont know what the laws are in your state but they are worth looking into. The only thing I would do different is use a quadrajet from Jegs or Summit. I used a Holley 600 and cant get anything but an open element drop base air cleaner under the hood.

 

im going without the computer. so what wires from the harness do i need to keep?

 

Could have done it with the stock parts, too.

 

I did (stock carb, distributor, computer), passed emissions with flying colors, and didn't need to tune it.