Well I think the time has come. I lost my cam due to fuel wash a little while ago because of a badly tuned chip. I've got to replace the cam and even when I do that I will have to retune another chip with the stuff I bought from Moates. That will take too much time for me. I want to drive my car. It's been down for awhile now awaiting the cam swap.

So I will remove the HSR, pull the painless harness, take out the SD setup etc etc and put a carb on and go....I really did want to continue pursuing the EFI with all my tuning stuff but this has taken way too long. I gotta drive my car. I am working right now on building the ford 9 inch and will put a big cam in with a 750 double pumper and go from there. The compression will be about 9.3 or just below having to use race gas as I also want to drive it everyday.

As it sits right now the motor will run about a 12.2 in the qtr w/o nitrous and about 11.5 or 6 with nitrous. Later on I can decide to add a blower. I will be selling the entire efi setup and may also sell the gas tank w/new typhoon fuel pump. The entire setup has about 1k miles on it. I know it may seem with 1k miles that I must have just put it all on but I only drive the car 4k miles a year. So it has been on the car about 9 mos with 1k on it. I am looking forward to driving my car again but I am also sad that I just couldn't stick it out. I really wanted to stay with FI. The badly burned chip I had done took 16 mos to figure out and it wasted a lot of my time getting the car where I want it. Now I just cant wait anymore.

My original plan was to have a carb setup with a blower but I bought TPI cuz I wanted better gas mileage as a daily driver. But now I want to spend more time racing it as well hence the switch to carb. Maybe you will think me stupid. Thats ok. I dont mind honest opinions. I love my car and I really really really love to drive it. I think for now I will still use the laptop and chip burning stuff as we have two other Z28's to work on. As for me I will soon have my car back. I am very happy. I only hope I dont regret it later on.

 

Might be interested in the TPI set up. Shoot me an email or PM with info.

 

Sorry...its not tpi its hsr. I am probably holding on to it for a bit anyway. It depends on what it costs me to switch to carb.

 

HSR is Holley Stealth Ram right? If so I'm interested if you decide to get rid of it.

 

Yes it is and its practically brand new. Only 1k miles on it. I would be looking to sell the entire fuel inj system as a whole probably. I would prefer not to part stuff out. The system would incluse comp, custom chip, chip burning stuff, msd digital 6 box, new billet distributor, custom cia, 30lb injectors etc etc....

 

i'd started to swap from TBI to Carb ahwhile ago, for the amount $ i would be dropping in the carb swap along with adapters and all the junk that needed replacement i would have been into it $700, mind you a brand new holley DFI setup isnt that much more and you dont need comp tuning stuff either. I decided to stick the "not so popular in some peoples eyes" TBI and just have more patience for tuning the chip. but the simplicity of tuning a carb is there fuel economy however isnt, at 1.76 a gallon how long can you drive around b4 you lighten your pocket.

 

Well, I would like to point out that it is impossible to wipe a cam due to fuel wash cuz the cam NEVER sees fuel. And if it is, you've got bigger problems then to go from efi to carb. If your motor is running too rich you could eventually wipe out the crosshatch in your cylinder bore though. I would think its maybe an oiling problem first? However... if you do insist on going from efi to carb, and since im going from carb to efi.. I do happen to have a carb, jets and squirters im looking to unload if you are interested. PM me for all the details.

 

FYI the #1 cause of cam failure is lack of proper oil changes.

 

Well, of course aside from improper installation.

(wtf I can't edit my own posts? hah)

 

probation sucks, they messed up my old screen name i couldnt even post so i created a new one..

some day i hope to get around to swapping to carb since i do have all the parts minus a dist.
good luck with the swap
Shawn

 

Thanks for the replies....I have everything I need to switch from efi to carb. Thanks for the offers though. I dont want to debate about fuel wash etc...I know what is wrong with the car. Been doing this for years. Lack of proper oil changes? I drive the car 4k miles a year. The oil gets changed whether it needs it or not. Just about every three months. When I first bought the car it had tpi. I got it because I wanted it as a daily driver with good gas mileage. Over the last two years that has changed. I am switching to carb and dont care about gas mileage. The price of gas isnt an issue for me. I could care less if it goes to 3 dollars a gallon. I will still drive my car. Once I get the carb and stuff in and finally get to play with it and have some fun I may buy a 95Z28 for a daily driver and keep the 85 strictly for racing. Time will tell...

 

Good Luck with your conversion, My Friend.

Sorry to see you got that route, but everyone has to make the choices they think are best for them and their car --- so do what you feel is best and venture forward --- and Best of Luck to you!!!!

Please let us know how it turns out for you!


- Vern

 

ha ha welcome to the dark side captain.....everyone and their brother will tell you to keep the injection but i honestly like the ability of a carb compared to injection it can make good power and is easy to tune without expensive chips ......

keep us posted....

 

I'll let you all know in about 2 weeks. It should be done by then. I will finally get to see just what kind of power my motor has. It's rated at 500hp. I really didnt mind learning to tune at all. Its just that it is taking much longer than I thought and I just want to drive and race the car. I already have everything I need to make the swap. I am also in the process of building the ford 9 inch.

 

cool sounds like your going to have a little monster on your hands there...LOL

do you have any pics of the engine ??

 

I will take some pics...There are a few floating around some of my past threads.

 

Why do you say its impossible? Absolutely not. If there is too much fuel being dumped into the motor then the unburned gas goes by the rings which could cause them to also go bad, then the gas (which is an abrasive) can ruin the cylinder walls either from the bad rings scoring them or the fuel wash. As the extra gas mixes with the oil it breaks the oil down and the cam loses its lubrication. Which in turn causes the cam to go bad.

 

I suppose in that extreme case then yes, but you would have to have a lot of fuel in that oil.. and if you did I would be concerned about your bearings as well. But from the quote above I can only deduce that you are merely doing an intake swap and throwing a carb on it... not ripping the motor apart... re-honing and installing new rings. So in your case.. no I do not beleive that to have happened.. especially if you have a roller cam.. unless of course the bearings in your rollers locked up too and slid on the lobes of your cam like a flat tappet set-up. On the other hand... if this is what happened to you.. then are you going to pull the heads and check? Using your example then I would hope you do. It would be a shame to have even more problems later on.

 

thanks for your concern but yes everything will be checked. I have a flat tappet cam (elgin) and yes it went out because of too much fuel. You make it sound like the fuel to oil ratio would have to be 80 to 1 to ruin the cam. Not the case at all. I have already said how it happened. Fuel mixed with oil equals bad things. I am putting in different heads and anything else that needs to be done. I believe they will be ported 429's.

 

I stated nothing about 80 to 1 anything.. I simply stated that it would have a to be a lot of fuel... and in my opinion any amount of fuel in the system capable of doing that much harm I consider to be a lot. Also... I do beleive that how fast the damage occured would coincide with how bad the mixture was.

But hey, 1 more post and I break into the 30's!:lala:

 

Any fuel mixed with the oil is too much...any....I never said you said anything about 80 to1. I merely stated that you made it seem like there had to be gallons of fuel mixed with the oil to make it go bad. "Any" amount of gas takes lubricant away from the cam and cause problems. There was enough excess fuel being dumped past the rings because of an incorrectly burned chip to cause the cam to lose a lobe and go flat. We will see if there is any other damage besides the cam. I opened the hood today and looked at the HSR setup that is still on it. Dam I'm gonna miss it....it looks so bad ***. But at least I'll be able to drive my car sooner and get to race it.

 

"but you would have to have a lot of fuel in that oil"

That's all I said, where do u get gallons?!? I don't mean to keep reiterating this.. but I just dont like when my words are exaggerated or taken out of context. I am trying my best to convey my ideas, and I am having a hard time figuring out why you think you would have to have that much fuel in the oil.

 

My point was simply that you dont need much at all to do damage. At least you got your 30th post.

 

once the fuel gets in the oil it will wash the lubrication from the bearings and cause failure and it doesnt take much as the captain has so clearly said over and over again...

 

 

This whole extended discussion started because someone said it "was impossible" for someone to lose a cam because of fuel wash. I simply replied. It can and does happen.

So, I am almost set to bring the car into the shop and start tearing it down. Looks like next week is the eta for this project. Cant wait to drive it again. Then once its done will bring it into the shop again for thr rearend swap. Building the ford 9 inch has somewhat begun already. Ordered the torque arm bracket from Currie and it has arrived.

 

awsome have you gotten any pics of the rearend and other parts??

 

No but i will try and take some pics of both rear and engine conversions if i remember. There is a pic of my current motor setup on stealthram.com in the hsr cars section.

 

I actually *gained* fuel economy when I went from TPI to carb. Used to get 9-10 MPG, now I get around 16. I also pass emissions with no problem as well, where previously I couldn't pass the sniffer.

I had problems with my TPI setup though, sensors were starting to go a bit wild and the wireing wasn't the best. But still, 16 MPG isn't really all that bad, is it? maybe I'm just used to 9 haha! I also have a different cam (you remember that Chad!? LOL!) but It's not very wild at all, and I got horrible MPG before that anyway. I think I just had electric and sensor problems.


So what went wrong with the carb swap man? Just the money? I'd have to check some time, but I believe I spent in the figure of around $600 in parts for the swap.

I went with a GM ZZ4 intake manifold (dual plane) Edelbrock 600 CFM Performer (with Electric Choke), Mallory billet HEI distributor, and a Holley fuel pressure regulator. It's working like a charm now, after I finally got it timed and tuned by a few friends (I dont' know much about carbs).

 

I know I dont get much gas mileage with the HSR but it doesnt matter to me what the gas mileage will be with the carb setup. Still waiting to get it in the shop this week to start this project. I am currently pulling the motor on the 94 as I believe we had a detonation issue. Lost a piston etc...will find out more when the motor comes out. In the meantime, I know I will have a 750 holley double pumper with a 101 lobe cam and ported 429 heads. Cant remember which intake I am using. My buddy has all the details. He is helping me with the project. I will have new valve springs, 1.6 rockers, 7/16 studs etc etc...

 

Well I goofed and noone caught it. I have 492 heads not 429...They were ported and polished tonight. Ready to go. I found out the intake is a Holley strip dominator.