i've read of people switching to the walbro 255 pump and actually having too much fuel pressure. a stock tpi fuel pump puts out around 36 psi, doesn't it? if that's correct, wouldn't that be more than enough for a tbi car?

 

It is plenty for a TBI car but you get into reliabilty issues. You get a better performing, longer lasting and cheaper pump when you go aftermarket. You could always get the walbro 190 unit instead.

 

Yep, I just picked up the Walbro 190 for like 85 bucks, just came yesterday. But now I have bigger problems, the supposedly "good running" 350 I bought to swap in has scratches in the bores, the bearings are grooved, and the crank needs to be cut. So, I got ripped off by a local board member. Sorry for the rant, a little pissed after this project just went down the tubes.

 

there's a section on here, i believe it's in aftermarket vendor review, where you can post about ripoff artists. have you asked the guy for your money back?

 

I too reccomend posting about this in that section. Bad sellers should be pointed out. They tend to re-emerge from time to time with "goodies".

 

true, but you should give the guy a chance to make it right first

 

Yeah, I wanted to do that and may still do it, or even talk to him. The only thing is that I bought the engine from him about a year ago and its just been sitting around waiting for me to acquire parts and I just now pulled a head and main caps and saw the damage. He installed an aftermarket timing chain but not a new gearset and the chain was on really sloppy. But after a year I don't know.

Does anybody know what a fair price would be for a 350 that needs a rebuild and has iron L98 heads?

 

what did you give him for it? i'd think a complete, rebuildable l-98 should be worth 150 or maybe more.

and honestly, it's probably for the best. dropping a high-mileage engine in your car without a rebuild is just asking for trouble. you go to all the expense and work of doing it and risk having to pull the engine out and rebuild it, anyway.

there are plenty of rebuild kits available for your engine with hypereutectic pistons, quality bearings and rings, etc for under 300.00. summitracing.com has one under pn FEM-CSMHP761-311
that's .030 over on the pistons and .010 under on the mains and rods for 289.95. you can get forged pistons for 439.95. get your machine work done first so you can be sure you're ordering the right size pistons and bearings.

 

Well see the only thing is it was supposed to run good it had like 75k miles on it supposedly. The only reason I wanted a decent mileage engine that would run is because I can't afford to rebuild it. I'll either have to sell it now or just hold off on it for a long time because I'm completely broke and a good rebuild would probably set me back $1200. I bought it for $350. Trying to consider my options now and think of what I should do with the car now. People are telling me not to swap engines and to keep my low mileage car in stock form.

 

How low mileage are we talking? I would save the motor on the side until finances allow. If you are staying hang onto the 350 and just finish up the rest of your car until that 350 is ready.

 

Well, I bought the car with 55k miles it now has about 65k but its perfect shape all around. I'm thinking maybe I'll just put the headers and intake on my 305 now. You guys think it's even worth it keeping the car stock internally? I could always just pull the L98 cam out of the engine and put it in my 305 I suppose.

 

Now we are talking You would be pretty happy with just those fews mods alone with some tuning. You would have a car that is considerably faster with a lot of life left in it.

 

i'd do bolt-on engine mods, only, doing nothing that won't swap over to a 350 later. . why not get the use out of that low mileage 305?

 

Yeah I think for now I'll just do that stuff on the 305 and put the 350 aside for a while or sell the block and keep the heads. Maybe I'll just try to port those L98 heads myself for the time being. I was really itching to make a 13 second TBI car though, guess it will have to wait.

 

You could still do that with the 305 you know. To go 13's with either of them you will need basically the same parts. The only difference will be the block and heads. The only thing is that you would still have to do head and cam work on the 305. That isn't to bad though. You could go with some vortecs or those ported L98's and just put them on the 350 when the time arrives. You could even re-use the cam if you go big enough.

 

Yeah, I'll have to see what I can realistically put together now. I need to get it done before I go back to school in August and I'm totally broke so the only way to get money is to sell stuff I already have. I wasn't sure about how the compression would be if I threw the L98's on my 305, I imagine it would go down quite a bit and I don't want to shave them or anything. We'll see what I can do, I'll let you guys know what the plan is once I get it all figured out. Any suggestions are always welcome though.

 

It will lowr it but you could use a .015 head gasket to make things a little better. You will still see gains even with the compression loss because or how bad the stock heads are. Kinda like how 1 3/4" hedders still make tons of power over the stock manifolds even though they are not the best matched parts.

 

Are you sure it's a L98? You should be able to rebuild it for a minimum cost if you know of a good machine shop that won't rip you off. The bearings, new pistons and gasket set can be had for $160 and that should include new oil pump and rings. The only thing you might need to buy is the one peice rear main seal. Powerhouse has some really good prices on rebuild kits. And just to let you know, after the shop has determined how much of an overbore you need to clean up the cylinders, then you buy the pistons and give them to the shop so they have them on hand when they accually bore and finish hone the block.

Steve

 

Well I really have zero dollars at this point. The shop said about 1100 bucks total. The crank actually has a good amount of endplay in it too. I really think I'm just going to sell the engine and somebody else can rebuild it. The heads are good and probably worth it. and yeah its a 89 L98.

 

i'd sell the heads, too. those l98 heads will have to be milled significantly to work on an l03. remember, they have 64cc chambers, your l03 has 58cc chambers. you'd have to take somewhere in the neighborhood of .060 to get them to 58-60ccs, and those heads don't flow that well. there are better choices.

think about this. you have a great looking car with low mileage. you've already taken a great first step with those 3.42s and the posi unit. that mod alone was worth over 6 tenths in my 305 tbi 5 speed car. there's plenty you can do to your car to make it quicker and more fun to drive for very little money and without swapping the engine.

just set a few basic philosophical parameters. first, put absolutely no money in the 305 short block. it's a waste of money, especially when you consider how inexpensive 350s are. forget that for now, though. a 350 is way down the road.

second, put on no bolt-ons that won't swap over to a 350 at a later date. that leaves tons of stuff you can do to your 305 that you would've had to do with the 350, anyway. i'd suggest you go in this order, as money permits. 1. headers and exhaust. 2. intake (weiand 7525 is better than the holley tbi manifold, by the way). 3. heads (maybe cam, too). there are a lot of choices there, but always keep in mind that every part you put on MUST be able to swap over to a 350 or a 383 at a later date. This lets you get full use out of your 305 AND let's you build the infrastructure you'll need when you go to the 350 anyway. This way also offers you the benefit of doing those mods one at a time, as money permits. besides, it's a lot of fun to make changes one at a time, measuring the improvement (or lack thereof) of each.

before you do anything else, though, there are two things many of us overlook.

the first is to install a fuel pressure gauge. here's a link to a cool one, with good info on fuel pressure and tbi in general:

http://www.cfm-tech.com/gm_tbi_fuel_pressure.htm

i just got mine installed and found i'm only making 12 psi of fuel pressure. scott from cfm says i should be running 14-14.5 psi with my mods and thinks it could be costing me as much as 10-15 hp. we'll see. i have a vafpr i'm getting ready to install. the point is, having your fuel pressure set correctly should be the first thing you do to these cars (after gears and posi), along with making sure everything else is working properly. swapping heads, cams, intakes, putting on headers and exhaust, etc should all come later.

the second thing you should do is learn to tune the ecm. you're going to have to do extensive tuning when you go to a 350, anyway, so you might as well learn it now so you can be an expert by the time you're ready to swap engines.

besides, you can see a ton of improvement in your 305 with tuning. i use him as an example a lot, but dewey316's ecm tuning had his car running faster and making more horsepower when it was bone stock than mine and virtually every other modified tbi car without chip tuning. i know it's complicated, but if i were doing things over, that would have been the second thing i did (after fuel pressure). if i had, maybe i wouldn't have stuck on $1200 in headers and an exhaust and only seen a 7 hp increase.

since your engine is still essentially stock, you can start learning slowly. dewey316 is in the process of writing his manifesto "tbi tuning for dummies" (he really knows his stuff, although he'll recommend a MUCH smaller cam than you need). while you're waiting on that, get a datalogging cable, download winaldl and begin reading the diy-efi board. while you're saving for the prominator you'll need to make changes to the tuning, you can practice datalogging and learn how to interpret the logs. by the time you get your prominator, you'll know something about what you're trying to do.

anyway, that's my advice, for what it's worth.

 

Yeah Sean I've been thinking along very similar lines as yours too. I've been datalogging for a while now. I've studied up on Prom burning a ton and I feel pretty comfortable with any tuning now. I have a Prominator that should be here any day now to help me do the tuning.

I decided last night that I'm going to sell the engine and the heads as a rebuild for someone else. I'm going to put the headers and full exhaust I have on the car now as well as the intake I have, I've heard some good things about this TBI intake but hardly anyone has tried it, so we'll see. Then I'll just tune it up like that and keep it that way.

I figure I'll do those mods and then work on the chassis and suspension. Then sometime down the road I'll do my 350 build up the right way. I'll get a good solid engine and build it to really RUN with some AFR heads or whatever. But I'm going to put off a swap until I can make some huge power with the swap.

 

I would still stick that L98 cam in there. It would only take a little more time since you will be taking the intake off anyway. Plus it will only take a few more bucks for the gaskets you will need in additon to your intake swap.

Timing cover
Water pump

 

yeah, looks like the walbro 190 is the way to go. here are some comparisons:


napa high flow replacement pump: 118.99
http://www.napaonline.com/cgi-bin/nc...grpid=68725465

autozone ac/delco replacement pump: 81.99
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...7C%7EEA%7C%7EB

advance auto parts carter replacement pump: 93.99
http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDeta...ype=52&PTSet=A

advance auto parts holley replacement pump for tbi: 157.97
http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDeta...ype=52&PTSet=A

summit: edelbrock pump for converting from tbi to mpf (pn EDL-3581): 99.95

summit: granatelli motorsports f-body pump (pn (GRN-GM722-2): 125.88

ftf motorsports: walbro 255 kit for 1982-1992 f-body: 95.00
http://store.ftfmotorsports.com/gm.html

 

It is really a no brainer when it comes to pump replacement.