My brother and I are going to drop a 350 in his S-10 this summer. We want to keep the TBI-style FI system just like his present 4.3 V6 uses, for wiring and installation simplicity.

Unfortuately, the motor we have to drop in uses early (86 and older) standard intake bolt pattern heads. Can a stock GM TBI cast iron intake manifold be re-drilled/re-machined (EASILY!) for the old style bolt pattern? Any "gotchas" I should be aware of?

If not, we thought of using an old Performer 4bbl intake with an adapter plate of some kind. Any suggestions on what to use?

Thanks in advance

 

Use the old performer intake and a adapter plate. I believe this will make your swap a lot easier.

 

Honestly I don't inderstand why the engine has to use the earlier style heads. I have a 305 that uses a flat tappet cam instead of a roller cam and my 1988 heads and factory TBI setup work fine on it. You will need a different manifold anyway because you're v6 one won't mount on a V8 lol In any any event I don't think your v6 TBI will flow enough fuel for a V8. You'll proably have to grab a vortech TBI setup out of a doner truck and you might as well get the cheaper setup out of an 88-92 Camaro. Search the borad for TBI upgrades and you'll quickly find out what carb manifold to use. Look at my post in this board in the post titled 14s.

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1988 Camaro
305 bored .030 over
Stock TBI
Aluminum radiator
No smog pump
gutted factor cleaner
cam ground to crane specs
timing advanced 9 degrees
no thermostat
other than that its bone stock and ran a 16.4 @ 82 mph with earth shattering wheel hop and a 2.88 60 ft time. (this was with the rebuild and cam only)

 

Use a carb manifold with an adapter plate youll be much happier with the performance (including if you get into the chip side)

the stock manifold is junk

 

The reason we were thinking of using a stock GM V8 TBI manifold is that we have one available to us for free. The reason for the old style heads is that's what's on the motor we already own that we're gonna drop in the truck. We aren't gonna buy a new set of heads just to accomodate the different intake bolt pattern.

But it sounds like the aftermarket carb manifold with an adapter plate is the way to go. Thanks for the info.

 

Honestly from what I've seen the carb manifold with an adapter plate is the only way to go. The TBI maniflods just don't seem up to par.

------------------
1988 Camaro
305 bored .030 over
Stock TBI
Aluminum radiator
No smog pump
gutted factor cleaner
cam ground to crane specs
timing advanced 9 degrees
no thermostat
other than that its bone stock and ran a 16.4 @ 82 mph with earth shattering wheel hop and a 2.88 60 ft time. (this was with the rebuild and cam only)