I was recently told you can't run a solid lifter roller cam in a TBI engine. No real explanation, just that you can't do it. It's not a wild cam (really) it's a .502/.502 lift (have to find the card as I don't remember if its a 110 or 112 lobe separation or what the duration is. I bought it specifically because it wasn't a real wild cam. Anyway, back to the question, how hard (if possible) to stick with the TBI setup with the solid lifter cam in SBC? Thanks.

 

TBI is just a way to get fuel and air into an engine. No real significant difference between it and a carb other than the TBI can be tuned to a much finer detail and TBI is basically tapped out once you get to around 425-450 hp.

With that said, there are some tuning strategies that you'll have to use in order to get an any GM FI to run with that cam. The first problem you may run into is that the knock sensor could possibly pick up noise from the valvetrain. I've hear of guys using a brass elbow on the knock sensor or using a early CCC carb knock module to desensitize the knock sensor.

Tuning will take some time as this cam really is kinda big, it's hard to say without seeing the duration numbers but it looks to be in the 220 range with a 110 lobe seperation. That will have a bit of a rough idle and may require going open loop (no O2 sensor) to get a good clean idle. This cam might even run well in open loop all the time. You'll need to get a WB to really effectively tune this cam.

The person who told you it wouldn't work with TBI probably doesn't even know that you can completely retune the TBI computer with cheap hardware and free software.

 

Thanks, BMmonteSS. I bought chips, reader/programer, UV eraser, cables, program, etc. awhile back. Been trying to get my son (it's his car) to start getting interested and learning what he can to do the programing. It should be a "nice" little engine for his '91 RS. '73 350 4 bolt main block bored 0.030", large journal 307/327 crankshaft, 6" rods, 10.5 to 1 pistons, RHS pro topline heads with 64 cc combustion chambers. Doug Herbert roller cam and lifters and Harland Sharp roller rockers, with an Edelbrock air gap manifold, edelbrock TES headers (for a TPI engine) and the big TPI cat and TPI flowmaster cat back exhaust. Wanted more than the stock 305 but didn't want to torque of a 350 to rip that BW 5 spd. apart. Found out the hard way a heavy duty 12" clutch and pressure plate won't fit under the stock bell housing. Really want to use the computer and TBI setup if we can make it work. Thanks again.