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4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

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Old 01-28-2008, 08:07 PM
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4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I've been staring at a spare L03 TBI unit and it looks to me that if you pulled out all the vacuum tubes in the front and machined off most of the front side of it you could make an adapter plate to mount 2 of them with the machined sides against each other and it would just fit on standard Holley Dominator size carb flange.

It would then end up with the fuel inlets and injector pods fully intact on each unit, they would end up on the outside of each end, so if it works this is a pretty cheap and easy way to get a pretty nice 4 barrel TBI unit.

Has anybody ever tried this? I've got a CNC mill here (nothing fancy, home made but it works) and I'm tempted to give it a shot, it would be pretty easy to mill off the front of the units and fab up an adapter plate.

Since one unit is turned around the throttle linkage would be an issue, but it also looks like you might be able to reverse the linkage on the turned around unit so it moved the same way as the unturned unit, either by swapping the linkage around end to end or remounting the throttle blades so they close on the opposite side of the bores.

I'd modify the regulators in the units so the bypass is closed off and just use a single external regulator to feed both units.

I'd then stick it on my 454 drag car engine, it currently has a big Dominator carb on it, the plan would be to control it with an EBL that included the extra injector driver upgrade so it could drive all four injectors.

Has anybody ever tried anything like this?

Paul T.

Last edited by titchener; 01-28-2008 at 08:11 PM.
Old 01-28-2008, 10:35 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I think its a real cool idea actually. No need for extra vacuum ports. Throttle linkage is an issue though. you would only need 1 tps so milling the second tb's tps area off to expose the shaft with what might look like a holley linkage on a double pumper . I'll venture a guess that your trying to use the dominator over again. I'm actually in the process of setting up dual tbi's on my 496. I had considered turning both tbi's sideways for better fuel distribution and shorter run to intake valves kind of like the sheetmetal intakes on prostock engines (milled and welded tunnel ram).
Old 01-29-2008, 10:42 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I did quickly layout of it last night and it looks to me like it might work. The issue is getting the units mounted close enough together so that the throttle bores will fit inside a dominator sized intake flange, which on my manifold is around 4.72" square. This would take a fair amount of milling on the front side of the TBI's, but it looks to me like it might work. You lose the front clamping bolt on them but I would just fab up a clamp to go across the front side of both units at the same time to clamp them down in the front.

The throttle bore positions would be a little compromised as they are spread out towards the front and back manifold opening walls more than the dominator bores are but I think it would be ok.

I guess I'll have to stick one in the mill and start cutting it down, I'll report back here what happens.

Rocko, I'm interested to follow the progress of of your dual TBI 496, please report here how it works out.

Paul T.
Old 01-29-2008, 11:52 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I would also consider linkage adaptation of sequential opening of TB's but not sure if EBL can shut off two of 4 injectors based upon TPS%. Maybe take a look at Holley linkage as it is seq. there is a lot of pressure on 4 butterflies to overcome with pedal. seq would help.
Old 01-29-2008, 12:42 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Yeah, drivability with all four opening at the same time is a concern, so sequential might be the way to go, although for me its a drag only car so I can live with some "personality" in the part throttle situations. I'm hoping the tunability will make synchronized throttles ok (versus a carb where it can be a nightmare), but if it needs to be sequential your suggestion to copy the holley linkage is a good one. The EBL can't control the 4 injectors separately but I would suspect the ability to control the overall fueling map based on TPS and MAP would allow this sequential situation to work ok as long as the second throttle blades were always opening up somewhat and thus had some air flow. All the injectors would be turned down at that point to keep the average fuel coming in from both front and back about right for the total air flow.

Paul T.

Last edited by titchener; 01-29-2008 at 12:45 PM.
Old 01-29-2008, 06:11 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

if any of you older guys remember the 60's thottle linkages were rods and not cables you could mess with opening rates by changing the lever lengths. what about a bell rank of sorts to open the throttles slowly at idle to mid and accelerate their opening rates the further they open. this is the opposite of current vortec throttle bodies. if the pressure from opening all 4 throttles is too much then remove one of the springs from one of the tbi's. you'll have to cut one of the throttle linkages off but hey whats a little more machining.

i'll keep you guys posted on my dual tbis but i have to finish gutting the 91(caprice).I've probably got until next winter with the single tbi and by then ill have the stuff finished for the dual.<--mini jack

i dont see too much of a problem with milling into the upper venturi area some to keep the tbis in the same throttle opening area. your throttle entry would look like a carb main body with the choke area milled off.
Old 01-30-2008, 10:26 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

>i dont see too much of a problem with milling into the upper venturi area
>some to keep the tbis in the same throttle opening area. your throttle entry
>would look like a carb main body with the choke area milled off.

Yeah, you're probably right about that. I got a JY unit that I'm going to bolt to a plate and start taking cuts on and we'll see what happens.

The "ported vacuum" port is going to be casualty from this but I don't see any need for that on a drag motor, off hand does anybody know what the ported vacuum connection is used for on a stock motor?

Paul T.
Old 01-30-2008, 08:09 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

i believe its just there for the charcoal canister.
Old 01-31-2008, 02:54 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

how about using a duel carb intake and just run them linked together
Old 01-31-2008, 03:09 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

That should work but it really cuts down on the potential available manifolds since not very many companies make dual carb manifolds anymore, except for the hand made sheetmetal ones for all out engines.

I've worked on the layout a little more and fabbed up a fixture plate to hold the body while it gets machined, so pretty soon I'll know if this has a chance, so far it looks good.

Paul T.
Old 01-31-2008, 10:08 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

edelbrock came out with a dual 4bbl dual plane for 502s specifically but might work nice for me. what car is your motor in titchner? (dont want to assume thirdgen)
Old 01-31-2008, 11:31 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Its a 486 big block in a '67 Chevelle, caged but not tubbed but hooks pretty good on 10-1/2" slicks, has homemade ladder bars. Used to bracket race it every week until Fremont drag strip out here in Cal closed in '83. Got married, had kids and the cars been sitting the whole time. The kids are 13 an 14 now and are less of a time sink and I've learned better how to tell their mom to go f*** off rather than letting her spin my head around so its time to get it running again.

I'm dinking around with the throttle body tonight and yanked all the vacuum tubes out of the front, they popped out pretty easy, its probably going under the mill tomorrow.

The only rub so far is that if you keep enough of the front side of it so that all 3 of the injector pod screws stay stock the thottle bores just barely fit in dominator inlet space but are spaced pretty far apart, right up against the front and back walls of the manifold.

The other choice is to cut off about .4" more, which cuts off the front injector pod screw but you can then use the air cleaner stud hole to clamp the injector pod instead. Looks like it would work but requires hacking off part of the front tab of injector pod and I'd rather not do that so I think I'll try it with the wide spacing first and see how it works.

Paul T.
Old 02-01-2008, 07:05 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I'm watching this post close. Got luck to the pair of you guys. I had planned on doing the deal with combining 2 TB's, on one manifold. Then I figured why not just get a chunk of aluminum, machine the 4 bores, the shaft holes, and use the harware from the stock TB's. The injector pods could be mounted so the fuel feeds are front and rear, and one could use and external regulator. That is something I have been thinking about.

But then the linkage is also an issue. Wether or not to make em open all at once or progressively. I wonder if any members here have used a holley 4bbl tbi unit with the ebl and how it runs, or 2 tbi units on a dual carb intake. Since these would have throttles that open at the same time, the latter anyway.

Sorry for ramblin, again, good luck.
Old 02-02-2008, 03:25 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by liquidh8
Then I figured why not just get a chunk of aluminum, machine the 4 bores, the shaft holes, and use the harware from the stock TB's. The injector pods could be mounted so the fuel feeds are front and rear, and one could use and external regulator. That is something I have been thinking about.
Yeah. that doesn't look that hard to do if you reuse the injector pods, they're pretty simple to mount up.

But so far the hack up the stock ones approach is looking pretty good, and I'm going to keep going with it until I hit a dead end. Last nite I drilled the air cleaner mounting hole all the way through the base with a 1/4" drill as the plan is to use it as the third mounting hole as the original one will get milled away.

I was worried that the hole would exit on the bottom in a bad place, ie right through a wall but it turns out it comes through in a nice spot, pretty cleanly thru an existing void. So that looks like its going to work pretty well, I'll use a long stud through this to both clamp the TBI unit down on that side and to extend up to the top of the air cleaner housing, which will have to be fabbed up.

Next up is milling the body down, its actually sitting on a plate in the machine right now waiting for me to quit dinking around on other stuff.

Paul T.
Old 02-02-2008, 07:48 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I cut down the first TBI body and it went pretty much as well as you could hope, at least for building a Dominator sized unit. It turns out that if you cut as much as you can without eliminating the front injector pod screw then the front to back bore spacing for the 2 units is spread by only 0.1" more than a Dominator. I don't that think thats enough to make much difference.

The TBI units have 2.375" bore spread left to right compared to a Dominator's 2.75" square spacing, but I think being a little narrower will be ok, being wider would be worse I think.

I thought I would lose the throttle stop screw setup, but it turns out that you can turn it around and thread it in from the other side, a little harder to adjust that way since the head is under the tab but not too bad.

Mounting of the unit looks fine, the hole thru the air cleaner bolt hole works fine. The IAC is retained if needed, I'll probably punt on it but there is no problem in running IAC on one of the units and plugging it on the other.

The only big issue left is fabbing up a mounting plate and then working out the throttle linkage but I don't think this will be too bad.

Now I'm just waiting for my 2nd TBI unit to come in from Ebay and then I'll finish the plate and the linkage.

I think it will be possible to also make a unit to fit on a standard Holley sized mounting flange. It would required machining the units down more and losing the front injector mounting screw, but the air cleaner stud can be used to hold down that end of the pod.

Paul T.
Old 02-02-2008, 10:37 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Sounds like you are making some good progress. You should take a few pics and post them up. I have like 3 or 4 tb's laying around I can sacrifice to try it out too, you beat me to it and it is sounding like you are making out good. I wouldn't have any problems machining off the front injector pod screws to get it to fit a standand holley flange. I could prolly even fab up a bracket of some sort to hold the injector pod down if need be.

Keep us posted!
Old 02-22-2008, 02:15 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I've made some good progress on the 4 barrel TBI project, it looks like it has a good chance of working. Below are 2 cut down TBI units mounted on a fabricated base plate. The base plate bolts on to Holley Dominator flanges, and orients the TBI bores pretty close to where a Dominator has it bores.

From front to back the bore spacing is almost perfect compared to a Dominator, but they are a little narrow side to side but I think will work ok. Cutting the TBI's is pretty straightforward, as shown you cut them just up to the end of the injector pod tab.

The bottom view shows how the base plate blends out the TBI bores to the Dominator opening for a smooth flow transition.

The linkage shown works, but doesn't keep the throttles fully synchronized as they open, so I'm working on a better one.

With the TBI's in stock form this unit will flow 980 CFM, so it should work well on the Super Gas 468 BB chev engine I plan to run it on.

Paul T.
Attached Thumbnails 4 barrel &quot;Franken&quot; TBI unit-tbidominatortop.jpg   4 barrel &quot;Franken&quot; TBI unit-tbidominatorbottom.jpg  
Old 02-22-2008, 02:47 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

A thought on the linkage......

Could the cable be attached to a pulley. Then 2 cables/linkages on the other side vs the pulley (top vs bottom, not left/right), so when the pulley was pulled, it rotated, thereby pulling both cables simultaneously, pulling the throttles in unison?

If my description doesn't make sense, I can whip up a sketch with labels.
Old 02-22-2008, 02:56 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

RBob, I probably should have asked this before I went to the trouble to fabricate this thing, but do you think this will work with an EBL ECM on an engine this radical?

Its a 468 BB Chevy with square port Merlin heads, its got a Victor-R manifold and a pretty stiff cam, 284/292 duration at 0.050" with .725/.714 lift, 110 degrees separation. Peak HP is 677 at 7000 RPM, peak torque is 533 at 6500 RPM.

Paul T.
Old 02-22-2008, 03:40 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by Stephen
A thought on the linkage......

Could the cable be attached to a pulley. Then 2 cables/linkages on the other side vs the pulley (top vs bottom, not left/right), so when the pulley was pulled, it rotated, thereby pulling both cables simultaneously, pulling the throttles in unison?
Stephen, something like that might work, I'm playing around with a bunch of possibilties right now, something using rod ends is preferred because its quick for me to fab up. Since all the injectors fire the same amount of fuel I think its pretty important that the throttle blades be fully in sync.

Paul T.
Old 02-22-2008, 06:06 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

That think looks awesome lol.

I dont know alot about carb intakes, so lets see if I can make you understand this question. Is each bore gonna feed 2 cyl, or does the left half feed to the whole left bank, and the right 2 barrels will go to the right bank?

The reason I ask is because, if two bores open nice and steady, and 2 bores kinda wait and then slam open near WOT, that would provide a cool effect. Kinda like mechanical secondaries I think.

You might be able to set up a VAFPR to allow the overall fuel from all 4 injectors, to be matched to the acutal amount of air entering the intake manifold.

The way I see it, even if 1 bore was open, and one bore was just about shut, the fuel isnt gonna have a problem getting sucked past the throttle blade, is it?
Old 02-22-2008, 06:52 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by slow_90firebird
That think looks awesome lol.

I dont know alot about carb intakes, so lets see if I can make you understand this question. Is each bore gonna feed 2 cyl, or does the left half feed to the whole left bank, and the right 2 barrels will go to the right bank?

The reason I ask is because, if two bores open nice and steady, and 2 bores kinda wait and then slam open near WOT, that would provide a cool effect. Kinda like mechanical secondaries I think.

You might be able to set up a VAFPR to allow the overall fuel from all 4 injectors, to be matched to the acutal amount of air entering the intake manifold.

The way I see it, even if 1 bore was open, and one bore was just about shut, the fuel isnt gonna have a problem getting sucked past the throttle blade, is it?
On "single plane" racing manifolds like this one, its basically a big open area that all 4 barrels feed at once, but I think the front cylinders get favored by the front barrels and same deal with the back barrels, so if one end is rich and the other end is lean, which will happen if the blades aren't synced, I think the cylinders would see different fuel distribution.

You're probably right that a system could be put together to cut the fuel down a based on throttle blade position, but I'm going to try it first with the blades in sync and see how it works.

Paul T.
Old 02-22-2008, 07:24 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Instead of mounting them front to back, what if you mounted them side by side? That way, both TBs fed front & back? Then, syncing the TBs wouldn't be as critical, front to back.
Old 02-22-2008, 08:39 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Wouldnt that cause him to have one bank run lean, and one bank rich? Plus Having the throttle cable connect on the front or rear would be more complicated IMHO.
Old 02-23-2008, 12:53 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by titchener
RBob, I probably should have asked this before I went to the trouble to fabricate this thing, but do you think this will work with an EBL ECM on an engine this radical?

Its a 468 BB Chevy with square port Merlin heads, its got a Victor-R manifold and a pretty stiff cam, 284/292 duration at 0.050" with .725/.714 lift, 110 degrees separation. Peak HP is 677 at 7000 RPM, peak torque is 533 at 6500 RPM.

Paul T.
Dropped in to see how you were making out with this. It will flow some air & fuel not doubt about it. As for the setup & engine working with an EBL, I don't see why not. Go with the 4-injector upgrade for injector driving. The fueling & SA will go flat at 6400 RPM. But then again how much will it need to change between then and the shift point? It probably won't matter.

For low engine speed the n-alpha may come in handy. There is a table of pseudo MAP values by RPM & TPS%. This table then gets blended with the real MAP reading. The amount of blend varies according to RPM.

For the throttle linkage, you can put a gear on the end of each shaft that mesh with each other. They will then open/close together and in the correct direction.

I am definately interested in how it works out for you.

RBob.
Old 02-23-2008, 08:36 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

looking good I'm following your progress pretty closely. I hope it works out.
Old 02-23-2008, 08:50 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by RBob
Dropped in to see how you were making out with this. It will flow some air & fuel not doubt about it. As for the setup & engine working with an EBL, I don't see why not. Go with the 4-injector upgrade for injector driving.
RBob.
Glad to here that, it was fun making the big pile of chips so far but I was a little concerned that I might have dived into the pool without making sure there was water in it. I was planning to go with your 4 injector setup.

Originally Posted by RBob
For low engine speed the n-alpha may come in handy. There is a table of pseudo MAP values by RPM & TPS%. This table then gets blended with the real MAP reading. The amount of blend varies according to RPM.

For the throttle linkage, you can put a gear on the end of each shaft that mesh with each other. They will then open/close together and in the correct direction. RBob.
That n-alpha capability sounds pretty interesting, I wasn't aware of it so I'll take a look at those tables. The gear suggestion is a good one also, I've worked out 2 different bell crank based methods that will work with zero error and won't be too bad to implement but let me think about your gear suggestion, I guess with a strong enough return spring on the second unit it would keep the backlash to zero.

Rbob, I'll likely be picking your brain for some help when I get to running it if that's ok. Unfortunately that probably won't be until summer since the motors out of the car now and I've got some other projects that have to be finished first (ones that make me money), but I am going to get to it, it looks like too much fun not to try out.

If anyone who is using an EBL system on a pretty hot motor that can handle this much airflow is interested in trying it out before then I could potentially loan the basic unit to someone who is really serious about trying it, as long as you can supply your own injector pods and injectors. If it works out we could come to an agreement where you keep it by covering my material costs, which are actually not much (which is why I like this project, go fast for cheap).

Paul T.
Old 02-24-2008, 08:49 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Paul, I just sold my 650 horse BBC to my brother, who has converted his 79 monte to TBI. His plans are to drop the BBC in the monte, and get a 4bbl tbi and the 4 inj EBL for it. He is waiting a few weeks to get the engine dropped in. This may be something we would be interested in trying. I'll have to run it by him, since it would take getting a rectantular port dominator intake for the engine.
Old 02-25-2008, 12:23 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

This is a really cool project and you definately have some machining skills! Do you have plans to seal between the 2 units? What happened to the ports when you milled the front?
Old 02-25-2008, 11:42 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Liquidh8, I'm definitely interested in having you try the unit out, it sounds like that's good sized motor for it. The TBI units are stock now, so that's about 980 cfm of total flow, which is maybe just a little undersized for 650 HP, but its pretty close and should run pretty well.

You would need to supply your own injector pods (the screw on housings) and injectors and come up with a fuel regulator. It will take the stock pods although you do have to file them just slightly on the ends where they come close to each other in the center of the unit, but it doesn't keep them from working fine on stock units, I didn't want to have to modify the injector pods.

With a high pressure pump I think you can use the 61# injectors, which are cheaper to get your hands on, but I can help you sort out which injectors and pump pressure would be best.

Regarding the fuel regulator, I don't think the stock units are up the required fuel flow, so my plan was to block the return outlets on the TBI's and use an external regulator, probably the Aeromotive unit (think its model 13301), the one that has a return line outlet and can be used with a vacuum input for pressure modulation if desired. There are Earl's AN type fittings that connect right to the TBI inlets, I've got those part numbers somewhere.

I'm going to work the linkage out so that only a Holley carb style "pull type" throttle connection is required.

I'd be using this on a drag strip only car, so I wasn't planning to run IAC at all, I was just going to block those ports off. I was planning to run an air cleaner on the unit, so I'm going go fab up an adapter that lets you use a standard type 14" air cleaner.

Let me know if your brother is seriously interested in trying the unit and we'll work to make it happen. If hood clearance isn't an issue there are some normal flange to dominator flange adapters that are pretty affordable (around $60. or so), although it would be better to get a real dominator intake.

Paul T.
Old 02-25-2008, 11:48 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Sixty, the only issue on the space between the units is that if you are running an air filter it needs to be sealed off so air can't come in that way. My plan is to use some rubber gasket material to make a custom gasket that sits on top of the TBI's with an aluminum adapter on top of that so that a normal 14" air cleaner can be used.

Otherwise you just need to block off the holes left over from the vacuum fittings that used to be there, the lucky thing was that its a pretty clean cut to take off the front of the housings, just plug the port holes and seal off some passage ways that get exposed, it looks like a little JB weld will do that fine.

I'm going to put some vacuum fittings on the adapter plate to make up for the ones that were lost.

Paul T.
Old 02-25-2008, 01:10 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Thanks for the reply, I can visualize it now. Definately a cool setup!
Old 02-25-2008, 03:53 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I was wondering, to you plan in TIG welding the two milled pieces together to make them one? That would be sweet!
Old 02-26-2008, 05:53 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I like it.......
Does it look as if you could mill the TBI's further? To make the holes closer
together front to back. For use on a holly or Q-jet intake.

When you have time post up a picture of the milled off edge and the under
side.

So how long does it take to mill each TBI?

Keep up the good work!!!
Old 02-26-2008, 07:35 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Zipfast-

It appears to me that you can keep milling the units down to the point where you just barely leave the air cleaner hole in place. This would allow them to get close enough together to make a baseplate that would fit on a standard Holley flange, and probably also would allow making a baseplate for a Q-jet style flange.

A couple of issues with cutting them this much, you would have to cut the center screw tab off the injector pods, but it looks to me like you could just use the air cleaner stud to also clamp down on the pods instead of the screw that got cut off. It looks like a little more plugging of exposed passage ways would be required, but it looks doable to me.

So it looks like a unit can be built for these smaller flanges, and I already did a paper design of a baseplate for a Holley flange and it looks doable.

However since the motor I'm going to use has a Dominator intake and there's less modifications involved to the TBI's, I'm going to try that first, and if it works well I'll likely make a plain Holley version also.

980cfm (490 x 2) is a lot of airflow for a standard Holley sized intake, but I'm starting to wonder if the size matching on these TBI systems is perhaps not as critical as with carbs. The reason I'm wondering that is that GM was able to use the same sized 490 cfm TBI unit on engines ranging from 262 up to 350 cu in. Trying to do that with the same carb would definitely be troublesome because of the way the fuel is pulled into the airflow in a carb, which requires a certain air speed range. In the case of my L03/305 in my Caprice, the stock 490 cfm TBI its putting out only 170 HP, so maybe that means a quad unit 960cfm unit could be used with engines putting out as little as 340 HP.

If you swallow this line of thinking, maybe this quad 960cfm TBI can work on engines smaller than I realized, so maybe a standard Holley or spreadbore sized unit isn't so crazy, anybody have any thoughts on this?

The next time I have the units off the baseplate I'll take a shot of the machined unit. Machining them down is pretty easy and can be done on any Bridgeport or even smaller sized mill, the castings cut pretty easy. You could probably saw them first and then just make a single clean up cut on a mill, but I cut these first ones in 0.1" stages to see what the housing looked like as it was cut down.

Paul T.
Old 02-26-2008, 09:47 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I still think that with some tig welding, and very strategic milling, you could make that look alot more nicer and professional! If you filled the crack between the two, milled it down, and milled down some of the "tabs" on the sides, it would look almost like it was designed that way.

You could also mill off the ledges "ultimate TBI" style, and round the entrance to the bores just a bit for a streamlined apparence. Maybe use some aluminum polish on the whole thing.

Also, if you welded them together, you could drill and tap your own hole dead center for a new single air cleaner stud.

That would look cool with one of those oval shaped aircleaners.
Old 02-27-2008, 12:53 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Adam, you're right, the unit can be cleaned up with some additional milling and maybe some welding. The maybe on the welding is because some aluminum castings don't weld very well, and I'm not even sure if these are aluminum, some carb/tbi makers use a "soup" mix of pot metal that can't be welded at all. The other issue on welding is warpage, its possible welding on them could warp the body and cause problems with the throttle blades.

But I'm not going worry about making them look pretty until I see if I can get the system working well

Paul T.

Last edited by titchener; 02-27-2008 at 12:59 PM.
Old 02-27-2008, 01:17 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Yeah, I guess. If you really wanted to find out, you could get a cheap rochester TBI off of a junk motor like a 4.6 or something, and try running a bead...

Another thing you could do, (if you got this one to work great, and really wanted to get involved) is make one out of billet aluminum. That would be sick.

You could draft the sketches first, and design it to use a starnard holley mounting pattern or something, and drill the throttle bores to use origional shafts and plates. You could design it to use standard pods and injectors too.

You could make alot of money on this.
Old 02-27-2008, 04:01 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by slow_90firebird
Another thing you could do, (if you got this one to work great, and really wanted to get involved) is make one out of billet aluminum. That would be sick.

You could draft the sketches first, and design it to use a standard holley mounting pattern or something, and drill the throttle bores to use origional shafts and plates. You could design it to use standard pods and injectors too.

You could make alot of money on this.
Yeah, if this hacked up one works well it will be tempting to make a new one up from scratch. The bore spacing on the stock units is pretty good to use for a Dominator sized 4 barrel but its too wide for a standard flange Holley, so a scratch built one would need new throttle shafts and blades, but that's actually not too hard to fab up.

Would there be money to be made on a system that reused stock injectors and/or injector pods, I don't know. The good news is that I think you could use the widely available 61 lbs/hr 350 injectors by jacking the fuel pressure up to 28 lbs or so, so it wouldn't require the more expensive and harder to find big block injectors.

The bad news is about 30 days after I finished getting it fabbed up and built, somebody would start having them built in china and charge about what the raw materials cost me for them here, that's the new reality these days in the manufacturing business.

Thanks for your thoughts-

Paul T.
Old 02-28-2008, 02:04 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I've been keeping tabs on my brothers progress with this engine swap of his, it's my engine I sold him from my drag car, but he is converting his ride to a manual, se he is held up on the flyweel and few other misc parts. he has a regulator he can use, I have a few injector pods with stock injectors laying around, so I could rig something up for the tryouts. I also have a walbo pump I can put in his ride to make sure we have the required pressure. But again, it's my brother who is talking his time so....
Old 02-28-2008, 02:18 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Liquid, let me know if your brother gets to the point where he's ready to give it a shot.

A manual car would be a pretty tough test as with my experience with carbs it takes a lot of pump shot to get the car to launch right at the hit, especially with a typical racing manifold with its big open plenum.

RBob, if you're still tuned in, do think we'll be able to get enough AE to make this thing work in these drag racing conditions?

Paul T.
Old 03-01-2008, 07:55 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

For AE it is just a matter of injector size. The ECM can have them all on for as long as AE is required. If that point is reached then larger injectors or higher fuel pressure is needed.

RBob.
Old 03-16-2008, 11:24 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Any update on this?
Old 03-17-2008, 03:24 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I'm still working on completing a test unit, just last night I machined the last piece for the linkage, haven't been able to try it yet but it should keep both pairs of throttle blades totally synchronized.

After that it just needs an air cleaner adapter fabbed up and some additional vacuum fittings machined in the baseplate and its ready to go.

I'm still looking for someone interested in trying it out, liquidh8 is thinking about it but it depends on some other stuff happening. To try it you would need a pretty serious engine capable of making around 600 HP or so along with an EBL unit setup to drive 4 injectors and an intake manifold that can take a Dominator flange carb. I'll supply the unit with the linkage, baseplate and TBI units and air filter adapter, you would need to supply the injector pods with injectors, an external regulator and the fuel plumbing to the units.

Speak up if anyone is willing to give it a shot, if it works and you want to keep it I'll sell the parts to you at my material costs.

Paul T.
Old 03-17-2008, 03:33 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

One thing I should add is that searching the web a little I found a comment that said that a few years ago turbocity.com was selling a quad TBI unit but never got it working very well and took it off the market, they were apparently having trouble with bottom end performance. I can see that if they tried it on a street engine, 980 cfm is too much flow for most street engines. Also tuning tools weren't as well developed back then (no EBL) so I still think it has of a chance of working even though turbocity punted on the idea.

Does anybody have any more info on this turbocity system?

Paul T.
Old 03-17-2008, 09:22 PM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by titchener
One thing I should add is that searching the web a little I found a comment that said that a few years ago turbocity.com was selling a quad TBI unit but never got it working very well and took it off the market, they were apparently having trouble with bottom end performance. I can see that if they tried it on a street engine, 980 cfm is too much flow for most street engines. Also tuning tools weren't as well developed back then (no EBL) so I still think it has of a chance of working even though turbocity punted on the idea.

Does anybody have any more info on this turbocity system?

Paul T.
If it's the same setup I'm thinking of,it was developed along about 92,and was designed to be a performance upgrade for stock TBI 350 engines.I think we can all see the design flaw in this idea.
Old 03-18-2008, 05:21 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

Originally Posted by titchener
A couple of issues with cutting them this much, you would have to cut the center screw tab off the injector pods, but it looks to me like you could just use the air cleaner stud to also clamp down on the pods instead of the screw that got cut off. It looks like a little more plugging of exposed passage ways would be required, but it looks doable to me.
You can eliminate the center leg on the pod. I've run my TB without the center leg for years without issue. Improves airflow also.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...t=tbi+land+ufo

Last edited by va454ss; 03-18-2008 at 05:28 AM.
Old 03-18-2008, 09:54 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

I spoke to Holley rep at NHRA event and they had on display a 700 and 900 CFM 4 barallel TBI unit. the linkage was sequential. That is a good idea. Not sure if the injectors are likewise seq as fired by the Holley ECU. I wish I had asked. on the Super Chevy(?) site a Holley tech is a moderator and that would be answered. I was going to go that route a couple years ago but now plan on a port intake setup which EBL supports after I get bored with my TBI.
Old 03-18-2008, 10:27 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

>You can eliminate the center leg on the pod. I've run my TB without the
>center leg for years without issue. Improves airflow also."

va454ss, thats good to know, thanks. Also I like the flipped over pod on top idea, I might have to "borrow" that idea from you.

>"I spoke to Holley rep at NHRA event and they had on display a 700 and 900
> CFM 4 barallel TBI unit. the linkage was sequential. That is a good idea.
>Not sure if the injectors are likewise seq as fired by the Holley ECU. I wish I
>had asked. on the Super Chevy(?) site a Holley tech is a moderator and
>that would be answered."

Ronny, I'm curious also about whether Holley sends less fuel to the injectors on the partially open throttle blades or whether you can get away dumping equal fuel on all the injectors and it just blends together ok in the plenum. I'll try to get on the Super Chevy forum and get an answer.

Last night I finished the linkage (synchronized for now) and started designing the air cleaner baseplate, it looks pretty straightforward.

Paul T.
Old 03-18-2008, 10:38 AM
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Re: 4 barrel "Franken" TBI unit

dumping fuel on a closed blade would not make much sense to me. if not sequential then i guess a 4 injs on always and a typical VE table and a non sequential TB. if the injs are in fact seq then what would the VE table need to look like? Would that require any thing special? I never checked ebay to see if the newer seq units are available.

Last edited by Ronny; 03-18-2008 at 10:45 AM.


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