I have been searching and reading for a month now to plan out a TBI swap and just not getting answers that make me feel confident. Let me fully explain what I am doing and I hope you guys can point me in the right direction or offer some good advice.

I have been using the ThirdGen boards because the info is so good and there are so many knowledgeable people here.

What I have is a '71 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser. I use it as a trail truck and not a daily driver. I finished up a rebuild earlier this year which included the installation of a 700R4 behind an '83 305 out of a truck sporting a Quadrajet. The quads are good wheeling carbs, but a pain to keep tuned when I go from sea level to 3k or 4k feet to wheel in the mountains. Then it always runs rich and needs adjustments each trip.

The engine had a recent rebuild. I wanted to bring the HP and Torque lower down the RPM range so I installed an Edelbrock 2101 performer intake and Summit K1102 cam. The cam specs are 262 int./272 exh. duration and 0.420 int./0.442 exh. lift with a 112* lode separation. A very mild upgrade. I have 2" rams horns that feed into a single 2 1/2" exhaust through a magnaflow muffler.

I have purchased an entire TBI setup from an '88 Chevy pickup with a 305. It's a 7747 ECU. I chose this setup for price mostly as I am out of money after this build. The main reason I bought a TBI was to get a better running engine at altitude and to better handle steep inclines, declines and off camber situations that carbs have a hard time with. I had not known how difficult it would be to install and get this working correctly until I started reading about TBI's with non-stock cams on this forum.

My primary needs are good idle and off idle response since I mostly drive VERY slow, good highway driving to and from the trail heads, ability to handle the altitude changes (shut down and restart is fine), and decent fuel economy. The engine has more than enough power for me so I don't need to free up more.

It seems my only choices for using this system are to have a custom chip burned, install a ship adapter and buy chip burning software and do it myself, install an EBL Flash and mod it myself or dump this in favor of a Howell TBI or equivilent ($2k). For $2k I would rather buy a 5.3 Vortec... I don't mind putting in some effort to make it right, but I don't want to keep fiddling for best performance, I just want it to run well.

Anyway, I am fighting with finances and need to find the cheapest method to accomplish my needs.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Is there a better forum for what I am doing (I have not found any)?

Thanks for helping me out!

Steve

 

The EBL is your best option IMO.

 

I kind of feel the same way after all the reading I have been doing. I think I am going to cancel the TBI mod, it's just getting too expensive for so little gain.

 

The only thing you need to worry about is the size of the injectors & psi (to the engine), & good engine vacuum. If your cam is a low speed torque (RV) type cam it should make good vacuum to the map sensor. Where guys get into trouble is when they run a wild loppy cam that makes little vacuum.
Tbi is very adaptable.

 

My cam isn't that agressive in my opinion, however I only make about 10 to 12 inHg at idle.

 

10-12" is to low. I'd check for vacuum at the manifold, not the carb/tbi unit. That way you don't have to worry if the vacuum source is ported.
Make sure the gauge is accurate.
Make sure the timing is correct, for kicks, advance up to 12* to see if it improves. i'd like to see vacuum at 16.5" or more at idle.