Hey friends, I've been off the forum for some time do to military deployments, etc. Finally have some time to mess with the camaro and I'm trying to decide whether its even worth continuing to upgrade my TBI setup, or if I should just go a different route. I'm asking this question at a very basic level-stay with TBI or go a different route?

1. I can probably spend $1000 total. Wife in college, etc...

2. Need to stick with pretty much bolt on. I'm gone constantly with the military and I very wary of doing something that will require extensive tuning/"playing with" to run right. Wish I was more of a skilled mechanic, but I must admit this weakness.

3. Already done a lot of non-engine/induction mods:SFC's, 3.23 posi rear axle, Open element filter, smog pump and cat delete, flowmaster cross flow muffler. Its a 350 block.previous owner set it up, and until lately it ran nicely.

4. I'm only interested in set ups that are going to run reliably and be driveable around town. I want a car I can drive 3 hrs to the beach without worrying about getting stranded. Yes, this happened to me in Destin, Fl.

I'm having some trouble with the fuel injection lately, so it has me wondering if I should try to fix/improve my current system, or just throw it out and start over with a different system, or an aftermarket TBI.

So I just took a long time to ask a simple question-keep messing around trying to get some more power out of the TBI on a 350, or junk it and go a different route? Most important this is to run reliably!

 

IMO fix the tbi carbs suck

 

Agree. Don't want to mess with Carbs. Would you mess with the original TBI or just buy a ported TBI from somebody like CFM tech and go from there?

 

All depends on what the 350 long block is capable of, the 305/350 size TB should handle around 280 fwhp without being a restriction.
A DIY TBI set up can easy support around 400 fwhp.

In other words, with everything working correctly, the next step would be to figure out what the TBI needs to feed and go from there.

Also if tuning turns out too complicated, you can always have someone that knows how do it.

 

Several people have driven my car and evaluated my setup. Consensus has been 200-215HP, maybe close to 275 torque. If I could get another 30-50 hp out of my car I think would be happy. Its just on the verge of being fast enough to be fun, and that s all I want-a car thats fun to drive. I know TBI is CAPABLE of supporting a lot of HP, just wondering if is capable of doing it without an excessive amount of effort and money, relative to just switching to TPI or something else.

Also when I said "tuning" I really meant "F-ing with it" lol... I don't want to go down a route that will require a ton of head scratching, and tweaking (electric, mechanical, computer, etc) just to get it to run right. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time or experience for that.

Some of the posts on here just make me start to wonder if I'm going to spend a year and a thousand dollars or more messing with the stock TBI and end up with an extra 10 or 15 horses for the effort, if that. if so, I'd rather wait until I have the money to just switch to TPI or somthing.

 

This guy just fixed his tbi 350 for less than $200, tbi is very reliable
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...l-350-tbi.html

 

Need to know at least CR, cam specs and cylinder head part number to get an idea of what your are dealing with.
Sounds like you would like to have TPI, there is plenty of treads covering the conversion in the TPI forum.

 

Im definitely tempted to try TPI, just not sold one way or another yet...That might be more complicated than I want to get into. On the other hand, it sounds like I might spend a grand on exhasut, then 500 on overhauling the TBI and still not have a car that is much faster than a stock RS.

I don't know what heads and cam are in the car. Previous owner put the 350 in. I assume its all stock. Can't imagine he would have done cam or heads without bothering to touch the stock muffler or air cleaner. I won't be messing with the cam myself. Don't have the time, place or experience to go that deep.

 

Could try to read the block # and do a search.
With everything optimized the LO5 long block should be in the 230 fwhp range +/- 30 hp depending if roller cam or not, the 90 up f body L98 350 long block in the 290 hp range.

For the LO5 long block with flat tapped cam, does not really matter, TBI and TPI both work well and they will be equally slow.

For a LO5/L98/350 with roller cam the TPI will be restrictive and be more expensive to upgrade then the TBI.
For reference the later L98 f-body engine needed the full SLP package to allow the the 290fwhp long block to produce around 285 fwhp.

 

Thats good info Thomas. Its a 69 Truck block, based on the casting numbers.They are in a weird format and I had trouble looking, but another member on here knew what they were. My best guess is that the cam is the origianal from the truck block (flat tappet). I'm not even sure if that block would have had provisions for rollers. It idles like smoothly so the cam is certainly nothing outrageous.

The TBI, ECM and chip look stock to me, so I'm guessing its either the original LO3 or LO5 heads. The fact that it ran smoothly with the stock chip seems to support that. I haven't had the opportunity to crack into things and see exactly what the heads are.

Dumb question here but could he have put the LO3 heads from the original car on a 350 block? If not, I would guess that whoever did the swap just put the LO3 TBI unit on top of a complete older 350 truck motor, heads and all.

 

I really know nothing about the 1969 chevy 350ci hp specs, this is from wikipedia "The 327 c.i. V-8 engine was enlarged in 1969 to 350 CID (stroke increased from 3.25 to 3.48) with a net horsepower rating of 195-200, depending on emissions package 255 hp (190 kW), 350 cu in (5.7 L)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_C/K

Sounds like time to pull the valve covers.

 

Thomas, Ive been wondering for years, how did yu get into F-bodys in Switzerland? Are you Swiss, or American and living there? How is the situation for hot rodding cars there? I just got back from being in Norway with the military, and my colleagues there told me they have a max HP on cars sold there, regardless of emissions. Also said cars are about 3 times as expensive as the US. Are you the only Trans AM in Switzerland?

 

http://media.gm.com/media/intl/en/ch...ly_Europe.html
My grandfather had US (assembled in switzerland) cars, Dodge, Buike and chevrolet. Maybe it is a virus I got from him.
Wen I was 10-12 I had the chance to play/inspect with an original TV knigtrider trans am for an afternoon before it was brought to an exposition.
Modding, hot rodding and racing is mainly illegal here. My car looks mostly stock, passes inspections every 2 years and emissions every year.
There are many US cars and fans in this country.
Here is an example of a swiss tag.

 

That's very interesting to hear, Thomas. Thanks for posting the article.

It looks like you have changed the location displayed in your profile now. Apologies if my question prompted that.

 

You're welcome!