Is there any difference in the 305 heads for the carbed or TBI engines? Looking to swap TBI onto my carbed engine but dont wanna have to replace the heads as well as the intake.. Thanx~!

 

Well there's two different intake patterns. 87-95 pattern that TBI uses, which has the two center intake bolts more upright. The pre-87 have all the bolts at the same angle. You can elongate the holes on the intake to make them match.

 

DO NOT PUT TBI IN PLACE OF YOUR CARB. Ok, now that thats out of the way, if for some *** forsaken reason your hell bent on swapping to Toilet Bowl Injection, yes, you can reuse the heads. Bu seriously though, dont put a TBI in place of a carb. You will be downgrading, and its not worth it. Most of the "smart" people who have TBI either go Carb, or TPI.

Good luck with your choice, and please dont make the wrong one.

 

The carb heads are actually better than the TBI heads, FWTW.

'86-earlier heads have all the intake manifold bolts at the same angle. TBI intake manifolds will not.

As a system, TBI is not as bad as the cars that used them came out. It is great for mileage, but how much gas can you buy for what this conversion will cost you? Performance is limited as the factory delivered them, but can be improved (there is a TBI forum on this board). Again, though, the same money spent on a carb system would make it scream.

To each his own. Do what you want to do - it's your car.

 

I'd have to agree, going from carb to TBI is a major backwards move as far as performance is concerned. But if you want to devalue your car that way, that's your business.

There's no reason you have to use TBI heads just to use the TBI. The heads they put on TBI motors were absolutely awful, as was the cam they used in it; if they had only made a TBI motor with the same heads as a TPI 305 or the last L69 and LG4 carb motors, with the L69/TPI 5-speed cam, and put the same exhaust behind it as the TPI or L69 cars had, the system as a whole would not seem to be such a joke. People take a TBI 305 and put a set of headers and a cat-back, and decent heads, and a better cam in them, and get at least tolerable if not anywhere near exciting or competitive power out of them. But like the other post said, you'll have a bolt-hole angle issue with the TBI intake if your heads are pre-87.

It would be a whole lot easier to leave your existing intake alone, and use an adapter.