I have a 85 tpi iroc that has no motor. I want to change it over to a carb. I just dont want to deal with the fuel pressure regulator and trying to power the intake pump. Would i have to buy a whole new tank for a carbed car or is there something else i can do?

 

The tanks are the same, it's the sender that's different.

 

Can I buy the sender by its self, and do you know how much it cost?
Thank you

How would i look it up at like a autozone or something?

 

Junk yard.

 

I'm pretty sure you can modify the stock TPI sending unit to work with a Carburetor setup. Some people actually claim that a mechanical fuel pump can literally suck fuel with the electric pump still in-tact (I never tried this though, so I'm not sure). One good way to check and see if this will work in you're application, is to do the following;

With the TPI fuel lines removed, and with the factory fuel delivery line now exposed.... place a bucket underneath the 3/8's delivery line, and direct the rubber fuel hose so it dumps the fuel in the bucket. Turn the key in the 'on' position. First make sure that the pump is working, in which the bucket will start to fill up. Upon this, immediately turn the key in the 'off' position. If the fuel persists, and still comes out (via vacuum), you'll now know for sure that you're mechanical pump will be able to suck fuel passed the electric fuel pump. Don't forget, to stop the fuel from coming out of the fuel line, just take off you're gas cap.

If you're dropping the tank though, just remove the electric fuel pump from the stock sending unit, and install a pick-up in it's place (keep you're original piece). I'm not sure of the length though.

If you buy a new Carb sending unit, get ready to fork over some moo-lah. If you go with one from a junkyard, inspect it really well before installing it. The last thing you want to do is to install everything back on.... only to find out that it might be defective, then everything has to come back off again.

Good Luck

 

dude it took me all of 15 minutes to wire in a switch to the FP relay and a wire to the power wire under the back seat..that way u can use the intank pump and by a 29 dollar regulator from scoggin dickey and be good to go...

 

I ran the regulator and TPI pump for a couple years myself, but my pump just died a couple weeks ago, and I just got the tank out of the car today. What you're left with when you remove the pump is a section of the aluminum (I guess) tube that sticks down, but is of course about 8 inches too short. There is no easy way I see to splice on another piece of metal tubing, so I'm thinking of using some rubber hose to form the rest of the pickup. There is a loop on a different section of pipe down at the bottom that helped hold the end of the old fuel pump, so it will keep the rubber hose from flopping around or anything like that.

Is there any reason not to use a rubber hose as this section? I have some fairly good stuff that was sold as high pressure capable fuel hose, so I guess it should hold up. You can get it at NAPA btw. It's 3/8 inch "multi-fuel compatible" and slides right up over the old section of metal tubing where you can then hose clamp it on, and will work just fine as far as physically fitting. I'm just leary of rubber decaying in the gas or something. But being made for fuel line I guess that shouldn't happen. Anyone have any input?? This looks like the simplest way to form the pickup...

BTW, for the couple foot long section of tube I run up in the engine bay to go to the new mechanical pump and then to the carb, is there some reason I can't use copper tubing? I have a flare and bending kit for that, but I don't think it will bend the harder aluminum stuff or whatever was factory, or maybe it will. Where can I get that stuff for cheap?

 

I'm going to be guilty of bringing this back from the dead, but I still wanted to share the way I did it. Even though you've probably already solved this problem.

I'm converting from carb to TPI but I dropped my tank and installed the TPI fuel sender and am presently running the car through it until I put the new engine in in two weeks time.

I used the TPI sender return line as the feed line for the carb. The return line on the sender goes down as far as the fuel pump inside the tank so you can still get all the fuel. If your mechanical fuel pump has a return line like mine does then you can either use the sender as the return line or one of the breather lines. This depends a little as to whether you have to worry about emissions etc. But, I should think you could pass fuel in the reverse direction through the pump if needed.