DURTYBIRD

Car was originally an LG4 (305/carb) and has since been swapped to a 350 with a carb. The engine has VERY low miles on it at this point.

I want to go with a fuel injection arrangement. I do not want to do the LT1 intake modification, since I've tried it before and did not like the layout.

The car doesn't have any of the sensors/pcm to control a fuel injected motor, so I'd have to factor that in.

I do want something that I can reprogram the pcm, and 'room to grow' (so TPI really isn't an option).

2 apparent options:

LT1 engine swap (whole engine):
(cons) lose the low mileage engine for one that is questionable, stock heads
(pros) OBDI programability and familiarity from other cars I've had (LT1 Caprice/LT1 Trans Am)

holley stealth ram:
(cons) price, question about what engine system to use to control it.
(pros) upgradability. retain my low milage shortblock. Already have SBC TFS 23* heads and LT4 hotcam.

Any others to suggest?

Although I've considered the LS1 swap, I have ruled it out due to the expense involved.

RB83L69

The Stealth Ram is probably the best mix of price, ease, & performance out there.

You can use almost any ECM to control it. It would be easiest to set up as a S/D system. You'd need a harness out of any S/D V6 or V8 vehicle. If you got a V6 one you'd need to add one more injector plug per bank. Make sure what ever harness you get has the connectors for all the sensors are in the right places; CTS in or near the water outlet, knock sensor in the right side of the block, etc. If you go that route, you can get a 7730 ECM out of any car that has one, the harness from a MPFI V6 Camaro or Firebird, and burn your own chips. Or, you could use an Accel DFI or whatever.

You'd have to come up with a few FI parts; fuel pump & lines, TB, air cleaner, things like that.

DURTYBIRD

Not that I'm opposed to it, but I'd rather have a setup where I plug the laptop in to reprogram, rather than burning chips. Not sure if there is another option there?

ME Leigh

I would go with a complete aftermarket setup. Holley, Accell, Edelbrock.....

RB83L69

Yeah, the DFI is that way; there's also the Holley unit, and Haltech, and FAST, maybe Edelbrock (I don't know if they sell the controller by itself though), and a new one that's been discussed here and there called the "Megasquirt".

You can kind of think of it as, that you get whatever physical intake you want; then whatever control ECM you want; then whatever wiring it takes to hook the 2 together. After all, an injector is an injector, regardless of the air flow path; engine vacuum is always engine vacuum, a fuel pump has to be turned on and off, a throttle opens and closes; and so forth. All of that is entirely independent of the details of the intake casting. The ECM, whatever it is, neither knows nor cares what shape the metal is.

shaggy56

Whatever happened to the prominator idea. Last time I checked this eliminated burning chips and is far cheaper than an aftermarket unit. Check out the DIY prom section for info.

http://misterbill.homeip.net/aboutprominator.asp

DURTYBIRD

I'm not sure if this was evident, but this will be a daily driver with only modest HP expectations.

On the LT1 engine swap: I recentlt sourced a B-body LT1 for about $550 (oil pan to intake, less accessories)...and another one complete minus the pcm for $850. Both had 100k miles on them (nabbed the oil change reminder from the windshields)...but LT1's are known to go much longer than that. Even so, I could throw a basic rebuild on it for a little bit of dough assuming there was not major internal problems when pulling the motor apart.

Considering I have a buyer pretty much lined up to buy my shortblock for $500, I figure I could get the LT1 into the car for a net of under $1000 or so...

Would any of these aftermarket setups - installed on my current shortblock - cost less than that? Lets say I have a budget of $1500.

ME Leigh

Make sure that your B-body LT1's aren't the "baby" LT1's. I bet all the LT1's you have are the 4.3l kind not the 5.7l 350 kind.

DURTYBIRD

Actually, GM did a nice think in putting the 350 stamp on the top surface of the block closest to the driver firewall - so it's easy to tell.

Thanks for the heads up though!

Air_Adam

327 Fuellie!!!

haha... now, really, I agree with RB here

DURTYBIRD

Only thing I have to question that is the burning of chips...but that prominator looks promising...albeit a little pricey...certainly worth it though.

88Camaro350

If you have the money those edelbrock RPM pro-flows are sweet and no need for a laptop. If I had 2 grand I would probably buy one. But for now I'm gonna stick with carb.

DURTYBIRD

as a budget solution, could a stealthram be controlled via a 4th gen OBDI PCM and wiring harness (like an LT1)? probably not, but I was curious.

DURTYBIRD

double post...

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

HSR IMO.

84 Z-28 350

I have a pro flo 1000 CFM system, and it works great, the only 2 problems I've had were, the wiering harness wasen't long enough, we called edelbrock tech support and they told us to send it back to them and they next day aired it back to us after they extended it, the other problem I've had is the hall effect switch- you have to gut the distributor and install this little thing in it, along with a shutter wheel, anyway the hall effect switch is mounted to a curcit bord-the only purpose it serves is a mounting point for the swich and they use it to keep the wires down I guess, by having the wires go from the switch to the bord go about 1/2"on the bord and then out to the connector, I've had the wires where it goes to the bord come un-soldered twice, when I called tech support I diden't even get to finish explaining the problem when he said "let me guess the black wire", so they know about the problem and that was 2 years ago, so they probably have it fixed, also it has a hand held controlerwhich let's you change all the fuel and timing curves, I am overall happy with it. just my $0.02

DURTYBIRD

well, I took a look at the Pro-Flo system. Yuck. $2k (more than I paid for my whole car) for a system (750 CFM) that is only adjustable via a little digital box.

I think I'm going to look into getting the HSR...seems a much better bang for the buck solution.