I have an 90 Iroc 350 hardtop.I want to old school the engine-get rid of the fuel injection and replace it with carb.Just looking for other opinions on doing this and affecting the $ value of the car.

 

Do you ever plan on selling it?

If you don't then the value of the car is irrelevant. Plenty of people have done carb swaps. If you're worried about value you can just save all of your fuel injection parts so that you can put them all back if needed.

 

If you want a carbed car, why not buy an earlier IROC? They were available with carbs from the factory from 1985-87. Also you could convert a 1988-90 TBI car to carb. It just seems such a shame to do it to the last year with the lowest production and best engine.

If I were looking to purchase a 90 IROC I'd deduct at least $2,000 for a carb swap, assuming the car was otherwise 100% stock.

With enough time and effort, you could put it back stock, but you'd end up removing a TON of other emissions, electronics, and other original parts just to get a carb to run right on the car.

 

This is the History/Originality forum. Going "old school" on your car is not related to either. Moving this to the engine forum.

 

If you're are worried about affecting the car's value, I guess driving it off of a cliff would be pretty bad, but hacking up a TPI IROC-Z, with as you put it, an "old school" carb would be a close second.

 

Purely subjective, really. Just because it's converted doesn't mean it's a hack job... besides, TPI IROC Camaros are a dime a dozen. I would personally buy a carbed car over TPI any day of the week. It all comes down to the buyer.

 

Not subjective at all. He was asking on how it would affect it's value. If it's a nice IROC, he just decreased it's value. If it's a "dime a dozen" beater IROC, I guess it just doesn't matter much.

 

If WORKING, NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT 90 IROCs are a dime a dozen, then hack-job carbed ones are a penny a dozen. Except, in reverse: you'd have to pay a typical buyer a penny to accept a dozen of the hack jobs.

If you're unhappy with TPI, put some better FI intake on it. DON'T hack it up and Stone Age it. If you're smart enough to post on the Internet, then you're smart enough to figure out EFI.

 

While I do agree on some points, most of these cars on average are run down or need work regardless of what they are/what fuel application they possess. The only ones that are worth anything remotely:

1. highly modified vehicles (fuel injection/carbureted makes no difference)
2. time capsule vehicles (collectors; not representative of majority population sample)
3. exclusives (limited/rare models or options)


Worth is subjective to the target market and the buyer at hand. My car is worth nothing to a collector, but it's worth a lot to the drag race market.. and guess what? It's carbureted after I converted it from fuel injection. Unless the car has low mileage, a purist approach isn't going to increase the value of this car. Your average IROC isn't worth squat anyways, even if it's in relatively fair condition because there's a crapload of them out there. These cars weren't Chevelles from the "golden years", they were budget muscle cars to the average Joe.

 

I support this statement. Original 350 TPI cars are among the more desirable third gens. Whatever its value was, swapping to a carb isn't going to help. It will not be a big time performer with a carb swap alone and now its no longer original. Not to mention the buyer has no idea what kind of quality when into the build. Generally speaking it's not too good and most people don't want to take a gamble with a significant amount of money. Unless it was a total wreck whos value could not get any lower, don't swap to a carb if its value is a concern.

 

If you put a carb on it, you will go from 24mpg on HWY to 10mpg HWY. And it will be worse on the streets. Throw a good exhaust system on it and it will go mid to low 13's@ 104 in the. quarter

 

I suppose so...if you can't tune it. I have a 750 double pumper holley and get about 18 mpg on the highway, and that's with a TH350 and 3.27's. That's driving it tamely. In the city it's lower obviously, but I've only had 10 mpg (or lower) when it wasn't running right or when I decide to be John Force at every stoplight