Im thinking about going with a carb on my 383.....ITs sooo much cheaper that route, and since my car doesnt get "sniffed", Im ok. My question is, has anybody on here done it? I read the Tech Article about it, but wanted to talk to somebody personally that has done it to see what all needs to be done....The only things I can think of that need to be changed are the fuel pump, and hooking up a switch for the torque converter(lock-up) and a different distributor w/mech advance???? Also, has anybody on here used the Proline Heads? I saw some on their site(200cc, 76cc CC) and was wondering if they are any good or not? Any advice would be appreciated.....Thanks

 

76cc sounds pretty big.
take into consideration that the cast iron L98's are 64cc
and the Aluminum L98's are 58cc

Hodge

 

Don't switch to carb ... with the money you spend to make the car as driveable as it is now, you could have bought the Holley Stealth ram or done the lt1 conversion. Spend the money now or spend it later ... it's your choice, but I gauruntee you will be happier with the FI

 

76cc isnt too bad with flat tops.....it should be around 9.5:1. With Iron heads, it shouldnt be too bad.....??

 

TPIGUY.....I wont really lose any driveability...I have all the parts laying around, so the money issue isnt....I have a Edelbrock dual plane intake and a "tuned" Holley 650 carb....Really the only thing Id be losing is some fuel mileage which really isnt too important, cause its not a daily driver anymore....

 

You don't need to swap the fuel pump, just buy the Mallory 3 port fuel regulator. Get a regular HEI distributer and you are on your way. I don't regret switching to a carb as the TPI would never take me to 6500 pulling hard all the way.

 

Im just worried the regulator would have a pressure spike, sending too much pressure to the carb, and that would be bad... If I use that regulator, I can still use my stock in tank pump?? Hmmm, that would save alot of time and money, and having to drop the tank..ouch

 

There are a few others on the board using this regulator, hopefully some of them will let you know how they like the setup. For me it is working fine but the car is not my daily driver.

 

I am telling you, I also have an edelbrock dual plane intake, HEI distributor, and holley 600 carb sitting in my basement because I just converted to fuel injection. Yo need th think about things like "How will I turn on my fans?" if they are electric, or go buy a fan clutch setup. You might have to figure out how to by get your speedometer to work after taking out the computer. If you have an auto, what about torque converter lock-up ... if you add up the cost of all the things you will need to function as it does now, you could have bought a stealth ram ... Have you tried to start up a carb'd car on a cold day? You have to nurse it for about 10 minutes to keep it running. Lets say you tune your car near sea level to perform optimally, then drive to Colorado and drag race. How well do you think your carb will respond to altitude? Does your carb retard timing for knock? Does it have a highway spark advance? I am a big fan of technology going forward, not backward.

 

"Have you tried to start up a carb'd car on a cold day? You have to nurse it for about 10 minutes to keep it running."

I am a fan of TPI (and have thought of converting my T/A to TPI) but I cant agree with that statement.

I have two carburated vehicles and I live in Iceland (and it can get pretty damn cold up here).

One is a Chevy Blazer K5 with 38" tires, 350/TH350 and an Edelbrock carb and I use the truck a lot to trawel off road .

I also have an 86 T/A with L69 and Holley 600.

I have never had a problem like that. That might be true if the choke is broken but a broken TPI would also run like crap.

Nonni

 

Did these vehicles have stock cams and stock manifolds? I am gonna bet they did, or something close to that. It's not just the carb that's the problem ...

 

Well, the car isnt gonna be a daily driver...and besides, I always used to let it warm up about 5 or 10min before I drove it when it was FI. A properly tuned carb with the right manifold will ALWAYS outperform a FI on a similar engine......Look at NASCAR....

 

If you are looking for the Mallory 3 port regulator it is part number MAA-4309 at Summit.

 

TPI Guy wrote:

"Did these vehicles have stock cams and stock manifolds? I am gonna bet they did, or something close to that. It's not just the carb that's the problem ..."

My T/A has a 305HO, Edelbrock Torker manifold, Holley 600, headers, MSD6AL, etc. (I don´t know the lift or duration of the cam, this engine is not the original engine in this car an I am almost sure its not the OEM cam), no computer.

My truck has 350 with stock manyfold, the cam has 272 adv. dur.

Those vehicles don´t have a problem, they could get better mpg (the T/A gets around 16 mpg but the truck gets around 11 but thats because the 4.88 and no overdrive).

Those cars dont have any emission junk and don´t have to in my country.

But as I said earlier, I wanted to swap a TPI in the T/A but when I started to work on a 400 sbc I decided to let it stay carburated.

My brother has a 74 T/A with 455 (far from stock) and edelbrock carb, it starts in first try every time.

I know that fuel injection is superior than carb in cold weather but it is not so hard to live with a carb.

Nonni

 

I don't know why you say that a carbed car will always outperform a FI car. That is not the case at all. Many times carbs give good top end but the low end and midrange torque they produce is extremely low in most cases when compared to the properly tuned FI? Isn't F1 racing with Fuel Injection?

 

When we get a debate going on about carb vs Fuel injection it is more to do with what guys are building their cars for. Some want to have a pretty strong car for the street with lots of torque in the low to midrange and others are building a car for the track. The latter wants something that pulls hard in the upper rpm range. So who is right depends on what the person wants to do with the car.

 

Well, I should also state this guys, my car isnt going to be a daily driver and will not be driven in winter......The carb does have a choke on it for colder weather. My first car(77 T/A 403 olds) always started the first time.....I had no problems with starting, or fuel mileage. Also, I didnt build my car to be driven on the street everyday. Its more of a weekend toy, and occasional drag car. I couldnt justify spending almost $3000 more to get the same results I got with my carb, cam and intake for $500 (edelbrock power package, I think the part #is 7101?) It came with the Performer RPM Vortec intake, and I bought the L31 heads, and had heavier springs installed to handle the .500 lift. The carb is only a 650cfm, but has been reworked by a local race shop. The shop manager told me they put the same exact setup on a car a while back, and it dynoed 316hp/298lbs ft at the wheels. Ive spent $1700 on the engine and to get that kind of power that cheap, why go with FI??

 

LOL, that was the ignorant statement of the month.

I know we don't want another Carb vs FI debate but I have to chime in. FI motors are not allowed in NASCAR because the last time they were (1955 I believe) they kicked *** on everything else. The assumption that you can't rev to 6500 unless it's carb is based mainly against a TPI intake which is limited to airflow, not because of the fuel injection. That's all I wanted to add.

Danny T

 

Where did you get that fact?? The reason they never let FI in Nascar, is in 1955 and so on, the cars had to be STOCK cars.....No cars were running FI besides the vette and some belairs. The other reason according to Jack Roush, is it "doesnt mix the air as well at race speed" That quote was from the early 80's because the ecms were so slow back then. And as far as me being ignorant...... Ok question, why would you spend $3000 or more to go as fast as you can go with half as much, and still have driveability if you know carbs. I just couldnt justify spending that much more to make it go as fast as it will with a carb. Just my .02, no need to ruffle your feathers fellows....After all, speed is speed anyway you get it right?

 

Carburators will never be as efficient as FI because regardless of what kind you got, it still draws fuel out rather than injects it. Simple as that.

But i agree, if you can't go all the way then spend the money on heads or cam. Don't dump a grand in TPI unless the rest of your motor is where you want it to be.