K guys i was jsut wondering how hard this swap is? How much woudl it cost to get down at the local shop? Is all i need the tpi unit with computer? THanks
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The 89 RS should have come with a TPI system. Has it been completely removed? To convert completely, if you have the skills yourself will cost around $1000. You can buy complete units off Ebay for $600-$1000. You could pay a local shop as much as $4000 to install a new system. I did my own for about $1100 with all new sensors, a reconditioned ECM and home made harness.
yes carb sucks! i hate the way it runs cod, the gas milageis terrible, and F.I. cna be jsut as good
I did this same swap on my '86 Trans Am. It took a lot of time snooping in the wire diagrams to make it work OK. But there were still some issues. It will save a lot of time and aggrivation if you get a donor car of the same year. You will have to take apart the wire harness under the dash since not all the wires are in the same spots on the connectors. Also the ALDL connector is wired different so I wound up making a smaller harness that just went from the TPI harness to the ALDL port and tucked the original one out of the way. You will also have to add a fuse for the injectors and yet again run another mini harness, the spot is there for the fuses, you just have to run power to it. Or you can swap all the wire harnesses for the entire front of the car. This is where the donor car comes in since you might have to swap the guages too.
I know this isn't what you want to hear, but if you don't have the ability to do it yourself... just buy a TPI car and sell yours. If you have someone do it for you, you will pay just about the same amount.
You are right in saying that the carb sucks, mine would never start right away and as soon as I did the TPI swap it started just fine. Also tuning the TPI isn't that bad if you want to do a motor swap, just look into the DIY prom tuning boards.
If you decide to do this you will notice a lot of differences from car to car... such as after the swap I had extra plugs sticking out of the harness, missing plugs on the power steering and A/C.
I know this isn't what you want to hear, but if you don't have the ability to do it yourself... just buy a TPI car and sell yours. If you have someone do it for you, you will pay just about the same amount.
You are right in saying that the carb sucks, mine would never start right away and as soon as I did the TPI swap it started just fine. Also tuning the TPI isn't that bad if you want to do a motor swap, just look into the DIY prom tuning boards.
If you decide to do this you will notice a lot of differences from car to car... such as after the swap I had extra plugs sticking out of the harness, missing plugs on the power steering and A/C.
