I want to get another car, something newer than 85. I want to stay in the 80's if possible, but would be willing to consider a 1990 setup. I like the interior on 86-88 camaro's best. What year would be the best starting point. I would also like to use as many parts from my 85 305 tpi setup as possible such as 52mm Holley throttle body, edelbrock headers with single cat, catback exhaust, fuel pressure regulator, and so on.

 

85 is an oddball year and has ecm, code and maf not comaptible with later years.

86-88 are about identical in appearance and function.

89 is the most refined MAF setup and has the newest code $6E and no dumb cold start injector garbage.

90-92 are speed density and are literally identical to each other.
These aree considered best for retrofits and ease of tuning in my opinion.

later
Jeremy

 

Speed Density definitely makes the tuning easier when making your own PROMs, MAF does have some advantages but overall I would say that I would probably prefer to have SD cars over two MAF cars. SD does seem to be a bit more voliatile when it comes to modifications - meaning that it usually takes some tuning even for bolt-ons

 

What wold be the newest/ best setup that my throttle body off of the 85 would be compactable with. Is it possible to modify my throttle body to work on any tpi setup?

 

It is possible to modify the TB but you could just purchase all of the TPI components you will need. You may want a fuel rail that does not have the provision for a cold start injector, and if you change the intake manifold to a 90-92 style you will need different runners and plenum. If you go get a different TB then you still need the plenum as the TB/plenum have different ports along with the linkage differences. So that latest year of wiring harness that you could easily use with no modifications needed to your plenum is 89. Although to use the linkage from your TB you could just change the throttle cable.

 

my favorite "tpi" setups use one of many manifolds that's NOT a stock TPI manifold... and a easier to tune and use aftermarket ECM...



a though that doesn't answer your question.



just find the best overall car you can, and then work from there. dont let the TPI be the decision maker for you.....