A friend of mine wants to convert his carbed chevy truck to TPI. Being the TPI guru that I am (LOL!) he's asked me to help. I've got tons of questions, does anyone know of a web page or something that has step by step how this is done?

 

Your *best* bet is to find a TPI engine still in a car at a wrecker. Then take the whole harness, sensors, TPI, etc. From there, you can route the wiring where you want it. The only other piece you need is the fuel pump, which can be external mounted on the frame.

Otherwise, you can buy an aftermarket TPI computer and harness and whole EFI if you want ... but very expensive.

For my TPI swap, I bought a complete TPI setup from a 1986 camaro, complete with the entire harness from the engine bay all the way to the ECM. Very straight forward to hook up. A few misc hook ups like you vehicle speed sensor, park neutral switch, etc. But all in all, quite easy.

What do you have to work with? Or is this the beginning of the project?

Mark.

 

Here's a GMC truck converted step by step, lots of pictures.

http://home.earthlink.net/~gellett/tpi.htm


I have also done a Camaro from carb to TPI, it wasn't hard but I used a Camaro TPI wire harness.

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86 Camaro Sport
383 Speed-O-Motive Crate Engine, Trick Flow Twisted Wedge G2's, 58mm Accel TB, 3.73 Auburn Pro, SLP Cold Air Induction and Headers, Dynomax Cat-back, Serpentine Belt Setup, Dual IROC Fans, Jamex springs, 16" IROC Rims, 36mm/24mm Sway Bars, Global West Steering Brace. Hotchkis Rear LCA's,Panhard Bar and SFC's.
My Camaro Project

 

I just converted mine...got it running yesterday. I bought the Painless Wiring harness and got the manifold set with injectors and all off the internet last year. The Painless harness has a list of part nummbers for all of the GM relays and sensors so I ordered them all from GM new then put it in. It fired right up and runs much better than the old carb! Some people dis on the Painless stuff but I had good luck anyway.
Good luck....it's well worth the work.

-TA

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'82 TA "FRANKENBIRD" - built with various F-Body parts from '82 to '96.
CURRENT: '91 305, '96 T-56 6 speed, 3.42 POSI, '89 WS6, '86 TPI, SLP 1 3/4" headers
SOON: 350, Trick Flow TW heads, GM-HOT cam kit, PBR disc

 

First, I highly recommend going with Speed Density. Its simpler and cheaper to setup. Plus, if you ever get into eprom burning, SD is easier to do PLUS you can use a Flash PROM..lots of good reasons to go SD.

If your friend doesn't have a TPI setup, I suggest going aftermarket...(since so many replace the TPI, may as well consider it). Consider the Superram and the Accel base. That will give you the entire unit you need.

Next, grab a 7730 ecm from a early 90s 3.1 V6 MPFI from a Lumina, Corsica, Beretta, Grand Am...basicaly any 3.1 except "W bodies". You could even look at using that wiring harness and splicing the proper connectors on to it. I can't say for sure, but probably a fair number of the connectors for the sensors are the same too.

Then you just have to buy the sensors and a GM memcal. Cheapest alternative if you wish to convert to SD.