Serious question, should be possible using an Edelbrock #3785 right?

I'm actually quite serious about doing this, won't be going into a third gen though... Not going into a Chevy even

But I want to get thoughts and input from you V6 gurus first Good and bad, I'd like to hear it

 

not much diff betwen a 2.8 and a 3.4 and they were carbs in the s10-15..... in states till 85 even longer in Canada.

That intake is a ripe off, its a two peice which cost over $400 in the end.

Just make an adapter for a MPFI lower.
or mod a stock 2bb

 

The price must have come down since then, Summit has the intake listed as $170 for the lower, and $95 for the upper. Guess they did a two piece design so they didn't have to make separate 2 barrel and 4 barrel intakes, just change the top piece? Dunno

 

pre 85 2.8s are factory carbed, I would just try to find parts off of one of those, idk about finding high cfm carbs that will fit the manifold though, unless carbs have a standardized size, and it has been done, but I don't recall who it was that did it.

 

False.

S-10s in Canada changed to TBI in 1986, just the like S-10s in the US.

 

Yeah, that's the thing. All the factory carbureted 2.8's had a 2bbl manifold.

I'm strongly looking at a 3.4, but I think I'll need at least a 390 cfm Holley on it minimum, that's why I'm looking at the Edelbrock intake manifold. It's gotta flow better than the 2.8 manifold anyway

Combining that manifold, with a decent cam, headers, & lightly ported heads, and I hope I can end up with a decent motor out of it for not TOO much $$, that fits within the frame rails

Too bad I can't use the awesome aluminum heads with a carb

 

well you could but a custom intake manifold would be in order, and yeah, i think youre going to need a 4bbl to get 390 cfm, but I might be wrong..

 

No, you have that right. The Edelbrock intake is a two piece, a lower and then a top piece that's either for a two, or four barrel carb depending on which you choose.

The 390 is Holley's smallest 4bbl that I know of, it's a 4160 model. Or I might run an
Edelbrock 500cfm, not decided yet.



I could probably answer this by searching, but are there any aluminum heads for these 60* motors that I could use with a distributor? I know I can't use the ones with canted valves, but are there others I don't know of?

 

I guess 3.1 rwd ones would work assuming I'm not wrong about there being such a thing..and 500 cfm is overkill, 390 is more than enough for 90% of the 60/6s out there, few ppl have enough into one to require more than that. Unless you are pushing over 6k rpms and or 250 hp, the 390 should suffice.

 

Plenty of good 1-2bb carbs out there to use.
having a 4 is no magic instant gain.

You can get more then enough performance out of the Holley 300-500 2bb with the skill to tune it right. Though that goes for any carb.

 

Yeah, 500 does sound like overkill. But Edelbrocks are rated "dry-flowed", while Holleys are rated "wet-flowed". The actual, real life flow difference between them is not as great as you would think just from looking at the numbers.

I'm gonna look through the salvage yards near me, and if I find any carbed 2.8's I may just snag the manifold off one. But if I don't find one, I'm going to use the Edelbrock intake with a 4 barrel. I couldn't even find a 2.8 intake on Ebay

Guess that'd be a good time to see if I find any 60*'s with aluminum heads too

 

When I wanted 2bb parts, it was cheaper / easier to just buy a whole used truck with a spun bearing.

paid $300 delivered, would of spent that much for the intake, carb n dizzy used.

 

All aluminum heads for the 660s use canted valves and do not have any intakes that cen be used with a dizzy or carb, don't waste your time looking.

The only aluminum genI heads that were ever made were from Potter Racing, they are very rare, and would cost more for just the heads than do to build and install a "hybrid" 660.

Why do you want to use a carb and what makes you think you need 390+ CFM?

 

This is actually going to be swapped into a Toyota truck, the goal is to have a compact engine that puts out enough power for what I need. Shooting for about 230-240 hp, 390 cfm should be about right for that I think?

Honestly, I'm planning to go carbureted basically because I'm EFI retarded. If I could somehow figure the EFI out, I wouldn't hesitate to do that. But my knowledge of that is pretty limited, at least my experience working with it is

 

You're going to need a lot more than an intake and carb to get that kind of power out of a genI 3.4.

The best way to learn about EFI is to study wiring diagrams, do some research on swapping EFI and actually doing the swap. It's not as difficult as people make it out to be, to swap EFI.

 

I was planning on a moderate cam, and headers as well. Convert to roller rockers, roller cam too. I'm going to rebuild the motor, not just pull & reinstall

I guess I should clarify, it's not so much the swap that intimidates me (Although it does), it's the TUNING. When it comes to tuning EFI, I haven't got a clue.

 

Avenger EFI 2bbl Throttle Body Fuel Injection SystemPART #: 550-200

it may be overkill, but perhaps an alternative

 

That's pretty cool, with the self-learning EFI. But that costs a lot more than I'd want to spend. That's about what I'd be comfortable spending on the entire motor, including machine work, intake, used & rebuilt carb, cam, head work etc

 

You can use OEM EFI to run any engine...

I have a Delco ECM (from a Pontiac Sunbird/GMC Syclone/Typhoon) running the Nissan engine in my 1973 Datsun 240Z.

 

But you know how to tune, I don't It's intimidating for me

If I was going to run EFI, I'd just swap in a fwd 3.4, the "3400" or something like that?

I'm actually almost leaning towards using a fwd 3.4 block, so it already has roller cam provisions, etc, and using a carbureted top end. Then once I had it running, I would have the option of "converting back" to EFI

 

The biggest problem with that, is if you don't use RWD pistons, your SCR will be in the toilet, around 7:1ish. You would also need custom pushrods, since the roller lifters are taller than the flat tappet lifters that the genI and II 660s used.

Tuning, while looking difficult is not really that bad, once you realize that you will work with about half a dozen tables, and a few constants, the rest of the parameters are there for guys like me, who like to tweak, even though most people would never be able to see the difference in the small tweaks.
Also most of the time it will be minor changes to the tables, to get fueling, right, then work with spark a little, in most cases.

You can download Tuner Pro RT for free, a few definition and bin files and then you can look at it and start to understand what "VE" and other tables really mean.

 

Well that compression ratio sounds boost friendly LOL

Kidding aside, maybe you're right and I should take a step back, and reconsider EFI. First time for everything I suppose Gotta start somewhere. I'm still not sold on it though

I'd need coaching from some patient members though, I remember looking through the EFI boards on here a while ago and feeling more confused after than before I'd started If I knew all the terms & abbreviations, that would probably help.

 

I was very intimidated on the tuning as well. I still really dont know what I'm doing, but my car runs.

Also, if you dont modify the motor, you may not need to tune it. Or just change a few quick constants.