A friend of mine has an '83 Camaro... I'm not sure what it is... it has all the markings of an iroc, and he said it originally had a 305 in it. He bought it off one of his buddies, who put a 350 from an '86 Corvette in it. The system is carb. The guy who did the swap is less than reliable, and my friend has a hell of a time trying to start his car most days. He's taken to carrying a can of starter fluid with him at all times, which does the trick, but I can't imagine it's good for the car.

Now my friend knows less than I do about cars, and I'm just getting my feet wet, but it's obvious to me, that TPI is generally more reliable for a daily driver for someone who doesn't know a thing about tuning a carburator.

Now I wouldn't think of doing the swap without first reading up on it, but can someone give me a run-down of the basics involved, so I know what kind of trouble I'd be getting into? I like to help my friends out, but he's content with it the way it is, and if it's a ton of work, I don't know that I'm up to it. I just hate to see him ruining a third gen. I even thought of taking the car off his hands, but I don't know if I want to inherit his headaches!

Someone want to give me the basics? I assume you'd have to breakdown the engine and replace the cyclinder heads, and then change out the intake? Like I said, I know I sound like an idiot now, trying to jump in without knowing what I'm doing, but I'm not about to get involved without doing some more homework.

Thanks
Mathius

 

a carbed engine didn't come out of a 86 vett and you might as well forget the vett **** because it doesn't change anything and it isn't magic. you'd need a harness and ecm for the tpi set up. that in it's self i tihnk would pretty much eliminate most of your options for doing this conversion. if you want something cheap and easy get a non ecm controled carb and distributor. i think the best thing to do would be to trouble shoot what you have and make sure the tune up is good. i'm sure that's about the last thing you considered doing to it, but it's a good choice to make.

 

What is the purpose of a statement like that? And coming from a moderator? It would have been sufficient to say that it couldn't have come out of an '86 Vette. It's like you're specifically trying to be insulting.

This is what I was told by my friend, who as I said, doesn't know a great deal about cars, and I never claimed to know a great deal my self, but I'm trying to learn. And if it isn't necessary to mention that it came out of a vette, well, you wouldn't have been able to tell me that it couldn't be carbed if it came out of a vette, now would you?

The guy who had the car originally was hellbent on keeping the setup carbed, so maybe he did a conversion on it, I don't know. For all I know, he screwed something up doing that, and that's why there's so many problems with it now.



Finally, some information. Why should this eliminate my options? Is a wiring hardness and an ecm hard to come by?

You keep saying "you". I told you, it isn't my car. I'm trying to help out a friend, and he can't tune a carburator. The whole point of this post was to make it a more reliable daily driver.

Thank you for a post laced with sarcasm and insulting responses. I'm sure you're a great moderator. You've certainly made my experience on the board more enjoyable. See? I can be sarcastic too.

Mathius

 

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer...

 

How is my question stupid? I stated at the very beginning that I wasn't very knowledable, this is the whole point of this board is it not? To ask questions? I did a search and came up with nothing, I listed everything I thought pertinent to my situation, and asked for some information. It _would_ be stupid if I'd just jumped in and started yanking stuff out and then asked questions, but I'm trying to do my homework beforehand.

You guys surprise me. This is the only forum on the board where I've gotten such **** poor attitudes.

Mathius

 

I'm doing the swap right now. Ask me the questions, I'm not afraid!

 

maybe you took it the wrong way?

 

Ok, fine. I'll pretend I wasn't offended by anything said here, and we'll try to move on with this. Is a wiring hardness and an ecm hard to come by? Why should these two things limit my options? Please explain.

Mathius

 

what i meant was most people don't or wouldn't want to go to the time, expense and effort required to do it. actually it isn't that hard, just a lot of wires you have to sort out. i don't believe you can buy one from gm anymore, but i may be wrong, you'd have to check. if so then one from a wreck or one soemone took out is your only option. the ecm is pretty crude for a carb car, you'd need another ecm ,easy to find. the prom should also be easy to come by. your best bet would be to watch the threads here for soemone goingto a carb and get their harness and ecm. i believe the carb non ecm controled hei is your simplest way out. again i believe you'd want to trouble shoot what you have to make sure there isn't some other problem you're overlooking. it may be something simple that will fix everything or something more serious that would make you take another direction.

 

This will keep you busy for a while.

http://sethirdgen.org/tpi1.htm

 

Thanks guys. One last question.... are you certain the engine couldn't have come out of a corvette? The very first paragraph of the link John just gave me mentions the difference between a tpi intake and a corvette intake, and that it affects the hoses.

Mathius

 

Try and not get a TPI from a Corvette, well at least not the fuel rails. If you do you cannot use the factory rubber fuel hoses when you change over all the steel fuel line. You will have to have something fabbed up.
Oh, did I mention swapping over the entire fuel system from a TPI car? Sounds like fun huh? Including dropping the tank and adding a high pressure pump.
I'll tell you there's more to a carb to TPI swap then just a harness and computer. I have done several and I do the famous LT1 intake swap as well.

 

Its entirely possible to get a Corvette engine from an 86 and put a carb intake on it. Some people are just backwards like that.

Also, its a wiring harness, there is no D in it.

Any more details you can provide about the engine will help us. What does it do with it doesnt start? Does it have fuel and spark? Maybe the distributor module is bad?

 

Yeah, he said the guy was "hellbent on keeping it carb".

Yeah well, we all make mistakes I typo'ed it the first time, and cut and paste the second time.

I've unfortunately never been around when it's happened. Up until recently, he lived about a half hour away from me in an area I don't spend a ton of time with, and I actually see his brother more, but anyways, I'll try to see if I can get more details from him.

I know for a fact though, that at least three times he's called for help, and it ended up being a case of him flooding the engine, which is pretty much why I figured fuel injected would be better for him.

Mathius