Mac

Well its getting close to winter time, and its soon going to be time to park the old RS in the garage. Well I have several questions on installing a tpi setup onto my car, but first I have about a year old 96 marine 350 motor with about 9.1 compression. Around april I bought a tuned port injection system of my girlfrineds dad, for a 100 bucks, it came with the tuned port itself, the stock factory wirehareness, distriutor, coil, practially everthing. The tpi came off an 86 iroc. Now my questions are, should I rip everything out of the car, and rewire everything, or keep it in there and run the tpi computer seperate an only use it for the motor and trans? My second question is since i have a 96 motor i have centerbolt heads,and the tpi is off an older style heads motor. Can I use a speed density intake on this motor cause I recieved one for free from my fried, or do I have to either get one off an 88 or change style heads. Thanks for all the help everyone!

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1991 teal camaro RS rebuilt 96 350 marine motor, comp cam, accel ignition,8mm accel plugs and wires, flowtech headers, stock exhaust, and rear end. (2.73)

ScreaminDeamin85Z

from what i have heard you can make the holes in the intake larger so that the holes will line up. being that you have an 86 computer it will be MAF and you would have to change things in the harness to accept a SD setup, thats if you want to switch to SD.

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Brandon
"ScreaminDeamin 360"
350 60 over, TRW forged 9.83:1 pistons,Hooker Comp headers, crane cam 216/228 .484/.512, crane 1.6 RR's, ported plenum, home made ram air, 24lb SVO injectors, crane AFPR, all going through 3 inch mandrel pipe and a flowmaster.
New project-89 IROC-305 5spd...Jamex Springs...and thats just about it!Soon- 6 speed, Pro 5.0 shifter and 4.10's
http://users.argolink.net/bvana

http://ScreaminDeamin.cz28.com

okfoz

This keeps coming around like a bad penny doesn't it...well I think there should be a tech page -how-to for doing a TPI swap, lots of magazines have talked about it, and if you want to do a ok job (like the mags) and get things working on a 1929 Ford, sobeit. IF you want to do a good job, so parts are not hard to find, then you need to do alot of work.

On my car for instance a person well versed in firebird & Camaro TPI setups could not distinguish my car from a car that came from the factory that way. Unless they looked at the VIN or the under hood decals that indicate 4bbl. I put all the brackets where they belong, and ran the wires where they were subpost to go. Got the correct bottles & everything.

I am not trying to blow smoke up my butt, it is just there was alot of work involved in a swap. once I started putting things back on my car it was a lot faster, but, getting there was a long road.

I am sure that a conversion could be done in about a week, ONLY IF you are well versed on how TPI works, and have done it once or twice before. This is not a weekend project. Your car will NOT be off the road for a day or two, more like about a month, since you are winterizing yor car, no problem.

Certainly, I may have done more to my car than I needed to, but, it is right, and I do not have to worry, should I get it for my 4bbl, or a TPI car... I know, Buy the part for the TPI.

NONE of you expected this, and I am not trying to rile anyone up. Any of you who have done the converion KNOW it is a BIG Job.

WE NEED A TECH article, whether it is my little page from my insignificant Formula web page. or someone elses experience.

Is the job difficult?? NO not really, IF you are familiar with your car.

To your questions:

using the 9.1 compression engine with the TPI, might be a little less of a performer than you want. I do not know. The up side would be you do not have to use Premium fuel for optimum performance. the 89 grade should work as well.

Taking the wireharness out is about a 6 hour job if it is your first time. do NOT cut things, unrun, unscrew and unplug. otherwise if you ever decide to sell your components or use something from the harness it will not be a pile of junk.

Use the correct wire harness it will more than likely save you from some future headaches. I think Edleborck makes a conversion kit for 350TBI systems to go to multiport on trucks. Might be something to look into, it also comes with a new computer.

The first thing I would do is get under your dash on the passenger side and look at the plug going through your dash, it should be the same plug as the one from the 86, make sure the wires plug into the same places (colors are the same)

If so, then all you have to do is run the wires under the hood.

You will also have to run better fuel lines cause the low pressure TBI ones are not the best choice for running 50 lbs of pressure.

Do not forget your Fuel pump, gotta change that too...and that means dropping your axel and gastank.

Something to think about

John

Mac

yeah I figured I would have to change the fuel pump, fuel pump sender, and fuel lines, but theres a possablity I can use the wires going to my controls guages, etc, from the tbi harenesss and be able to plug them into the 86 computer? and then all ill have to do is run the computer harness for the engine and trans

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1991 teal camaro RS rebuilt 96 350 marine motor, comp cam, accel ignition,8mm accel plugs and wires, flowtech headers, stock exhaust, and rear end. (2.73)

okfoz

check the wires under your dash on the passenger side to see if the plugs have the same wires in the same order. That is your first step.

If so, everthing should work.

I know my fuel pump in my TPI pluged right into where my FP pluged in from my 4BBL

check out: http://www.3rdgenformula.com
After the splash page on the main menu, half way down there is a link "Modifying your Formula" click on it and in there there is a section for the TPI conversion. it tells almost EVERYTHING I did to convert mine.

John

Mac

alright I'l have to check that out, thanks alot for the help, do I have to change all the fuel lines from the tank back? Could I just use a bunch of braided fuel line?

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1991 teal camaro RS rebuilt 96 350 marine motor, comp cam, accel ignition,8mm accel plugs and wires, flowtech headers, stock exhaust, and rear end. (2.73)

Ed Maher

I wouldn't go ripping out the wire harness just to install the MAF TPI harness. The TBI harness (actually the whole TBI ECM too) can be made to run a SD TPI set-up, and from what i know it's pretty simple. Basically instead of 2 wires going to 2 injectors, the 2 wires now go to 4 each.
Like i said, the TBI ecm can run TPI, SD fuel injection is SD fuel injection after all. It just requires some tinkering wit h the injector constant to get everything happy. You can convert to the 730 (SD TPI) ecm by repinning the harness, which i can assure you is going to be 10,000x easier than removing/seperating and redoing the harnesses you have now.
This is JMHO. If you want more info on this, it has been discussed before on this and the PROM board more than a few times. Do a little legwork and the answers are out there for you.
...ed

ps. Most of the fuel lines from the tank to the engine compartment is metal hardline. Actually, the whole thing is a metal line, the only rubber is at the tank and at the fuel rail connection. The important thing is, you DO NOT have to run a new fuel line to go to TPI, the TBI lines will be fine, IIRC they end at the same point in the engine compartment, and if i was a betting man, $20 says they're identical.