Highway Wonderland, Come on Catch Me If You Can Options

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Sammy Hagar references out of the way I figured I should do a project thread for my newly acquired Firebird. Since I already posted pictures in the Today I... thread I'll just post the one plus one of the engine for the time being.



For those that didn't see in the other thread it has a 4-bolt main 350 and TH-350 from a '69 Chevelle. The 350 has been bored .40 over, heads worked and shaved for 12:1 compression ratio, 3/4 cam, and Edelbrock 750cfm carburetor & intake. The transmission was also gone through and refreshed as well. The car also has new brakes and suspension, for whatever that's worth. Actually I'm surprised at how well it drives, sure it's no modern sports car but for a 70's muscle car I'm actually kind of impressed. Pretty much the bulk of what's needed is interior and exterior cosmetic work.

As far as plans I'd like to finish up the exterior and interior as I go. Then engine is sorted as far as I'm concerned, just needs some headers and a full exhaust done along with a new air cleaner setup as you can see. Oh, and hook up A/C again. I'll just get a compressor and brackets from a same year Camaro. Would like to upgrade the brakes and suspension along with converting to a manual one of these days. This will be a car I intend to keep for pretty much forever as I've always wanted one and it was/is one of my realistic dream cars, along with the Corvette. In the coming days I'll be touching up a few things here and there not really worth writing about, i.e. replacing bulbs and wipers etc... I'll have to get some exhaust videos this weekend when I have some time and help available. I think that pretty much covers everything. It does need some tires soon, so also trying to decide on what to do there. I can stay with 15's but get some snowflakes, get some 16's from the 3rd gen GTA, or get some 17's from Year One rather they be snowflakes or something else. I am heavily considering up-sizing to help with steering and handling feel, get ride of some of the sidewall flex...

[Bitter]

Anyway, back to the topic of GM EFI, the TBI setups from the factory in the later 80's and early 90's are fairly good. They use two low pressure shower injectors and with some light modding they're capable fuel delivery systems able to supply engines upto 400hp on small blocks and much more with the TBI big blocks. You can get the SBC TBI's cheap at junk yards and the adapter plates are about $50 at Jegs. The SBC TBI setup is easy to mod for higher fuel pressure and the ECM I believe is hackable to run custom ROM's like throttle percentage based injection instead of MAP sensor based which means it doesn't matter how lump the cam is. You'll be revisiting these posts the first time there's a problem with your carb and you're trying to trouble shoot. The GM TBI is incredibly reliable, I see them with 1/4 million miles with the original injectors. The only time I've had to repair them is when some tried to install an intake on their truck and broke one of the wires to an injector.

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/gm-ecm-pcm-con...conversion.html They also have a forum there.