Highway Wonderland, Come on Catch Me If You Can Options

[Bitter]

I think its like 3 degrees drop per foot or something, the cutoff should hit the road about 300 feet out (not that you can see it, must use math).

[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.

[Box]

Equal height from 20 feet is close enough for government work. Don't have anywhere that's further back to test, but down the road it seems to point where it should.

My grandfather had a 1500 with the TBI 350, had over 250K on it before selling it. If I go fuel injection I'd really like to go multi-point though to get the most from my time and money.

[Bitter]

Can you bolt on Vortec heads to that block? They flow fairly well and would let you do multi point injection with some readily available manifolds. I know the Vortec heads have much smaller faster burning chambers so you'd be cranking the CR up, maybe too high!

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56505 good info!

This post has been edited by Bitter: Dec 13, 2014 - 8:49 PM

[Box]

Well the head-gasket part number is the same on the 350 from 1955-2002 depending on the supplier, so I guess that'd be a good sign that it would. Should be able to find one of those trucks or SUVs from '96-00 easy enough to take everything from.

Which after doing some calculations, and my first assumption turned out to be right, the 750 cfm carburetor is too big. At most should need 600-625 cfm. Guy before said he had a 650 on it and it was choking it, I don't see how. I'm sure I can find someone that'd love to trade their 600 cfm for the "bigger is better" 750 cfm...

[Bitter]

Might not be too big with Vortec heads on it though, if you decide to keep it carb'd. That Z28 forum post should answer most of the questions in swapping, looks like they just bolt right on but use the dealer gaskets since they're nitrile rubber in an aluminum carrier and really are that much better than aftermarket designs.

[Box]

From what it was saying would have to redo the valve-train for a larger cam. Meh... I was wanting a big block anyway, so may just rip out the 350 and sell it and get what I want.

[Bitter]

They made Vortec head big blocks too...just sayin...

Vortec headed BBC and SBC are as good as it's going to get without jumping up to a LSx engine. GMPP does have that 7.4L LS iron block setup...

This post has been edited by Bitter: Dec 14, 2014 - 1:42 PM

[Box]

I know. Right now I'm just aggravated with previous owner stupidity. PCV system was blocked off with a bolt inside of the hose, for whatever reason... Plus trying to decide if I should get another carb or use that money at Pull-A-Part to rip the top end and wiring out of a Vortec 5700...

My original plan was to find one with the 301 and then throw in a Cadillac 500 after building it up.

[Bitter]

Nah, just pull a whole 8100 Vortec...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Big...ine#Vortec_8100

[Box]

I get the feeling it'd be harder to find for some reason. Hell once this one isn't drowning in fuel and can breathe properly it'll probably wake it up even more. More than I'll ever use on the street, when anyone is around anyway.

[Bitter]

You know you could have bought a 1990 Skyline...25 years man.

[Box]

I'm kind of burned out with the import thing though. Most of the "import crowd" are punk ass kids I want nothing to do with, and right or wrong you get lumped in with them no matter how nice and tastefully done your car is. Hell, mine were stock in appearance and had stock exhaust...

The Firebird on the other hand in a week I've received more compliments and have had more people ask about it than I have had with all of the imports put together. Plus people are always waving, it makes me feel loved. I like muscle cars and imports, it's just that my heart belongs to muscle cars. The exhaust note and body twisting as you rev the motor is magical. I don't know, I just feel special when behind the wheel and I've never really felt that way before in any other car.

[Box]

After revisiting some articles decided short/mid length headers will be best, as they give more power in the idle-4,000 rpm range where long tubes actually make considerably less power there and don't make more power over the shorties until the 4,200-6,000 range. Which considering I'll spend almost all of my time in the lower rpm's it makes more sense, plus they're a lot easier to install... Also based on calculations dual 2.5" should be more than enough. Probably will run some 30" MagnaPacks off each header and go out the side, that way don't have to worry about clearing the axle/paying a shop.

[Box]

Another portion of my neglecting sleep for research I found where the HEI distributor likes full time vacuum advance, as it'll help more completely burn the fuel at idle and lower engine speeds. Of course it was hooked up to part time vacuum...so fixed that in the dark while I was thinking about it and hopefully it makes a notable improvement. Plus I was reading where an AVS Edelbrock carburetor would only give the engine what it needs, which how they operate with the counter-weighted secondary it kind of makes sense, but at the same time why would they have kits for re-jetting if that were entirely true? That and I started looking at rims, kind of funny how the 17's have a much better tire selection at better prices...

This post has been edited by Box: Dec 15, 2014 - 8:08 AM

[njccmd2002]

Sell the car. Get skyline. Get sleep. This car is aroject? Tought it was a daily

[Box]

It is a daily, it's just my OCD that makes any car a project for me. Insomnia keeps me up all of the time anyway, this time I was just more productive than usual. A Skyline would be much worse than this. The Celica I went overboard as I tore off the top of the motor to flush the injectors and clean out the intake manifold along with opening the tank to change the pump filter, just as preventative maintenance along with the new plugs and wires and etc... The Miata I was doing a turret service, engine and drive-train service, along with replacing things like the pedal pads and adjusting the throttle body and clutch just because they weren't just right. Not to mention I busted my ass buffing out the single stage paint and waxing it. All of this within the first week or two. I have incredibly high standards when it comes to my cars and I won't stop until everything is to my satisfaction. I would say the only way to avoid this would be to buy a brand new car, but even then probably not.

[Box]

Well after hooking up the advance to full time and readjusting the carburetor it's much better now. It actually reaches operating temperature now, and doesn't take forever either. Was running at 165º and now runs at 190º... So you can only imagine how much fuel it was dumping to make it run that much cooler... Oddly enough it never smoked or bogged down. Needless to say it feels much more powerful now, and might actually get a little better than 6 mpg. Anyhow, I'll be changing the plugs and oil ASAP as I'm sure the plugs are fouled something fierce and the oil has to be contaminated. See, this is where my OCD comes in handy.

[Bitter]

Ha, yea I bet.

[Box]

Now when you go from park to drive or reverse it just takes off, still need to put the new plugs and wires in too. Decided to go with some NGK platinum plugs since the platinum is more resistant to fouling and misfiring, that and some Federal magnetic core wires. Also I put some 93 octane into it this time around and that seems to have helped as well. Once the temperature had increased it started to spark knock with the regular, which I was kind of surprised he said regular was fine but of course now I know as to why it was... I also readjusted the electric choke and now all you have to do is turn the key to on, pump the pedal once to pump in some fuel and set the choke and then you're good to go. Have some Castrol Edge 5W-30 to go in it as well, just need to find a good oil filter to go with it. Will do that along with the plugs etc... all at once. Still need to really figure out a better air filter setup, as going off CFM calculations for filters it's way too small. I found a setup from Spectre that has an aluminum plenum that attaches to the top of the carb, and has a 4" outlet that you can attach some piping to and run it out to the front of the car and use a cone filter. It reminds me of how the Chrysler TBI V8's were set up. I imagine it's a good deal better than the traditional open element filter. Once I decide on the rims I want and put some good rubber onto it I'll probably take it out and see what it'll do at the track. Really need to redo the exhaust too, stock manifolds with 1.75" piping isn't the best for a stock 350 much less a built one. Really thinking about finding a V6 5-speed 4th gen with a blown motor to buy for parts. Could use the brakes, transmission, and seats from it. Would even look into using the rear coil spring suspension to replace the leaf springs. That and if I found one with nice looking rims, could use those too I suppose, Just so many things that can be done, it's overwhelming really.