how difficult is a tbi swap?

[james93711]

whats it take to do a tbi swap on a 86 k5 blazer? I know it takes the manifold and all the wiring and ecm and sensors. would i have to do any work to the engine like heads or cam? i found one online that bolts up to your manifold for about $900 for distributer, fuel pump, ecm and everything else. i'm thinking that getting all the stuff off a donor truck at the junk yard might cost as much as that for who knows what condition its it and itll prob be more difficult to install as well.

has anyone done this swap before? should i get a donor fuel tank or an inline? thanks everyone

 

[nsxxtreme]

whats it take to do a tbi swap on a 86 k5 blazer? I know it takes the manifold and all the wiring and ecm and sensors. would i have to do any work to the engine like heads or cam? i found one online that bolts up to your manifold for about $900 for distributer, fuel pump, ecm and everything else. i'm thinking that getting all the stuff off a donor truck at the junk yard might cost as much as that for who knows what condition its it and itll prob be more difficult to install as well.

has anyone done this swap before? should i get a donor fuel tank or an inline? thanks everyone

Why do you want TBI? For a stock setup I dont think I would pay more then $500

Found this for you
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_9812_carburetor_to_tbi_conversion/

 

[80' 427]

Why do you need an intake? buy a 454 or aftermarket adapter.

 

[james93711]

i'm just looking for the best dependability cause i plan on keeping this truck for a very long time. you colorado guys would know, i have read that when its very cold or humid and for off road they said that tbi is your best bet and carbs are junk, is there really any difference that you guys notice with your qjet as far as cold, humidity and off roading are concerned? im in central california now but i'm going to be moving to the denver area soon. just looking for the most dependable application and a few mpgs wouldnt hurt either

 

[ryoken]

the biggest issue is what cam your carbed motor has in it.... keeping the TBI ECM happy with many carb or performance cams is the biggest challenge.. requiring chip-burning, etc possibly...

you'll find pretty complete TBI setups showing up in here for 300 to 500 usually depending on how complete..

 

[james93711]

its a ca vehicle so i think the vehicle is more lean than others, the guy i got it from said that it had an engine and transmission swap done. dont know about the trans but the motor does look newer since there are some v-belt and some serpentine pulleys on the motor.

dont have the cash yet but ill be keeping an eye out for those tbi set ups, thanks for the info

 

[ktmoutfront]

PM sent. From a Colorado guy.

 

[samsterman99]

Just did this swap,
Running the wires and hooking everything up was easy. Its all just plug and play. Fine tuning the system is where it gets tricky. Unless your engine is really close to a stock tbi setup, you will need a custom chip. I love my efi setup, it cost me about 350$ for the entire setup, and about a weekend to install. Dropping the tank for the sending unit/fuel pump was the hardest part of the entire swap.

 

[bowtie72]

I have just installed mine. I bought most of mine on e-bay. Came with a regular hei dist for tbi. I bought a adapter plate and when it came time to use it I decided against it. It just covered up to much of the intake and I wasn't comfertable with the way it looked. So I installed the intake a friend gave me. I am trying to get the bugs worked out. I mounted a fuel pump on the frame. I also got the supply line from a u-pull and pay junk yard. Great place for parts. I would start there. But I would definately do it again even though I had a hard time getting home last night.

 

[james93711]

ok, the wiring and vacuum is trashed on this truck. i found two things that have a electrical connection on a vacuum mechanism one is by the vacuum canister the other is in the back on the passenger side of the carb. they both have like 4 vacuum hoses and one two wire electrical clip on it. i need new vacuum lines and theres abandoned wires and connectors all over the place. its one of the reasons i want to go tbi and get rid of most of these hoses and get the truck running right. does anyone know what these mechinisms are called? i tried to post a pic but idk how too.

 

[ktmoutfront]

You need more posts to post pictures. Pay the membership fee and get more. It will be worth every penny. You can, at that point, search for you issue. I know someone on here has all of the wiring harness and vacuum line schematics in PDF or something like that.