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Its official, I'm going carborated

Alex guadalupe

Alex guadalupe

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Depends on where uncle Sam wants me
Ive thought about it for a good minute now and find my self hating the tbi on my 87 k5 blazer.
So this week ill be starting my hunt for carborators.
I'm told its reletively easy but I'm here to ask for any advice as I move on with my little project
Do's and dont's
Helpfull tips
Can I keep my existing throttle cable and bracket
Should I get a completely new intake manifold or just get an adapter
And how to find out if the distributor is independent of the electronics that already exist with my tbi and if it isnt
How would I go about making it so
So that I'm able to run a distributor

Any advice is helpful
Thank you and much love from the guy uncle Sam pointed at
 
Here are some of the headaches you'll face as you downgrade your truck:
  • Transmission uses the ECM to lock. Now you get to come up with new controls for the TCC.
  • Distributor gets advance from the ECM. You'll want to swap to an older distributor, like mid-80's
  • Carbs used the mechanical pump, while TBI has the in-tank. You can swap or get a pressure regulator and create a control for the pump relay. Just wiring to ignition on is less safe, as the factory setups use the oil pressure switch. If you drop the electric, the tank should come out to bypass it.
  • A carb will usually get an electric choke, wired to the oil pressure switch. You can graft this in or go manual.
  • Carb needs several vacuum lines for choke pull-off, etc., depending on which carb you get.
  • May need an adapter for the intake manifold pattern.
  • Throttle stop for A/C?

Fixing the TBI issues will be cheaper and faster. Remember that the carb swap WILL come with several issues of it's own, getting rid of TBI is not a get-out-of-trouble-free card.
 
donts: convert to carb.

carbs suck in every conceivable way compared to injection. if you cant be troubled to diagnose and fix tbi, its guaranteed a carb will result in other problems. like crappy mileage, less power, and horrendous exhaust smell.
you will be hard pressed to find people who are pleased after downgrading to carbs from injection. if you want to learn to hate driving your vehicle, putting a carb on is a great start.
 
Funny, I converted my carb'ed truck to TBI, and it was the single greatest thing I ever did. I used to have to pray and pump the pedal and wave a dead chicken around chanting in Latin to get it to start, and it would randomly die while driving just to spite me. (The engine would die, not the chicken. It was already dead.)

With a carb, you will have trouble starting, trouble running, and general annoyance. A properly set up TBI just works. At any temperature or altitude or time of day.

-- A
 
ran carbed truck for first truck it was o.k.

next series of trucks are all tbi or full efi now .

few years ago I ran a friends rig with carb .

all I can say is EFI RULES ! ! !

carb for racing anymore if even that .

heck another option the newer efi conversions that bolt to a 4 barrel intake and there real easy to use.
 
I was in Pep Boys today,and saw Edelbrock carbs now sell for a minimum of 380 bucks...thats for a 500 cfm manual choke one...ones with electric chokes are well over 400 bucks...
Much as I'm clueless about TBI,I think for 400 bucks I could find a guy who could fix it...maybe for less even..

I hate to admit it but fuel injection does make for a better running engine--no warm up stalls,over choking,fouled plugs,no accelerator pump "lag"---its the "I cant figure out whats wrong with it" syndrome that makes me dislike it--sometimes even with all the best scanners and equipment,no one can diagnose and fix them sometimes--and I bet in most cases its bad wires causing the trouble,not the sensors or ECM..
 
Tbi is all great if your truck runs with it..... I went to carb on my burb and yes, it gets less mpg, it smells more, it's harder starting.......... but..... it fricken runs now. Starts Everytime, runs till I Want it to shut off... the factory tbi was a biatch.

But to do it again I'd go to a fiTech, or other aftermarket tbi setup instead of carb again... I was $600 into a carb swap even already having the carb. some of the aftermarkets setups were just barely more.. and can be troubleshot easier.

Still happier with a carb that runs verses a tbi that didn't. But an aftermarket FI setup is a way better idea.
 
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