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Losing the computer

THISISWEIRD

THISISWEIRD

1/2 ton status
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Posts
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Location
WV
I have this weird plan. I'd like to get rid of everything I can that's electrical or computer related, within reason.

Right now I have a 91' with a TBI 350. I'd like to have it built to 383 and put a carb on it. I know, flame away. But I think this is what I want to do; I think. How can I change the 700r4 (actually 4l60E) so it doesn't need a computer? What about the brakes? They have som sort of computer on them too...looks like anti-lock, but I'm not sure.

I'd just like to have engine, drive train, brakes, lights, radio, heat. Stripped....
 
The big question is why? It's a lot of work to make your vehicle not perform as well as it did stock.

If you REALLY want to get away from electronics, a 6.2 diesel is the way to go (or early mechanically injected 6.5).
 
George_Pimpdaddy said:
wow thats a silly thing to do i think lol why not jsut go buy a older truck that is carbed and sell the 91??? you would probaly make out on top for sure
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I agree. Find an older, carbed truck. Put a 400 behind the 383 and go play.
 
I disagree. keep the truck you got yank the motor and build your 383. stick a th400 behind it and go cruise. the abs dont mater, the brakes still work fine without it hooked up. besides when you go wheeling you want the brakes to lock and not be abs any how. Now on the other side of the coin, why do you wana get rid of the tbi? its a great offroading setup and its cheap. You could build your 383 and still use the tbi. think of the benifits easy starts in the cold winter. offroading you dont have to worry bout your angles or hill climbs as much. oh for the 4l60e you can get a stand alone computer for the trans
 
this is an excellent idea. carefully remove all of the fuel injection stuff (harness, sensors, etc) and ship it to me. i'll dispose of it properly by installing it on my '82 k5. hurry and do this swap right now!

honestly though, i agree about fuel injection having real offroad advantages. my quadrajet has been great 99% of the time, but whe broke my rear u-joints and slipped backwards off a 2' ledge, it died and left me sliding backwards down a steep hill with no power brakes. i stopped it, but i slid a lot farther than i liked. a weaker or slower person might have rolled straight back off a 5' ledge, then into a tree. not good at all. that's the first time i saw an actual safety concern with the carb.
 
vortec said:
this is an excellent idea. carefully remove all of the fuel injection stuff (harness, sensors, etc) and ship it to me. i'll dispose of it properly by installing it on my '82 k5. hurry and do this swap right now!
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next in line :D
 
When my TBI 305 blew, I put a carb'd 350 in it thinking "it's so much simpler!"

Long story short, I miss my TBI :(
 
I had multiport injection on my 496, I got tired of everytime it broke it took an engineering degree, or a bit of blind luck to fix it. Ok, it wont start, which of 14 sensors is it this time? I stuck on a Speed Demon, and I aint looked back.....course.....then I broke the motor, so now the engine has gotten a little more extreme (see the post about no brakes and you'll know how big), so the FI wouldnt have supported it anyway.

Ditch the FI Im glad I did.
 
I have nothing to add except that there is an advantage to making things simple. any idiot could work on my trucks electrical system. my tach has 4 wires going to it and thats probably half the wire in the whole truck.

no lights, no radio, no heater fan, no wipers, no washers, no horn, no problem. :bow:

I have a battery, alternator, distributor, and a few gauges (oil pressure, tach, temp).
 
I drive an 84 Impala that I switched to a non computer vacuum advance distributor and wireless carb and I love it. It runs great and the check engine light will never come on again.
 
This is about the worst plan I could think of. Are you just afraid of electrical stuff? Why on earth would anyone give up fuel injection for a carb? Especially on an off-road vehicle! After owning both ('76 & '83 Carb'd, and now an '89 FI), I cant imagine going back to carburetion. MAybe consider trading someone so another FI truck doesn't get bastardized? Virtually anyone will trade a carb'd truck for an EFI one if they are comparable in condition.
 
Mainly, I'm afraid of the electronics.

Last week I had to get it towed. I knew the fuel pump wasn't working, but I couldn't get it figured out. Got it to the shop and it started right up. Dorian helped me pin-point the problem (bad fuel pump relay and oil pressure switch), but as you all know, it can be very time consuming.

I've worked on cars enough to know how to fix the basics, but the FI stuff is over my head. Too many damn sensors. I liked to learn more, but I just don't have as much time as I'd like. Wife, kids, work...you guys know the deal.

In hindsight, it was kinda silly, cause I always had this vision to have it as simple as can be. (I even hate wires on my computer desk). But now, I've sorta fallen in love with Big Red.

My bro-in-law builds a ton of engines, mostly for the local high-end drag cars and mud sling trucks. The good stuff...$35K blown engines. He mentioned it might be easier to go to a truck avenger and do away with the TBI, but he'll do whatever I want.
 
My engine bay is much simpler now that I've ADDED EFI. And it's multi-point. A mess of vacuum lines, switches, thermal ports, etc. is a much more complicated way to do the job a microprocessor should be doing. Granted, you probably wouldn't add a lot of the emissions controls back in, but a carb is actually a very complicated device. It has like 100 pieces and very small passages that have to be *just right*. Sure, sensors go bad, but when was the last time your carb told you what was wrong with it?

Are you going to drop in a points distributor as well?

In the end, it's your truck, so it's your call.
 
THISISWEIRD said:
I liked to learn more, but I just don't have as much time as I'd like. Wife, kids, work...you guys know the deal.
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The TBI system is very straightforward. You could learn about it in less time than it would take to convert the truck from FI to carb.
 
Yeah how often you take ur impala wheelin? Cars are way different than offroad trucks, honestly if it were a car i would do the carb, or even a 2 wheel drive truck i would do a carb. but since you have the tbi (the simplist version of Fuel injection even chas could wire one up.) only has bout 5-6 sensors and if you can tune a carb then you can def. handle a tbi unit.
Lol i bet Chas could even figure one out!
 
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