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new complete GM tbis and a saddle tank ???

84CUCV

84CUCV

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a friend found a guy with a bunch. complete bolt down plug in and go, for 5.7 and 7.4.

150 each fair price?

should have asked this before. friend wants a k5 tank and get gid of the saddle tanks. we have most of it out. fuel lines are still there. he want to remove them and put in new ones, but is that necessary?

thanks for the help
 
84CUCV said:
a friend found a guy with a bunch. complete bolt down plug in and go, for 5.7 and 7.4.

150 each fair price?

should have asked this before. friend wants a k5 tank and get gid of the saddle tanks. we have most of it out. fuel lines are still there. he want to remove them and put in new ones, but is that necessary?

thanks for the help
Click to expand...

The price on the "new" TBI's sound decent.

There is no reason to replace the hard fuel lines unless they are rusted or have a kink or hole in them.
 
he was thinking to replace them since it had saddle tanks and there not going back in. k5 tank will. think it would be easy enough to use them and i guess just cap off the ones were not going to use? thanks
 
Are you talking injected setup or just carbed? Carbed is easy, EFI is not if you want to keep the "nice" Saginaw connections that mate to the sender, fuel filter, and TBI.
 
yes its a 88 tbi 350, we where thinking braided hose for protection unless we could just make up some new hard lines, not sure how to go. he said he has about 300 to spare for this. we have the tank and straps thats it.
 
The GM fuel setups are kind of a pain to run.

I don't necessarily agree with this (I am VERY cautious when it comes to fuel or electrical) but since TBI is fairly low pressure, you can run it even in rubber as long as it's fuel injection hose. You can also use standard hose clamps, but I' dnot do it without flaring the fittings.

If it were me, I'd find a way to make the Saginaw stuff work. If it was the same truck to same truck, easy, but a K5 tank to pickup won't work as a drop in obviously. Length of lines back that far is going to be the issue. From TBI to the fuel filter all GM stuff could be used, but post fuel filter you'd have to do something different to add length. Saginaw fitting equipped tubing is now available at some parts stores.

You can buy Saginaw to -AN adapters, but they are so expensive I'd consider running all new fuel line first. The problem then becomes the TBI senders, since the fuel out/in is threaded on those as well. You could cut the Saginaw fittings off and flare.

I did a lot of work making stock fuel lines work on my K5, running on the drivers side frame rail. I'm also running higher pressure that requires fittings, so I was more cautious.
 
$150. for a complete TBI? That's a great price. $150. for a 7.4L TBI? That's a steal! I'll buy them all!
 
i am going to be picking them soon.

Im thinking now we should just try to use the hard lines that we can and make or extend them. some how i dont think 300 is going to be enough. thanks
 
Probably not for all the incidentals. I never really added up my TPI, but even though it was "complete" I still had to spend a lot of time, and small $$ here and there, so it adds up.
 
he found some metal lines from a performance shop down by his girls home. getting a bending tool and the flare one is on order. just need to see about the fuel filter now thanks for the help
 
Did he get a Saginaw flaring tool? I haven't seen one, but I had heard they were out. For the longest time you couldn't make these fittings without a multi-thousand dollar tool.
 
i dont think so, just a standard flaring tool. i forgot about that. that is a must have a for safety right? know where i can find one?
 
With TBI I doubt many would consider it a safety issue. GM wasn't playing around, but with some stock carb setups running up to 9PSI, TBI's 13PSI isn't much different, and far from the 40+ that port runs. As long as the flares and clamps are good, probably won't be an issue.

Edit: my concern would be heat, abrasion, and safety in the long term. Only recently have manufacturers felt comfortable to use "plastic" fuel lines on vehicles using high pressure. Which TBI is obviously not, but since the fuel is pressurized the entire length of the fuel lines with an in-tank pump, a leak anywhere can easily be catastrophic, and faster than you can do anything about it.

Saginaw flaring tool is going to be hard to find. For some reason I think I saw a setup that exists for making them yourself though.
 
If you find one that is reasonably priced, maybe we can work something out, I buy from you after use or something. :)

You don't use this sort of thing once, which is why buying certain tools sucks.
 
thanks for the links, pretty sure the snap on one is out. sure its a great tool, thats a heck of a lot of money. this keeps up we might go back to rubber line. he wanted this done by now. never seems to get done when you think it is
 
If you want to get rid of that 454TBI stuff lemme know, gonna need it for my Blazer....
 
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