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Tbi

Pizza_Man

Pizza_Man

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Okay, so I have a carburated K5, and soon it will be a DD. And my dad keeps buggin me about switching to injected. So I figured I'll look into it.
Naturally first place I go is Craigslist, followed by google, then I ended up on edelbrock and holley's site. And $1800 is way out of my price range. But apparently there are some "homemade" ways to switch (no, theres no sawzall or welding). But it actually involves a computer and sensors and whatnot. The only one I've heard of is called Mega Squirt (asked my friend about it... he looked at me funny and said not to type it in google images... :eek1:)

So anybody know a cheap way to switch from carb to tbi?
 
Hit the wrecking yard and pull a COMPLETE factory TBI system from a truck. Keep in mind that you will have to visit the referee for the first smog then once they approve of the swap they will affix a sticker to the truck saying what smog devices need to be on the truck now and then you can smog it at any of your local smog shops for any future emissions testing.
 
Smog is not an issue... It's a '71 (Pre-smog for the win) and I asked my dad about goin to a junkyard and rippin another system, but he says there's sensors and crap in the engine... not so sure on the credibility of that though
 
No sensors internaly with TBI, but it would be best to get the entire TBI engine too. The computer is designed to work with a certain cam, compression ratio, etc. Now if you wanted to mod the TBI and make more power, you can have chips burned to work with the mods you make to it.
 
There are sensors on the engine but they aren't very expensive so i would just replace ALL of them when you do the swap that way there shouldn't be any issues. I will name the sensors for you so you can price them if you wish.

CTS (Coolant Temp Sensor)
TPS (Throttle Position Sensor)
IAC (Idle Air Control)
MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure)
02 (Oxygen Sensor)
Knock sensor

You would need to make sure you have a fuel injected friendly cam otherwise it will freak out the ECM (Electronic Control Module)
 
I love my TBI, starts up first time, every time, runs like a champ, gets great mileage.

Can he use the MPI setup off like an old C4 Vette or Z28? (I almost snagged one off a cash for clunkers car, yes a C4 vette but it had cracked fiberglass, primer, trashed interior and wired with parts of an extension cord!)

Can the knock sensor go on any block?

Won't he need an electric fuel pump also? Or can the Mechanical one work?

Just thinking out loud since I have no idea. I'm new to Chevy's and you guys know more then me!
 
Yes tbi's are kinda temper mental about the cams and heads, from my understanding your best off using a kit if you want to use your same engine.
 
You need a electric fuel pump but the tbi style blazer pumps fit in the older tanks with some issues with the gas gauge. You don't need a knock sensor either. I pulled the whole system out of a 91 burb for my 73 k5 made a adapter out of some 1/4" plate and bolted it to the carb manifold. I got a wiring harness from affordable fuel injection http://www.affordable-fuel-injection.com/ so I wouldn't have to mess with pulling wires from the stock harness. The harness was well labeled and worked perfectly, they reflash chips too. Good luck with the swap it is definitely worth it in my opinion

EDIT: I forgot to add this is added onto the stock 73 engine with headers, intake and msd ignition system. Reflash the chip to work with what you are running and you will have no worries
 
I bought a rig with a blown tranny that had crate tbi motor in it, swapped everything over, used a harness computer etc. from Howell, since a friend wanted the rig after I was done, sold off the parts and had about $400.00 in the swap.

I put a frame mounted fuel pump from napa on and used the original tank in the 70, installed a check engine light and put an oxy sensor in my old exhaust so I wouldn't have to change that. Been there for 3 years no issues, Moab a couple times and several other trails.

I love it, open door reach in turn key on wait a couple seconds till fuel pump clicks and pow its running no matter what the weather or angle and mileage is 3 to 4 times better than my old worn out 350 with edelbrock 1406.

I ordered the manual from howell so I would have it in the future and chose TBI for ease of my little brain having a chance at understanding it and parts accessability in remote places.
 
One thing I have noticed is don't let the tank run low because when it is out of fuel you stop where you are and have to quickly hit neutral and hopefully can coast out of traffic.

and why is it the 2 times that has happened I can only get ahold of women to rescue me????:dunno:
 
Yes he could install a TPI system as well and in fact it will make more power and isn't much different sensor wise depending on what type he uses (i like the 90-92 speed density for ease of install).
 
70jimmy said:
and why is it the 2 times that has happened I can only get ahold of women to rescue me????:dunno:
Click to expand...

Maybe they think you are sexy? :haha:

Thanks everyone for all the input so far. I'm going to try to lookup some prices on individual parts. Also can you tune TBI to work with a cam and whatnot? Also, an engine swap right now isn't really much of an option (not much money). Again, lookin for the cheapest way to do this (liking the junkyard idea :D)
 
I did a TBI swap for my 71 (thanks to help from Scott) using my original engine. If I was able to do it, it's really not that difficult.

The engine harness is mostly self-contained so just remove the throttle body and keep unplugging sensors until you reach the firewall and remove the big rubber plug the wires go through to let the plugs for the computer to pull through. There's a few wires that go into the fuse block but those can be cut off at the fuse block junction in the engine compartment.

Or you can just buy a new harness for a couple hundred bucks.

I'd say the fuel pump and filters are the most hassle.
 
It's a relatively straight forward swap. Go to 67-72chevytrucks.com, and search threads started by me, big dump. I have a pretty comprehensive write up of my swap. I don't have enough posts yet on this site to copy/paste working URL's or I would.
 
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