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TPI conversion question

CaveBlazin

CaveBlazin

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Ok Im getting things ready to convert to TPI and I need to know what the best vehicles are to get the wiring harness from and I heard about getting one from Street Performance which I am looking into but I need good donor vehicles as well. Also whats a good cost or average cost of some of this stuff I dont wanna get ripped off as Im sure everyone here does not. Also were are some good links or forums to look into for buying this stuff. THANKS ALL!! /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
Here, hopefully my write up will answer a few of your questions, and help you out some...

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1092752/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

I picked up my tpi setup for $300, then converted it to Speed Density, and by the time i was done i had about $1200 into the whole swap... but well worth it for my Daily Driver K5. /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif
I went with a wiring harness from street and performance.. It is wrapped/ shrinktubed in factory tape, instead of the painfull harness which is just ziptied to hold it together.
The S&P harness is more expensive but you get what you pay for. That extra insulation is a piece of mind that the wires aren't going to get chaffed and cause problems down the road, especially when installling it and fishing all the connectors and wires through a hole in the firewall. I was very happy with the S&P harness and made it easy to install.. in one weekend i went from carburated to injected. If you get a factory harness you're going to have some cutting and splicing to do, i'd guess a week long project instead of a weekend... An aftermarket harness takes the headache out of the swap. Everything is labeled and ready to go.
I also went through Mark at street and performance for my custom eprom chip burned for my application.. With a 383 i'd assume you'd need to do the same.
 
Ryan B you DA MAN!!!! That is exactly what I need wow thats was alot easier than the searches I kept doing LOL. Thanks again,
Spence
O yeah I may be contacting you alot on this LOL!!!
 
Are you going to run a MAF or MAP setup? If you run a MAF setup you can't a harness from street and performance. I am using the Painless Wiring harness in my MAF TPI and it is great.

I am very happy with my TPI and also my Painless Harness. The stock harness is a very scary thing compared to the Painless Harness. Painless includes a manual on what to connect where and had very good tech support lines. I recommend them highly. They are also cheaper then S&P harnesses too. I would AVOID the stock harness unless that is the only option.

Harley
 
hey ryan. why not get the harness from painless and wrap it yourself with the shrink tube tape stuff? /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
 
How much is the Painless harness vs the S&P harness?? and whats the difference just the wrapping?>? /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
 
Painless run $300 I heard S&P harnesses are alot higher.

S&P will do custom things to your harness if you want them to. Custom lengths, custom wiring to fit your application, etc.

Harley
 
Is your '86 TBI or carb? If is TBI you can repin the stock harness for the TPI computer. That is what I am doing with mine next week. You can look on www.thirdgen.org for more info. Just don't mention that you are doing this on a truck. Tends to get some of the people angry and leads to getting the threads locked. Ask me how I know! Tons of good info though.
 
You can use whichever set up you like the most. Or you can be cool like all the other 1st gen guys /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif and get it off a 3rd gen Camaro/Firebird!

You can find em on ebay, I wouldnt pay more then $350 for one. How I did mine, (and what id reccommend) fina the whole car fhr cheap, I got one for 150 bucks, then strip it yourself, youll actually make money on the TPI converson instead of spending money!

Dont waste your time with a harness from the donor car. Everyone says the Painless harness is not that good, its fine. Its not worth an extra $250 IMHO just to have the harness wrapped, I did that for like 9 bucks extra, AND its a good quality harness.

If you have a radical cam then you might want to think about a MAF set up. If you want to run MAP WITH a radical cam, the vaccuum has to be over 15". When I got my chip burned they said anyhitng with less then 15" is REALLY hard to work with, I had 16" (which is basically at the limit)and it seems to run fine.
 
I do not have a radical cam I have the RV Offroad towing cam. I also like Danny Said have a Carb so I gotta get a complete harness so I will look at the painless wiring setup if it seems to be the best setup.
 
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