My dad recently converted his 87 to a carb setup like yours. It turns on and runs if I hold the gas pedal but keeps turning off. Any advice to help it stay running? His set up is almost the same as your except we don’t have the throttle springs but will get it tomorrow.
@@bryanpozo1763 Try to make sure the following is correct: firing order, no vacuum leaks, 7psi of gas to carb, choke may be stuck on or off, make sure the plugs are decent.. If all of those are correct, you may want to troubleshoot the carburetor to make sure it’s not dumping gas or something similar. For that I recommend searching your problem on RU-vid/google.
All that you did to your corvette also can be applied to many other chevy engines all your information is spot on for the list of parts needed. It's probably way more fun to drive now and dependable and can easily handle those long daily commutes to and from work. I know for a fact. I did this to a 99 vortec 350 and dropped it in my 86 gbody and I commute over 50 miles a day for over a year now with no issues. Great source of information for anyone thinking of doing this to their ride
Yes indeed! The swap is practically 99% the same for any other small block chevy made. I tried to mainly cover the info that's not as clear on the internet and make sure the rookies like myself know what to do. For instance, the electric fuel pump, the ignition system, deleting all of the emissions equipment, etc. When I first bought this thing I knew absolutely nothing compared to what I know now. The only thing I wish I would have done differently was buy the an air gap intake instead of the 2101 as it's not the best performance intake. It gets the job done especially for stock application so I can't complain.
I have been wondering how to go about doing this with my C4, there is just so much crap on the motor , every motor I have ever rebuilt had a carb on it and when I started on this one I was blown away by how much smog and bs is on the engine, ty so much for this video it sure helps a lot.
I'm using an l98 in the entire running gear including wheels suspension and Flowmasters from a 90 Corvette into my project truck. The intent was to run fully computerized injection. So it has a ECM that's been modified to delete all of the things like anti-theft etcetera. My plan is to switch to carburetion so I can get this forever project on the road. So it seems logical that all I have to do is get a distributor and a fuel regulator. Have the exact same manifold that you do and my intent was to run an avs2 so there's that coincidence. I was worried about the original electric tank pump but it seems like this is the singular most useful thing at about your video. Well done lots of still pictures and not a lot of wasted time talking I appreciate it
Awesome video and great content. I'm planning on putting a dual carb tunnel ram set up on my ' 90 Convertible . I have the tunnel ram and the HEI distributor. . And honestly, i don't care what the haters have to say about it . I can hear the haters crying about it now . A friend of mine , put a dual carb tunnel ram set up on his C4 , without any issues. I subscribed after watching this video .
I picked up a l98 out of a rear ended corvette. The engine was already out the car when I purchased it and wasn’t able to hear it run. But for $500 dollars I rolled the dice. Got it home slapped on a high rise intake, 650 carb and a HEI distributor and it fired right up. Awesome throttle response. And I will never ever ever have to worry about injectors and all the unnecessary wires. I’m stuffing it in a 82 s10 I picked up for $500 bucks as well😂🤘🏼
@@murdyg7382 I believe that's a hydraulic roller block, which is great. The hydraulic roller cam is far more superior than the hydraulic flat tappet.They have less wear, keep the valves open longer, and run smoother overall. They are very expensive but they're worth it.
Thank you for the support! Carb swap is definitely a great way to remedy the smog design of the L98 as carbs with certain intakes will increase power & tq tremendously. You can add a cam as well however it's tough as you have to lift the engine out and or dismantle a lot of the front end to the the job. Even then, the stock heads are only good for around .500 lift and the stock valve springs can't handle a lot of RPM effectively. I recently pulled my motor so I'm doing everything top to bottom.
I did a1991 Corvette. Easy Peasy. I bought it for $950. New tires & transmission. Beautiful black interior. The previous owner had it in four shops. They couldn't fix it. Smoked, fouled out the spark plugs drank gas...... He put everything new in it. Everything.
Great video. I just did this same swap on a 1990 suburban 350 efi for all the same reasons you mentioned I used pretty much the same items you did. There were some things different however. I couldn't figure out how to get the fuel pump to keep pumping after the initial startup. So I simply bypassed the factory fuel pump regulator on the firewall. There was a factory installed wire for this already there so I hooked it up to the tach side of the HEI.
I have a turbo 400 so no transmission mods required. I installed a completely different dash asy so all the gages are digital including the satellite controlled speedo. Never been happier as throttle response is waaaay better. Milage seems slightly better as well. Have to do more tests to see how much better, but the gas gage does move slower. lol
Make sure you get all of the nickel and dime items such as fittings,hoses, and plugs. You’ll need 10 feet of 3/8 hose, four 3/8 npt barbed fittings, a fuel pressure regulator with return, etc.
@@jimmybags1494 yeah it’s tough. The forums have a bunch of People who have no idea what they’re talking about and often input their personal bias into their “advice”. Generally speaking, these are simple cars and not complex.
the only problem they always face on a C4 carb swap is the hood there simply isnt enough clearance for the aircleaner most guys run the buick snorkle to remote filter but theres barely any room
Hello and thanks for the time spent on video. I'm doing engine swap on my 86 vert. using a Blueprint 396 stroked sb350 (Engine dyno 508hp/ 525 torq) Can't wait to get it doneand driving. I am trying to figure out what to do with the injector harnesses, does anyone know if they can be "unplugged" anywhere? I've leaving the brain box in place. Thanks again!
Very informative. I like your take on how it's your car, and it's your money so it's your business. Lots of people out there do try to push you away from carburetors, and it's ashame. I still prefer a carb over EFI any day.
@E Jacks definitely cleaner than the crossfire!! But this one in question looks more packed with crap than my factory LT1 C4!! But the LT1 is a very clean looking setup straight from the factory.
@@C4VETTELT1 The only extra crap in my case is the AC delete pulley and Smog delete pulley. Eventually I'm gonna run a super small belt only for alternator and power steering pump. I also have not yet removed the AC box which is where I'm going to mount the FPR permanently. It is still way less cramped than any of the factory fuel injection options. It took me 3 hours to remove both heads from the motor by myself.
Hey, im doing a similar swap. What did you do for the upper radiator hose. Do u know the part number? As well as temperature sensors for the fan switch. Thank you
Hard to say because I never drove it with the TPI. What I can tell you is that the Dual Plane performer still generates decent mid range torque and still builds power to 5500+ rpm. Richard Holdener has a few videos on TPI vs Carb and the dyno chart shows everything. Overall, I'm happy. It's super easy to work on the engine now and ultimately can be customized more to specific wants and needs.
I’m having a hard time on my 88 l98 with aluminum heads(factory) the problem I’m running into is my 2 center bolts for my intake are at a slight angle. I know the Vortec heads have this issue as well now. Can I take the intake style for the Vortec and put it on my l98 without any troubles. It’s going on a 1984 Gmc. I have a old school pro comp high rise on it and want to go to a mid rise dual plane intake but I’m running into the boot angle problems. Any help would be awesome thanks.
I am in California and I need all the original TPI parts so it can pass smog someone did this to the Corvette I just got but it's missing stuff will still run but like a dog watching this hoping I can reverse everything lol
Good call on getting rid of that money pit TPI. I don’t care for them because they run out of breath at 4000 rpm and chip burning is a lost art in 2023. Carb swap makes better sense if you actually plan on driving the car.
Exactly. I can't have a corvette that revs to 4500rpm and makes maybe 200whp on a good day. Chip burning no thank you and obsolete decrepit 1980s fuel injection no thank you
I think i heard you say you used the restrictions on the back of the intake? Or did you just leave them open? Plus, there's a lot of haters on here. The vette im working on now caught on fire from leaky injectors. Never a fire for me with a carb. But most people are right on here... hook hose fom pcv valve to front of carb. 3/8 hose
Good work friend, a question: how do you get the rpm meter to work on the digital display with the distributor with vacuum advance? How do you connect the old harness to the new one? Can you tell me the colors of the cables?
The only gauges that really get wiggy are all of the fuel related gauges. Since there's no more fuel injectors, the ECU has no idea how much gas the engine is getting. Also, the fuel gauge may get weird as the fuel pressure regulator may inhibit the fuel pressure sensor to give higher readings. My c4 fuel gauge is basically useless.
I have an 88 Camaro TPI. I pulled the 305 and I’m going to put a 350 carbed engine in. I left all wiring intact. What wires will I need other the coil from ignition? I want to use original oil psi gauge and temp gauge. After adjust TV cable. Will trans still shift normal? What other wiring do I need to do?
Everything should hook up relatively the same, these motors are extremely universal. I can't tell you much about the shift cable as I have no experience with them. There should be plenty of videos explaining how to adjust it correctly though.
How did you get around the engine warn lamp triping with no EGR etc ? I'm right in the middle of comp engine rebuild on my 91 c4. I like the carb look and idea. Also did the mpg change much ? Thanks new subscriber
My warning light screen was broken so Im sure all the lights in the world were on. MPG was absolutely terrible sitting at 8-10 city with the tune it had. Probably could have gotten more but the heads Died after 2 weeks
Love the carburetor, took the efi off my ls swap since it was the only way i could afford to run boost, pretty much all my projects have been carb ever since , great video man but how are the pipes already going out on you? Im running a cheaper ebay builder kit and its holding up my heavy ass gt45 turbo just fine its been supporting the weight for the past year now without issue but i agree on the carb swap people really trash carburetors but they really are easier to work on
The pipes shit the bed. I believe they aren’t aluminized or something so they instantly rusted on me. We’ll see what happens when I drop the motor back im. Worst case, the bends are super easy to replicate so I’ll redo them later.
@@IllegalC4 ahh damn that’s crazy man i got no hood and they a bit surface rust but still build boost i leak tested it and still holding up try the cheaper ebay builders kit you might get lucky ive used em on a lot of builds
I read that these carbs have a fuel starvation issue in hard turns. Has it happened to you? 8128 is the part number for the dual feed fuel line to keep both bowls full during sharp turns.
I unfortunately don't know as I don't have experience with automatics. Your best bet is to search on RU-vid how to set a TV cable and you should be good from there.
I still have the stock computer. I did not hook my cruise control cable up to my carb so I cannot say if it works however there's no reason it wouldn't. I'm not sure how great it would work though
I also have an 86 Manual trans that was my grandfathers. unfortunately the motor has expired and do not wanna reinstall all the tpi stuff like you. I have a 350 with aluminum heads being built and am switching to a carb everything you posted is what I’ve also seen on some forums about using stock pump and a regulator and hei distributor. My question is what did you do with the wiring harness with everything that’s not being used anymore? Just cut it all out? Thanks for any help
Hello from Romania 🇷🇴 This is my story, maybe you can help with more information about what i whant to do with my 1993 LT1 ! Long story short, i have a small colecțion of american cars, i love them ! I have a 1993 5.7 LT1 Camaro, a 1997 3.8 Camaro, a 2002 3.8 Pontiac Firebird, and a 2001 Cadillac Deville DTS 4.6 V8, the one with night vision and head up display! If could i would get them all ! 😅 Now, i whant to carb swap my 1993 LT1 Camaro because of the Optispark. I allready have the motor out, transmission, i wil get the rear end out when the engine will be done. I got it out because i will swap it on the 3.8, because that one has romanian papers and can be driven. So, i did my research about this swap on the internet but some swaps get to 4000$, thats alot in romanian money plus shipping. This is a budget build, and what i whant to do with this engine is like this ! Gm performance carbureted intake GMP intake, that has a long part number, a hei distribuitor, wires and spark plugs. And some ground wires dont know how many yet, but thats why i am writing heare. Then i need a water pump, radiator, starter, alternator. Other then that ? I have found what manual valve body i need for the transmission, i think it's a 700r, it has that tv cable and 16 bolt patern of the oil pan. Is a 650 cfm carb good as size ? What kind of carb ? Do i need a coil beside the hei distribuitor to start the car ? What fuel presure regulator should i use ? What aftermarket gauges i need to use for the spedometer, rpm, oil and water temperature ? If you can help me with other information about this swap that i whant to do i would apreciate ! If you have Facebook or Instagram we can speak there more easy ! If not its ok heare to ! GOD BLESS ✝️
I used another GM HEI Distributor but I believe it died on me the last day I had it. Definitely don’t cheap out on your ignition as it can really hurt your motor or fail all together.
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What happens to the gauges when you go with a carburetor do they still act as normal?
If you have the L98 Tune Port Injection, you will be fine as it's the small block chevy architecture. If you have the LT1, you will have to get an LT1 specific intake manifold. The LT1 is not the same architecture as a small block chevy.
@@miguelmontoya7805 FPR www.summitracing.com/parts/HLY-12-881 My friend gave me the distributor so I have no idea what it is. I can tell you that it says Delco Remy and looks identical to the stock one so i'm assuming its a vacuum advance off of another small block chevy.
That's awesome. I feel your pain. My tune port was so old and deteriorated. When I was taking it apart I knew that this junk could not go back on. If it were an LT1 I would have probably kept it since it's not a bad setup.
@@IllegalC4 awesome something shuts off my fuel injectors randomly. I already did the vats bypass and still happens so this will kill that gremlin. My winter project.
I’m converting my 84 now, you didn’t have to run any power to the fuel pump? I’ve cycled the key on mine but it’s not ready to start yet and I hear the pump run for a couple seconds then it shuts off. I’m running an hei distributor also and I don’t understand how the pump will run without the stock distributor
There's no reason to have to screw with the fuel pump if you unplugged/removed the TPI stuff. The key always switches the fuel pump on. Also, what you are hearing is the fuel pump priming. When you turn the key it will only prime and shutoff until you start it. To address the last thing you said about the distributor, there's no correlation between the distributor and fuel pump. They have nothing to do with each other.
@@IllegalC4 the problem I’m having is I get the couple seconds of prime and it fired right up until it runs out of fuel. The pump only primes and doesn’t stay running when the car starts. I’m using the oil pressure sending unit because it’s tied into the relay but there is another wire coming from the ecm that must keep it running. I need to figure out that wire and run ignition power to it
Yup there is definitely more options to throw some boost at a carb setup vs the ole tpi. It is possible on the TPI setup but will probably run 3x the price of doing it the carb way.
I'm just curious was the motor bone-stock? Because your Dyno numbers don't add up there's no way you got that much horsepower out of a bone stock l98 and there's no way you had 150 horsepower with a carburetor intake and headers. So just curious what mods were done to the original motor before you got it and how big of a cam you put in when you swapped to the carburetor?
The dyno graph shown was a bare engine in a dyno cell with no accessories, cold air, headers, and a tune. Chevy put the l98 out at 230 crank hp with all accessories/smog equipment which simulates world real numbers. As for the major hp gain, yes that it true. Remember, it’s 150 hp on an engine with no accessories in a controlled environment. On the street it will probably be closer to half of that number. If you don’t believe me, watch Richard Holdenrs TPI videos on YT. Also, my motor was bone stock in this video and I did not change any internals. I recently pulled my motor and sent it to be rebuilt as a 383. I’d imagine the new cam will be around 230duration, 500 lift, and 110LSA.
Also I believe you may have misinterpreted some information. The chart in the video shows the TPI peaking at 330hp and the carburetor setup peaking around 360hp. With that being said, the 30peak hp isn’t what’s the most beneficial. What’s most beneficial is how the carb setup keeps building power out into higher RPMs. So yes it makes 30 more at peak but the power band is nearly doubled in HP.
Didn't touch anything. You can unplug practically everything and won't have much trouble. The only thing the ECM might trip about is the oil pressure switch but I haven't screwed with that. I'm gonna be upgrading to an MSD Ign system soon tho as I'm sure the stock system sucks.
@@IllegalC4so you just disconnected the fuel injection wiring from the engine and tucked away the harnesses? You left the connections plugged on the computer?
With everything done in this video, maybe 280whp-300whp since its a manual. I dont know what a stock C4 dynos So Im going off the fact that it might be making close to 340 crank hp. The configuration in this video is more of a torque setup than a HP setup so Im sure the torque is Decent too. Never drove it enough to confidently speak on it
@@IllegalC4 what parts for that number? I’ve seen on some forums L98 6 speed cars making 370whp from intake, headers, full exhaust, decent cam, and I believe some other bolt ons. Do you have an insta?
This is a neat idea but I will never do this to my car. Why would I ever replaced tuned port injection with a carburetor?! I would probably understand why you would if your vette is cross fire injected but even then, cross fire injection was supposed to give better performance and be more economical than a regular carburetor.
It is all up to the owner and their goals. This is my project car so I value performance over efficiency/OEM form. A carb and good intake will add way more power and tuneability to a c4 with Xfire or TPI. If you're somebody who dailys or doesn't care about performance, there's nothing wrong with staying stock form. At the end of the day, there's a reason people carb swap/go efi instead of puting a TPI or LT1 on their small block project car. They always go RPM performer and a 750 of some sort.
That's not a kick down cable it's a TV cable that lets the transmission know when to shift. Without the throttle valve cable placed correctly you can burn up your transmission.
I unfortunately do not have experience tuning carbs. There's plenty of videos/articles on how to do it. Generally speaking, if you have a pretty normal build, the carb will work out the box as is without running terribly lean or rich.
It's definitely sucking every possible molecule of hot air possible. By all means, it is killing HP and MPG. This setup was definitely a short term/temp setup. I'm ordering a cowl soon and I'll be building a custom CAI when I get my motor back.
Stock waterpump. There's a long neck and short neck version so be sure if you order a replacement that you have the correct one. Also, there is a heater core hose line you'll have to put a plug in on the water pump if you are removing that equipment.
@@dvscustoms I work on TPI and LT cars exclusively, you’d think otherwise in my line of work. Just sold my 1991 6sp Corvette for $26k with 55k miles on it.
@@dvscustomsyea for one with a million problems rust all over it paint fucked up and 150,000 miles on the engine and still worth more than alot of normal used cars on marketplace dipshit
Myself and many other corvette owners are not satisfied with the 180 wheel horse power that these TPI small blocks produce. Who are you to say putting a carb is screwing a corvette? Where's your corvette? Many others would agree that putting a good carb and intake in place of the dog ass TPI is one of the best things you can do to enjoy a classic muscle car, especially considering the age and condition of OEM parts. Can you tell me why almost every old classic car rocks a carb setup?
Not trying to be a hater. I am not like you. I am old. I love fuel injection vs carberators. I am old enough to be your grandpa. Carberators belong on the bottom of the ocean. Fuel injection on these old cars have fuel injection that is so far superior to any carberator.
There's nothing wrong with putting a filter over the PCV. Ultimately, there's better options out there to the method I had done however considering I had just gone it running, there's nothing wrong with what I did.
Not at all true. Its also getting harder and harder to find TPI parts as it gets older. Look man, you cant deny its one of GMs first EFI setups and its very obsolete. Its a cool and unique setup but at the end of the day, it has no performance to it.
I would personally advise to keep the LT1 as it’s pretty good design, especially if you do some of the preventative repairs ahead of time with optispark. It’s a bit newer than the TPI so it is actually pretty good for daily driving & performance oriented applications. One thing to also consider is a lot of the modifications required if you switched to a carburetor setup because the LT1 is a bit different from the traditional small blocks.
@IllegalC4 it's actually pretty simple, they make an intake manifold for the LT1 for the carb swap. It has the hole obviously in the back for the distributor also for your traditional distributor in the back. I'm basically thinking of doing this to ditch the ECM. Also obviously have to change the timing chain cover as well. I'm definitely keeping the LT1!! I absolutely love the LT1 engine personally.
I plan on picking up a 84 c4 vet and I want to convert to a carb and then go from there as far as upgrades is there a way we can stay in touch do you have a Facebook
@@IllegalC4 PCV depends on vacuum fm the intake manifold to one of the valve covers and a filter of sorts on the other valve cover to circulate outside air thru the crankcase