carb to fuel injection "4 questions"

[72BLUZ]

Has anybody changed their truck from a carb system to fuel injection while keeping the oem transmissions? What has been pros and cons of doing so? What companies offer them? Was installation easy or hard on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the hardest?

[ls1nova71]

Is that 4 questions? Any way, alot of it depends on what type of EFI you're planning on using, and your skill level. If you're keeping your original engine and just adding something like a TPI, then using the original trans is as easy as figuring out a way to hook up the kick down cable, not too hard. If your wanting to do a 5.3 swap, if it's cable throttle body, pretty much the same deal. Now if its drive by wire (DBW) you can still run a 350 turbo, you just won't have a kick down. If you want to run a 700R4, it gets WAY more difficult, because you have to have the TV cable hooked up for them to work at all.

There are all kinds of companies that offer wirin harnesses these days, so just look around.

As for pros and cons, well pros in my opinion are excellent driveability anywhere you go, high altitude, bitter cold winters, ect. nothing will bother it. Also youy get the "wow" factor when you open the hood.

Cons, well I'm an EFI guy so I'm probably not the one to ask. But I will say, cost may be a factor, but the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion.

If you want to do some searching, www.ls1tech.com has a conversion and hybrd section that is second to none.

[D13]

Almost any manual trans is OK, non-electronically shifted autos are pretty easy, TH400 are simple.

Better cold starts, no cylinder washdown, will draw the last drop of gas, slightly better fuel economy, no weather tuning.

Hooley, Edelbrock, Howell, etc. if it's Chevy there's probably a close to drop in from the factory (example, 87-91 burbs/blazers had FI 305/350/454 factory).

Depends, SBC / TH700R4 into 85 up square, easy basically factory 87. DBW 6.2 gas 4l80E, into 71, giant PITA since nothing like that was available. There's a bunch of swap threads on here, they are great for info.

[78bronzechariot]

As said, Depends on what route you want to go. I have done the bolt on "throttle body" kit from professional products on my '78 Caprice (1st pic). Their system looks like a holley carb and will run about $2000. It is just as easy as setting up a carburetor as far as linkage goes. I did the whole swap in one weekend. The system is "self tuning" you program in your desired air/fuel ratio and drive it. The second pic shows my laptop and the computer in the glovebox. I have also gone the LSx route when I put the 4.8 out of a Silverado in my '67 C10 (third pic). That can be done with an original trans and spending wisely for around $2000-$3000 depending on the cost of your engine. I went the whole way and put a 4l60e behind my engine so I could have overdrive. That project took about 4 weekends, but wasn't much more difficult than replacing an engine. Obviously from my pictures, doing a "show quality" job will take considerably longer. I did spend a little extra to get a "plug and play" wire harness, which is what scares most people out of doing a transplant. The LSx is just like a new truck, get in and hit the key. The Caprice however, always starts right up, but it doesn't run as perfect as a factory setup until it is warmed up and running in closed loop.

[Jonboy]

I did a TBI swap into my '74, mostly because I lucked into the engine. If you can bolt on an intake, you can do an EFI swap. Or you can use a TBI adapter, and use your existing intake. I used a new wiring harness from www.fuelinjectionconnection.com , as I felt is was worth the $245 not to have to clean up a 25 year old wiring harness. Robert can walk you through any EFI swap, and his prices are pretty decent, too. I added a 700R4 at the same time, but haven't been able to road test it too much. After the A/C gets done, I plan on driving the snot out of it.

[sdailey]

This kit has been talked about alot recently. It looks to be pretty much plug and play.

http://www.fuelairspark.com/ezefi/default.asp

[72BLUZ]

interesting info, thanks guys

[Bigo Serge]

My brother in law and I installed Fast EZ EFI master kit on my 72 swb cheyenne. It works great especially when I let the truck sit for a couple of weeks, It fires right up , no problem . I will post pictures very soon. I actually was thinking about selling the efi set up, because I want to go with a LS1 set up. If you are interested let me know.