Hey, I have a chance to buy two irocs. One with a 350 carbuerated 5.7L put in to it or one with the stock 5.7L 350 TPI. The carb one has a few performance parts on it and is in better condition, but the only downside is the carb. I live in Jersey, and we get quite a few cold and wintery days, so i want a car that will be reliable and not break down or anything. What should I do?

What are the pros and cons of a carb vs. fuel injection? Perfomance? reliablity? I dont know much about carb. engines, so any advice and help would be really appreciated. Thanks a lot guys

 

It would depend on how that carb is tuned. I live in MI and know all about cold starts. My Caprice is carb'd (stock q-jet). My Camaro is carbed (currently a Holley 600 DP) and i drive both of them in chilly days.

If you ever want to run a more radical cam, carb is the way to go. Is this carb'd IROC a stock carb setup? If not, that will be quite easy to run a more radical cam in. TPI can be picky about cam selection. Also, TPI falls flat on its face around 4800-5000 RPM. The intake is unable to provide enough air for the higher RPM's that the engine operates on. Right now, it would stand on what carb that IROC is running. For simple DD economy, TPI is the way to go.

Performance: Carb (hp at a cheaper price)
Reliability: Depends on how/what carb is setup, but generally TPI gets the nod
DD Preference: If youre not in this for power, go TPI

 

i was in the same dilema about 3 weeks ago...it was eithe ra 89 iroc with a crate motor and a 650 holley double pumper carb with abotu 300 horses, or a 86 iroc with a fuel injected vette motor TPI......it ended up with me buying the 86, and my best friend bought the 89 witht he carb...and he has to warm it up for like 3 minutes just to put it in drive otherwise it dies out, only on colder days/nights....but if you want something reliable go with the fuel injected, also better gas mileage too...i get almost 20 miles to the gallon with my car, and it has around 300 horses, and his has maybe a little over 300 horses and he gets 8 miles to the gallon in town...so yea it was a tough call for me ...i like carbed engines just because they are so easy to work on, but if you want something reliable, but still can run a good race go with the fuel injected...

 

if you want power get the carb hands down. much easier to work with then FI and no computer to worry about. a FI setup will cost you much more to toy with

 

If your goal is to go fast-

If you have money-Get the TPI car. Slap an LT1 intake on there, and you'll be set.

If you're on a mad budget-Carb. Just plain cheaper.

Personally, I'd go FI no matter what. You can make it fast, and still have a reliable, economical (to a degree) daily driver. Carb would just get old with the changing weather, humid summers, etc.

 

You also have to adjust the carb as the weather changes. It's a pain.

 

too much $ for fi. all the 7 second cars up here are carbed. come to think of it, most of the cars i see on the drag strip are carbed. FI reliable, yes. more power? negetive


tune a carb = flat head screwdriver just my 2 cents

 

Just because the 7 second cars run carb doesnt mean it makes more power. They more or less like it because it offers total 100% control over the air/fuel mixture. That and they run cams that would probably not bode well with the K/S.

There are plenty of fast fuel injected cars out there. Are then necissarly third gens, or F-bods, for that matter? No.

 

They do have a carb but do you know what RPM the motor sees daily? WOT. Do you know that they tune it for the run it is about to make? Yes it is faster to tune than a chip but is that what the car is going to see everytime you start it?

Carbs are not magical. They do not make power by themselves. They are easier to adjust but it is usually a compromise because they cannot be adjusted to give more fuel at this RPM and less at that under a certain conditon, etc.

 

exactily. besides, i never said FI was slow, i said it costs more to make them go faster because there is more to them then a carb. comps, injectors and intakes.... i think its easier to bolt up a carb and be done with it. to each his own though

 

I have a carb. My car runs great whether its 0 degrees out or 100 degress out with 90% humidity. No adjustment necessary. Gets over 20mpg highway even with the cam listed in the sig. Cold start problems? None. Idles high for the first couple of minutes, just like an FI car. I let a friend drive my car the other day (LS1 owner) and he was shocked to find out it was equipped with a QJet carb. He thought I had TPI


To the original poster: You know what you're getting with the 350TPI car. The carbed 350 car could have ANYTHING done to it. Drive them both and make the decision. Carbs run fine in the cold with a properly operating choke.

A quick review of the carb and TPI boards over at TGO will show you 2 things:

1.Carbs are dead reliable. Rarely have any troubles other than tuning issues.

2. TPIs are problem prone. Sensors and fuel pumps regularly fail, are more expensive to fix, are harder to diag, and require expensive custom tuning equipment.

 

do you know the TPI injection was made to imitate the CrossFire injection which was a modified design of the TBI injection which is just an advanced Carb? lol read that on a website. if you got the green go for the TPI (it has more in it for the long run). if your poor like me then go for the carb until you can afford a nice 4th gen with FI. well thats my opinion...

 

Well, with the carb, how would you adjust one end without it affecting the other? Can you have more fuel at 3000 but less at 3500 at the same time?

 

Go with the carb'd Iroc. Will be a lot less expensive to maintain, especially if the TPI Iroc has a lot of miles with stock parts.
If you test drive them both, the carb'd one will probably be faster.

 

Run compression tests on both cars and tell us what the numbers are.