tuned port changed to carburetor ??
is it worth it?
what are the benifits?
On average what would it cost?
thanks !

 

In my opinion, if the car is not a daily driver and you want to make a good power improvement on a budget, then carb is a great way to go if you invest some money in a good carb. When my 350HO was stock, I ran an edelbrock performer 600 carb, it went 13.9 @ 100 mph. I switched to a Speed Demon Mech. Secondary 650 carb and went 12.88 and 12.93 at 105.X and 106.1 mph (goes to show you the difference a good quality carb can make). Tell us what your motor is/what you plan to do with it and we can recommend a carb and intake.

 

boy this is a deja vu.

cost would be in the $700 range. you will need to get a carb, intake, non computer controlled distributor, fuel pressure regulator, fuel line, miscellaneous fittings, etc...

because of TPI's inherent limitation of 4800 rpm peak hp, a carb can get you past that. you might can see a .3-.4 gain by doing it. for about the same $700 (and yes i know you can get all the stuff off ebay and junkyards, if you want that hassle) you can switch to a holley stealth ram. www.stealthram.com and keep the FI, get rid of the 4800 RPM limitation of TPI, not have to tune a carb, and have good driveability.

but if NJ has emissions, then both the HSR and carb is out of the question. then you need to go with emission compatible stuff.

 

In my opinion its only worth it if you're changing the car over to a race-only car. You're much better off selling the car to someone who wants a car with TPI and buying one you like with a carb. I dont see any reason to ruin a good TPI car just because you (insert your reason here).

 

How does switching to a carb suddenly make a car a "race only" car. If he has a daily driver car, a carb will be great for a weekend warrior type car.

 

mine was a 305 tpi coverted to a stock 350tpi with a mild cam, I want to get a holley stealth ram and slp runners, anywhere for a good price?
thanks guys!

 

As far as the Stealth Ram, $300 from Summit is the lowest I've seen. I'm not sure about the runners.
-Rippin

 

I swapped from TPI to a Holley 600 carb/Edelbrock Intake setup. It makes power all the way to valvefloat. Higher RPM is good but then you realize you need a camshaft to match that new airflow demand. A whole new valvetrain would be nice. I have put 10,000 miles on this carb setup this year and it's been absolutely flawless. Only reason I did it was because I had severe TPI problems. 4 dealers and numerous people couldn't figure it out. Plus I thought it would be a fun fix in a way. Steeper gears help out also for the higher revving combo. A 150 shot of nitrous helps a LOT also if you're still dissapointed with the results(which is what happened with me). Goodluck. I put another 30lbs of nitrous thru it this week at that level, drove it across the state and back..Not a hickup or stumble at all and gas mileage is not terrible like people say. 3.73 gears, a 3700 non lockup converter, and 80 mph got me terrible mileage on this particular trip however

 

You won't need aftermarket runners with the stealth ram. It replaces the stock intake, plenum, and runners; with just an itake and plenum that have integral runners.

Martin

 

I'm not saying it becomes a race-only car, I'm saying you should only convert an EFI car if you're planning on making it a race-only car. Why hack up a perfectly good TPI car? There are many people out there with carb or TBI thirdgens who would kill to get a TPI car. Find one and trade them. Dont ruin a TPI car just because you cant figure it out.

Just my opinion...

 

Even if it was a race only car i wouldnt switch to carb. Personally while the tpi system is more expensive to modify with the right pieces can out perform a carb, has more consistent fuel mixture, and has the ability to get empirical data and tune with computers. Not to mention better gas mileage. All of which help with a race car. The only downside is the reliability issue of all of the vacuum lines and sensors. But come as you will and to each has his own mostly that is why efi is better because i prefer it but there is an equal number of reasons carbs are better.

 

i would like to see what the carbed setups run agains the stealth ram setups. with and without heads....

 

EFI will not necessarily outperform a carb in any "race" situation. EFI will unarguably provide awesome gains under the horsepower curve where a street car would benefit stoplight to stoplight. However, test after test show that there is no significant difference in peak numbers between EFI and carb setups, EFI outperforms carb setups at RPM ranges that would be under the stall speed of your average race car, in other words, a race car wont necessarily benefit from EFI because the RPM ranges that EFI is efficient at arent necessarily seen in a race car. Yes EFI would provide better data logging, yes EFI is easier for forced induction setups, I just dont think it is worth the money on a lot of cars.

 

Car Craft and several other magazines have done tests regarding EFI vs Carb, EFI always comes out better "under the curve" whereas carb usually comes out as the winner in Peak numbers, or is at least dead on with the EFI in peak numbers.

 

We still don't know the application of the car. If we knew that, we could make a better SWAG on what to do