50 ci of dilemma

[WickedWild]

I pulled the 305 out of the Z this fall and sent it to a friend out of town to be worked on in at his shop. The 305 had a wobble from the crank and trashed the crank and bearings. $100 and that’s fixed. Now here is the dilemma, I have had a running ’89 200k 350 tbi truck engine fall into my lap for next to nothing. I can pull anything off of the truck that I want. I’m planning on running the heads off of my 305 (originally off a 350) because I just redid those last spring. Bore the block .30 over and put an oversize piston in it. I’m aiming for a high compression that I can run on 93 octane. I’ve yet to decide on my cam but I won’t be taking the engine over 6k due to it being a non-roller. The car is not my daily and will see a decent amount of time in the ¼. My 305 is an ’85 and the 350 is a ’89 so I should not have any problems with bell housing. And I’m already planning on replacing the clutch. My debate is on if I should pull the wiring harness and ecm with the engine and go fuel injection or if I should keep my 305’s intake and carb. To be honest I’m a bit intimidated by the fuel injection, but I would love to get away from the carb. Dose anyone see any problems with my plan’s on going to a 355? Any recommendations on cam choice with either TBI or carberated? Thanks ahead for any advise

[grumpyvette]

if you can get the entire wire harness the swap to EFI should be time consuming but not that difficult,the 1989 engine should probably be the better option,but check the engine out, BECAUSE by 1989 many engines had roller cams (even some trucks) and some trucks had vortec heads, which are not an exact match to the earlier heads/intake pattern so you may need to stay with those truck heads if going with the EFI

as to the cam choice that will depend to a large extent on the rear gear ratio,compression ratio and stall speed you match it too, so Id call CROWER or CRANE before & after the combos basics are sorted out to ask advice and only then sellect a cam

first find out if the trucks 350 has a roller cam and which cylinder heads your dealing with

and as Im sure your aware the TBI intake needs to be ported or replaced and theres gains to be had thru programing mods

 

youll probably make significantly better power with a 4 barrel carb, but the TBI will make a nice driving combo on the street

 

[WickedWild]

Thank you Grumpy for your reply. The more reading I do on the TBI the less I like it, I’d hate to spend all this time and money only to loose the engines ability to breathe. My main concern with the carburetor is the hesitation I get in the apex of a hard turn (I think from the floats sloshing). If this truck engine dose have a roller set-up I will be redoing the truck head and selling my 305 as a long block instead of a short block.

Rear end ratio 373

Tires 225 45 17

Desired compression ratio 10.5 to 1 or 11 to 1

No stall manual transmission (T-5)

[datsunlover]

I'm not around here much lately, but I can probly help you out with some TBI wiring if you want. I just put a 350 tbi into an 86 RX7 this past summer and although it has a few 'glitches' it works well. It has it's limitations, IMO its great for the street as it is fairly simple (therefore easily tunable/repairable) and it quite reliable from what I've seen. I don't have the cash right now, but I'd love to grab an Edlebrock TBI and intake for mine. From what I've heard it's good for over 300 horse which is PLENTY for the street, and with my 3:90 gear and 225/50/16's it'd probly go alright!

 

Anyhow, I bought an 89 Caprice (ex cop car) and got the motor, 700r4 and all the wiring/ecu which came out pretty easy.. then it was about a week of going through the harness and with the help of a wiring diagram, figuring out what goes where and so on. Really not too bad though.. if you can use a muli-meter and understand a simple wiring diagram. Let me know.

[Guest tony78_280z]

The car is not my daily and will see a decent amount of time in the ¼.

I think you answered your question here. If you are not worried about gas milage, but want that peak performance, I'd go with a carb. Besdies, you arlready have what you need to run it, and with a few tunning sesssions (going from 305 to 350) you'll be back on track.

[WickedWild]

Thanks guys, I'll keep the TBI setup for a different project.

[Guest wacyszcar]

keep carburation it wont be as efficient but would be easier and better performance, u will find most of the performace climb in the swap to a 350 with edelbrock intake. ive got a 400 and it used to be injected when i switched to carbruration i lost 8 mpgs but gained power, its also easier to wire by a landslide.