Checklist for carb swap

[SixPointTwo]

I'm posting this for a buddy. We're converting his TBI to carb and I wanted to make sure that we have absolutely everything we'll need to swap it over so we can do it all in one shot. It's a '93 K1500 4x4 pickup.

He's bought some refreshed pre-87 heads (don't recall the casting number, I believe they are 2.02 intake/1.65 exhaust)

Edelbrock 2701 intake

Fel-pro gasket kit (head/intake/exhaust)

Edelbrock 1406 600cfm electric choke carb

Adjustable fuel pressure regulator/fittings/rubber lines

HEI distributor

What else are we missing? Eventually we'll probably be doing a cam swap but for now it's not necessary.

 

[Turner421]

I'm not saying you will have this problem. But when I did my 89 , I was unable to use the oem pump in the tank. The regulator couldn't take it. I had to but an inline Holley pump and still regulate it.

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[TylerZ281500]

first off ill be angry and say this is a worthles swap and stupid not to mention, now i feel better,

93 has a 60e unless its manual, youll have to keep the computer and need rpm signal and tps.

id not run an edelbrock, they are junk and have no tuning ability which you will need because youll need to tune it at least once a month. therefore id in an AFR guage as well.

fuel regulator yes

you sorta need to know what heads your using, very few heads came 2.02 1.6 in pre 87 applications also there were a heavy dose of bad castings and high combustion chamber cc's which could overall be completely terrible idea to swap on as youll lose compression. plus heads will need to be rebuilt.

Cam? your gonna ditch everything tbi related thats good and keep the crap cam?

OEM pump is a return style youll need to adress that via your regulator or youll burn it up.

HEI yes, get a good one and dont worry about it

Intake, more edelbrock garbage geez. craiglist and your local trading grounds have a good deal of intakes for cheap for 100 bucks i could pick up multiple in a days work performers are OK but theres better as far as runner length.

From what i see your carb swapping for no reason at all or you havent told us something.

 

[SixPointTwo]

first off ill be angry and say this is a worthles swap and stupid not to mention, now i feel better,

93 has a 60e unless its manual, youll have to keep the computer and need rpm signal and tps.

id not run an edelbrock, they are junk and have no tuning ability which you will need because youll need to tune it at least once a month. therefore id in an AFR guage as well.

fuel regulator yes

you sorta need to know what heads your using, very few heads came 2.02 1.6 in pre 87 applications also there were a heavy dose of bad castings and high combustion chamber cc's which could overall be completely terrible idea to swap on as youll lose compression. plus heads will need to be rebuilt.

Cam? your gonna ditch everything tbi related thats good and keep the crap cam?

OEM pump is a return style youll need to adress that via your regulator or youll burn it up.

HEI yes, get a good one and dont worry about it

Intake, more edelbrock garbage geez. craiglist and your local trading grounds have a good deal of intakes for cheap for 100 bucks i could pick up multiple in a days work performers are OK but theres better as far as runner length.

From what i see your carb swapping for no reason at all or you havent told us something.

He's getting a TPS kit for the Edelbrock so the tranny will have signal

Also I've had nothing but success with Edelbrock, if it turns out ty then we'll grab a a Holley but for now an Edelbrock will do just fine

The regulator is a return style so we already got that taken care of

Like I said we're just getting it running now, a cam swap is in the future

If we can find a good deal on another intake we'll grab it but the 2701 should work just fine

This truck is more of a play toy than anything, we've always wanted to carb swap a GMT400 and we're going to see how it's gonna go. If all else fails and its horrible we'll put the TBI setup back on it. It's not a big deal

 

[TylerZ281500]

e-tecs and intakes arent terrible, carbs are garabage they based ti off old carters and eliminated every tuning screw they had on them, which in this generation of people who think they slap a carb on and go and dont expect to tune it creates such good reviews.

why would you pull everything apart and not cam swap it now? the heads are off to respring it, you dont have to tear the top end back apart, seems rather mindless to spend money on gaskets twice.

 

[SixPointTwo]

He got back to me, the heads are 441's with 2.02/1.65

 

[TylerZ281500]

he better start milling them, they are around 72cc given a 12cc piston on a standard 4"x3.48" 350 and standard .040 head gaskets, assuming the block hasnt been milled so your looking at compression in the low 8:1 range 8.4 tops which is terrible, id look for a different head. you can try milling them but last time i used a 72-76 cc head i had to mill .010 off to make it worthwhile and then ran into some intake issues because all the geometry was off.

 

[Supercharged111]

Tyler I'll agree that Edelbrock carbs are no good, but not for your reasons. Tunability was far more flexible than the Holley I tuned. I was able to cruise at 14.7 and get 12.9 WOT with all the different needles available. With Holley, you're stuck with a power valve that flows what it flows and you don't get that much flexibility with the AFRs. They also hold a tune great, set it and forget it. However mine heat soaked like crazy all the time which I couldn't stand and just swapped to EFI which ended up giving me way more torque with the same top end. Car was all around faster after that swap. The Holley was on another car so I didn't get to see if ity really did make that much more juice.

 

[TylerZ281500]

Tyler I'll agree that Edelbrock carbs are no good, but not for your reasons. Tunability was far more flexible than the Holley I tuned. I was able to cruise at 14.7 and get 12.9 WOT with all the different needles available. With Holley, you're stuck with a power valve that flows what it flows and you don't get that much flexibility with the AFRs. They also hold a tune great, set it and forget it. However mine heat soaked like crazy all the time which I couldn't stand and just swapped to EFI which ended up giving me way more torque with the same top end. Car was all around faster after that swap. The Holley was on another car so I didn't get to see if ity really did make that much more juice.

i didnt think someone knew enough about carbs to fully understand what id say if i went into depth so i kept it short, yes i agree, heat soak, stuck at whatever power level, i stand by my statement though, an eddy seems far less tuneable than a holley or anything of that nature and honestly right out of the box dialed in the best it can be the eddy cold starts like , e choke works like , and dumps fuel at WOT and we cant find any way to fix it. i hate them, ive had a few vehicles that came with them on it, i either threw them in the trash or literally gave it to the first person i saw that talked about carbs, hey theres one in the bed of my truck if you want it go get it.

in the end, EFI is always gonna make more power, and be more reliable if operated properly

 

[Supercharged111]

You're talking about the finer details that I never got into. Never even knew they existed until after I removed carbs from my life. The farthest I've ever gone is to change needles, jets, set float height, idle screws, and power valves or step up springs via a wideband. I'll admit the remaining ignorance, but I will say that my Eddy always cold started great be it in MI or CO or SD, give it one pump to set the high idle and it fires right off. Granted my car had a real mild cam (204/214 .447/.471) so I'm sure that that helped me. I didn't require much adjustability as the motor always made good strong vacuum. I guess that's what you're alluding to.