SBC TBI kit pros and cons

[Frans]

Am thinking of improving the torque curve on this 283 I have and improving gas milage a bit.
I would like more low end torque. As well as, not having the float bowl stick on off camber activities. Just re-build the carb. but folks tell me they work great until they dont. then it gets bad.

Has anyone installed one of these kits?
Painless Wiring has kits that include the wiring, so I was considering one of those because then I could build it up component by component.

Right now it has a rottenchester 4 barrel and I think I would do better with a two barrel throttle body set up.

Any advice?

Thanks

 

[pantheraba]

Has anyone installed one of these kits?
Painless Wiring has kits that include the wiring, so I was considering one of those because then I could build it up component by component.

My son put a Painless kit in his '67 Bronco...I'll ask him what his final decision about the kit was. He put it in about 4 years ago and it seems to have done well. I"ll check with him on the details when he wakes up (fell asleep with Hayden at nap time).

 

[lumberjack]

Is it a spread bore 4 barrel? If so, are they mechanical or vacuum?

In general, smaller in's and out's (bastard use of the apostrophe I know) of the engines breathing promotes low end, larger promotes high end (within reason).

How does the 283 compare to the 350's intake/distributor setup?

 

[sawinredneck]

It's the same Carl, SBC is SBC for all intents and purposes.

There are several stand alone units that I think are better than the factory units.

I'll look a bit more and see what I come up with.

 

[lumberjack]

A factory setup sure is cheap. I've got one sitting out there in the suburban.

 

[Frans]

Is it a spread bore 4 barrel? If so, are they mechanical or vacuum?

In general, smaller in's and out's (bastard use of the apostrophe I know) of the engines breathing promotes low end, larger promotes high end (within reason).

How does the 283 compare to the 350's intake/distributor setup?

edelbrock performer manifold. Dont know what spread bore is- you just bumped into the limit of my knowledge on that.

I would like to build the system part by part seeing as I don't want to shell out a couple of grand right now.
I do have an adaptor plate for my present manifold...

 

[sawinredneck]

Spread bore= the back venturi's are larger than the front two. When you put youre foot in it it dumps the front two, plus the two in back that are twice the size for a real "kick in the pants". Lots of power in the higher RPM range.

Square bore= all four venturi's are the same size, nice for low to mid-range power, but limits the RPM range of the motor.

 

[Strikermike]

If you are having problems with the carburetor. Check with the 4X4 forums there are some kits that modify the carbs to work on steep off camber angles. The 350 is just a larger 283 the distributor is in the same location. Some intake manifolds will fit but the ports usually do not match well

Mike

 

[sawinredneck]

Yeah, the stand alone kits have gotten sky high!!! Carl is correct on this one!

 

[stehansen]

Could you put on some electronic ignition at the same time?

 

[sawinredneck]

That seems to be part of the painless wiring kit. Although just the standard HEI drop in is realy hard to beat!

 

[DTW902]

The cam is the brain's of your engine, they control your torque curves. Then the manifolds exhaust and intake. The intake plenum height and design. For torque and low end you want a low plenum height, for high end and rpm's you want a high plenum. The carb is just were the juice comes from, all based on vacuum. I would look into a good cam first then a TBI or good carb rework.

 

[pantheraba]

Alex said the Painless Wiring harness was worth it...the wires are marked all the way along the wire, they are pre-grouped for routing to a general area. His experience with it was good.

I have a '49 IHC truck that a friend and I wired from scratch and it was a bit of a process...a pre-fab harness would have been real nice.

 

[sawinredneck]

The cam is the brain's of your engine, they control your torque curves. Then the manifolds exhaust and intake. The intake plenum height and design. For torque and low end you want a low plenum height, for high end and rpm's you want a high plenum. The carb is just were the juice comes from, all based on vacuum. I would look into a good cam first then a TBI or good carb rework.

You are right Dave, but his problem is it's flooding out on inclines. But to do a good "thumper" motor, he needs a medium lift, short duration cam, a medium, to low rise intake,a small square bore carb and a set of headers with a crossover and as open as you can make them.
But I don't think Frans is ready to dive that deep yet

 

[Frans]

It is a 'spread bore'. The Rottenchester carb is a 4 barrel.
no problems with the carb as I already said. I re-built it and it works just fine.

Painless wiring makes wiring harnessess as a rule. The stand alone TBI kits are usually made by other companies.

I am talking TBI (throttle body injection) NOT TPI (tuned port injection). I would like to convert to a 2 barrel throttle body injection system.

here is a web site which explains it: http://www.automedia.com/TBI_Fuel_Injection_Conversion/pht20001001fi/1


My distributor is an HEI right now, but I would have to swap it out for doing the conversion.

I guess there are alot of advantages to doing the conversion, but I would like to talk to some people who know the ins and outs.

Someone gave me an adaptor plate which bolts onto my present manifold to accept a throttle body, so I do not need to buy a new manifold.

This set up is for a OFF ROAD vehicle. NOT a hot rod. the cams are set up already for doing this.

 

[lumberjack]

Most I've seen harvest parts off a junker (with a similar displacement), buy the painless wiring harness (some cut out and reuse the original harness, but I'd go for the simplicity), plug and play. Some flash the ecu a new map, which might be required since you have fewer cubes and the factory system does MAP not mass.

 

[Strikermike]

Check out powerblocktv .com I remember seeing both a tbi conversion and modifying a carb to work at very high angles. I just can't remember which show Horsepower tv or xtreme 4x4. Ithink they have a search engine that will help

 

[Frans]

the rottenchester already had the float bowl adjusted to work at off camber angles.

 

[Strikermike]

I am not sure it was for a rochester it may have been a holley. But it was more than an adjustment. More like a kit it replaced the float, bowls snd some jets too I think. Some how it prevented the bowls from over filling at steep and odd angles.

 

[tree MDS]

What sort of rochester? To my knowledge the 283 should be running a carter afb (aluminum four barrel) or a two barrel, much smaller than a Quadrajet - maybe thats your problem?? 283 and torque...not so much. Those motors will spin 8500 rpms all day long though, making it a real nice screamer for a smaller hot rod type car- whats this in anyways??

 

[Frans]

What sort of rochester? To my knowledge the 283 should be running a carter afb (aluminum four barrel) or a two barrel, much smaller than a Quadrajet - whats this in anyways??

this vehicle is a series land rover 11a.

What may, or may not, have been stock for the 283 is now long past-

"she is like the village bicycle baby, everyones had a ride"- the spy who shagged me


No 'problems' with the set up now, I am just seeking advice on doing a conversion because I think I may get better fuel economy as well as help with off camber driving.








I said all this before in previous posts

 

[DTW902]

Am thinking of improving the torque curve on this 283 I have and improving gas milage a bit.
I would like more low end torque. As well as, not having the float bowl stick on off camber activities. Just re-build the carb. but folks tell me they work great until they dont. then it gets bad.

Has anyone installed one of these kits?
Painless Wiring has kits that include the wiring, so I was considering one of those because then I could build it up component by component.

Right now it has a rottenchester 4 barrel and I think I would do better with a two barrel throttle body set up.

Any advice?

Thanks

Make up your mind Frans, more torque or better fuel mileage and better steep incline operation from your fuel system.
One thing you want to make sure of Frans is that your oil pan is baffled if you plan on doing any serious inclines with your land rover. I would personally go with a good 2 barrel carb. It will give your stock or close to stock 283 all the fuel it needs. Like you said your not building a hot rod. Carbs are simple been around forever. The electronic stuff has more things to fail and harder to fix when you are out in the sticks up to your a$$ in mud....

 

[lumberjack]

But, on a properly set up system, they ain't likely to mess up. The most common failure (guessing) is the fuel pump, and that'd kill either system.


TBI systems can go hundreds of thousands of miles without any troubles. They're easier to start, run at any angle, and change their "jetting" to match atmospheric conditions.

Nothing wrong with a carb for sure, but there's nothing wrong with TBI either.

 

[Frans]

Maybe it would be simpler to switch to a two barrel carb. Think what I will do for now is buy some books on the subject and learn

 

[sotc]

Evening class at SRJC?