3.1l firebird-where can i find a carb intake?

[no_doz]

im looking to find a carbureted intake for my 92 3.1l firebird without pitching 500 into the motor for the setup, now i know that some of the old 2.8's were carbureted, could i get & use one of those, & also is there an adapter plate that i could use to adapt a 4 barrel carb onto it? (its not worth it to me to put a 2 barrel really, havent been impressed by those at all yet & i havent found any kind of cost effective TB replacement that would crank out as much hp as a 4 barrel without a shitload of work). also does anyone know if id have to change my computer any if i did that, & what kind of gains i would get?

(i just cut my old cat off & put a brand new cherrybomb in its place, so other than that its straight all the way back).

[sharkey]

right now you have fuel injection. if you swap to a carb, then you need to gut the ecm out, wire up just the gauges. you also need to convert to a vaccume advance distributor. and a 4 barrel carb is to much fuel for your little 3.1l. if you put a stock manifold on throw something like a little 390cfm 2 barrel on.

[no_doz]

there are 4 barrels that are 390 cfm, thats what i intended to put on it, but with the brand new manifold its just too expensive.

[no_doz]

stupid question, but could i get a stock 2bbl off of a mid 80's 350, a carb manifold & v-a distributer off of a mid-80's chevy 2.8, them gut the ecm & install the parts/have it work?

also how hard would it be to gut the ecm?

[geoffinbc]

Is there something wrong with the fuel injection? A carb is not going to make more power and will be far less reliable.

I will be especially less powerful if you are using stock components.

[Ortie666]

ya man.. i did it.. i chopped the aluminum intake manafold, made a box with a 4BBL plate on it.. welded it all up.. some welds arnt that pretty i had to use arc welding aluminum rods in the tight corners.. and alotta duckshit to seal it.. but other than that its pretty rank.. hopfully i can get better at this kuss there is more people out there that want a 4BBL 3.1L... I wanna do a better one when the summer rolls around im gunna make one with 6 1Barrel down draft webbers on it.. kuss yes I belive electronic fuel injection SUCKS ASS.. I see myself as a old hotrodder trapped inside of a young punks body... Ill get pictures soon as i can

[Ortie666]

ohh, and umm.. HAHAHA who said that a 4bbl is too much fuel??? i used a 390.. it was juss a bitch had the headers glowing in about 30 seconds.. WAY WAY WAY too lean.. I put on a 600 DoubblePumper i had sitting around on it.. and now its a fuckin throdle response queen..

[no_doz]

a 600cfm carb???? oh and ortie get pics of both of those setups as soon as possible please! also how did u overcome the whole vaccuum advance bullshit?

[Juglenaut]

I think GM made a 2bbl CCC (computer controlled carb).

[sharkey]

i was in the big discussion of fuel injection vs carbs again with my dad tonight. basicly, we agreed on carbs being a thing of the past, i mean, its not the 60s anymore. technology improves, and you need to take advantage of it.

personaly, if your going to all the work of getting a 4 barrel carb onto an injected v6, just throw a smallblock in. way more power, way more worth it.

[geoffinbc]

LOL Saying EFI sucks is such an ignorant statment.

More power, more adjustability and adaptability, more reliable, quicker response, less emissions, better fuel economy.

There is only 1 disadvantage over a carb and that is initial cost.

Tuning is NOT hard if you can tune a carb properly (and 90% of people can't do it nor do they do it properly) then you can tune EFI. Plus you can do it on the fly without even opening the hood and you get instant results and feedback.

Most people just jump to the conclusion that EFI is difficult and out of their reach. But with modern kits and the support out there it has now become dead simple.

Don't get me wrong carbs still have thier place. They are traditional equipment and have a nostalgic appeal that can't be ignored. They are cheep and a large amount of power can be found when upgrading classic vehicles with stock carbs and you don't need to make the expensive conversion to EFI. Given the fact that they require tuning with the vehicle parked and do not offer on the fly feedback and adjustment they keep the tuning aspect of racing in tact. It requires skill, experience and good judgement in the pits before a race to make a carb win against the competition. Same goes for mechanical injection which is used on alot of drag cars these days.

[Ortie666]

ya actualy i had all the computer and all that crap.. but i juss got rid of it all.. i kinna wanted to be diffrent as well as prove a couple people wrong who thought it could never be done. I understand that it would be verry efficiant to run EFI. but tell ya the truth I do not even like the way the 3.1L intake manafolds look... as for the vac advance, The 4bbl aluminum spacer plate i bought to weld onto the top of this box had on it a vacume hose so i used that for the vac advance on the normal 2.8L distributor...


We took the car out las nite once we finaly got the rocker nuts to stay put, and the 600 was tinny bit too much.. it wouldent do WOT that snazy up till that a 3rd gear roll it was snot bad the squirter on the secondarys are petty big too.. im thinkin juss a 600 single squirt action would be not bad.. but the shift to 4th not being rough or anything it broke the tires loose.. who knows if its that there is a 3.2L engine in a chevette or the gears, or what .. but when she is broken it i belive it will haull some major ass...

[Ortie666]

http://hotrodders.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=17095

Kaboom there ya go.. the 2 thumbnails that say "movie" on them are proof of this 3.1L intake i built, and the 600 on err..
kinna shitty tho, it was in the garage.. u cant tell the normal exhast from the open header really

[hamondale]

I like the way my carbed engine looks. But if I could get the exact same look from a throttle body or other injection - including air cleaner thru the hood, I'd probably do it.
That is, after I get the narrowed rearend in with 245-50R14s.
And after I get the transmission fixed.
And after I get the roller rockers in.
And after...

[geoffinbc]

TBI looks just like a carb.


That is what my 2.8L looked like stock.

You can bolt 90% of the carb open element air cleaners up to a TBI too.