I will replace the GM TBI to a Carburetor if it's the last thing I do. I'm trying to post this without using any cus words, because I hate fuel injection more than anything else I can think of.
I have driven for 43 years, and it was not until about 4 years ago that I even drove a vehicle with fuel injection. Until this first FI car 4 years ago, I have always had carburetor vehicles. I swear, in all the years I drove cars, there have only been four times I was not able to "limp" home my car when it was not running right.
Of those 4 times, on two cars the timing chain broke, the third was an odd problem, the counter weights inside the distributor came loose and wore thru the distributor till the top of the dist fell off. The 4th was when a fuel leak caused the engine to burst into flames. That's it. All the other times I have broken down, I could limp the car home. Ok, there was another time when the mechanical fuel pump quit, but I walked to a parts store, bought a new pump, and replaced it right on the roadside. Back then, it was simple to replace a fuel pump. Two bolts, two lines a gasket, and $20 for the parts, plus a half hours time.
Then came the fuel injection systems. The curse from hell is a better name for the f#$*&% things. I had this nice little Oldsmobile car which ran great until the god forsaken fuel pump crapped out on me. Of course I was out in the country, 7 miles from home, the winter temperture was 25 below zero. I had to walk home, and almost lost my life that night from hypothermia, and ended up in the hospital for frostbite. When those damn in tank pumps die, that's it, you walk, and those fuel pumps are cheap plastic toys. Not something anyone should bet their lives on, yet anyone with a newer FI car does this daily.
These days, every driver needs a cellphone in their car, a membership to AAA, and a lot of luck, especially in winter. You also need a huge sum of money to fix the goddamn FI vehicles.
Replacing the pump in that Olds would have cost me $650 to $850 to have repaired by a mechanic, or $240 for the parts, plus very likely new fuel lines which I was shocked when they told me was another $50, and possibly new tank straps. Not to mention a full days job of misery removing the fuel tank. I junked the car.
Then came my Ford F-150 pickup. Damn in-tank fuel pump died a few days after I bought the truck, and did so at 2am. I had to walk 12 miles, and on the way home, I was picked up by the police for an attempted robbery, (which I had no part in). I was released from the police several hours later when they found the real robber. That truck, which I had just paid $650 for, would have cost me about the same as the car above to replace the pump. The truck had a few other problems which I had intended to fix, but after that pump died, I sold the truck to some hot rodder kid for the engine. I sold it at a loss of $250, and only drove it less than 50 miles.
Now I have a 91 GMC pickup truck. It ran great when I bought it. A few months later it began to misfire and run rough. I smelled gas and looked under it. I found gas dripping from the top of the gas tank. Using a mirror and a light, I saw the leak from the sending unit. I decided there was no way I was going to drop another gas tank. I took a saw and cut a hole in the trucks bed right above the fuel pump & sending unit. I found it would cost me another almost $300 for the complete unit. I found a used unit at a junk yard for $50 and changed it. All was well for about a week, when the fuel pump died. At least this time I was only a mile from home and in warm weather. Well, I opened the tin I screwed over the hole and put my old pump on the replacement sending unit and was back in business.
That repair lasted about a month before the truck just quit running about 5 miles from home. It was raining like crazy. but I happened to be by an auto repair garage, and paid the guy over $200 to pressure test the fuel pump and replace the filter. He claimed the filter was plugged. It ran well, so I didn't thing anything more about it, until about 3 weeks later when it barely ran, sounded like it was running on
3 of the 8 cylinders. I was able to get it to this same mechanic, and was told it would cost me $220 to $350 to hook it to a computer to determine the problem. This did not include any parts or repairs aft er the test. I told him no. Said I could not justify the cost, and I barely got it home. I decided to replace the fuel pump with a brand new pump, but not the sending unit. I paid $78 for the pump and sock filter, but unfortunately this was right at the start of winter and we had some major storms. I knew there was no way I could change that pump with a foot of snow in the pickup bed. Unfortunately the weather never cleared up, and I was without a 4WD truck all winter and lost many days of work because I could not get my car out of the driveway.Spring arrived, I replaced the fuel pump and that truck ran like a brand new truck for about 2 weeks. Then it suddenly would not start one day. Two days later, after I charged the battery I had run dead, I got it to start. It had no power at all, and died at idle. I was really pissed that day and revved it up to full throttle. It barely made it to full, but suddenly it kicked in and ran fine again. That was until the next day when it refused to start at one of my jobs, almost 40 miles from home. I paid $120 to get it towed home. Someone told me the coil might be the culprit, and replaced that. It ran fine for several weeks. Yesterday I tried to start it. It refused to start. I ran the battery dead (again) trying. I charged the battery and today it still will not start. I had a friend come over and determined it is not getting any gas. (pouring some gas in the TBI makes it run for a few seconds). The fuel pump IS running.
Once again, I have no fuel, with a brand new fuel pump.
Thats it...... I am NOT fighting with this FI shit anymore. Either I buy a truck old enough to have a carburetor, (but they are all rusted out), or I replace this goddamn fuel injection system with a standard carburetor. From what I understand, that means I need an intake manifold from an older 350 eng. A carburetor, and a replacement HEI distributor. I'm sure I can get this all from the local junkyard for much less than even having a mechanic open my hood. I do know I will have to remove the fuel pump and extend the drop tube in the tank. That's easy enough. Then install a common firewall elec. fuel pump. Also easy. My only concerns are the linkages. That could be a trick.
Is there anything else I need to change or modify? I will NEVER buy another vehicle with fuel injection. I'm 60+ years old. I'll drive old carb cars the rest of my life.
After all these nightmares with FI trucks, I have been driving my old carburated Chevy car with no problems at all. It always starts and runs. I HATE FUEL INJECTION !!!!