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Many years ago I saw a show car that had a GM 671 blower on the engine. The blower was actually fake, and the car had a Holley carb inside the fake blower.
That idea got me thinking..is it even remotely possible to do something similar with a Rochester FI unit.
I am thinking about something along the lines of a TBI system (or any small induction system) stuffed inside of a hollowed out 57-59 FI system.
The engineering efforts of this seems pretty daunting, and I am not sure it is even doable, but inquiring minds....
If you are thinking of a blue 68 up vette station wagon that appeared in one of the vette magazines It was a bud of mine, Jerry Benni, runs Ideal Garage, 3rd generation owner, on new brunswick ave in Fords, NJ. Fake blower sticking out of the hood.
cost will probably be $4 - $7K depending on how you go about it (I reckon I had about $5K invested), parts you have on hand, and what you have to pay for what you have to buy; labor not included.
not for the faint of heart, there were times I wished I could find a tall building to jump off of..., but it solves ALL of the old Rochester's problems and maintains a semblance of the 'look'; and in the 10 years since I did the modification i'm sure there have been advancements in EFI parts, pieces, and systems. BUT, if it wasn't for crappy gas I would still be running the stock Rochester (which I still have); I am a true believer in the Rochester....
Not sure this is the exact look you're after as you don't want a functional blower. But you could skip the blower and use this hat. And or put this on top of your fake blower setup.
If your going for the blower LOOK. Try this....
The Carb is hidden in the blower hat, its made by Al's Blower's and has Don Garlits name on it...all the engineering is done!!!
Your idea sound cool, but be careful of the FUEL BOILING in the Carb bowls...one huge heat sink!!!
cost will probably be $4 - $7K depending on how you go about it (I reckon I had about $5K invested), parts you have on hand, and what you have to pay for what you have to buy; labor not included.
not for the faint of heart, there were times I wished I could find a tall building to jump off of..., but it solves ALL of the old Rochester's problems and maintains a semblance of the 'look'; and in the 10 years since I did the modification i'm sure there have been advancements in EFI parts, pieces, and systems. BUT, if it wasn't for crappy gas I would still be running the stock Rochester (which I still have); I am a true believer in the Rochester....
Bill
Couldn't you have just run racing gas in the stock FI unit?
cost will probably be $4 - $7K depending on how you go about it (I reckon I had about $5K invested), parts you have on hand, and what you have to pay for what you have to buy; labor not included.
not for the faint of heart, there were times I wished I could find a tall building to jump off of..., but it solves ALL of the old Rochester's problems and maintains a semblance of the 'look'; and in the 10 years since I did the modification i'm sure there have been advancements in EFI parts, pieces, and systems. BUT, if it wasn't for crappy gas I would still be running the stock Rochester (which I still have); I am a true believer in the Rochester....
Bill
So I have absolutely nothing in terms of parts to start with. I really like the finned plenum, but in this case it really doesn't matter whether it is 57, 58, or 59 unit.
Now, if I went with a 57 #4960 unit, I figure I would have about $12K to $15K in it by the time I was done.
The cost of a decent raw unit (suitable for rebuilding as a correct 57 FI unit) is about $6K.
The cost of a decent modifiable unit (any of the finned plenun style) suitable for modification to EFI is $4K
Couldn't you have just run racing gas in the stock FI unit?
racing gas would only be necessary in the summer when ambient temps around town get to 80 and above, but the cost was prohibitive for as many miles as I would normally drive (I have driven over 50,000 miles since the conversion....) AND you just can't get it everywhere.
FWIW, the finned plenums have smaller runners than the smooth top ones. I initially used a finned plenum on a 62 adapter plate and you can see by the dark area how much larger the 62 plenum runners are than the early ones. didn't cause a problem with the 327 and 350, and definitely wouldn't be a problem with a 283; just food for thought..