Thanks for all the input gentlemen!!

I really enjoy learning information like this as it helps connect some dots about the history of Corvettes.

I especially like hearing from those who lived during this time and seen first hand how the history unfolded and can interject personal experience and opinions about it; truly invaluable info that you can't always find in a book. Wait...I hope nobody takes that the wrong way...i'm not trying to call anyone old...but i'm just saying it's great first-hand information and knowledge that I can pass on later down the line. I'll just be quite as I may be digging myself a hole. :o

I'm still curious about a few things: Why didn't they try to implement FI with the big blocks? Or did they?

From what other's have said FI was difficult to tune and maintain (due to lack of experience with them), so I was curious were there any other FI cars running around during the same time, or was it just Corvettes? Off-hand I can't think of any...

Thanks again

 

There's likely multiple reasons why FI wasn't given to big blocks. First and probably most important...cost. The development costs vs. potential sales was probably not worth it. Even today, a carbureted engine can produce more power than an injected engine, though the injected engine can do so more efficiently under more conditions longer and still meet emissions standards.

You also have, particularly in the case of the Corvette, limited room under the hood. A design such as the Rochester FI, would probably make for a huge hood bulge, especially in a C3. Big block C3's have sunken intake manifolds to allow clearance for a carburetor. Could a remote air cleaner be developed to allow for that? Of course it could, but that's even more expense with little chance of return on the costs. The powers that be at GM still had a stranglehold on funding, and they weren't all that interested in performance, only the bottom line. They were also very afraid of government intervention and insurance premiums going sky high for such cars, thus reducing sales.

There may well be other reasons why FI was adapted to the big blocks, but cost is likely the main reason, plus serviceability and besides...the big blocks were already putting out prodigious amounts of horsepower and torque, so where was the necessity?

If more big time races allowed FI, maybe the demand would have been there, but that's still arguable.

 

Corvettes with big blocks already had more horsepower than they could really handle...and it wouldn't have been that much more HP than with a big carb anyway. The SB engines only made about 20 more HP with the F.I. As mentioned above, the extra money for 20 more HP just didn't make any sense. And, GM had already decided that the way to make more HP was by adding cubic inches, ie, BB engines in Corvettes. Adding F.I. would have been excessive cost and overkill. I'm sure that thought never entered anyone's mind, as the choice to go with BB engines was intended to "kill" the F.I. system.

 

Chevy introduced fuel injection in 1957 in both the Corvette and the Bel Air. As I recall, only the Corvette carried it on past that. By 1958 the 348 big block had been introduced in the full size lineup and by the early 60's (61 or 62) it became the infamous 409. So fi was dead almost from the start. It was pretty much a top of the line place holder until 1965 when the 396 was introduced.

cc

 

Pontiacs, Caddies, and Olds, but the Olds never made it to the streets that I know of...And I do believe that GM engineering did fool with the BB Chevy too...but only in engineering....John Z would know of these facts whether true or not...but I stand by Pontiac and Caddies as production FI cars

 

I haven't read every post in this thread, so forgive me if I'm repeating someone else, but I think you're missing the obvious answer here. From 57 - 65 the Corvette had the SB Chevy V8. To provide more power for the Vette, they used technology in the form of the old mechanical fuel injection. The big block engines were introduced to do, essentially, the same job. Provide more power to the car. They replaced technology (F.I.) with brute force (c.i.). It got the job done cheaper and, to quote a very hackneyed phrase, there aint no replacement for displacement. They didn't need the technical/maintenance headaches that mechanical F.I. represented since they now had a conventional (pronounced carburated) power source. I used to wonder why Chevy never offered a turbocharged or supercharged version of the 3.8L Camaro V6 back in the last generation until I thought it through and realized that it would compete with the LT1 and LS1 powered offerings in horsepower and, hence, wasn't needed.