Hi Everyone !
New to the Forum , I am doing some / upgrade work to my 1981.
headers & exaust - Carb & Intake , So I am looking for some options to the fan shroud & Rad. cover.
I have been able to find plenty of stock replacment stuff online.
Anyone have any leads ???

 

have you thought about going to dual electric fans instead? remove the stock parasitic fan system.

 

Do you understand that your stock carb is the most advanced carburetor ever made and by replacing it you will most likely loose performance. Also, if you replace the carb, you will also have to replace the distributor and you will probably loose your torque converter lock-up? All this trouble and money spent and you gain no performance! Upgrade your exhaust with headers and duals. It will be money well spent. Leave the carb alone (or fix it if it's broke). God bless, Sensei

 

Your '81 will stay plenty cool with electric fan(s) only. I have a single 16" on my '80 putting out a bunch more power than the stock '81 engine.

 

Sensie is right about the carb....unless your doing a head/cam change stick with the Q-Jet....headers/exhaust change ok...if you change the carb you're gonna need a new distributor too, as they work together with the ECU.....I'm pretty sure an Edelbrock Performer manifold will work with a drop base air cleaner which will fit under the stock hood...

You do know you can get a performance chip for an 81 right? They also have a kit for a performance low temp 160 degree thermostat...
Ecklers has both I think...

 

i agree with everyone about the computer,carb,loc up,dizzy all sharing the honeymoon suite together. the 81 is a headache to play around with because of this but if you want lots of go go best move is to rid the lot . but a word of caution $$$$

 

That stock carb is a 750 cu ft carb and when setup correctly its very hard to beat. You can even change the heads and the cam and still run the stock carb and dist. Like Gingerbread says its the heads and exhaust that are the holdup.
Put your money in there smart, where it will do some good.
As to your original ??'s I went with a Dewits custom aluminum radiator and a pair of 12" electric fans on a mount I fabbed up. It eliminates that big *** fan shroud, cools better and cleans up the engine bay a Lot.

 

Actually, the carb, distributor and computer are capable of handling most performance upgrades, including cam and heads. Also, an Edelbrock performer manifold will fit under the stock hood WITHOUT going to a drop base air cleaner.

I've said this so many times, I should just cut and paste it, but here goes again:

The carb is a 750 cfm Q-jet. You would have to have a 400+ cubic inch engine running at high RPMs to need more than that. The carb will automatically adjust the mixture to ideal efficiency for normal driving and can be set up for ideal power mixture at WOT as easily as any other Q-jet! For a 350, no other carb will give you this level of performance AND still give best fuel economy!

The distributor adjusts timing electronically. With a $120 chip and advancing base timing to 12-14 BTDC, you have an ideal performance timing curve AND a knock sensor that will save your engine by reducing advance by 2 degrees if detonation occurs (unlike a standard HEI distributor which, if running a performance curve, will let the engine self-destruct if you push the envelope too hard).

I am running Dart heads, Flat top pistons (both increasing CR), a Comp XE262H cam, Performer intake and headers with 2.5" duals. I can easily smoke my 255/60 R15s and I get 18 city-20+ highway MPG. I've seen guys put a Holley carb with an open element and an older model distributor on these cars and get a slower car that uses more gas.

Bottom line: Don't downgrade your car! Unless you plan to run a HUGE cam that will have no vacuum (and don't plan to add a vacuum pump, which I can't imagine with all of a Vette's vacuum needs) get rid of the bad stuff (exhaust), KEEP the good stuff (Carb/ distributor). God bless, Sensei

 

I agree with Sensei except for supporting cam upgrades. You have to be very carefull choosing a cam that the CCC will support. Avoid overlap! Unfortunately that will limit your choices.

 

Thanks Much !
Got a bunch of info to chew over !!!! Going to go ahead with the 2.5"
TRUE Dual & add Elec Fans, Looking into ways of cleaning up all the MESS! of the Vac. lines

Thanks Again !!

 

Dewitt's fan and rad combo will help with the clean and the cool.

Heads and exhaust are first and cheapest for the umph!

 

if your happy to have the sophistification of a 27 year old computer run your mixtures,timing etc etc go for it. as for me i hate computers in cars and like the reliability of mechanical things so when things go wrong its a simple fix. all that wiring from the computer to components (miles of it) get rid of it and go from this .....to this.

 

Hey, your ride looks sharp and you have good reason to be proud, but the old CCC system is quite reliable in it's simplicity, is probably easier to trouble shoot than the old mechanical stuff and my engine compartment cleaned up really nicely also with the removal of the AIR system, which never really lowered emissions in the first place.

God bless, Sensei