CrossFire rumors
Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,183
Likes: 1
From: MidOhio
Originally Posted by Saisling
Nothing wrong with 84's.
They are fairly reliabe motors when they are running right. Not really that complicated to work on.
I wouldn't think they were anymore expensive to maintain then any of teh other model year Vettes. Occasionally, it may be harder to find a part since the Crossfire was only available two model years, but other than that...
A lot of people bad mouth the Crossfire. In stock form, it has a couple of design issues that keep it from making good high-end power. So it's probably the slowest of the C4's. But for it's time period, it was one of the fastest cars on the road in 84. It also had more HP than it's predeccessor. Other people that bad mouth it are usually just doing so because "everyone else does" and don't really have a clue what they're talking about.
They are fairly reliabe motors when they are running right. Not really that complicated to work on.
I wouldn't think they were anymore expensive to maintain then any of teh other model year Vettes. Occasionally, it may be harder to find a part since the Crossfire was only available two model years, but other than that...
A lot of people bad mouth the Crossfire. In stock form, it has a couple of design issues that keep it from making good high-end power. So it's probably the slowest of the C4's. But for it's time period, it was one of the fastest cars on the road in 84. It also had more HP than it's predeccessor. Other people that bad mouth it are usually just doing so because "everyone else does" and don't really have a clue what they're talking about.
-more or less! See McLellan's book "Corvette From the Inside", pages79-80 for a "horses mouth" explanation of the crossfires' issues. I find it illuminating that the HP increases were the result of the new cat and the 700R4 trans rather than the intake-fuel system.I suspect the basic parts of those TBI units are the same used on many other GM vehicles-an experience I had while swapping TBI parts from an '86 Astro V6 onto an '89 Caprice V8 to diagnose a problem. FWIW
Le Mans Master
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 8,175
Likes: 237
From: Philadelphia Burbs
Cruise-In V Veteran
St. Jude Donor '06
Originally Posted by 87 Ragtop
The people that complain and say its junk are both uninformed and also probably forget that the car is 21 years old. Do we really need to remember the options that were out there back in 1984?
And, because of the extended model year, you are really talking about early 1983...
Intermediate
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 48
Likes: 0
From: Dallas TX
Good ol' Crossfire
I've had an '84 for five years now got it with 40kmi. and now has 44k. Runs perfect still give my '86 a run for its money and hasn't needed so much as a single gasket. Suprising since the only time its pulled out its brutally driven on the many twisties near the house. 
As long as your not looking to have 500hp just a reliable vette to have fun with 84 all the way!!
As long as your not looking to have 500hp just a reliable vette to have fun with 84 all the way!!
Burning Brakes
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 783
Likes: 2
From: Wake Forest, NC
St. Jude Donor '05
but the crossfire stuff was junk we ditched it
Was it running badly? Did you try to balance the throttle bodies before just deciding it was no good? Is it just that it wouldn't make enough power for you? What mods did you try before deciding to ditch it for a carburator??
See, the carb combined with a nice dual plane intake is going to flow more than that stock intake, so just swapping to a carb, your going to see a performance increase... But I'm not persoanly in favor of giving up a reliable electronic injection system to go back to a carburator. Just my opinion... Porting the intake is going to give you just as much, if not more flow AND you keep the benefit of the cross-ram design...
When you think about scrapping the Crossfire for a carb, or even "updating" it to a TPI setup, your also going to have to start modifying teh computer system adn harnesses... your talking about a lot of work. It would be so much easier to take advantage of what the Crossfire offers and mod it using what you have. Again... I'm not trying to pick on anybody, just using this to stress my opinion
Also, in rereading the initial post, I thought I should add... thay aren't "hard to tune". But if you take it to a shop, you may think it is. Balancing teh throttle bodies requires a manometer and most shops don't have them. Even the Chevy dealers don't have them anymore and don't want to deal with your two model year, tehn discarded crossfire injection anyway.
Get your own manometer (I just bought my own digital one for about $70) or make one from a ruler and some hose and balance them yourself. It's easy if you have the right tools...
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,277
Likes: 1
From: Santa Maria CA
i love the performance of a carb and i run a 950cfm holley on my low 12 second pontiac and i would rather have EFI on it than a carb. i'd never back date to a carb on a 84' vette. i love my crossfire injection. the gain isn't as great as one would think by swapping to a carb.
in the 84' L83 the cam and heads are tiny and would respond simular to a 84' GMC Sierra truck motor does with a crab on top. NO REAL POWER GAIN! you'd be looking at mabye 225hp instead of 205hp. basically you'd convert a rare EFI system over to toilet bowl injection on a mild motor and gain "ZERO" in fuel consumption and fuel mileage.
going back to my 70 pontiac with a mild 455- it sucks gas so bad it SUCKS TO DRIVE! 6mpg in town and 8 on the freeway sucks. i can tune it well and understand the workings of a holley but i'd never swap a carb on the vette. IF IT WERE A RACE CAR then i'd say,"sure! do it!" but if its just a toy and regular driver or even a weekend cruiser i'd hope you'd keep the xfire.
the L83 isn't uncharted territory and not unknown. there is a site dedicated to the Crossfire injection so read up!
in the 84' L83 the cam and heads are tiny and would respond simular to a 84' GMC Sierra truck motor does with a crab on top. NO REAL POWER GAIN! you'd be looking at mabye 225hp instead of 205hp. basically you'd convert a rare EFI system over to toilet bowl injection on a mild motor and gain "ZERO" in fuel consumption and fuel mileage.
going back to my 70 pontiac with a mild 455- it sucks gas so bad it SUCKS TO DRIVE! 6mpg in town and 8 on the freeway sucks. i can tune it well and understand the workings of a holley but i'd never swap a carb on the vette. IF IT WERE A RACE CAR then i'd say,"sure! do it!" but if its just a toy and regular driver or even a weekend cruiser i'd hope you'd keep the xfire.
the L83 isn't uncharted territory and not unknown. there is a site dedicated to the Crossfire injection so read up!
