The body kit is not something I would do but it looks to be in nice shape. Too many guys that did not understand injection replaced it with a carb. Take some time and find somebody that turns wrenches. It should not be hard to do some tuning to make it run descent. Dont think Corvette, think old school small block Chevy. Should be a million guys out there that can make it run good.

 

I am still laughing, Here in Northern Virginia there may be a few guys who know carburetors but not too many. The ones who do know carburetors are able to charge a premium for their services. The last time I showed my C3 to a mechanic he could not identify the parts on my carburetor let alone rebuild one. The mechanics around here don't remember how or don't WANT to work on carburetors.

By the way, my local Sunoco gas station charges $150-175 an hour for labor, I would hate to ask the Chevy dealer about their rates. This is the Washington D.C. suburb pricing, they must think we all make a lot of money.

I could not imagine taking a C8 into a local Chevy dealer to replace a broken rocker arm or something small. The C8 is designed to make a lot of money for the dealer's technicians and service departments everywhere. I will stick to fixing my C3 where I can see the parts and touch them without having to squeeze. The hood of the C4 gives incredible access to the engine and makes it easier to fix. After helping maintain a Porsche Boxster S I learned all I need to know about car with a mid-engine layout.

Had I been in charge of the C8 project I would have made the engine removable in a large manageable piece to make maintenance easier. Whenever I designed things for use in the real world I spent more time thinking about the guy trying to fix it than the basic installation. Making things serviceable is a very important thing that Car companies don't focus on.

How big is that carburetor? It is important as you might want to replace it with a smaller CFM carburetor to make it run better around town. I use a smaller CFM carburetor during the winter months as it has an electric choke on it. I have three carburetor applications, winter, summer and summer racing. The winter is 750 cfm, the summer is a highly tweaked Holley 750 and for racing I have an all out carburetor built especially for this engine in my C3. The smaller the CFM of the carburetor the crisper the throttle response will be. When running wide open on a race track I have a carb that flows over 1000 cfm allowing me a better top end. The race carb is a dog around town but when you want to go it does. The 750 winter carb is an Edlebrock performer and it works okay, it is the only carburetor that has vacuum secondaries all the rest are Holley double pumper models which is fine for a really tweaked engine and a light car with four speeds. I also have a Barry Grant 850 Speed Demon that is virtually new for my C3. This way when one carb doesn't work you swap carbs (if you are in a hurry) and I have the right part for the application.

A lot of 350 small blocks do really well on a 650 cfm version carburetor. The bigger the CFM does not mean more power. It is a matter of what your engine "NEEDS" versus what "we want". I am running a lot of GM performance parts on my L88 look-a-like and that engine NEEDS lots of air passing through it to make some serious horsepower.

There is a tool called a GTECH pro and it helps measure the performance of the car it is used in. I have one that I use when making changes to the Car, it tells you right away if you made more or less power after the last modification. It needs the accurate weight of your Corvette to be accurate in the output. Go to a truck stop and get your Corvette weighed accurately then plug it in to the GTECH and you will know how much HP and torque your engine is making. You can even produce graphs showing the power-band like a dyno does, it just doesn't cost as much. $300 and you can see any changes you make. A good example was when I changed the exhaust on my C4, I measure the performance first and then I installed the new Catalytic converter and Cat-back exhaust system. The cat-back system used Chambered Exhaust pipes and a high flow catalytic converter was installed as well. The car gained almost 14 hp after the swap, it was easily measured in seconds. This tool is very handy if you do your own work as it tells you if it was a good move or not.

Let us know about the carburetor that is installed on the Corvette presently. Have you inquired what happened to all the parts from the EFI system? Have you pulled spark plug and looked at it yet? Show us the picture of one of your spark plugs from this engine, please. This can tell us a lot about your engine.

 

get someone who knows how to first either curve/time your ignition then fine tune your carb I bet your problems go away. Adding secret sauce to your tank does nothing.

Those are reliable carbs..once you set them up right it will be reliable
Id still look for a 1500 buick or accord you can get them everywhere with less than 100k 1 owner types.

 

Update on my Corvette. The mechanic I took it too after working in on it for a better part of a month had to replace the fuel pump, alternator, flush the radiator, and add a new temp sensor so the fans kick on quicker. He also replaced the backlights on the dash but it just flickers now so I think their might be something wrong with the photo cell so I bought replacement parts so I can work on that at my house. I am also planning to go to the dealership and trying to get a refund on all the things they did since none of that worked.

 

Here is my two cents:
I would not bother returning it to original. If you want a more original car sell the one you have and buy one that is original. These things are dirt cheap and it is going to cost you far more to return yours.

With that said I would not use the crossfire TBI system. Depending on your goals and budget I would either keep it with a carb, put in aftermarket throttle body injection. The first will be the cheapest. With that in mind here is some other advice:

1. Make sure the carb you have is gasahol compliant. Eldebrock should be able to tell you that. If it isn't then buy a new carb to replace it. If you are going the carb route I would also get a stand alone distributor with vacuum and mechanical advance.

Basic Tuning - First set the ignition timing. I would set to about 5 degrees with the advance disconnected at idle. I would use the weights that came with it. If you get knocking dial it back.

After the timing is set tune the carb WITH THE VACUUM ADVANCE hooked up. Tuning a carb is a lost art, but there isn't really that much to it. Dial the mixture screws all the way in and then back them out one and a half turns. Turn it on, warm up the car and tune the idle mixture and the idle speed. Adjust idle speed first and then adjust mixture in equal increments for the highest RPM, then adjust the idle speed back to where you want it, then adjust the mixture again and keep doing this until the engine speed doesn't change. At that point get a vacuum gauge and tweak the mixture screws for highest vacuum, Most small carbs are set up for a mild chevy 350 out of the box, so you probably won't have to mess with anything other than the idle circuit

Advanced tuning - to get the most you will need to dyno tune, that would include setting the mechanical advance curve and the jets. That is probably not necessary though for a daily driver.

If you go the aftermarket TBI route, just bolt on tour throttle body hook it up. Install the O2 sensor and follow the directions.