full drivetrain swap

[Grimmz]

I recently bought a '78 C10 shortbed. it has a 350 bored .40 over, big cam, and a 3spd auto. not sure on the rearend gear. im wanting to swap the whole fuel injected drivetrain out of a newer truck into this. rearend, trans, motor, and fuel system. what swap would be the easiest and cheapest?

[Irish_Alley]

how new. when you say fuel injection you talking about tbi, cpi or mpi. how you plan on dealing with the independent front suspension? or the transfer case if you keep the solid front axle. you can however buy a conversion kit for your carburetor and put that on it will be much easier than swapping parts and trying to retro-fit the gauges.
http://www.diyautotune.com/tech_articles/megasquirt-carb-to-efi-part1-nova.htm

[Grimmz]

im a little confused. my truck is a 2wd and doesnt have a solid front axle. my fault for not specifying that. sorry. i was thinking newer as in 87-mid 90's. and most likely tbi. the 87 should bolt right in if im not mistaken, but i was leaning more towards the early 90's 2wd 1500 trucks. and i'll probably run aftermarket gauges to make life a little easier instead of retrofitting

[Captkaos]

Look at this thread, think that is what you are looking for:

http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php/topic,24512.0.html

[Grimmz]

That is awesome! i was actually just gonna pull the motor, trans, ecu, driveshaft, rear end and gas tank out of a newer truck and try to mount it on my 78. never thought about putting my body on a newer frame.. guess im gonna have to do some research and see which would be easier and more cost effective.

[Captkaos]

If you want to look at the drivetrain conversion my 6.0L/4L80E conversion is on here: http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php/topic,12120.0.html

[Irish_Alley]

lol dont know where i thought you said you had a 4x4 or wanted a 4x4. but why do you want to do this? just for a tbi, better mpg or power?

[Grimmz]

Basically I want to swap it for better mpg and better reliability. I was actually checking out your swap/conversion chaos. You have talent. I wish I could afford a swap like that. Haha.

[Irish_Alley]

we have talked about swapping stuff for fuel eco and its not very cost effective. a properly tuned carb engine can get up to 20mpgs most see 15 and its also how you drive it. but stuff still goes bad when you deal with electronics. sometimes its harder to figure out cause the ecm it trying to manage a problem but make others then it could just be the ecm screwing up

[Irish_Alley]

here you go
87 TBI 350 into my '76

Carb to TBI questions

Carb to TBI swap questions.

Converting to EFI

[Grimmz]

maybe i'll look into a 305 swap with a 700r4. who knows. i'll keep looking around and researching to see what i can get my hands on. thanks everyone for your help and input.

[winky]

^^ I would keep your rear end. Get a 305/350 and a 700r with harness and ecm out of a mid 90s truck drop it straight in. You need to move cross member cause the 700r is 4" longer? Also will need to do some wiring unless you pull it from an 87, you'll also need an 87 fuel tank so you can have a pump and sending unit in tank

[Jason S]

Another alternative if you want to save money on fuel, time, parts and labor is to switch fuels: I've run LPG (propane) for a few years now and have absolutely no regrets. Both of my 70's GM trucks have LPG systems and if, for whatever reason, I decide to go back to gasoline I can flip a switch and/or pull a cable and go on.

For city driving (specifically the 1973 GMC, see specs below), the money I spend on LPG is equivalent to the money I'd spend on fuel for a gasoline car/truck getting 18 mpg city driving.

[Grimmz]

thanks for the info. things have changed here and i no longer need it to be fuel efficient. so im going to big block it. make it loud, fast, and fun to drive. so this thread may die. thanks again everyone

[Stewart G Griffin]

1) Believe it or not, i am thinking of going TBI because the mpg improvement, among other things, is to good to ignore.  If i were to do it, i am definitely going to look at these guys.  i think they would make it easy to convert: http://howellefi.com/

2)  LPG seems at least .60 cents cheaper per gallon than gasoline around here, but what kind of mpg are you getting w/LPG?