malibu 369 car to efi questions please help!!

-styx-

Daily Driver
May 26, 2012
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ok basically got my 396 out of a 68 chevelle. got it in my malibu and runs and drives great. heres the problem i want fuel injection because as you all know its more responsive and just better all around.

the question i have is i have an 2001 chevy surburban with the vortec 327 in it. what i want to do is pull the computer, and entire intake im sure the intake it self wont work on the 396 just because of the years but is there a way i can modify it to make it work or what vehical can i yank the fuel injection set up out of to make work?
 

-styx-

Daily Driver
Thread starter
May 26, 2012
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what im trying to do is because i have everything i want to stay away from buying a fuel injection conversion becasuse that sh*ts like 3k or more depending what you want ya know.
 

LS6 Tommy

MalibuRacing Junkie
May 15, 2004
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North Jersey
There are a lot of options that would probably be cheaper than trying to convert a Small Block system or make your own from parts. None of them are going to be as cheap as you'd probably like.
At one point I thought about using a Mercury Marine EFI unit on my BBC. They're low profile, non-emissions units that would fit under a Malibu hood really well. IDK how well it would be ona high performance application...

Tommy
 

-styx-

Daily Driver
Thread starter
May 26, 2012
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yeah, well if its fuel injection, nothing bigger injectors cant fix right?
 

LS6 Tommy

MalibuRacing Junkie
May 15, 2004
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-styx- said:
yeah, well if its fuel injection, nothing bigger injectors cant fix right?


In terms of fuel flow, yes. What I wasn't too sure about was airflow & what type of power it could support. The unit I was looking at was from a Mercruiser 502 Magnum MPI engine that made 415 horsepower & had a 4600-5000 rpm full throttle range. I just thought I might have stumbled across a unique & relatively inexpensive way to get a good middle performance BBC electronic injection system from ebay & junkyard parts...

Tommy
 

Doober

Moderator
Jun 2, 2003
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www.cardomain.com
The LS stuff won't work with BBC or SBC. The 8.1L (same generation as the LS engines) has similar bore spacing and a couple other characteristics, but it's not the same block. You can't use the LS series setup without some type of reluctor wheel I don't believe, it's a different system than the older stuff. You may be able to use the 454 truck Vortec intake though, it's a port style injection setup. I'm not sure about hood clearance or what the port design is, though a quick look at intakes on Summit's site shows they're probably oval port.

It may seem like a step back, but you can run this with an EBL and OBD1 distributor (same as TBI 350, 305, etc.). The intake/injectors/throttle body don't know what they're giving the signal to/getting it from, so there won't be any issue running it. The other option is to simply run TBI, which involves an adapter plate for the throttle body, EFI distributor (NOT Vortec), and an ECM... this will be the cheapest route, but fuel can be more finely tuned with the port setup.

For TBI, you can figure $100-200 for the throttle body, harness probably $20-100 used depending on where you get it, EBL setup (with wideband O2 and ready-to-run ECM) $620, $20-50 for a distributor, $??? for your pressure regulator setup (there's a mod to the stock regulator or you can go aftermarket), and probably around $50 for the adapter plate.

For Vortec, add $20 to the EBL setup (for port injection), nix the TBI throttle body/adapter plate/regulator setup (-$100-300 roughly), and add probably $150-300 for the Vortec setup (throttle body, injectors, intake plenums, etc.).

It still won't be cheap, but it won't be the $3,000 you mentioned previously. There are ways to convert to coil-on-plug, and from what I understand you can even do it with the EBL using a Cadillac DIS system (similar to the 3800s of the day), and adding a reluctor ring + the sensors for it.
 

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