Carb / Distributor Change.

[transman]

I'm getting tired of the electronic marvel(??)carb on my 307 Olds. Electronic parts seem to be getting difficult to come by, so I was thinking about changing over to a normal carb.
I understand that with this change, I also need to get a distributor with the vacuum advance and make changes to the onboard computer.
What year carb should I consider and what year distributor?
Anyone that has done this conversion and has photos and could post the photos would be of a great help.

 

[pontiacgp]

For a carb anyone from the early 80's will work fine and an olds hei distributor will work. When I changed mine I just removed the computer, the rest of the components and the wiring.

 

[axisg]

I removed the CCC in my car which is SBC but the olds is no different. Find a carb and distributor from the 70's olds so the fuel line will match up. As well you will lose the "lockup" function in the trans so either get an aftermarket kit or wire up a toggle switch to manually lock the trans on the highway.

The CCC was a pretty basic system. It may be worth figuring out what is wrong instead of throwing it aside for 30-40 year old replacement parts which could be just as bad as what you have now.

 

[pontiacgp]

I removed the CCC in my car which is SBC but the olds is no different. Find a carb and distributor from the 70's olds so the fuel line will match up. As well you will lose the "lockup" function in the trans so either get an aftermarket kit or wire up a toggle switch to manually lock the trans on the highway.

The CCC was a pretty basic system. It may be worth figuring out what is wrong instead of throwing it aside for 30-40 year old replacement parts which could be just as bad as what you have now.

you're right, I forgot the gas pump is on the drivers side....

 

[transman]

Thanks for the information guys, and I may take consider what axisg said. My problem started out while driving down the highway at 65MPH. On the flat, all worked well, but when driving up an incline, the car would start to surge, like the converter clutch was coming off and on, so I replaced the converter clutch solenoid. Nope, not the problem. A scan at a local repair shop showed a code 23, which meant the idle mixture solenoid was faulty. My local parts store said this item was no longer available, but I found one at Rock Auto. I bought it, the TPS, a carb kit and a new float figuring that since I was going to have the top of the carb off I might as well get every thing at once and replace the TPS and the idle solenoid. The float was bought just in case it needed to be replaced, and the carb kit for any gaskets that were needed. The carb didn't need to be rebuilt, as the previous owner had it done, but neither of the electronic parts were done.
The installation went well, and things seem to improve, especially at idle. A short drive and again I was a happy camper. Last week I took a longer drive, and again, as soon as you started up any incline (on the highway in 4th gear and the lockup applied, the surging re-appeared.
I guess my next step is to get the right service manual for the car and start looking further down the food chain to see what else might be causing the issue.

 

[somaphox]

since this is just happening on an incline just out of curiosity what do you have the float level set at?di you hook the needle up slanted across the bridge of the float arm or did you put it through one of the holes?also have you checked and adjusted the tps correctly?from my experience on my old 307 vin 9 the mc solenoid liked it best at about 2 and alittle over a half turns up from bottom...close to to 2.75 turns give or take a slight nudge.if you have a dwell reading meter just turn it up till your average is 30% duty cycle on the 6cyl scale.
a surge could also be a vac leak somewhere...might get a can of starter fluid or carb cleaner and spritz around alittle looking for more or less vroom

 

[olds307 and 403]

A late 70's Olds 350 or 403 carb and distributor, close as is. A pre 85 Olds 307 Canadian Non CCC set up will also work but would need some tuning, very lean. You need to ground the black/yellow wire on the speed sensor for cruise, another on the A/C and add a lock up control, I used the TCI controller.

 

[somaphox]

something to consider going off the computer and putting an older style carb on is unless you've changed it out you'll have a 200-4r trans and you'll need to either get a geometry corrector kit for the throttle linkage arm or swap throttle shafts from the electronic one to the older style otherwise your 200-4r wont live very long.if you decide to remove and replace the shaft dont be tempted to just unscrew the plates the screw heads will shear right off leaving you no option but to drill and tap,also the accelerator pump linkage will have to be modified atleast all the ones ive found which includes grinding the small triangular section by the bottle of the rod,also9and this is just what i dd,seems to work great) you'll need to drive the pin for the pump lever out by tapping in in towards the airhorn wall,right it right up to it but dont damage it then take a small hacksaw or just the blade and saw at the pin,dont have to go all the way through just enough to get some wire cutters on it and snip the bit off then drive the rest of the pin out.then drill the pin hole up to between .166 and .173 i forget which,basically you want the hole to be the size of the peg you take out of the electronic one which is much bigger than the pin holding the older style accel pump on.anyway find a drill bit that makes the bigger pin go in with a good snug fit.then you'll need to grind down the middle section of the accel pump arm right around the pin hole and a good 1/4 inch in either direction to fit in the later styles accel pump lever slot.this way you can use all stock linkages and like i said seems to be working great for me.

 

[pontiacgp]

Thanks for the information guys, and I may take consider what axisg said. My problem started out while driving down the highway at 65MPH. On the flat, all worked well, but when driving up an incline, the car would start to surge, like the converter clutch was coming off and on, so I replaced the converter clutch solenoid. Nope, not the problem. A scan at a local repair shop showed a code 23, which meant the idle mixture solenoid was faulty. My local parts store said this item was no longer available, but I found one at Rock Auto. I bought it, the TPS, a carb kit and a new float figuring that since I was going to have the top of the carb off I might as well get every thing at once and replace the TPS and the idle solenoid. The float was bought just in case it needed to be replaced, and the carb kit for any gaskets that were needed. The carb didn't need to be rebuilt, as the previous owner had it done, but neither of the electronic parts were done.
The installation went well, and things seem to improve, especially at idle. A short drive and again I was a happy camper. Last week I took a longer drive, and again, as soon as you started up any incline (on the highway in 4th gear and the lockup applied, the surging re-appeared.
I guess my next step is to get the right service manual for the car and start looking further down the food chain to see what else might be causing the issue.

if your fuel pump is weak going uphill might cause it to loose fuel pressure