TPI swap

[Sprottrod]

I bought a TPI 5.7 out of a mid 80's WS6. I am wanting to put it in my 78 malibu. Got everything from long block with all of tpi, harness, computer, accessories, everything. The ws6 had a 700R4, and I have a turbo 350, didnt know if that would matter or if I had to do anything special for it to work. Do I need to swap pans from the T/A. My main hold up is I am concerned about the wiring. Thanks anything will help.

 

[Nightmare388]

Everything mechanical should be a bolt in swap but wiring might be real fun. That is out of my league don't have the patience for all that spaghetti wiring. One of these guys on here should be able to help you with the wiring.

 

[Silent viewer]

there is a book made by the people who install tpi setups in jags, i have a copy but cant find it at the moment. anyways it explains how to take all of that "speghetti" and turn it in the a simple to use harness. i re wired my harness and it was easy for the most part. i would suggest that anybody working on a stock tpi harness get a copy, its like 15 bucks and worth every penny. it will tell you what wires to cut and how to bypass for things such as smog crap, egr, transmission, 9th inhector....... basically will turn your harness into what you would buy from painless or similar.

 

[bigdan]

I wonder if it would be similar for an LT1 .....
Dan

 

[clean8485]

The book that Regalman is talking about is called Chevrolet TPI & TBI Engine Swapping by Mike Knell. It is a very good book, and shows this type of swap and all of the details in good detail. The main thing that they say in the book is to try to get a complete donor car, in order to get all of the wiring & other parts that you may need, or at least to get the complete wiring harness and ECM from the donor car. If you can get a copy of the book from the library or a bookstore, I think you'd find it very helpful.

 

[79LT1Monte]

Painless Wiring makes a complete harness with wiring diagrams and new wires if yours is questionable.

 

[bigdan]

79 lt1 monte ....
I understand your point but they dint invent nothing , it just take the assle out of doing the swap
I want to convert the wiring harness myself like they do and keep the cash $$$$ in my pockets ...gets the pride factor a notch higher
Dan

 

[79LT1Monte]

All I was saying about the Painless Harness is the time factor if your harness isn't in perfect shape. If you have a butched harness you will spend a long time weeding through corroded wires and broken connectors, believe me I've been there. You can save some jack doing it yourself, no doubt but you also have to factor your time into it.

 

[ss4ever]

I bought a harness for my swap from www.eficonnection.com and I love it but yeah they don't come cheap. I have also been working on a Regal for a friend that is using a stock 88 Camaro harness. There is a lot of work that goes into making the harness work but at least you get to same some money.

TPI was one of the best things I have done to my car next to the T5 swap!

Randy