The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop When did Chevy stop using Carburetors?

Still mulling over which way to go with the 54 3100. Have not driven it enough yet to see what shape the 235 is in. Been cruising Craig's List to see what donor vehicles are out there and several questions come to mind. I don't want computer controlled engine or transmission. When did Chevy stop using carburetors on small block V8's?

80'S Came with TBI, then 92 with FI, in general, of course, because they had mechanical FI in a 57 Chevy.(Corvette)
The always right Wiki says "In the U.S. market, the last factory carbureted cars were the 1990 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser & Buick Estate Wagon"

If this 8 decade old brain hasn't cross wired somewhere I think 86 still had a carb and 87 was TBI on a sbc.

The TBI truck SBCs were 87-95. I had a replacement 87-95 truck 350 crate long block in my Chevelle. Mine had an Edelbrock intake and carb on it, with a 700R4 behind it, and had no computer control at all.

My wife's uncle has a nice stock 81 Chevy or GMC pickup that has some sort of EFI badge on the tailgate, so there is some sort of fuel injection on it, but I don't know if it's "computer controlled" or not.

Regardless, aftermarket intake manifolds are cheap, and you should be able to easily put a carb on most any SBC running a distributor. Once you get into the LT1 and LS engines, I know there has to be something controlling the ignition, and I don't know if there's a simple way around that.

The last few years of carburetor production were in the 1980's with the electronic-controlled carbs. Those things were a nightmare, and had most of the same sensors as the TBI engines. Another attempt at complying with emission control requirements written by a bunch of politicians with no knowledge of science or engine design was computer-controlled spark timing, the infamous "ESC" system used on mid-80's Chevy pickups with 305 engines and Q-Jet carburetors.

Stay FAR away from any Quadrajet with a little blue 2-wire electrical connector in the air horn!
Jerry

A good motor to buy is a 1970-72. 454 BBC! Hard to find anymore. Pre smog and good HP. There are all kinds of good crate motors. There is no replacement for displacement.

You want a 1980 or earlier to have no computer.
There were some carburetor engines up to about
1992 in the last full sized GM rear wheel
drive station wagons. Though they will have computers.

I believe 1975 was the first year for electronic
ignition.

Though non-HEI distributor can be used in 1975
and later engines and HEI distributor can be
used in 1975 and earlier engines.

So you have from 1955 and up small block and 1958
and up large block. A lot of years and engine displacements
to chose from.
Jeffrey

If you choose the HEI ignition option, look for a unit with a vacuum advance and a 4-pin module. The ESC distributors with 5 or 7 pin modules must also have a computer, and the 5-pin ones are notorious for failing quickly. If there's a 4-pin oval connector attached to the HEI housing, with or without a vacuum advance, it's not a stand-alone unit. There's also a way to make the HEI reliable up to about 7K RPM or so, where the standard units start to spark-scatter at around 5500. That's another sneaky trick we used that my competitors in the "stock" round track class couldn't figure out. We always ran our engines 1,000-1,500 RPM faster than all our competitors, and the tech inspectors couldn't catch us.
Jerry

You could make the argument that for 6-cylinder engines, they stopped for several years after 1949!

Jon

I heard that the CEO of Carter had the 1-millionth Chevy Rochester replacement carburetor gold plated and gave it to the boss at GM as an "I told ya so" present!
Jerry

I don't get this?

Chevy used to buy Carter carburetors for all their engines. In the late 1940's, I believe, GM's Rochester Carburetor division took over production of Chevrolet carburetors, therefore costing Carter a lot of business. The CEO of Carter promised to sell a million Carter replacement carbs for the OEM Rochesters. Dad's shop was a Carter factory authorized repair facility at the time. It took a few years to reach the goal, but, indeed, Carter sold a million carbs to replace Rochesters on Chevy engines. The 1-millionth carb got gold plated and presented to the CEO of General Motors!
Jerry

In the 60's Rochester (GM) contracted Carter to build Qjets to GM specifications. They were 99% exact copies. Millions made by both companies for GM. Carter also made the very nice AFB. I don't see any loss of business when Carter got the contract.

The Carter Qjet was a government mandate that kept Rochester out of a very nasty anti-trust lawsuit, something about restriction of fair trade with their new design. I was a student in GM's first series of training sessions on the Qjet for factory technicians and a few selected independent shops, at the GM training center in Memphis Tennessee in 1966. The instructor specifically mentioned the manufacturing arrangement with Carter, and stressed that Rochester was not impressed with the requirement, but "The government makes us do it". That's straight from the mouth of a Rochester field engineer to my own ears! Carter made somewhere between 2% and 5% of the original equipment Qjets manufactured, at least in the early production years.
Jerry

History says GM Rochester could not keep up with the demand at their foundries, etc. Doesn't make sense the Gov't would just pick on carbs in the 60's/70's? Whatever the case, both are good companies/carbs as opposed to Holleys. 4X or 5X more gaskets to leak, 30 linear inches more leak path, two floats to adjust... (thought I better put in a smiley so you think I'm kidding)