Desirability of 7300 FI unit

[Mike E.]

I've run across a stash of FI parts, including a complete and untouched 7300 unit. I'm very familiar with the ins and outs of FIs, having rebuilt a dozen and half or so, but really have no handle on whether or not there is much of a market for a 7300. I appreciate your input.

[Tom P.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

Mike,
That would be a finned top plenum, right?

[Dan H.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

I've run across a stash of FI parts, including a complete and untouched 7300 unit. I'm very familiar with the ins and outs of FIs, having rebuilt a dozen and half or so, but really have no handle on whether or not there is much of a market for a 7300. I appreciate your input.

Mike, my old red 59 had a 7300 unit, ran great, no cranking signal valve, was kind of a high brid between a 57 and later units. The 57 enrichment solenoid works great for starting, cut out switch helped hot starts etc. Many 59's had these so that would be the 'market'. Regards,
Dan

[Loren L.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

Both of the Camoradi cars had 7300 unit; as did the Cunningham cars WHEN THEY HAD THEIR ORIGINAL MOTORS AT SEBRING; later updates from GM used 7320 units.
Frank Schibica (sp?) indicated to me that the 7300 unit was to use up excess parts before going to the flattop plenum 7320. At Sebring, Thompson's Cunningham racer is shown dead to the world in the middle of the race; it was a 35XX VIN and the engine shot shows both a finned plenum and an unribbed and unpainted top tank on the radiator,
Tell the owner that they're AMC pieces and I'm in for "halfies".

[David D.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

Loren, what about 1960's with S/N numbers before the Cunningham and COMORADI cars, were they all equipped with 7300 units or was this a special issue for those 4 cars?

[John D.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

I really like Loren's reply. Let me please expand on what Frank Sciabia told me long ago as to exactly why the 7300 existed. Loren covered some of it. Frank said Rochester Products was upset with Chevrolet in that the sales were not reaching expectations. RP had a ton of left over 57 units and decided to retrofit them for the '59' by changing the air meter, and the plumbing (vacuum lines). I personally have ALWAYS thought that the guy that bought a new '59 Corvette got rooked as there are certainly a lot better 59 FI's than the primitive 7300 unit. You might think that is a harsh statement but it isn't. A lot can be done to update the other '59 units. You have a list of them in your pocket spec guide & 58 to 60 manual. '4900, '4900R, '7200, '7250. All of those can be easily updated and the unit will absolutely scream.
Now one good thing about the 7300 is that it doesn't have the cranking signal valve.

There are variations in the 7300 unit. Loren pointed out that they were built from parts. Well I really didn't know how true that was until about 5 plus years ago when one came in with a die cast fuel meter retrofitted by RP with a starting solenoid on it. I thought it was a fake until I talked to John Grata and Gail Parsons and both told me they have seen some 7300's with some really weird mismatch hodgepodge castings.
On the other hand a good FI restorer can make the '7300 run OK. If you like 57 FI's then you will like the '7300 unit.
Nikkey Chevrolet in Chicago was famous for race cars. One of them is the Purple People Eater that Chip Miller had. Now of course his son Lance and family own the car. I restored to FI's for that famous race car. The first one I did was the 7014900R unit. That's the unit that was on the car when Chip bought it. But that's not the original unit as Chip found out. One day he called me all upset and said to me he had a major problem with the Purple People Eater. I said now what's the matter Boss. He said he got ahold of the original paper work on the car from Nikkey(sp?) and the car came from St. Louis with a '7300 unit!!!. He even had the serial number of the unit. So he said what are we going go do now? I said why don't we go out and find a nice '7300 and then you can put it on the shelf. So that's what I did to keep my friend happy. JD

[Bill M.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

I personally have ALWAYS thought that the guy that bought a new '59 Corvette got rooked as there are certainly a lot better 59 FI's than the primitive 7300 unit.

JD

Here's a picture of a 7300 that came on an early '59. My dad's complaint was: "Stalls after warm-up. Hard to restart." (The system is off the '59 and posed for a picture.)

I don't think he much cared, because this car was used as a test car for his timed, high-pressure system. I've included a picture of the '59 with a very early design of his system being run on the dyno.

[William C.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

At least according the the Sept '59 issue of "Service News" the only application for the '300 unit was as one of the three styles used on the Solid Lifter version of the Corvette and a 300R version was used on the even more rare '59 pass car FI (only).

[Loren L.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

Loren, what about 1960's with S/N numbers before the Cunningham and COMORADI cars, were they all equipped with 7300 units or was this a special issue for those 4 cars?

Dave, the best I can do is sort of a non-answer. I BELIEVE that the direct answer to your question is Yes, they were using up extra RPD parts.
As stated, the work orders and event photos show the Cunningham cars with 7320 units, perhaps even with modifications. (work orders talk in terms of modified units - problem question is did GM ship those units to Cunningham and did Momo et al install and use them? ALL of the Cunningham cars ran Le Mans with motors that were built AFTER the cars had "left the nest". When the cars returned, the race motors were removed at Momo's garage and returned to GM for evaluation. (These race motors were identified by a block stamping showing the Work Order # that had them built. A probably reliable story is that 2 of the cars received the wrong motors upon re-installation; No NCRS referees were available at the time.)
Cunningham enjoyed monumental support from Chevrolet; Camoradi was satisfied with the donation of the two cars, but, when problems were encountered, they were NOT turned away. During practice/preparation for Le Mans, it was discovered that a bunch of FI drive cables were wound in the WRONG direction and would separate in less than one lap.
The story is that the replacements were delivered to France by a SAC aircraft on a training mission to France.
Dave, perhaps another source exists. I cannot recall if Noland's survey forms asked for owner's to id the type/# of the unit - if it did, I'm sure that his Apple duly recorded the info somewhere.

[Joseph T.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

At least according the the Sept '59 issue of "Service News" the only application for the '300 unit was as one of the three styles used on the Solid Lifter version of the Corvette and a 300R version was used on the even more rare '59 pass car FI (only).

Bill

I think Larry Fisette in Greenbay, Wi. has an original 59 chevy fuelie. Larry is the guy that bought and then sold the 20 trailer load collection of muscle cars and parts back a few years ago that received much attention.

That collection was a sight to behold.

Joe

[Russ U.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

At least according the the Sept '59 issue of "Service News" the only application for the '300 unit was as one of the three styles used on the Solid Lifter version of the Corvette and a 300R version was used on the even more rare '59 pass car FI (only).

And, as luck would have it, there is a 300R unit listed on ebay as we speak.

300R FI Unit

Russ

[William C.]

Re: Desirability of 7300 FI unit

Interesting collection of original and reproduction parts. I wonder how it starts without the microswitch?