Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

[Steven B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

Bruce, reminds me of a '62 I saw in the mid 60's---it had M&H's, Americans front and back, Hilborns on what had been a 340 HP engine and it was called the "Buckeye Bandit".

Have Fun and let us know how it comes out!

Steve

[John D.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

One thing you don't see much of today is guys putting nice fake GMC blower on their SB Chevy's. In the old days when I traveled the show circuit-ISCA circuit you would see a lot Jimmy blowers with a carb inside. All chrome and polished. Neat looking.

Bruce, What's the matter old friend??? Give up on your favorite 62 FI's???
A 62 RP FI unit is a real sleeper although few realize it. The general hogged out the plenum like Bill Thomas used to do. The 62 FI is rated at 360 HP and once you get past the wild choke set up on them the unit is quite reliable.
62 FI was the first model to have a carb style choke instead of the POC cold enrichment setup.
My dream though was to buy nice ramjet engine with the 60-62 look a like FI unit on it. Crate engine. Would make a great street rod setup.
But whatever floats your boat and your wallet. Have fun Bruce, JD

[Bruce B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

John,
The last 62 I did used a new Ramjet FI Crate engine.
What a great setup, tons of power, great gas mileage and reliability.
Now that I have my 57 250 HP/ Powerglide car done (the 4360 runs great thanks to Bob Williams and others) I wanted to try the EFI Hilborn. I put over 1000 miles on the 57 last year.
Since I can't put the Hilborn on the 57 due to the Powerglide which was my biggest problem I had with the 57, I decided to put it on my 340 HP 62.
Now I just need a 62 hood since I will not cut holes in mine.
I recently sold the 360 FI unit I had to finance this project.
Hope all is well.
Bruce B

[Bruce B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

Attached are a few pictures of the completed Hilborn EFI conversion.
I have the computer and I am just wrapping up the fuel system.

Cooling is an interesting challange. I have ordered a Offenhauser remote thermostst housing where I will feed the water out of the engine to the top radiator hose.

I need some advice on the cooling.
The Hilborn manifold has water outlets at the 4 corners of the intake for which I have a fitting and hose setup.

The question is; since Rochester injection (a 4900 unit I have) only takes the coolant out of the front of the intake at the thermostat housing do I need to get it out from the four corners?
Will this improve or hurt the cooling of the heads?
If it will help I will use all 4 corners.

Thanks in advance.

[Jean C.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

I've gone blind!! What is preventing me from seeing photos that Mike has obviously attached to his postings? Nothing has changed in my set up that I am aware of. This is a first.
Best regards,

[Donald O.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

In about 1982, just for something different, we installed the 305" enderle injected race engine from my D/Gas Camaro that I raced in the early 70's. Engine was 12.5 to one, TR60 Engle roller cam and all the rest of the goods.
I set up the injector and the car ran VERY well on the street. In fact, we drove the car from the west Chicago suburbs all the way to Duke's drive in, about a 15 miles one way, with zero issues. The engine idled at around 1200 RPM and actually fired back up (hot) without squirting fuel into the injector.
Most of the people that looked at it at the drive-in wanted to know where our trailer was because they were convinced we couldn't have gone far driving that thing.

Mike,
I remember seeing it there. It did sound nasty.
DonO

[John H.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

The question is; since Rochester injection (a 4900 unit I have) only takes the coolant out of the front of the intake at the thermostat housing do I need to get it out from the four corners?
Will this improve or hurt the cooling of the heads?
If it will help I will use all 4 corners.

Thanks in advance.

Bruce -

About 60 million small-blocks cooled fine with the rear passages blocked; I wouldn't be concerned. The only reason the rear passages exist is so the same head can be used for both sides of the engine.

[Bruce B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

John,
Thank you very much.
Your explanation makes my plumbing job much easier.
Bruce B

[Jim S.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

I've gone blind!! What is preventing me from seeing photos that Mike has obviously attached to his postings? Nothing has changed in my set up that I am aware of. This is a first.
Best regards,

Glad you posted that question because I was just wondering the same thing !

[Jake D.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

In about 1982, just for something different, we installed the 305" enderle injected race engine from my D/Gas Camaro that I raced in the early 70's. Engine was 12.5 to one, TR60 Engle roller cam and all the rest of the goods.
I set up the injector and the car ran VERY well on the street. In fact, we drove the car from the west Chicago suburbs all the way to Duke's drive in, about a 15 miles one way, with zero issues. The engine idled at around 1200 RPM and actually fired back up (hot) without squirting fuel into the injector.
Most of the people that looked at it at the drive-in wanted to know where our trailer was because they were convinced we couldn't have gone far driving that thing.

Michael--I remember that-I was there the night you pulled in with that Nova.It was remarkable how well that car ran.

[Tom B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

I read through this thread rather quickly so excuse me if I missed it but Hilborn does it's own EFI conversions on their stack injectors. I saw it in a magazine a year or more ago.

Hilborn Small Block EFI Injector

Tom

[Bruce B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

Well the 62 with the EFI converted Hilborn is back on the road.

The whole experience has been interesting the ECU, a Megasquirt 1 Extra does a great job but was not as straightforward as I was led to believe. But then again I am not a computer guy.

But I finally found a guy ( Mike Perina, Proxes Tuning in Centerville, Ohio) who works with all kinds of ECUs and tuned the Megasquirt without a problem. His speciality is new GTOs and LS powered cars. After my initial setup we ran the car on a chassis dyno and Mike continued to tune the engine.
We found a problem with the TPS and that ended the day.
I took the car home yesterday and today I sorted out the TPS problem today and the car drove nicely.

One more round on the dyno and I'll be ready to take some trips.

The whole system has been a challange. I found that the Hilborn is very sensitive to air leaks and that was the first situation to resolve. Don at Hilborn Tech Support was excellent. I ended up buying new butterflys and after installing and adjusting them the idle was fine. The total area of the eight 2 1/16" venturies is over 27 square inches so the throttle is very sensitive.

The next step is to put a hood on the car and drive it, have fun and build another EFI Hilborn just for laughs.

I have attached some pictures of the 62 on the dyno.

[Bruce T.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

Very cool, Bruce.

[Tom B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

Looks like a lot of fun.

Tom

[Bruce B.]

Re: Hilborn fuel injection for a Corvette

Tom,
I drove the car over the weekend and it is pretty wild.
It starts like a new EFI car and runs and sounds like my 340 HP solid lifter engine with a little extra power.
A little more tuning and it will be all done.
Yes Hilborn does sell a EFI stack unit but I wanted mine to look old style with no fuel rails, hidden throttle position sensor and so on.
I had a car guy look at my setup at a cruisein and he questioned how the old Hilborn ran on the street. He did not realize it was electronic, so I felt like I acheived my goal.
Bruce B