Proud owner of a 92 Roadmaster

This baby will be hauling 2 adults 2 kids 2 dogs and a 1970 19' Frolic!
The camper weighs 4,040 pounds.
After I go through the entire mechanical and electric I will upgrade brakes.

I do feel I need a little more power out of the TBI. not looking for 500hp, just the torque numbers slightly higher to improve towing the camper down the road.

Question 1. Can the ECU handle 9:1 compression engine? Or should I just leave it 8:1 and concentrate on improving air flow?

2. Is anyone using headers on their wagon? I see some mid tubes on ebay that say they fit Caprice.

3. Is the economy gear ratio worth leaving to get highway cruising? Or is the quicker acceleration more important with the shorter gear ratios? I know the gears cannot be swapped, I can take care of the differential if it is worth the gear change.

Any other suggestions?

I have to wait a 7 days to post picture.

Welcome aboard! Unless you've got your heart set on keeping THAT car, I might look into getting into an LT1 wagon, 94-96, which will have 100 more hp to begin with.

I'm not a TBI hater, but if you need more oomph, a 94-96 is a cheap way to get you there and there are still plenty of great ones out there.

Also - if you post your location, odds are others will find one for you.

Peace,
J

Welcome. The TBI doesn't have that much less torque than an Lt1 but as Bewbs said it does have close to 100 less ponies. Is it a tow pack car? if so it'll have a shorter rear 3.23 vs 2.73s which will be a big difference when pulling.

Welcome aboard, kteel8880!

We have a member pulling a airstream and his wagon has the same engine as yours.By the way welcome to the group!

Thanks guys!
Profile updated!
I am going to keep the TBI 5.7, my first car was an 88 Camaro with a TBI 305 I sold it a few years ago with 357,000 miles on original engine trans, never had any problems. I think the dependability of the TBI out weighs the performance. Just looking to see if anyone has done any upgrades for economy while towing, if there is such a thing ha ha.
The RPO codes are not legible, so I will have to pull the cover to see what gears are in it, but was wondering if the acceleration of a say 3.42 would be worth it. Or does sacrificing the acceleration for cruising economy would be worth keeping the taller gear.

Headers will likely increase HP but typically raises your peak torque to a higher RPM. Depending on how often you tow 3.73 gears would make a stout package. If you are going to dig into the motor, a torquer cam might be in order.

Welcome aboard fellow TBI owner. I love mine powerless or not. As long as it looks good I'm good.

Before you pull your diff cover, call your dealer and give them your VIN - and they'll tell you what you have.

Welcome! You can get your VIN decoded here for free (only once though) www.compnine.com
That should tell you if you've got the tow pack or not. If you do have the 3.23 rear, I would say try it once as it is and see how bad/good it does. Others would be more knowledgeable on the subject, but from what I've been told, the TBI 350 pulls in so little through the heads, that headers and a different exhaust don't really help it that much. So what kind of suspension do you have? If you have factory air shocks and they work, they'll probably work fine for towing, but if they're dead or you don't have them at all, you're going to want to look into something like an air-lift bag setup.

Put 3:73's in it,.
add a trans cooler,.
add a manual lockup switch for the converter,.
It'll pull alright.

Nick