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Thread: Rochester Fuel Injection

  1. #1
    Electronic Ignition!
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    Rochester Fuel Injection

    Hey guys wanted to post about what I'm studying in tech school on GM's old mechanical injection units from the 50's and 60's. Pretty interesting stuff and ingenious how it was designed. Anybody ever mess with one of these or have any stories on it?

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    Fuel Injected! BLG355's Avatar
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    That older stuff is pretty neat. I have never messed with the Rochester, I remember as a youngster my Dad was still messing with it, early 1980's. I believe that it was on the Corvettes, in the 50's or 60's? I did have a mechanical injection system I planned on using on my drag car but I sold it off before ever getting to involved with it. Someone needed it a lot more than I did based on what they paid me. The system I had, if I am remembering right, drove the injection pump off the cam, it had a special timing cover. It was for a Big Block Chevy, which I didn't even have one at the time!
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    Fuel Injected!
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    Quote Originally Posted by BLG355 View Post
    That older stuff is pretty neat. I have never messed with the Rochester, I remember as a youngster my Dad was still messing with it, early 1980's. I believe that it was on the Corvettes, in the 50's or 60's? I did have a mechanical injection system I planned on using on my drag car but I sold it off before ever getting to involved with it. Someone needed it a lot more than I did based on what they paid me. The system I had, if I am remembering right, drove the injection pump off the cam, it had a special timing cover. It was for a Big Block Chevy, which I didn't even have one at the time!
    The one on the Corvette and 57 Chevy were driven off a cable from the distributor and had a fuel bowl that was fed by a mechanical pump. Pretty interesting setups. The 1963-1965 with the removeable upper plenum is the best. The 365 HP 327 had the biggest injection nozzles IIRC. Its more a novelty item for a period correct Corvette/Chevy restoration than a performance item. By 1965 the single 4bbl holley equipped 327 made 10 HP more.

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    LT1 specialist steveo's Avatar
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    i've always wanted to play with an old hillborn, they polish up real nice.... but like most mechanical injection systems, the results are junk compared to a carb. they're both just mechanical fuel computers...

  5. #5
    Fuel Injected!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fast355 View Post
    The one on the Corvette and 57 Chevy were driven off a cable from the distributor and had a fuel bowl that was fed by a mechanical pump. Pretty interesting setups. The 1963-1965 with the removeable upper plenum is the best. The 365 HP 327 had the biggest injection nozzles IIRC. Its more a novelty item for a period correct Corvette/Chevy restoration than a performance item. By 1965 the single 4bbl holley equipped 327 made 10 HP more.
    Other way around, the injected L84 327 was rated at 375hp, and the carbed L76 327 was rated at 365hp.
    The reason is the Ramjet is a single plane setup that helped out at high rpm.

    Here is a shootout between the 2.
    http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/vem...o/viewall.html

    Dad bought a crate L76 back in the day. It ran well in his 57 with 5.13 gears, and a 4 speed.

    peace
    Hog

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    I posted a link here to the old rochester FI system repair manual. You can see almost all of the modern EFI functions included in the mechanical system. It's no wonder carby guys failed miserably at FI repairs.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1project2many View Post
    I posted a link here to the old rochester FI system repair manual. You can see almost all of the modern EFI functions included in the mechanical system. It's no wonder carby guys failed miserably at FI repairs.
    Yea it's too bad nobody took the time to figure it out. Makes me wonder how much things would have been different had GM kept up on this system. It's my understanding that properly maintained, as all cars even today should be, it worked quite well. I figure GM would have been far better prepared for the emissions era than Ford and as I understand it Dodge had a similar system that took it a step further and made it a true sequential injection system with dual magnetos running the whole deal.

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