Great power it wasn't, but acceptable.. Better than the electronic q-jets before it.. The TBI 305 in my '93 Caprice runs circles around the '83 Caprice with a 350 with it's stock carb.. The fuel system on the whoretech can take some of the credit for power gains, but the majority of the improvement was in the cam, intake and heads.. IIRC that all brought the compression back up to respectable levels again..I suspect that the improved fuel system was was allowed them to get away with the other improvements.. Otherwise I'm sure they'd have been too "dirty"..
The roller cam didn't even do that much.. They debuted in '86 or '87 and still with a CCC they were a DAWG!The single point injectors was indeed the downfall of TBI.. Not enough fuel and poor fuel distribution.. IIRC compression on L98's was 8 or 8.5 on the CCC engines, 9 on TBI engines, and 9.5 on Vortec engines.. LT1's had 10.25 on aluminum headed versions, 9.5 on cast head versions... The LS series are in the 10:1 range.. Pretty much anything over 9.5.1 on a run of the mill cast headed engine is gonna be trouble, especially on 87 octane...Supposedly the '94 and '95 trucks got a version of the vortec heads with TBI, but still had the 9:1 compression, less agressive cam, and the crappy intake.. It was a poor combination as they seemed to get the worst mileage with little power gain..
That is an interesting combo.. Probably a fun story to go with it at some point.. IIRC some of the vans kept the carb longer than everything else... I actually kinda forgot about the 4.3 having a carb in trucks and vans..
I didn't even think the Vortec heads would fit the early block.. Wonder if it was some odd combo made for trucks and vans from back in the day.. A fully loaded Astro would need all the power it could get...
Kevin, you ever get the gremlins outta the 6.5???