1969 Jeepster with Buick 340

[Inspectorbrad]

For the last two years my son and I have been rebuilding a 1969 Jeepster. It is a frame up restoration with spring over axles, clocked Dana 20 transfercase, disk brakes all around and a transfercase emergency brake. We replaced the original odd fire 225 V6 Buick, with a 1968 340 Buick Wildcat. Years ago, before I got married and I had some money, I used to do a lot of jeeping and off roading and always struggled with the blankety blank carburetors flooding out in the rocks. Now it's 30 years later, and my kids have moved out...all but one....and fuel injection has replaced the outdated carbs which sounds like rock climbin' heaven. So we now have a 3200 pound Jeepster with a turbo 400 and a V8 Buick just beggin to get fuel injected. I've read the manual, at least as much as I can not knowing much, and have been all over the Internet looking for the best set up for a rock crawlin, daily driver that is reliable. Lots of torque, not so much horsepower. 250-300hp? The original turbo 400 transmission uses vacuum to determine shift speeds so that is not a consideration for choosing a system.

I have the upgraded four barrel cast iron intake manifold. There are not any after market intake manifolds available for this engine. So my question is where to start? Is it possible to add bungs to the manifold to use multi-port injection? Or am I forced to use a throttle body injector? Is there enough performance difference to make one better over the other? And then has the technology different from the 1990's to the 2010's to warrant looking for late model injection over older units?

I understand I will need to work on the distributor for the camshaft sensor, and maybe install a crank trigger. But I need some guidance on the hardware. We can build the board, and the wiring is no problem...it looks like a fun project but where to start? I need to know which cars have the equipment I should be looking for and then I can apply the info in the manual to specific equipment.

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

[Matt Cramer]

Welding cast iron is a pain, but it can be done. Port fuel injection generally has much better results; I'd say it is worth it.

You might want to start with using fuel control only and leaving the distributor controlling timing.

[DonTZ125]

For something like injector ports, and depending on the heat involved, something like JB Weld may be an option.