intake manifolds and bolt patterns
 

Here's what I'm trying to do;
My '79 needs it's carb rebuilt. I don't know ANYTHING about carburetors.

On the other hand, I HAVE megasquirted cars before.
I've got a Chevy TBI unit lying around and I'd like to mount it on my 12a. Is the factory intake manifold a nikki specific pattern, or is that some kind of generic thing? Worst case scenario, it looks to me like the holley intake manifold is a standard square bore design, for which there is a tbi adapter available off the shelf. However, that's $250+ I'd rather not spend.

Can anyone share their wisdom on this?

Are you talking about the two-barrel TBI? If so, that's not gonna work too well, given that rotary manifolds have four separate runners.

I realize it'll require spending some time with a dremel joining those runners for a few inches below the throttle body.

The pattern is completely different. If you really want to go that way, I would get a RB holley intake and get a spacer to go from the 4bl to the tbi 2bl.

That's what I was afraid of.

I don't think you have a few inches under the runners in the stock manifold. The secondaries split apart pretty early. You'd probably need a really thick adapter plate. The TB might also be too wide, since the stock Nikki bolt pattern is pretty small. Probably more effort than it's worth. It would be more feasible with an RB manifold.

One thing I've been thinking of trying sometime is using just the throttle body from a Nikki and mounting some injectors above it.

Can I buy your '79 manifold if you upgrade?

hunt me down a used Holley one and we'll talk