Why Chevy Abandoned the 1962-1965 Fuel Injected 327 V8

I still own a 64 fuel injected Corvette that I drove new out the dealership when I was 17 years old ....yes I had the worlds best Dad...58,000 miles that I should but haven’t driven in years . Only had one issue ever with the injection unit due to additive that gunked up the system.. always idled rough but no other issues . Thanks for a very informative video

Doesn’t change a thing for me. The 327 well always be my favorite Chevy small block.😀

I had a 1965 Vette with FI in the early 70.s. I ended up replacing the FI with a Holley 4 bbl because nobody I knew could work on the FI. Good article . Thanks for sharing .

I've heard long ago that Chevy got rid of the old reliable 327 because it ran so good without breakdown. The Checker cab company used them in their cabs, and those things would run for about a million miles! My favorite engine 😍

Fuel injection aside, the 283 and 327 were the most dependable engines that GM ever offered.

This is a great video and I enjoyed reading all the comments. It is nice to see so much interest in the old Iron. I am a mechanic and a Rochester Ramjet Fuel Injection car owner for over 50 years. GM had marketing movies showing how is worked like a jet engine. Very funny stuff. The following are just some observations and ramblings from someone that worked on all the hot rods back in the day and lovingly keep a Rochester FI unit running. First let me say that my FI unit is on a 1957 Belair and not a corvette. I bought the car in 1968 for $950 because it was Fuel Injected. Everyone said that I paid too much for that old car and that the Fuel Injection did not work. Some days I would have to agree with them. I have had the FI unit on 4 motors (283, 327,265, 283). About 15 years ago I found all the parts to build a 1957 283 FI motor. Dead stock. Not bored. Correct heads etc. It runs like the Engineers at Rochester intended. Smooth quick power. Let’s talk about reliability. Cars would often get a tune up every 12,000 miles. This meant replacing the spark plugs and points. Sometimes the distributor cap and wires were also replaced. I had a shop in 1973 and did a lot of this. Now if a high performance 440 or 396 showed up with the plugs all fouled from just putting around town then I would just take it out on the highway and open her up. That usually took care of it. I still charged the $12 for the tune up. So maintenance was an attempt to fix things before they broke if you could afford it. Reliability of the Rochester Fuel Injection (FI) was another matter. If the unit was running right you did not have to do anything to it. I can park my car for a year and it will start up and run fine. BUT--- If I put low octane gas (Below 98 ) with no lead then It won’t like it. If I put gas with ethanol in it then it will hate me. When I rev it to over 6000 rpm ( I used to hit 8300) then I may twist of the FI pump drive cable. Always carry a spare. When other problems occur and the mechanic starts adjusting the FI unit then It may not run right. If you get a bright Idea from a hot rod magazine and change anything it probably will not run right. If you bore out the engine the main diaphragm will get too much signal from the piezometer ring and you will run rich during part of the power curve and the power stop adjustment will not be able to correct this. You can set it up for full throttle operation which can be a lot of fun. Other fun things: The Early FI units came with a coasting shut off valve. When you were coasting down a hill the high vacuum shut off the fuel so you could save some gas. When you got to the bottom if the valve stuck closed then the engine would not run. The dealerships get bulletins and one of them said to remove this valve when you service a FI unit. They quickly stopped putting it on the units. The early units used an electric solenoid to starting. It sometimes stuck or the wire got disconnected. Hard starting was the result. That changed to a cranking signal valve but it can stick open and cause a lean mixture. The rubber diaphragms (there are two) can get go bad like rubber diaphragms like to do. Another popular misconception is that there was no fuel bowl with a float and needle and seat lake a carburetor. Hey it was designed by Rochester and had all of those things. I did not lean out on hard turns I can attest to that! It even has the giant screw to adjust the Idle RPM like the AFB carbs. By the way if you do twist off the drive cable then you better replace the seal or it leaks gas down the back of the engine around the distributer. Then one spark and you got a pretty good fire. I did bend a rod once when a cylinder filled with gas from a leaking check valve. I added the fuel shut off valve that came on the later units and that fix the problem. The fuel control lever likes to get a worn spot in it and that will make tuning a nightmare. The castings are pot metal and prone to bending and not make a proper seal on the diaphragms. The system is low pressure, between ¼ and 4 lbs. The fuel today has a very low boiling point. The fuel will boil inside the injector nozzles at normal operating temperature during a long idle. Like during curse night. So why go to all that trouble. Because we are gear heads, hot rodders and car nuts. Because when I guy asks me to lift the hood he either says WOW or asks “what the heck is that thing?” The same reason we now change the computer chip to a aftermarket one and add cold air induction. The same reason we check out the specs on the 700 hp plus cars today. Back in the day they asked why I needed 283 hp. Now they ask why do you need 700 hp. Tomorrow they will ask why you need a 1.3 gigawatt electric car. They answer will always the same. If you don’t know then I can’t explain it to you.

Back in the day the fuel injected Corvette road tests I read showed some astounding numbers. Even the dealer mechanics were mostly out out touch with the old system. A ‘57 BelAir with FI and overdrive are quite rare. Craig Jackson says the production number was 200. Jay Leno’s Mercedes 300 has an oil change interval of 1,000 miles. The mechanical injection pump keeps pumping until the engine stops turning.

As a boy back in the early 60's, I watched driveway mechanics in my neighborhood absolutely ruin these systems because they couldn't admit they didn't know what they were doing. Yes they finally ripped them out, slapped on a carburetor and threw the pieces out. I wish I had scooped up some of those parts!

Pretty accurate. My father had a 63 spit window fuelie. Incredible car. Incidentally, it would be worth more than my house today! Lol

The 396 big-block V8 was available not only on the Corvette, but also in the six-passenger Caprice and Impala. There was also the Chevelle SS396.

That black '62 is sweet looking.

I have both the 396 and 327. They both are fabulous.

Just found your channel, I love it! It was a rare mechanic that could keep a fuelie small block running, but when they did it was majic. But if you got it all wrong you could start it on fire. The fastest stock accelerating vehicle I remember was a 68 427 3 deuce 4 spd vette. They had way more than advertised horsepower.x

Man, what a find it would be to find one of the removed FI systems in an old barn.

My college room mate had a big block 1968 Vette. I borrowed it a few times. I thought it had a hole in the gas tank. I never checked the mileage but couldn't afford to drive it even at gas being less that 30 cents/gal. interior temp was an issue as well. But it was a hoot to drive.

'62-'65, my high school years, I remember looking at a fuelie Sting Ray in the Chevy showroom with sticker price between 4500 and 4800, can't remember exactly, seemed like a lot at the time. That was an amazing decade to be a kid.

The 60s were awesome! What a great time to be young. Things were so exciting back then. We had the Beatles, 8tracks, sock hops and I was still a virgin. (Pretty much)

I have a "62 fuelie and you are correct in that good fuel makes them run better(no alcohol), but they can be tuned to be very reliable and it takes patience, a manometer or guage to read vacuum and a pressure guage to read fuel pressure at the nozzel to get them set up properly. These systems were engineered by very smart people it takes experience and intelligence to dial them in. The early Rochester fuel injection systems were continuous and not sequential like those of today so economy wasn't that great but throttle response is awesome. A used Rochester unit in good condition costs about 12,000 to 15,000 dollars today and they cost about 200 dollars in parts to rebuild providing something is cracked or broken. Larry Pack MD

Love this channel. Thanks for the great presentations.

This is awesome. I am a huge GM fan and have had many, including my 68 Camaro, but I never knew of this!