Crossfire: deserving of it's bad rep?

[LT4man]

You are proof that regular oil changes and preventive maintenance will enable any engine to last many miles. I remember when I owned my auto & truck repair shop and the Crossfire Injection system was new. Chevy was definitely on the cutting edge of technology. Back then, the improvements occurred very quickly. I would have traded any carbed car for one with the Crossfire setup.

SAVE THE

 

[jim coulter]

Ive got 162,000 on mine and except for general maintenance items like water pump, cv joints, etc, mine has been a great daily driver. Had to resolder joints in dash, but crossfire injection has been flawless. Get an average of 24 mpg to work and home every day. Love driving it. Also have 2000 ford f150, 1992 ford bronco, and 1971 vette. Gets best gas mileage of them all and is quicker(except 71 vette) and 10x more fun to drive than them all. The 71 vette is fun with big block and 4 speed but cant hold candle to 84 on these really curvy twisting country roads. Love it.

 

[nelson84]

Low on power? I blew the rearend out of my 84 vette. My list of repairs over the last 16 years I have owned it:

1999 intake seal -$400
2000 rebuilt trans with shift kit -$1200
2002 Rearend( should of put lower gears in) -$1200
2003 temp sensor -$40

Now no issues and I currently have about 60,000 miles on it.

Up next:
port intake maniold -free
2" TB's -$100 fellow forum member
85 fuel pump -

 

[xrcrx]

I'm still lovin' mine. Fixin' to upgrade the brakes. Still have a little fine tunin' to do but i love my 84. I think it'll always be a work in progress.

 

[MoeJr]

IMHO the bad rap came from the TB's not being set right from the factory. When I bought my 84 6 years ago I did brakes and tires and shocks. I bought it cheap and knew I had to do that. Shortly after the fuel pump croaked so I had a friend of mine who is great with the CFI do the fuel pump and set the TB's up. The engine has been flawless the whole 6 years. Had 79k when I bought it and has 97k now and still runs like a scalded dog.

You can port the throttle bodies and intakes for more power. I know someone does them but can't remember who.

 

[nelson84]

Mine was fine when I went to the 406: spun a bearing, but I think Precision, the paint shop did it, as I saw them doing repeat burnouts with customers' cars as they moved them indoors each night. Nothing like a little hot rodding on a cold engine! A***oles!

My injector shafts got loose in the bodies and after the first rebuild, I had repeat leaks. The car,otherwise, has been quite good(once I got it away from the warranty {dealer})

The biggest gripe I had with CF was the small ports limiting the intake charge for BIG motors. That landscape has changed, but TPI still offers more options.

Many bash the 4+3, too; unfairly, IMHO.

You should have got it painted at MAACO, their policy is no burn outs.

 

[Z51JEFF]

Are you asking a question or adding to the bull$hit in regards to the 84 and the bad rap?What makes it such a bad car?I had one for 22 years and never had a single problem that was 84 related,I got tired of hearing people criticizing the car that didnt know there heads from their a$$es when it came to an 84 Corvette."I know the Crossfire is reviled as the worst motor and it is"What kind of $hit is that?

 

[killain]

Bad rap on a cross-fire?

Are you asking a question or adding to the bull$hit in regards to the 84 and the bad rap?What makes it such a bad car?I had one for 22 years and never had a single problem that was 84 related,I got tired of hearing people criticizing the car that didnt know there heads from their a$$es when it came to an 84 Corvette."I know the Crossfire is reviled as the worst motor and it is"What kind of $hit is that?

The cross-fire is a really simply fuel injection unit that can go thousands of miles without any problems, My 84 has 85.000 miles and never had a problem. But I don't know how anyone would think that a Cross-fire or L-83 was ever incorrectly tuned at Bowling Green? And as far as reliability, look at how many millions of Chevy Caprice police cars built that went well over five hundred thousand miles before being retired and they had TBI systems? Bowling Green factory never mis-tuned a single car. It's crazy !:W

 

[xfirez51]

I owned my 84 Z51 since new and for 24 years. Just a SBC and it will respond to the same mods as any SBC. Heads, cam, headers etc, my car ran 13.3's with a best trap of 104.5mph. That's on street tires with a 60' of 2.1.
I did that using a port matched Xfire manifold.
I would buy another 84 with Z51 and do an LSx conversion. Now that would be one quick car.
Right now I'm playing with 92 ZR-1

 

[Hib Halverson]

The 2xtbi "crossfire injection" was leading edge stuff in 82 when it was introduced.

If the system is in good condition and working properly, it's not any more troublesome that, say, an early TPI engine.

The problem with the crossfire is the s**ty intake manifold. GM never should have designed a big-plenum, low-rise, cross ram intake for a street car. The flow velocities are two low for good street performance. Consequently, to get the velocity such that the engine would respond well, the port volumes were made really small. That's why, the engine responds and performs reasonably well at low rpm but is seriously restricted for high-rpm use. Sure...you can port the intake, as many have done, but then, unless you also add displacement, the engine is a dog at low rpm and doesn't respond well.

 

[xfirez51]

Hib,

I'd have to say that the Xfire manifold takes more blame
than it deserves. The heads and cam were pretty lousy.
My manifold was port matched and EH'd to TFS heads.
It had plenty of low end grunt with 347 lbft at the wheels.
The 2 different size injectors were another issue.
I had no problem whipping L98s even with just a port match
and 1.6 pushrods. At the end of the day the L98s weren't
any stronger than the L83.

 

[nelson84]

2 different sized injectors??????? What are you talking about?????

On the xfire it had 2 different sizes??????????????????confusedconfusedconfused

Throw me a bone here????????

 

[killain]

The front injector is different than the rear injector. Cost different too, one is like $65.00 and the other is like $80.00 !

 

[xfirez51]

2 different sized injectors??????? What are you talking about?????

On the xfire it had 2 different sizes??????????????????confusedconfusedconfused

Throw me a bone here????????

The front(pass) was a 62lb/rear(drvr) was 65lbs. That was to make up for the .5psi loss of fuel pressure between the front and rear TBIs. As you know the TBIs are in series. There are no other injector sizes that could be substituted for front and back and still maintain that relationship. That's why if you needed more fuel for more power, one alternative is to to parallel plumb the TBIs and use the 80# BBC truck injectors. That's one mod I did.

 

[rmagee7]

It's just funny that whenever I buy parts for the car, I'll be like "oil filter, '84 vette" and the parts guy will say something like "god you have a crossfire? Only place i see them is in the junkyard".

I have yet to hear a single person say a positive thing about them.

By the way, on a side note - having now driven an '85 more than a few times, I think the Crossfire, while being down on torque, seems to have a little more oomph up to about 30 mph. Is this just in my mind? I know my car is maintained well and this '85 probably isn't - owner is a lazy ass - but I still feel like it.

jbdjvbjvbsjdv

 

[rmagee7]

on one side i had a buddy of mine in oklahoma buy a set of circle track 2bbl carbs and had the intake & spacer plate machined to take the carbs did away with the ecm ran a mallory dist.& box and crank trigger with a few other mods had it dyno a little over 290 with out having to change any of the lower end stuff its a hot little car he still has it and its going strong as ever i doubt he has over 800 or 900 in cost in the whole car dont sell those little cross fires short where theres a will there is a way!

 

[nelson84]

Do you guys have any pictures of these setups?

 

[rmagee7]

i can probly get a few he's in iraq right now will be back in about 8 or 9 months doubt if his ol lady will mess with it but i know don will, he just love's that car!

 

[rmagee7]

are those T-A rims? that looks so cool! diffrent, sharp color is it org.? are you running the 255' or are they the 245's bud you got a sharp ride good job

 

[BADRACR]

Crossfire rep

84 model. 112k and still runs good. I get 16.9 city with the 4+3. Don't know about highway. I haven't taken it on the freeway for a long trip yet.