# lifespan of a 350 TBI



## 10 gauge (Jan 17, 2004)

i was wondering what is the average life span of a 350 TBI ?? ive heard as much as 250,000 miles. i have a 94 1500 2 wd w/ 3.73 gears and has 103,000 miles. i just put a intake manifold gasket in it and from what i hear that is really the only weak spot in those motors. the truck is in really nice shape and i hope to get alot more miles out of it. thanks for your info


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## JMR (Feb 24, 2003)

Keep driving. Since I own an automotive repair shop, I can tell you we are commonly servicing many of these trucks with over 200K on them. Leaking intakes are a common problem, but once fixed are usually good for another 100K. I have a commercial customer approaching 400K with the original engine. Good preventative maintenance goes a long way.


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## 10 gauge (Jan 17, 2004)

thats pretty much alot of what ive heard. 400,000 damn thats alot of miles hope mine gos that far


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## jrich01 (Nov 24, 2003)

JMR .. i think i remeber you sayin you make about 50k a year on plowin and your own your a repair shop to? how do you do it?


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## JMR (Feb 24, 2003)

My shop is a 9 bay facility with 4 full time technicians and a service writer. Snow plowing compliments my business and makes a nice additional income source, but is less than 3% of our revenue. Additionally that is gross revenue before expenses 4 trucks. I enjoying plowing and my position, being mostly administrative allows me time out of the shop to do such. During a 6" or better storm business at the shop is usually about 1/4 - 1/2 of a normal day, therefore we pickup the slack by pushing snow. We try to have most of our plowing done before 8 - 9 am. Occasional slow days gives us time to keep the trucks in good mechanical condition.


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## tjhbob (Feb 23, 2006)

*My TBI*

I/we have an 87 Blazer K5 wTBI etc. ... It has 180,263 actual miles. Bought new, in 87. Right now it has been disabled for a couple years, I was leaving the house one day in 2003, it died would not start. finally had it diagnosed to be the ignition module in the distributor. it starts now will not idle/run. I'm looking here to find out why, can't afford to have it fixed at todays' prices.


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## Stan (Nov 28, 2003)

It will last a long time but all depends on maintance. Did the intake gasket on the '94 Blazer a few months ago. Since everything was apart I changed the original water pump, AC compressor, hoses, etc etc. Just finished changing the differential fluids etc. This weekend changing all u-joints. Truck has 107K & went 18 hours non stop with the '06 blizzard.


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## derekbroerse (Mar 6, 2004)

tjhbob said:


> I/we have an 87 Blazer K5 wTBI etc. ... It has 180,263 actual miles. Bought new, in 87. Right now it has been disabled for a couple years, I was leaving the house one day in 2003, it died would not start. finally had it diagnosed to be the ignition module in the distributor. it starts now will not idle/run. I'm looking here to find out why, can't afford to have it fixed at todays' prices.


Youch! You picked a two year old 'dead thread' to tie into... but lets see if we can help.

We really need more info on what it is doing. Is it cranking, firing, then dying as soon as you release the key? Just never catching? Idling for a moment then dying out? Does it keep running with throttle?

Common problems besides the ignition module tend to be fuel pump and filter. Is it still full of 3 year old fuel, or fresh? If someone cranks the engine, is there a strong flow of fuel squirting into the throttle body?

We need more information.


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## douglasl330 (Oct 4, 2005)

If it runs rough -(if it never ran properly after the module installed check that the plug wires are in the proper firing order if this is good--spray some carb cleaner around tbi and see if it races--if so you have a vac leak in this area--sometimes the base gasket dries out on the tbi--good luck and welcome!


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## MSC (Oct 19, 2003)

Another thing you might want to look into is the EGR Valve, it may be stuck.
This will also give a poor idle condition.


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## mikelawtown (Dec 5, 2004)

I have a 90 K5 with 185k and starts all the time. oil is at 40psi at idle and blows no blue smoke.Keep the oil clean and injector cleaner at every oil change and she will run for a very long time.


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## mr_udy (Feb 26, 2006)

My family has had a few TBI 350s w/ around 200K. I got a "summer toy" '91 w/ 276K and still runs great! My plowtruck '89 original 350 "was put to sleep" w/ 230K after I was forced to run w/ coolant in the oil (nno back-up truck)...but ran fin until then. My brothers '88 blazer had 188K w/ no problems. Great, simple, engines in my mind....


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