Yes, that's what I was thinking. The best approach is to do the bare minimum necessary. Disconnect the injector and the TPS; remove the throttle body and fit a carb; job done, isn't it? Ultra-quick to revert.
I don't understand why you would want to ditch the existing ignition system and fit another. It won't work any better.
I think that one would also be removing the fuel pump, and blanking off the large opening in the bottom of their fuel tank with cover that included mounting opening(s) for a petcock for gravity fuel feed. This is not trivial, especially since Hitchcocks seems to no longer offer the carb. retrofit kit. Perhaps the blanking plate component is still available, but I can't find it. And of course, the 02 sensor, temperature sensor, and MAPS (if equipped), would also be vestigial, and could be removed and blanked.
IF I did it, I would do a carb conversion on my C5 the hard way, including replacing the ECU with an alternate ignition for several reasons;
- I just wouldn't feel right about taping over the MIL light with a piece of electrical tape and ignoring the fact that the ECU was living in a constant state of alarm, having lost contact with many of its sensors.
- I suspect that old ECU costs more power consumption than the simpler TCI, especially if one is still heating their vestigial 02 sensor.
- The ECU is worth quite a bit more than the TCI, like $250 vs. $50. If I pull out good parts and cash them in via Ebay, I calculated I would come out a couple hundred dollars on the plus side, even after purchasing the appropriate rotor, the TCI and the carb. I get to sell the ECU, the fuel pump, the multi-lobed EFI rotor, the throttle body, the injector, and various sensors as spares, all of which are fairly high dollar items, and are, I believe, increasing in value year by year, as is generally always the case with discontinued models.
There is a thread from a few years ago, wherein a knowledgeable member listed all the RE P/Ns needed to do a 500 EFI export conversion "the hard way". I participated in the thread, but I don't recall the thread title. This would have been around 2021 or thereabouts.
The blanking plate is the most difficult piece of the puzzle, at this point. I'm thinking the better solution might be to modify an IB Bullet tank to mount on my C5, and then sell the EFI tank, which would be another net financial gain.
Most of our members seem to be well heeled westerners, who don't even consider something as pedestrian as saving a few dollars, or selling their unused parts for cash. Apparently most folks who reported doing the conversion forked over the $400 or so that Hitchcocks was charging for their conversion kit, put their takeout parts into a box on a high shelf, and end of story. Carb. conversions "the hard way" was apparently quite a bit more common in India, where spares for, and knowledge of, the older model RE 500s is more readily available.
I find it pretty interesting to find the old threads, here on the forum, from the days when EFI first showed up in REs, and reading some of the passionate anti-EFI comments that some folks were making.