EFI for my 65 Barracuda -- 2bbl or 4bbl

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Grumpy Pete

Grumpy Pete

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First timer here, I want to swap my 65 to EFI. Currently I have a 2bbl holley carb on a mid 70's 318 with stock exhaust manifolds.

1. Should I swap to a four barrel intake or is the stock two fine or will it even make a different with my stock exhaust?

2. Best place to put the G-shock fuel pump in our tiny engine bays?

3. Will it effect my linkage?

4. Any other advice on efi would be really appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Peter
 
I went the fitech route and really like it. It is not 100% plug and play as they allude to, but it is pretty easy to use overall. It is also reasonably priced
 
jrcr_15 said:
I went the fitech route and really like it. It is not 100% plug and play as they allude to, but it is pretty easy to use overall. It is also reasonably priced
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Did you buy their 2bbl or did you swap your intake to four and get the standard fitech?
 
If it were me, I’d go 4bbl. It should work fine on 318 but give you room to grow CID later if you decide to.
 
Yes, 4bbl. Remember that as long as the injectors are close to what you need----and the FItech/ Holley Sniper should be, they are not "cfm intensive" like a carb is. In fact you could put a 1000cfm TBI on the thing and if it's programmed/ tuned properly it would be just fine. Really the limiting factor on a throttle body is that you'd get it so huge that trying to control the throttle would be an issue, in other words "crack the barn door" and it's way too much to control

Don't discount something like buying a TBI unit of "something else" and hooking to a Megasquirt, etc Also keep in mind that if you ever expand to multiport YOU CAN STILL USE the TBI for a throttle body
 
I’ve done both Holley and Fitech. Personally I like the Holley better. I like the Holley tuning program better. I’d go 4 bbl if you are planning to make any upgrades later. If not the 2 bbl will suffice. Keep a little $$ aside for some incidentals. Holleys are fussy about RF interference and plug wires seem to be a major culprit (I haven’t run into this but it’s on the forums and FB and stuff). I put new MSD streetfire wires on mine. On the Fitech system I did it didn’t want to play nicely with the stock distributor so we put an MSD distributor on that one.

Ask anything else and I’ll see if I can answer it for you.

Garth
 
Grumpy Pete said:
Did you buy their 2bbl or did you swap your intake to four and get the standard fitech?
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I actually went with the dual quad as I am running a 671 blower. I had non stop issues with carbs on my set up and made the jump to FI and do not regret it at all.

Fitech has many different applications ranging from mild to wild depending on what power your engine makes. They have a 400 hp version which is pretty inexpensive for FI.

Hope that helps
 
I have a 4-barrel FiTech 600PA on my slant 6. Obviously overkill, but it runs pretty good, better than any carb I've had on it. And with the "PowerAdder" option I get all the tuning capability and access to data files. (They didn't offer that on a "lower HP" version FiTech throttlebody FI. I recommended looking at the max horsepower spec for the FI unit . I mean maybe your are at 200HP with the 318, so you really don't need a 4-barrel, probably. Likely not a 600HP version;-) The throttle body fuel injection breaths better than a carb. If FiTech had the 2-barrel option when I bought one for my ~145HP slant 6, I would have gone with that, I think. I'm considering buying one of those (and selling the one I have) or making a bastard version by mixing and matching parts. )

If you go too big, like me, the Fuel actually puddles on top of the throttle plates when idling. That's creepy at a minimum.
 
J Glenn said:
I have a 4-barrel FiTech 600PA on my slant 6. Obviously overkill, but it runs pretty good, better than any carb I've had on it. And with the "PowerAdder" option I get all the tuning capability and access to data files. (They didn't offer that on a "lower HP" version FiTech throttlebody FI. I recommended looking at the max horsepower spec for the FI unit . I mean maybe your are at 200HP with the 318, so you really don't need a 4-barrel, probably. Likely not a 600HP version;-) The throttle body fuel injection breaths better than a carb. If FiTech had the 2-barrel option when I bought one for my ~145HP slant 6, I would have gone with that, I think. I'm considering buying one of those (and selling the one I have) or making a bastard version by mixing and matching parts. )

If you go too big, like me, the Fuel actually puddles on top of the throttle plates when idling. That's creepy at a minimum.
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I've forgotten, I think a member here sent me "what you need" to get the software "loosened up" on the low priced spread and be able to do that. I bought a FI tech used off CL. Have not used it yet......as my Dart is STILL apart. It was more "to play with" and "maybe a spare" for now.........
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I think I may hold off until I can grab a 4bbl intake, the 4 bbl Fitech, and a set of doug's headers to make sure I can really make use of that extra air. I'm really only looking to have enough power to feel good while using it as a driver.
 
For a less than 300 HP or so street engine, the Rochester TBI system off a late 80's GM truck is a cheap swap if you are looking for a DIY solution.
 
C130 Chief said:
For a less than 300 HP or so street engine, the Rochester TBI system off a late 80's GM truck is a cheap swap if you are looking for a DIY solution.
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Frankly at the cost of Holley Sniper/ FI tech you might be hard pressed to beat those prices with one of these. On that note, tho, there is a LOT of info on the GM type swaps over at "Binder Planet" (all about IHC products.............)

http://www.binderplanet.com/

Somewhere in that site is a "tech" page about EFI conversions, and how to reprogram them "burn a chip"
 
The Holley Sniper offers a nice 2 barrel unit as well.
 
The 2-4bbl thing was the amount of vacuum the venturis could pull and still be an active jetted carburetor. The 4bbls was just 2 more barrels because they couldnt make a 3" primary throttle butterfly and still have any venturi vacuum to pull fuel. The atomization of fuel was the deal breaker in making larger venturis, they just couldnt do it efficiently. Enter the 2bbl TBI. Massive throttle bores because the atomization was done by the injectors themselves, (think of the flying toilet) the bores were now just control valves. There is still a limit on tip in (off idle) control, but the area of two 1.95 Dodge TPI bores (eg) is 5.72 in^ while the D-Darts 4bbl carb was just a hair smaller at 5.67in^. If you do buy 2 or 4bbl, look more at the HP ratings. Even the 2bbl TB EFI are rated up around 300 HP and if you want to go larger, its usually just a TB upgrade, cheaper if you go MPFI as you can get a bare Ford style TB for like $70 new. The bigger units as stated will support smaller displacements but the duty cycle of the large injector will get very small and that are not efficient at their minimal flow rates. Buy EFI for HP, not for CFM.
 
Ok, so far this has been a **** show for me. Picked up the 2bbl Holley sniper, and even with the converter it doesn’t clear the egr valve and I don’t want to stack spacers. I gave up and returned them.

I’m going to go with an intake swap and delete the egr so I might as well go 4bbl. The JEGS tech support lines don’t seem to know **** about small block mopar (go figure), guy kept talking about his Chevy. So here I am:

I have a mid 70s 318 (casting number 253 6030 318) with a 2bbl intake with egr (3698431). From what I understand, some of the early intakes won’t fit the mid 70s bolts. Will the Edelbrock 2176 Performer Intake bolt up here?

Also any good tips for deleting the Egr valve so I don’t just burn through my gasket?

And finally, which 4bbl efi you recommend grabbing to slap on top?

As for exhaust, so far I have the stock manifolds, but deleted the Y pipe and have dual 1.75 straight pipes. (After this is done, the next thingll be a set of Doug’s 450s.)


Ps: I really appreciate the advice on throttle body Pishta, but sadly I’m no where close to 300hp yet. Ha
 
I've had good luck with FiTech support. And, if you order a FiTech, you can order it directly from them. (I, for example, bought one kit, but then decided I wanted the in-tank fuel pump. Easy to swap just that part when purchased through FiTech.)
 
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