Just wondering...

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RTom

RTom

Depressingly A-Bodyless..
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I know that some of you guys have swaped in magnum 360's into your cars and kept the EFI. I was wondering what king of power/mileage differences you see when you keep the EFI system vs. going with a carb?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, if you were to build a 360, would you be trading off power for fuel efficeincy by going EFI over carb or would the power pretty much stay the same?
 
More than once I have carbed a magnum, and it made more power than it did with the EFI, a properly tuned AFB/TQ/AVS/EB and I think I could get better MPG too...

I put a 500 Holley 2bbl right on the burn barrel stock magnum intake, dropped a stock dist, and a OEM ECU, and it ran like stink.

Others may disagree, but IMO, getting rid of the MPI only makes startups easier, and maybe reliablity.

My 95 318 power 1500 gets the most horrible MPG of any 318 truck I have ever had, including 318 power 5 tons. And not to mention has NO, and I mean NO NO NO low end power..... (and they used to brag it had more HORSEPOWER than a 454) Proof dyno runs don't mean squat.
 
theres are alot of ways to look at this so here are maybe a couple...
if your not going to change anything in the engine like a cam the stock injection is probably the way to go
fuel injection is better for everything power, milage, cold starts, ect. but the factory injection with factory computor is limited to a stock or almost stock engine. you can make changes to the engine with stock injection and it will respond but there you must be carefull not to push the computor out of its range
stock injection with comp mods you could push it further and there are those out there that have done it with much succses so maybe they can chime in
know on the carb side you can get very close to that fuel injection on all issues milage, cold start, power,ect. but unlike the injection it comes with a little work. if your just looking to increase power on a stock magnum type engine there not much advantage in power if any. if your going to modify then for the money carb might start to have an advantage. im sure some will agree and some will disagree but much hast to do with how much experience each of us have. if carbs were better then fuel injection for power and milage then the factorys would have used them intead of injection. the factorys dont really care about reliabilty past 60 to 100 thou mile so that not much of an issue and i have carbs from 1969 that have never been rebiult and are still working. but that is the exception not the rule
 
EFI is made for two reasons.......

Dummy's
Emissions

I have modded TONS of Mopar EFI v8's and V10's in the past.... I would go carb anyday, just like I took the DDFI off of my Buell and went S&S Carbs......

Buuuuut, my 95 plaw truck has 220,000 or so miles, plowed commercially it's whole life up until last year, (80 hours per snowfall) and has never even needed an injector, a can of injector cleaner, or anything other than a TPS. And it was the TPS plug, not the sensor itself. So reliablilty? Yeah.... It also doesn't die when it hits the bank hard like a carb, and adjusts it's own idle fuel mixture when I fall asleep for a few hours and the temp goes from 30F to -10F.

In this instance, I would take a Bosch MPI anyday, but not for performance.
 
well i fit in the dummy cat then cause on my truck im going to leave it alone youve done way more then me
 
wow... I didn't know that carburetors could meter better than fuel injection and a brain behind it that can compensate for every change in alt/air dens/octane etc....

LOL!!!
 
I like the simplicity of a carb......they put out good power, they can be tuned well for mileage and power and reliability. and thats the route I would personally go.

HOWEVER

fuel injection can make good power too,more reliable, better throttle response in some cases, better mileage normally,easier start ups.

BUT it comes with a price......computer tuning is not cheap, larger lb injectors are not cheap, large mouthed throttle bodies are not cheap. aftermarket intakes are not cheap, plus if sensors were to fail....there not to cheap either. also you are looking at running o2 sensors on most of these applications.

also that means alot more wiring under the hood.

to each his own though......I think its cool to see when someone has done the swap into our old cars ....I just personally would rather stick to the carbed set up.

had a 95 mustang once that I built from the bottom up ( ford I know lol) ....I did a ton of mods to it and hogged out the intake and stuff......then it would barely start after words and ran like crap.

call my local ford performance shop ( nationally accredited ...... Pauls High Performance) and they quoted me a MINIMUM of $600.00 to run a tune on the computer to make it all work correctly.

so I sat there and I thought about it....went and bought an Eddy RPM intake and carb off a buddy for $150.00 or so, installed it that night and was on the road again and was plenty powerfull.

sorry for the story lol....just thinking out loud
 
Sometime being here is like going back in time to everything except the gasoline. Building engines today requires a lot of thought in gearing as well as considering the price of tools, materials and the crap gasoline we have to work with and after everything is said and done it makes little difference whether its a carburetor or F.I.

Tell me all about your high horsepower cars that you can only afford to drive once in a while and never on long trips like L.A. to NY or Chicago to Dallas or wherever. I need my vehicle to drive and enjoy, have power and also great gas mileage. Like I said it is gearing that truly makes the difference as well as fuel management so be careful of what it is you use for it can make or break you in the long run
 
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