Caburated Setup Vs. EFI Setup

[striklydomestic]

Imaginary Situation: You have a 87 SD 5.0 EFI LX Stang, its your daily driver, u have sum money to spend and your mechanically inclined. I like good old carbed muscle cars and lets say i want to switch to a carburator setup. How much would it cost about and would it be cheaper to make power on the carb setup.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of going carbed. If its a daily driver, would it be a good idea to save the hasle of the conversion and just go EFI (power wise and fuel economy wise).

Also what happens to the speed density, does it stay on or does it come off. (bad or good thing?)

BTW, I don't have a 5.0 YET, but im just really interested in carbs.

 

[kndyblucapri]

carb is good

i like carb setup i have a 88 cougar with the fuel injected 5.0 and i love it but i also have a 82 capri with a 306 and a edelbrock carb and i love that too. it depends a carb is a bit slower off the line but if set up right it can be just as good as fuel injected and carb is more of a driver friendly setup it's easy to setup and test and tune. fuel injected is easy too just more parts and computer involved. carb setup doesn't cost much intake manifold couple of fuel lines pressure regulator o and a carb. plus a couple of other stuff.

 

[Michael Yount]

It's purely a subjective choice. Build what you know/like. If you're uncomfortable with efi because you don't understand it, it's not that difficult to figure out once you wade in.

I'd say if you were starting from scratch, you could build HP more economically with a carb. If you have to convert an efi car to carb, the costs are probably closer than you might think.

However, if you have to pass emissions, or may need to sell the car into a market that has to pass emissions - don't convert an efi to carb.

 

[HISSIN50]

also, you addressed tractability. i personally think EFI is more DD friendly. i find that i have to tinker with carbed stuff periodically (or put up with it being much like myself - a 'little off'). EFI is better able to adapt to different conditions, IMHO.

 

[Xterminator03]

I Like carb setups I have an 89 GT with a Carb daily drive, runs and starts up great even in the winter.
Going carb is way cheaper than EFI. And alot easier to gain power. However you will loose gas mileage. Now it is all up to you what do you like an perfer.

 

[90mustangGT]

It depends on your goals. If you want a nitrous setup, I would say a carb is the better way to go. If you want a forced inducted setup, then EFI the better way to go. All motor, it's a toss up. Of course you can get a blow-thru forced inducted setup, but EFI will work better. You can spay EFI, but nitrous kits are cheaper on carbed setups.

Building a carb setup isn't as expensive but then again, it's not that cheap. If you start with carb, stay carb, it's a PITA to swap to EFI. If you start with EFI, carb is option. With a carbed setup, the real money savers are that you don't have to mess with MAF, TB, injectors, and other sensors. Otherwise the costs are about the same. To swap from EFI to carbed you will have to replace the whole system at once as well as the ignition, distributer and throttle cable. So would it be really cheaper, not really. Tuning is another issue, while EFI can be adjusted and tuned through the computer and adjust itself for the most part, when you do need a tune it will cost you unless you go ahead and buy a system like the Tweecer, then you have to know how to use it.

As far a carbed making more power than EFI, or vice-versa, that is not true. It's all about getting air and fuel into the cylinders, and a well setup combo either way will both make the same power. I forgot where I think I saw it in 5.0 magazine where they built and EFI and a carbed setup on the same car where all they changed were the induction/fuel setups and they got the same results, I think the EFI had more torque and the carbed setup had more HP, by some thing like 10hp and 10 tq, but once again that was all in the setup, it could have just as easily been the other way around. Maby they could have changed a thing or two and got them dead even.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Ive gotta agree with Mr. Yount on this one. If you convert it "right", the costs can add up quicker than it seems when you factor in that to do it right, you've gotta redo the gas tank with the proper sump, get the right fuel pumps and regulators, distributor and all the supporting ignition.

That said, it CAN be done VERY cheaply if you pick and hunt for parts through a junkyard. If you do your homework or maybe find a donor stock carbed Mustang, it'll make life easier, but only if you're going for a very basic setup.

IMO, i like carbed cars a lot. I like the overall simplicity of a carbed engine's appearance, and the fact that it doesnt take a bunch of computers to tune a carbed motor to perfection (that's not counting a good dyno tune). I like the fact that you can build a pretty stout motor with carbed parts for pretty damn cheap vs. an EFI setup. I especially like the lack of wiring harnesses and sensors and all the other BS that comes along with EFI motors.

Aside from all that, i think that if money is no object, or at least to say that you've got a bit more money to throw around, EFI is the superior of the 2, and that's coming from a guy who's building a carbed car. It's just proven that you can build reliability, economy and insane power with EFI, it's just gonna beat up your wallet to get there. Also a major advantage with EFI would be daily drivability. I myself have no problem driving around a car that takes the occasional high reving to settle down the idle, or a wild cam or a huge stall, but with EFI you can have a crazy cam and make gobs of power, and the EFI pretty much does the hard stuff for you.

I recently went to a cruise-in with my local Mustang car club, and we had a 7 second Mustang in attendance. I'm not sure how far, but the guy drove it there and back with no problems, and i'd say he drove a reasonable 40 miles round trip to make it. It was a supercharged EFI motor, huge intercooler, enormous stall, powerglide transmission....all the toys that get a Mustang into the 7s. I found it VERY impressive that the car was as streetable as it was. He left the place and pulled right out into traffic like he was in a Geo Metro and went right along with the flow, although scaring the ass off of every sensable driver around him (open headers and power somewhere around 2K HP tend to scare soccor moms).

Lastly and i think this has been mentioned, if you switch and have to pass emissions you can't make it work, even if you were to put a stock carbed motor in your car along with all the emissions equipment, and even if you still passed the test with flying colors, most states don't allow changes in the motors by year like that. I'm lucky enough to not have to worry about that.

 

[striklydomestic]

thanks for all the replys guys. This is some good stuff. I live in Toronto Canada and we have emission until the car is over 20 years old. So after college, which is about 2 years away, I was planning on a 87 LX. 2 years from now it would be 20 years old and I can get away with whatever I want. Ill probably be a EFI guru since the auto tech course im taking in college only covers EFI and took out carbs since the general public will never drive them.

Anyways thanks for the info. I guess ill surprise you guys in about 2 years. lol Ill definitely have carbed muscle one day, whether its a stang or a late 60s resto project, it doesnt matter to me.

 

[Michael Yount]

"I live in Toronto Canada and we have emission until the car is over 20 years old. So after college, which is about 2 years away, I was planning on a 87 LX. 2 years from now it would be 20 years old and I can get away with whatever I want."

Don't be surprised if the rules change. California just passed even more stringent emissions rules, and while it usually takes time, many other jurisdictions usually follow. I suspect the exemption will stop being a "rolling" one at some point. In other words, they'll establish some point in time - like 1973 - and say before that you're ok; but after that, you must pass sniffer and visual from your year car or engine whichever is newer. Just a guess though. Good luck with your studies. Interesting that they're not even teaching carbs anymore.

 

[striklydomestic]

ya, i know man, thats such BS. I was soo pissed when one of the teachers said they took it out. but whatever, shouldnt be that hard to learn once im done this course.