carb swap...

Foxfan88

Foxfan88

My Grandpa has great wood.
Sep 13, 2004
2,487
4
0
Miami, Ok
#1
i am just tossin ideas out there, but there has to come a time where it wont be practical to daily drive my stang anymore.

sometime my car will most likely be retired to a weekend car you know.....
so i was thinking, i am rebuilding a motor for my car, why no go carb with it.

think it would be worth it?? i mean it would be easier to make power, or at least cheaper.

what all needs to be done?? just take the wiring out and get a new distributor and fuel pump???
what about the guages and the ignition??
 
#2
Ummm it would be easier to diagnose issues. You just need to make sure you have fuel and spark and then work from there.

But carbs are more finiky to weather changes, altitude changes, pressure changes, etc. Plus they need to be re-adjusted when you change combos and stuff.... No offense, but do you think you are up to (or capiable of)the constant tinkering?

I know'll anger some more knowledgable people here but carbs are pretty much obsolete. They are not used on modern cars for a reason.

Big bonus is they are cheaper to use when building up a new motor. But if you have EFI to begin with I don't think there is much to gain by the swap.

I dunno I'll let someone who knows better answer.
 
#4
If your wanting something cheaper and definatly easier to work on, id go carb. You'll be surprised at how much simpler under your hood looks when you finally switch over. Carbs. work great, no probs. take off the EFI and get new distributor and intake, your going to need a throttle cable and bracket.new fuel lines, pump and regulator. Alot of guys put carbs down because they just dont understand them, i've worked on many carb'd cars and they're much simpler by far. No worrying about bumping timing or headaches with tracing something back. Im also switching over to a carb also. good luck.
 
#6
Another convert maybe, welcome to the carb club (potentially speaking).
EFI does have advantages over carburators but, at what cost. What about HP/$. Suggest you read this EFI vs. Carb tech article and check what I mean. Eventhough it was done using a BBC :nonono: , it only had a net advantage of 6-8 hp on the EFI side, small block gains would be less.

Daily drivers....stay EFI but, since yours will not be a DD anymore.......carb will give you a better bang/$. IMHO, GL.
 
#8
For a DD where gas mileage and whatnots a concern, efi is a hell of a lot more practical in my opinion. But for a weekend car it may work out better for you. I know a lot of guys love carbs, and while they are simpler, I'm just an efi man. It's a little more expensive, but I just prefer it over a carb. As was said earlier though, I'd leave it as it was when it left the factory. Then again I'll probably return myn to stock one day.
 
#10
Carb is the way to go IMO. Once you have a car that has some high horsepower Injection becomes a pain in the ass. Getting MAPS,stand alone units,chips, laptops,code pullers blah blah.
 
#11
J90GT said:
Carb is the way to go IMO. Once you have a car that has some high horsepower Injection becomes a pain in the ass. Getting MAPS,stand alone units,chips, laptops,code pullers blah blah.
Click to expand...


Exactly, just get you a box of jets and a screwdriver and go. Much more simple, I love carbs. And i drive my 67 Camaro, 383 with a 670 demon on it
and i have about the same gas milage as my Mustang with it's 24# injectors.
So, if you prefer carbs go ahead, if you prefer EFI go ahead with it. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, i just prefer carbs. thats why im switching over, more simple, ten thousand times easier to work on.
 
#12
Fox fan how is your car not practical anymore? Its still practically stock but with gears.


With all my mods and i still drive it 70 miles a day, 5 days a week and only now im considering buying another car. I probably wont because the stang is running strong.


Is that T5 too much power for ya? JK just busting your chops, dont go carb man put the money down for heads.
 
#14
I am with Dbeck, I like my EFI a lot more i just switched from carb, I know you said it wont be a DD anymore but the drivability is so much better with stock EFI than my edelbrock carb, and intake. I wouldnt go back for nothing. As everyone else has said the carbs are tempermental to weather and other small changes that EFI doesnt have problems with, not to get flamed but like someone else said they dont put carbs on cars anymore for a reason, there is much better technology out there. I know carbs have their place, for the simplicity they are great but when it is 20* outside and i have a choice of driving a carb vs EFI, ide pick the EFI anytime. Just my .02
 
#15
Depending on if you go single plane or dual plane intake, your going to need more or less carb, more if you have cam, heads, etc. You should only need about a 650-670 for up to about 400hp, then your going to need a little more after that. For a dual plane, you can put a little bigger carb on it without a soggy bottom end, for a single plane carb. go with a little bit smaller (650 or so) and you shouldn't get such a soggy bottom end. Single plane=mid-top end
dual plane=bottom-mid range. I have an F cam and i would like to switch to carb with a Torker II manifold with a 670 Demon carb, i have all top end on my engine, thats why i wanted a single plane....hope that helps, probabally doesn't but i hope it did....
 
#17
i kinda have the if it's carbed leave it carbed if it's injected leave it injected attitude.
there's no reason you cant have a nice air conditioned daily driver running efi that runs 12's.....you could do that with the stock injectors or close to them if you do it right.......
i look at it this way, if you want a weekend beater or drag car, go buy a maverick or pinto and have at it, or go buy a fox body thats trashed or already stripped.....don't take a perfectly good daily driver and ruin it.......theres no need..but thats just my opinion.....
next thing you know it ends up with no heat or a/c, then all the smog stuff is gone, then the cars worthless anywhere that may ever require emissions....
like i said alot of guys do that because maybe the car was kinda trashed from the begining and thats fine but, i really see no need to totally de-engineer the car when so many people have fully funtioning daily driven efi cars that run plenty fast.......if the car at this level is becoming impractical to drive somethings not right......
plus with gas prices the way they are, in the long run you'll get back the money you spend on tuning the efi...again all this is just my opinion........i have a carbed 65, and my 91 efi...they will both stay the way they are...
 
#18
Once the car becomes a toy, go with a carb.
Go faster = spend less with a carb.
Daily driver=EFI
What's all this concern for gas mileage on a weekend hot rod??:shrug:
It truly would be a shame to tear apart a perfectly good running EFI system unless you are going to change the main purpose of the car. Switching to a carb has quite a bit of initial expense too. When you get it done it's WAAY easier and cheaper to make major HP gains carbed!
I guess the bottom line is be honest with yourself about the intended use of your car and go from there! :)
 
#19
i just meant the gas milage comment meaning if he did it right with efi it wouldn't have to be condemed to being a weekend only toy......and he'd make back any extra money he had to spend tuning an efi in fuel costs...eventually...and i was hoping his car was not in a state now where it needs to be weekend only...it should still be very streetable.....

i guess the real question would be to foxfan and what all he's doing to the new engine that might make it impractical for a daily driver..........?
 
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