going from injected to carburated, need help.

Big Thank you to gearbanger 101 for the website info!!!

Fletchers writeups have most all the info you need so theres not much I can ad but I will make a couple of comments on fuel and ignition systems. I found when I did my first 4cyl/to carb V8 conversion, this was the area that I found the least usefull information on.

Fuel- There are plenty of options here including sumping your tank or using one of those $100 aftermarket pickup tubes but there are also more buget oriented approaches to this as well. I have done it two ways. If you can find someone parting an older carbed car, you can use the pickup tube from that. It mounts in the same location as your stock EFI pump. Those tanks didnt have the seperate spot for the level sender so it is attached to the pickup tube. I had to remove the float arm to keep it from interfering with the sender in the EFI tank. Do not use the tank from the carbed car because you will create one more headache trying to get your sender to work. Another option I used was to drill a hole in the bottom of the tank and install a fuel cell bulkhead fitting. I installed it in the baffled area of the tank that surrounds the EFI pump. With this method you need to remove the EFI pump and block off the pickup and return lines. I tried to weld the holes shut but found the metal didnt like being welded. You could either braze them shut or go the shadetree route and enlist the help of JB weld.

You have infinate choices in fuel pumps but I like the Holly red or blue pumps because they are affordable and work well. I will caution that they can be a tad noisy. There is no need to run new wires for the pump. You can splice into the factory wiring at the tank and retain the functionality of the inertia switch. Since my cars started life as 4 bangers, I cant give specific wiring instructions. I found a method of powering the pump that requires only a relay and splicing a couple of wires in the kick panel. V8 cars are sure to be different.

I went back and forth thrying to decide what I wanted to do about fuel line. I have used braided line in the past but its very expensive and definately an excercise in patience to assemble. Its also good for making blood squirt out of your fingertips. I have also used aluminum line and it seemed to work well but I have heard alot of poeple report longevity issues with it. What I ended up using is Aeroquip socketless hose. It basically has the same strong points as braided hose but its alot less expensive and very easy to assemble. Even though is is technically rubber hose, its reinforced and I have been told that it will pass tech at the track just as if it were metal or braided line. It does not fall under the 12" of rubber hose rule. -6 should be adequite for most and moderate street car. You also want to install a good filter in the line somewhere. Any little piece of **** will stick oven a needle valve and literally dump fuel into your intake.

Whatever you do, dont use the EFI pump. I know poeple will say they have done it and it works but I believe it to be a very bad idea. Also, dont listen to the poeple that say its OK to mount an electric pump in the engine compartment. I have seen it done way too many times. Mount it as close to the tank as practacle.


Ignition- Again there is the $500 method or the $100 method. I have done both. The $500 method would be to go with something like an MSD billet distributior, MSD control box and aftermarket coil. The $100 method would be to get a rebuilt distributor for an 85 mustang 5.0 with a 5-speed. You could also find a good used one but I found that it didnt cost much if any more to get one from the autoparts store. I paid just over $50 from NAPA. Then you can either use a Duraspark box or what I think is a better method, the GM HEI module conversion. All you need is a 4-pin HEI module that runs about $15, a heatsink of some kind (I used one from an old pentium II) and some wire. You can use pretty much any coil. I used an MSD that I had lying around but I have heard that the stock 5.0 TFI coil works very well with this system. Here is a link to how to wire up the HEI
http://www.bronco.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Mods.HomebrewHEI