newbie, what do i need to switch to carb.

I don't advise chaning to carb'd, you'll never pass emissions, you'll lose power and driveability, gas milage will out out the window. If you want mass air you can convert. Just my thoughts but you'll regret swaping to carb...

if you are going to drive the car alot i wouldn't swap it. It'll just be hassle for you especially if you are a new to cars. The only reason i swapped over my 85 gt auto cause im racing it on circle track. But if i you are going to do it a few basic things you are going to need would be an intake if i were you i would go with eldebrock performer. Next you would need a carb. i would go with a holley 600. Next you would need a distributor. One of an 85 gt with a manual tranny im pretty sure would work if your wanting to go the cheap route. then you have all the other ignition crap to worry about. which would be the biggest hassle for you. im tellin you man you dont want to do it if you dont know what your doing. Especially if you dont know that a carbd car doesnt need a ecu(computer). www.carbdford.com has some good articles on the swap under technical articles.

Speed density cars can be made to run very well with some good tune up practices. Conversion to mass air isn't needed until you start doing major mods like heads or a wild cam. Save your money for other things that will be more useful.

Spend some time here on Stangnet reading the posts before you get started modding your car. You can find what works and what doesn't, along with how it works.

Here's a book that will get you started with how the Ford electronic engine control or "computer" works.

Ford Fuel Injection & Electronic Engine Control 1988-1993 by Charles Probst :ISBN 0-8376-0301-3.

It's about $20 from Borders.com see http://www.amazon.com/ . Select boo...very good, and I found it to be very helpful.

ill tell you from experience its a pita. my car is a carb'd car that i drive every day. i get about 13 mpg and the car has a tip in hesistation that i cant get to go away. it doesnt like to stay running when i first crank it up when its cold out and it smells like gas all the time in my car. but damnit i love it because it pulls harder than my efi setup and i dont have the miss that i had with efi

Its not that hard, and I think all cars were carbed back in the early to middle parts of last century. A carbed car can be made to run just as reliably as anything, but it takes tuning and effort.

I have 2 carbed 5.0 Foxes, and one efi 2.3. Had the 79 Capri since 81. Was originally a Motorcraft 2150 2 barrel.

I put a 4 barrel on my 79 Capri in 86 or so. With Holley 8005 carb, that had vacuum secondaries, 2 stage powervalve, electric choke, and a solenoid kicker for the ac. Had provisions for pcv and the fuel bowl vent to the canister, and enough vacuum taps for all the vacuum emission stuff, and worked with egr. Connected to the original c4 kickdown rod with a lever extension. Worked with the oem cruise control. With 622 pri main jets it would get 21 mpg highway at 70 mph, avereaged about 15 overall. Ran low 15's. It was setup to be a daily driver and was my prime family vehicle from 1981 until 1993. I put a Holley 80457 on it a while back, perked it up some, but went down to 13 mpg.

One thing carbs will have, is less tolerance for conditions they are not set up for. If you have a worked engine, and set the carb up for top end performance, it will not be able to lug around and idle forever at lights with the ac on as well as efi.

You will have to focus the carb on one aspect and compromise on the rest. My 79 was always oriented toward street daily driving, and the ets always suffered because of it.

All that said, if I had efi, I would keep it. It's more reliable, more efficient, and takes power adders more easily. I drive my efi 2.3 more now than the 5.0's on a daily basis because it's less hassle. No cold start warmup, always idles, ac does not drag it down, and its quieter. And gets 25 mpg. Only when you get to 3-400 hp or more, in a drag race or similar performace setup will you see much advantage to carbing, and that setup will take as much tuning as efi. And it will not be very street friendly.