would you suggest going carb?

If you have to deal with emissions compliance in any way, shape, or form........stick with the EFI.

i think EFI is a little easier since you get: gas mileage, power, and precision with it... you can do a damn chip and it runs better.. lol bolt ons help the cars into 12's easy.. but if you want to go ahead.. i'd just buy a 85 down bc its made to be a carb car

Thenemesis said:

i think EFI is a little easier since you get: gas mileage, power, and precision with it... you can do a damn chip and it runs better.. lol bolt ons help the cars into 12's easy.. but if you want to go ahead.. i'd just buy a 85 down bc its made to be a carb car

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yep...i get 12-13 mpgs with mixed driving. most efi 5.0's usually get around 16ish

I would go carb. I spent the last 3 years trying to get my efi to run right. I even bought a tweecer rt and laptop. It all helped, but in the end I am selling it all, and going carbed. Everything that deals with efi is $$$ compared to carb. If you plan on making power, or running really a really big cam, I would do it. I am coming into a bunch of cash just from selling my efi stuff. If you do a chip, somewhere down the road you will add something else, and then you have to get it reflashed. Efi can be a big headache, especially with o2 sensors, surging idle, lean pops, and cutting out. I am not saying carbs are perfect, but in my mind it is the easy way to manage power. Besides, if you want to make big power it is going to cost you fuel economy anyway. Good luck in your decision.
Ted

Foxfan88 said:

I think i am really interested in it.
If i were to go carb, what cfm carb should i go, with a mild cam and maybe heads

And i dont have to deal with any emissions stuff here. not a bit.

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If you don't have to start your car in the winter than you will be fine (not that a mustang likes to run in the winter)

CFM should be right around 600 to 650. NOTHING MORE
Buy the heads first, then match the cam and intake to your driving plans for the car (racing / street / weekend special)

this should get blood boiling.....
if you drive the car on the street 9 of 10 times the fi car will be faster,get better mpg, have way better driveability,ect
i have had both, i have built both. fuelie cars rule.

<blood boils> =)

Sure, efi is better if tuned for your application specifically. The reason EFI runs so nicely is that it is tuned to your application from the factory by engineers. Tuning for aftermarket parts takes deeper pockets, much deeper pockets. Take a look at all the what throttle body, what maf, what injectors, what fuel pressure yadda yadda threads out there right now. You cant really change things without replacing things or getting a mondo expensive programmable unit or having someone burn a chip. I've been out of the fuelie scene for 3 years now but last I looked, most parts were in the $150-$350 range each.

Now carb...it's an inital 300-500 dollar investment then you play with screws basically. Your whole entire fuel system is in one place in a small box and everything can be adjusted mechanically. Nothing more expensive than $5 for a carb. Jets $3, Cams $5, idle change:free. Dont like what it's doing, turn some screws. Got bigger heads, screw some bigger jets in for the added flow. Change a little plastic pump cam for more fuel shot when stabbing throttle off the line. What I love about it is the time. I can instantly change whatever setting I want. I dont need to order and wait for parts. I can tune stuff realtime. Here's the real kicker.....the factory setup from holley works great for most people. Just set floats once and tune the idle screws and you're good to go. If you wanna "cheat", you can tap into your stock O2 sensor with an AF guage and use that to help you tune. Thats what I do.

I passed emissions twice with the sniffer in MA (bad as CA) with my carb. My car got 25 mpg highway with 3.73's. Idles smooth as glass. The key is to choose a small 600 cfm carb. NO BIGGER! I went 670 -> 600 cfm and the difference is astounding. So much crisper. Starts right up ice cold in freezing new england winters. That is with no choke!

Here's the basic argument then:
1. Efi = precision through automation and exact measurement but expensive. When something changes, you end up buying stuff to support the change
2. Carb = you set it up (once) cheaply then you can set it up again when stuff changes. Dont like what it's doing, change it.

Carb is slightly less efficient to the tune of 1 mpg and then 5-10 hp...but you gain that power back from the improved intake you're gonna buy during the conversion and have a small net gain.

Crazy Pete is correct.
I have no regrets converting mine from EFI to Carb. Sure my gas milage suffers (10-13 instead of 15-17 in town), but tuning is easy and the parts cheap (comparitively) and it makes GOBS more power than it did for very little money. I don't drive mine in the winter, so the driveability issues are not of concern to me.

If it is in your budget to buy all the EFI upgrades (MAF Sensor, larger throttle body, injectors, chip, Intake, etc...) than do it. My budget is fairly tight, so I went the carb. route). Another point of consideration is what will happen to the value of your car by converting to carb. What I recommend, and did, was keep EVERY SINGLE EFI and smog related item, lable it, box it up and store it...just in case you or a future buyer wishes to go back to EFI (esp. if gas prices increase to $5 a gallon).

Whats the book value of a mid eighties fox mustang anyways? Like $1500?

When you sell your car, it will be sold to another enthusiast for an enthusiast sum of money. Who but an enthusiast would buy an almost 15 year old american musclecar?

But do keep the efi stuff and sell it to a colorado brono club member. They love EFI swaps for the altitude changes their trucks need to endure. Could get quite a bit of bling.

I think I'm going to a carbed 408 (550hp) from Ford Performance Solutions for summer '06. I was going to try to do a 331 with a turbo but I can do the 408 for $2000+ cheaper, thats 2k I can spend on a nice transmission. Which means I learned the hard way since I spent about $3.5k in mods for the EFI stuff I have now. Look for it all on eBay next spring, lol.

Going carbed is so much fun... You'll really be satisfied if you do it.

I have never done a EFI build up (this winter will be my first one)

Do it. Unless you have money coming out your ass, you'll never see what EFI has to offer in a dollar to dollar comparison with a carb.


Plus you get to go from this:



To this:


And i still have a TON of unused BS that i need to get out of my engine bay.

I started building my first stang fuel injected. ended up with a never ending bad idle surge that no one here could help me with.

I went Carbureted and loved it. Stick with a 600 and you will be so happy, responsive and started right up for me in 0 degree weather. Plus imagine changing valve covers in 10 min. or getting to your intake by simply taking off your carb (4 nuts). You will wonder why you didnt do it earlier

THIS is a nice clean engine bay! NOTHING efi, no wires at all, they sneak up near the lower radiator hose.

Actually it's filthy since I took that shot right after my painting. Thats body filler dust you see.

Carb. is deff the way to go if you have another car to use. Havng a carb on your car kind of limits you from those quick 3 minute drives unless you have a perfect tune. I still am a fulie driver, but i couldnt imagine how much less stress it would be to you, when your car wont start and all you have to check at that point is two simple things....spark or fuel....NO BS in between ie. emissions...sensors...blah blah! you just mix fuel and air and BAM!!! not to mention the simplicity of chaging jets for your mods. i wish i could go carbed

I went card on my carr a save alot of money and make tuning alot easier. My gas mileage did go down and that is a big deal the way gas prices are now, but you need to sacrifice somewhere.

As you can see from this thread (all the threads on this topic are similar) - it's a subjective choice. The carb guys are gonna tout the upsides of carbs; the efi guys are gonna do the same for efi.

Pick what you like/are comfortable working on. It's pretty much that simple. If you like carbs/have a problem with efi put a carb on it. And vice/versa.

The only caveat I'd throw out there is with regard to emissions. Crazypete is the exception w/regard to passing emissions with the carb. In most places, the visual inspection would get you failed right off the bat for replacing the efi with the carb. And keep in mind - even though there's no emissions testing right now in some places, before all is said and done, we're likely gonna have it everywhere. Sticking with much older cars is likely ultimately gonna be the only way to avoid it.....