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carb vs. fuel injection

13K views 13 replies 12 participants last post by  Mr. P-Body 
#1 ·
350 sbc.

i hear (but have yet to see) that good port injection kits can be had for around a grand.

or you can buy a new holley for under a grand.

is it worth it? i`m kind of done with carburetors and need reliability as my wife will be driving the car too so i really need the turn key no bull **** aspect.

do i just get a good carb tune it right and move on or should i look into a decent port injection kit?

67 chevy impala. thank you for your time. -Dave
 
#2 ·
A TPI setup is relatively cheap if you can find a donor vehicle with everything you need including wire harness,ecm,etc.If this just a daily driver @ less than 320 HP or so,even a TBI setup would work well & be cheap.If I could go EFI,I would vs a carb.
 
#3 ·
I'm going to have to agree. Try to find yourself a good TPI set up. Make sure that intake works well with your heads and your fuel pump can handle the required amount of psi to run that set up. Those injectors like a ample supply of go juice. Aside from that, you'll be sitting pretty.
 
#5 ·
New Holley for under a grand? I don't see how a driver needs a $800-900 carburetor. I put my wife in a 5.0 with an Edelbrock 500 cfm carburetor. Carb and intake together ran under $500. The car is now an occasional driver these days and I have to remind her to press the gas pedal once to the floor before starting it cold and not to touch the gas pedal when starting it hot. I don't think that's too much to ask, the carburetor behaves fine otherwise. Gets better gas mileage than the two barrel it replaced. Her regular driver now is EFI so she forgets about setting the choke when she drives the other one. Though this is the same woman who drove this car almost ten years somehow believing the oil pressure gauge was the temperature gauge. But that's another story.
You can go with EFI, there are some nice kits out there. But it's a whole lot less work and trouble to go with a carburetor since that's what the car already has and was it was built to use.
I have an EFI driver, I have Holley carburetors around, and I like DIY stuff. I'm pretty open to different ways to skin cats. But I get the feeling what you really want is a quick fix that won't need any further attention. I'm not sure fiddling with old cars is what you really want to be doing. That's kind of the wrong mindset for it.
I could be wrong, that happens a lot. If so, I apologize.
 
#6 ·
For my old school vehicles I'm a Carburetor kind of guy and have never had any problems when using the right set up. For anyone looking for a Carb on a mild to wild street vehicle I highly recommend the Quickfuel Slayer QFTSL-750-VS (or the 650). You can get them on sale for 299.00 Brand New or $318.00 is the regular price. I recently put one on my 351C Mach 1 and it was install and start without having to make a single adjustment or turn a single screw. What a difference it made over the Holley on it when I bought it. Really good bang for the buck and I would highly recommend it.....

Of course on a newer Hi HP Hi Tech vehicle I stick with the EFI but they arent 100% trouble free. I've personally blown up built motors and have had many a friend blow up theirs due to a bad injector, relay, filter, pump, or anything else that caused a slight loss of fuel pressure at WOT.
 

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#8 ·
A properly tuned carb will do 90% of what an EFI will do with greater simplicity and reliability.

You can buy a used Qjet and have Jet Performance tune it so that its a complete bolt-on performer for under $400 including the purchase of the carb. Since it doesn't require other parts (sensors, fuel pump, computer, wiring, etc) it is the bargain.

But, there is sometimes no replacement for that instant startup at 10 degrees, automatically adjusting fuel and spark curves for the situation, and potentially slightly better MPG with EFI.

Don't get suckered in with TBI. It is worse than a Qjet and you still have all the cost and complexity of EFI. TPI is a great option. Aftermarket TBI setups are getting cheaper and they are darn near plug and play these days.
 
#9 ·
For a new system that is TBI think about 2 kilo bucks new, for port injection add another kilo buck.

You can find used systems on ebay for around kilo buck. A new carb these days will go from .5 to 1.0 kilo buck.

I build 'em both ways if you know what you're doing a carb is nearly as good as EFI with a lot less hassle. I've discovered that with today's clean fuels, better filtration, with improved heads and intake manifolds the carburetor functions far better than it did 20-30 years ago.

Bogie
 
#10 ·
I've discovered that with today's clean fuels, better filtration, with improved heads and intake manifolds the carburetor functions far better than it did 20-30 years ago.

Bogie
Interesting statement….

My memory sometimes does funny things about how great the 60s were, but as I recall it, the carb wasn't an item that really needed much fiddling at all back then. the choke was always pretty spot on and very little guessing about how many pumps of the pedal would be needed to get it fired up in the morning. no cranking forever when you shut it off at the grocery store and came back out 10 minutes later. no puddle of fuel on the manifold when the inlet needle stuck or it just percolated over during the day. etc. etc. etc. . I used mostly AFB carbs back then, and a few Thermoquads, and quadrajunks. never liked the Holly back then (but I don't even remember why). most of them were equally troublefree. todays aftermarket carbs….. not so much. I hate todays new carbs.
Or am I all wrong as usual ;) .

today I've gone EFI when it's at all possible.

Russ
 
#12 ·
My 2 old cars have EFI (350TBi and blown LS), so I love EFI. But, even though you say your are done with carbs, you sound like you just want something simple. Even as a brand new kit, EFi is going to take a bit of work, such as intake swap, sensors, electric fuel pump, routing the wiring and mounting the computer... It will also cost more than swapping carb (and even intake).
So, if you usually work on your car and want EFI, sure, go for it, you will love it!
If you want to get the car running now, a good carb will be just fine, easier to do: if no hi-perf is needed, you cannot go wrong with a rebuilt Q-Jet, a definition of reliable (I have have some of those on daily drivers)!
 
#13 ·
I've done TBI on a few cars with Megasquirt and it ran awesome. Scrounged a TBI and updated the injectors and tuned it up in an afternoon for less than about $300. I'd like to scrounge a multi point manifold for one of my engines since Megasquirt can do that also. With all the additional stuff it does, it pretty much is the complete package including spark control and stuff. Carbs work fine, but what you can get out of EFI is so much better that it tends to be my go-to anymore. Even for my old motorcycles!
 
#14 ·
What do you want it to "do"? "Better" or "best" are arbitrary terms. Both EFI and carbs have their
place". Stock TBIs are NOT "better" than a good carb, as stated here already. Small engine? (under 425 CID) HP goals under 600? A nice PI system is adequate for this.

EFI systems offer the convenience and comfort of a modern engine, for sure. Drivability cannot be beat when everything is "in range". Fuel economy is also optimum when using a good engine management system along with the injection.

We've found larger engines "dry up" most EFI systems by 600 HP or so. We've seen attempts at using the "big" ones on blown applications. Turned into software NIGHTMARES. Not me, the software guys... I've seen them successfully manipulated, but it was a fight every time.

For sheer power production, the only thing that beats a good carb is mechanical injection (Hilborn, Waterman, Enderle, etc.).

Agreed, a properly prepared Q-Jet is hard to argue with in it's intended "range". Cliff's High Performance in Mt. Vernon, OH is another good source for Q-Jet parts, info, service. He wrote a book for CarTech series (SA Designs) about Q-Jet.

Jim
 
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