A little different twist ... has anyone went to EFI and regretted it?

[Garceau]

Handful of threads on EFI in the search.

Really considering it and jumping in and making it happen. Has anyone wished they hadn't done the swap (for things other than cost)

 

[JimKueneman]

I replied on one. The way I drive use my car it was a waste of $2000 and hours of getting it dialed in. 3 cars since and all have carbs and work as good and don’t have to worry about breakdowns I can’t fix on the road.

When it dies it will go in the trash and the Coronet will get a carb.

 

[GrabberOrange69]

 

[1 Wild R/T]

@CoronetDarter

 

[tonysrt]

The problem with the aftermarket F.I. is when the engine don't start where do you begin to troubleshoot it? I had that problem and had to send the unit back to find out the ECU was bad and it was $325 for the new ECU and $80 to troubleshoot it. Fortunately it was under warranty so no cost for the repair. Just $125 for the flatbed ride back home. I only had put 1400 miles when unit quit in less than a 2 year period. Is it just a matter of time before you get stuck with it. Now my 05 Ram with factory FI has never had a problem.

 

[moparedtn]

@CoronetDarter

@CoronetDarter

 

[kiwigtx]

No problems here so far....Holley Sniper.

The same people who cry about EFI conversions are the same ones who cry about cable linkages to the transmission.

I have both and have no regrets.

 

[Tman100]

I put efi on dads 68 at his request. His car starts and runs well. I’ve dialled in the efi so it works well. I’ve driven it quite a bit and I guess for him it’s fine. I feel that efi takes something out of the car. Like it’s lost part of its soal. But I’m a carb guy. Nothing like the hours of dialing in a carb so it works flawlessly and when there’s trouble it can be fixed. Efi has its place but a well tuned carb can do just as well as an efi system if you have the ability and take the time to tune it.

 

[eldubb440]

just keep a points style dizzy and carb in the trunk ...... oh, and a manual fuel pump

 

[kiwigtx]

I have had my fair share of failures with carbs, distributors, fuel pumps and fuel pump push rods.....EFI seemed like a no-brainer to me.

 

[Budnicks]

I put efi on dads 68 at his request. His car starts and runs well. I’ve dialled in the efi so it works well. I’ve driven it quite a bit and I guess for him it’s fine. I feel that efi takes something out of the car. Like it’s lost part of its soal. But I’m a carb guy. Nothing like the hours of dialing in a carb so it works flawlessly and when there’s trouble it can be fixed. Efi has its place but a well tuned carb can do just as well as an efi system if you have the ability and take the time to tune it.

It's all & good "CARBS" for if you stay within about 1,000 foot elevation
up or down to where you live & have tuned it perfectly to run there
not so much at 5,000ft to 9,000ft when you live at 1,000ft to sea level
or visa versa

there's great benefits to EFI,
most everything OEM running gasoline engines,
has been EFI since like 1985-ish

----------------------------------------------------------

I think @Dennis H
had some issues with his on his trip to Cruisin the Coast
& up to Oklahoma a while back
He didn't skimp on doing it right either...
I think it was the tank, filter or pump (or combined) or maybe 2 pumps,
he could expand

----------------------------------------------------------

I still haven't pulled the trigger on my classic car 6bbl
I was gonna do F&B Throttle Bodies 6bbl (maybe a bit more refined)
or the FiTech 3x2 Tri Power 600 set-up,
the techs/engineers I talked with at FiTech are extremely knowledgeable
& seemed 'willing to talk you thru it' & after it's installed too...
A single 4bbl kit would be a lot cheaper & a lil' easier too...
I don't want a single 4bbl, partially why I have a 6bbl now...

The more complete a kit 'the better it seems',
less trying use parts not suited for the EFI,
or to bandaid & make something to work, you already have...

Budget/Price Points, or keeping stock-ish looks
comes into to play with most people it seems on here...

Hey I'm an old carb guy myself, usually using 'multiple carbs' too
even "more tuning" to have to change, from elevation changes

-----------------------------------------------------------

We have a Member here who owns Fastman EFI,
Richard Nedbal (I don't remember his screen name)
he could add something to the conversation/technology here too

 

[Hemirunner]

Anything can fail, be it carb or efi. You’re better off with what you know, so if you know carbs, stick with em. If you’re willing to learn something new then EFI might be an option. Where I see it shine is not having vapor lock issues since it’s high pressure, and the ability to tune it from the drivers seat.

 

[Tman100]

It's all & good "CARBS" for if you stay within about 1,000 foot elevation
up or down to where you live & have tuned it perfectly to run there
not so much at 5,000ft to 9,000ft when you live at 1,000ft to sea level
or visa versa

there's great benefits to EFI,
most everything OEM running gasoline engines,
has been EFI since like 1985-ish

----------------------------------------------------------

I think @Dennis H
had some issues with his on his trip to Cruisin the Coast
& up to Oklahoma a while back
He didn't skimp on doing it right either...
I think it was the tank, filter or pump (or combined) or maybe 2 pumps,
he could expand

----------------------------------------------------------

I still haven't pulled the trigger on my classic car 6bbl
I was gonna do F&B Throttle Bodies 6bbl (maybe a bit more refined)
or the FiTech 3x2 Tri Power 600 set-up,
the techs/engineers I talked with at FiTech are extremely knowledgeable
& seemed 'willing to talk you thru it' & after it's installed too...
A single 4bbl kit would be a lot cheaper & a lil' easier too...
I don't want a single 4bbl, partially why I have a 6bbl now...

The more complete a kit 'the better it seems',
less trying use parts not suited for the EFI,
or to bandaid & make something to work, you already have...

Budget/Price Points, or keeping stock-ish looks
comes into to play with most people it seems on here...

Hey I'm an old carb guy myself, usually using 'multiple carbs' too
even "more tuning" to have to change, from elevation changes

-----------------------------------------------------------

We have a Member here who owns Fastman EFI,
Richard Nedbal (I don't remember his screen name)
he could add something to the conversation/technology here too

I live in Manitoba Canada. In the southern part of the province there is was less then 1000 ft deviation. So yes a well tuned carb works well here. I don’t plan on taking my car more then 500 miles from home so for me I love carbs. Efi certainly has its place. Especially for the non flat areas of the world. If my situation was different I may consider changing but I learned carbs so well would be a shame to not use the acquired skill set. A few years ago I put a dual quad setup on a 392 hemi in a 37 dodge pickup i built for a buddy. He loves the fuel injection. I agree it is flawless. Took me about 2 hours to dial that system in and no hiccups. I’ve tuned dual quads before and it take way longer and always seem to have to tweak it annually. 3 years and haven’t touched a thing on that pickup except change the oil.

 

[rmchrgr]

I will never understand where the whole "when it leaves you stranded on the side of the road you'll go back to a carb" mindset comes from. If you take the time to set it up right and learn how to tune it why would it somehow be prone to failure more than than any other component on the car?

Most of the time people get frustrated with this stuff is because they don't try and work through problems. You can't believe the "plug and play" advertising and think it's gonna run perfect just bolting it on. That's just the way these things are sold and why people that don't seem to trust it have a problem with it.

Couple things -

• The wiring in the car needs to be up to snuff. If you're still using the original now petrified, 55 year old harness that's been spliced every which way and double piggy backed onto the fuse box taps then yeah, it ain't gonna work right.
• If you don't want to deal with building ignition and fuel tables in the software, don't bother with it because you'll never get beyond the the generic tune. Generic tunes are just that - they cover a wide range of operating parameters. Building a custom tune for your particular application takes time. In the end it's really all the same procedures as you'd normally go through when tuning an engine but it's jut done through a software interface.
  
• Make the investment to get the entire package of related parts. People cheap out and get the bare minimum to get the systems running but these are also the guys on the forums who are trying to figure out why their EFI system won't work as well as it could with 60 year old ignition technology or why they're having RFI problems that screws with the data stream. Do it right and forget about it.

Carburetors have their place sure but I can say with 100% certainty my car runs better with EFI than it ever did with a carb. Fires up on the first try even after sitting for weeks, idles smoother, accelerates smoother and faster and dare I say may even be using less gas. There were some bugs to work out and it took a while to get it where it is now. I'll admit it did leave me stranded once but it wasn't the fault of the EFI system, it was my own wiring. I drive my car fairly regularly and for longer distances than just to local cruise nights. It's been running very well for over a year now, has been very reliable and my garage does not smell like gas.

 

[tonysrt]

You guys don't realize they put the ECU in the throttle body and in the summer that heat is directed to the ECU. On my throttle bodies I had a 3/4 " insulator and the ECU crapped out. So my experience with the F.I. is first hand. When mine crapped out after running would not start, next day started and ran fine till I shut it off and wouldn't restart again till next day. At least with a carb you can see if gas is being fed in to the engine. Again trouble shoot a no start problem is a big deal. F.I. is fine until you have a problem.

 

[Geoff 2]

Luckily for Mopar guys, Mopar used the best/most reliable brand carb there is: Carter. Carter AFB/AVS & TQ carbs are extreeeeeeeeeeemly reliable & will run for tens of thousands of miles without failing. Design is simple, but sophisticated metering systems provide superb response & mileage. Elec ign that doesn't require adjustment or checking for 50,000 miles, & then only because timing might have retarded slightly from timing chain wear.

 

[1967coronet]

Best way I can sum it up is EFI is its like bar hopping with your girl.
Sure its new and fun to dance with a new gal but in the end she will just cause trouble.
Dance with the gal you came in the door with.

 

[rmchrgr]

Ay yi yi.

I’m not a shill for Holley or FiTech or whatever. I’m all for carburetors if that’s what you want. What bothers me is the reasoning (or lack thereof) for people knocking EFI.

Whether its relevant or not, we all know that new cars have not come with carburetors for 40 years. That’s almost half a century. Think about that. If carburetors are soooo much better, then why.... you get the point.

In fact, retrofit EFI like the Sniper is basically a digital carburetor. You still use a wet intake and all 8 cylinders are fed by a common plenum. This means the intake charge is subject to the same conditions as with a carb. It’s really not all that different than tuning a carb.

On the other hand, sequential, multi-port EFI with coil-on-plug ignitions is a much more modern idea that does not get as much aftermarket support. I’m guessing because it would be a hard sell and could be perceived as total blasphemy. Oh my god, no distributor? The horror!

Just like a carb, if you read between the lines, most failures are usually caused by user error whether that’s from direct involvement or something inadvertent, these things don’t “just fail”. Then people get on the internet and badmouth the whole thing. Look on Holley’s website where they sell factory refurbished carbs. Read what it says. Nothing to do with EFI though the principle is the same.

Is retrofit throttle body EFI perfect? No way. Is it for everyone? No way. Is it largely misunderstood? Yes.

 

[Kern Dog]

The new vehicles were built with fuel injection to meet emission standards, not for power or reliability. The latter became true through extensive development.

 

[rmchrgr]

Even the most basic cars now make more power than ‘60s-‘70s vehicles. Modern, base, 6 cylinder cars are 300+hp. What was the Slant at it’s highest factory output? 215? And that was a special aluminum deal. 99% of them were well under 200.

OK, the 426 Street Hemi was conservatively rated at 425hp which we all know was BS. The SRT hemi is base rated at 485 and with a “tune” could be north of 550. The SRT engine is almost 20 years old now. Modern hemi cars are heavy too and still quicker than the original factory hemi cars.

The 5.7 hemi in my Ram is a better engine than the 383 in my Coronet. Chrysler sold millions of both. If you held a gun to my head and said choose one in stock form I’m taking the 5.7.