who has swapped efi to carb and are you happy you did?
- Thread starter Killer5.0
- Start date
Fuel injection is 40 year old tecnology as well. It's just two different ways of doing the same thing. Carbs have come along way. They both have there strong points as well as there bad ones. Carb is simpler and less expensive. The same MPG can be had, with in reason, to EFI. I think for what you want to do with your car, EFI would work well but it's up to you. I have done a couple of EFI to carb swaps on 3rd gen camaros and trans am's and loved it.
i have surging idle etc and i think it would be easier to solve with a carb setup...i dont live anywhere near any kind of tuning place so its not easy for me to get it tuned. i love the look of the engine bay when its carbed...all nice and clean 
but im asking for ppls opinions b/c obviously it costs money to do both. right now i dont want to change the stock t5 tranny or the rear end so im not looking to go over 400hp. now im not saying that in the future i wont want to. if i chose to add even more later which would be easier to do? also cost is a factor. current setup is as follows (from what the previous owner told me as all engine work was done before i bought the car)
bbk cold air intake (fendermount)
bbk 70mm throttle body
bbk 70mm maf
gt40 upper and lower intake manifold
bbk FP regulator
f303 cam
underdrive pulleys
bbk headers
bbk h pipe
borla dumps
stock 19lb injectors
and im looking for the most reliable, easy to tune engine with great horsepower. if the efi will make more for less sweet. if not then why not go carb? can it cause severe driveability issues? this is a 3-4 nights a week driver tops. street only
but im asking for ppls opinions b/c obviously it costs money to do both. right now i dont want to change the stock t5 tranny or the rear end so im not looking to go over 400hp. now im not saying that in the future i wont want to. if i chose to add even more later which would be easier to do? also cost is a factor. current setup is as follows (from what the previous owner told me as all engine work was done before i bought the car)bbk cold air intake (fendermount)
bbk 70mm throttle body
bbk 70mm maf
gt40 upper and lower intake manifold
bbk FP regulator
f303 cam
underdrive pulleys
bbk headers
bbk h pipe
borla dumps
stock 19lb injectors
and im looking for the most reliable, easy to tune engine with great horsepower. if the efi will make more for less sweet. if not then why not go carb? can it cause severe driveability issues? this is a 3-4 nights a week driver tops. street only
My fox body was carbed when I bought it and I changed it back to fuel injection because I didnt like a lot of things with carbs. Carbs if tuned right can have just as good drivability as fuel injection but a lot of times you need the knowledge to tune the carb to get that. Even though many people swear that carbs are the way to go I found that there is usually some drivability issues you end up dealing with and have the hardest time finding the fix, if you find it at all. I always hated changing jets, squirter towers, power valves, pump cams and air bleeds to chase throttle tip in hesitations, rich idle and poor fuel economy. Fuel injection is what I learned and was more interested in tuning the car with a labtop so I went that route. Dont think you can just slap on a carb and the car will drive perfect. You will need to learn how to tune yourself and it could take a long time instead of getting your car to a tuner for a few days and spending some money so you dont have to mess with a carb.
so if i want to build off my current setup what should be my next step? thing is around me i have alot of older car guys who always dealt with carbs...thats why i was thinking maybe it would be easier to have someone tune it around here if it was carbed. its a toss up right now ill tell you....everytime i lean one way someone makes a valid point that makes me reconsider. thanks alot for the input as thats the reason for my post to begin with ...also what are the driveability issues i always hear about?
...also what are the driveability issues i always hear about?
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i personally would stick with the efi. carbs work well, when properly tweaked and so does efi when properly tweaked. both can have severe drivability issues if not tuned in well. in my opinion though, going to carb is the easy way out. enough people have cars just like yours that run perfect, no reason yours shouldn't. just keep talking to people and learning and you'll get it straightened out. hell, i spent two weeks on installing cams in my 4.6 and two months straightening out the drivability issues. keep at it man, you'll get it
my biggest problem is i am an engine noob...so i have to pay ppl to do everything (for fear of really screwing something up)...just wanted the most reliable easy to get power...if its carb ill go carb if its efi ill go efi...my biggest problem with efi is all the computer reliable info...i mean they just starting dabbling in F/I around that time so it wasnt' perfected technology. i guess i just have more research to do. thanks
