Injection or Carbs?

[90LXRaptor]

The subject is all the question you fanatics need. I currently have injection but I have always been a carb fan. Car is a 90 LX 5.0. Let me know what you guys think is better.

[crazypete]

Carb for reliability, ease of upgrade and adjustment and enginebay cleanliness. It's also much cheaper than a FI setup and a few pounds lighter I think. Makes the car very uncomplicated. Get a holley. They are infinitely customizable.

[mustangII460]

This debate will live forever.


Living up there you may want a EFI system. When air density changes so does fuel mixture. EFI adjusts it for you. A carb will need more tuning from time to time. I live in the Tennessee valley. When I cruise the mountains you can tell the difference with a carb. I still get 24 mpg with my EFI 5.0 motor.

As far as one being better. I'd give the edge to EFI for the above mentioned.

Both will make horsepower, both do it different ways. One needs less adjusting.

[90LXRaptor]

I am not too worried about the air density as the car does not go on any long excursions into the mountains and I live in a valley....it is also only on the road 8 months a year so a carb adjustment would only really happen a couple times when the seasons change.....and no we don't have winter all year round!!!

[90LXRaptor]

And another thing I forgot to ask and I think Crazy Pete could help....what kind of work am I looking at to do a carb conversion as far as fuel delivery/ air intake and computer go?

[mustangII460]

Sounds like you already had your mind made up.

Good luck.

[Ieatcamaros]

Fletch's site

Read here for the most part. But I will sum it up for you. You need a distributor, intake, carb, some type of ignition, fuel pump, and a fuel tank sump.
Distributor-You really don't want a points set up. At least go with the old Duraspark ignition. It really is easy to wire up. MSD is recommended though. Just make sure it has a steel gear on it. An 85GT dist. works good. You need to figure out your ignition preference and then choose a distributor to match. BTW, you can decide to go the duraspark route and still add the MSD later without changing distributors.
The fuel tank sump you will need to either buy one from like Granetelli (I think they offer one) or make your own. Again it is easier than it sounds. I used the stock pickup, using a piece of brake line in place of the fuel pump. Been going two years on that now. It is best to upgrade the fuel lines from the tank to carb but not necessary for the swap. You can hook the tank back up like normal providing you modify the stock pickup as I did. Then you will have to cut off the end of the line where you disconnected it in the engine compartment. Yes there are two. One is a return line which you won't use. Cut the stock fitting off and attach a piece of 3/8" gas line to there and run it to your fuel pump of choice and then from there to the carb, of course.
The fuel pump you can get a cheap ass $30 electric pump from autozone and wire it to a regular toggle switch or into your ignition switch. Or you can get a good holley pump about $100. Either way they need to be closer to the tank than the motor. Which is why I say just run all new gas line. But, you can pickup from the stock location (by the sway bar) and mount it on the fender somewhere and then run line to the carb. I wouldn't recommend it but it does work.
Sorry so long, but this is basically what you need to know. The link above goes into more detail.

[crazypete]

Um.....

what he said =)

Actually, I used an edelbrock performer intake, holley 670 cfm, I bought the FMS mechanical fuel pump (if you're going mechanical, go all the way and make your fuel pump mechanical too) and the FMS timing chain cover to hold it. You'll need an eccentric for the cam to run the fuel pump: FMS makes one for $30. Trust me it's better than dealing with stupid relays and electric pumps. I did the 85 mustang distributor (vacuum advance will not work with the avenger for some reason, count on that), but mine had to have the distributor gear changed from iron to steel so I guess it wasnt really an 85. I did the MSD box, it's the way to go. Get the bigger aircleaner. One thing....your stock cables will not work. Get the lokar throttle cable. I had been driving around for 2 years with WOT being only 60% butterfly opening. The ratio was all wrong. Get the lokar kickdown kit if you're AOD. For the gastank and fuel lines, I cut and slipped hose over the fuel lines. Easy as pie. For the tank, I removed the pump, pulle dout the motor and used a piece of fuel hose slightly longer than necessary so it turns sideways when it hits the bottom. No problems ~2 years. Get a phelonic spacer or the garage will reek of gas (I love it!) when you stop the car and the heat cooks off the gas in the carb fuel bowls.

I think the A/C has some relay thats computer controlled so it may not work. Good excuse to rip it out. Also, the tab/tad solenoids are now useless. Bypass them and run the airpump directly to the crossover in the back of the heads. You wont get detonation/backfire. I never did. The edelbrock doesnt have provisions for the PCV fitting so attach a hose to the filler neck fitting on the valve cover and dump the PCV gasses somewhere behind the car. Now you can strip 25 pounds of wire, relays and other crap out of the car. Good stuff! My enginebay is super clean and empty.

Since my swap, I have NEVER had the car mysteriously die. It ALWAYS starts. Sometimes it will be a bit lopey if the temp or humidity changed drastically but I get by running the same jets year round. extra gas in the summer, just right in the winter (thats right, the ole girl hits the snow).

When you do upgrades, you dont need expensive calibrations to chips or a new mass air meter and injectors, you get a $6 pack of jets and turn some screws. You dont like what the car is doing....turn some screws. It's fun and very rewarding!

I got 23 mpg highway carbed with 3.73's and a t-5 with stock heads. I'm down to 18 now with an AOD and 4.56's