How important is mass air on a pre 89 fi

[Unit 5302]

It's not usually necessary.

The Speed Density "SD" system in your car outperforms the Mass Airflow "MAF" cars stock for stock by a couple tenths in the 1/4.

The SD system doesn't automatically compensate for camshaft modifications, or heads. The way to compensate for that is to add an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, turn the pressure up higher than stock with mods you add.

88workcar is running low 12's on SD with an E303 cam, Edelbrock heads, and I think an Edelbrock intake.

You can tune the SD cars to accept mods, they seem to do well with decent aluminum heads, the B303, and a good intake. With that, you should be able to run mid/high 12's N/A with 3.73's-4.10's and drag radials with the T-5.