Carb- easy access to valve covers; not much wiring at all to deal with; bad fuel economy in most cases; less tunability ie. no timing/fuel curves could be set so some areas performace could be lacking; cheaper to build in most cases EFI- tunability with the computer, so timing/ fuel could be changed depending on rpm and air flow; reliability ie. better cold starts; more wiring; better fuel economy; better lowend in most cases That's just a few pros and cons that came off of the top of my head
carb = old school EFI = the wave of the future is what? 21 years old on the Mustang now... I think we need to start understanding it better
EFI I like complex stuff. I like the tunability and use of computers. I'm an engineer...so i love complexity and control
EFI better gas mileage, tunability and more horsepower. plus...i forgot... oh yeah, i have no idea how to work on a carburator (or how to spell it)
Carbs have their place, but not on a 5.0 that came fuel injected from the factory. You're taking a big step backward at that point.....
Well in my case 90% race car 10% street my motor was N2O but now for some reasons my headers are backwards.... plus got most of my stuff cheap carbs are a alittle easier to tune or to get help to tune without alot of money But if I ever build another street car EFI all the way. IMO efi was way too much money to convert (4cyl conv.)
Carbs are cheaper and more simplistic. Anyone who says EFI makes more power, i'll match you dollar for dollar and we'll build an engine from scratch and lets see who makes more power.
hands down carb would win. I went the carb route because I had to upgrade so much to stay EFI. Since my car was a 86 and it was speed density. The carb route was cheaper. It isn't all that friendly before it warms up but after it has it's a beast. Another pro to having a carb is the sound of the 4 barrels. Nothing quite like it.
I have a mag article where they dyno tested a 347 carb and EFI (same block and heads, just different intake setups) and EFI was maybe 1hp ahead. Basically as far as power goes, it's the same crap! EFI will cost you more to get there and that's about it. But EFI always checks your A/F ratio and adjusts it for every RPM where carb you have to either set it for WOT or "in town" driving. I think an EFI engine will last longer too.
I'd take you up on that offer…with one catch. We dyno twice…once on a hot ass humid day and another on a cold dry day with no tuning/tweaking allowed in between. The average numbers between the two runs would determine the winner.
For the track: Carb For the street: EFI I personally would just run an EFI set up all the time, but carbs are proven a million times over!
Typically EFI is up on torque and carb is up on peak hp, but that wasn't my point. I'm saying dollar for dollar it's no contest. If we both started out with the same budget of money and could spend it any way we wanted, my combo would probably be running nitrous while the EFI combo barely has enough money to complete the setup. Carb technology has come a long way since back in the day. Anymore it comes down to what you want out of the engine. If you want fuel economy, you can get a carb that will give you mpg that rivals EFI. If you want all out power then either combo will suffice as long as you've got the cash to make it work. Also there is more to tuning a carb than tuning it for WOT or for cruising....the problem is people bash carbs when they wouldn't know an accelerator pump from a booster if their life depended on it. There are basically two things that are going to be the facts with this comparison and not much is ever going to change it. Carb: cheaper, slightly less efficient EFI: expensive, slightly more efficient As for tuning, everyone says EFI is the easiest....i guess so if all you do is drive your car to the dyno and pay someone to tune your car. That must be pretty easy If a guy takes the time to learn about a carb, and needs to do a few mods and ends up needing to tune, it's a simple matter of turning a few screws and changing the jets and you're done, not only in a fraction of the time it takes to get you back on the road as an EFI tune, but at a fraction of the cost. Hell i can retune AND rebuild my carb for as little as $50....how much is dyno time these days? Also....if you want the best of both worlds....invest in an AF meter for your carb setup. Then you can monitor what the carb is doing while the car is running. You still have to make the changes yourself, but once it's dialed in there's nothing more you need to do.
Again...it's all in the tune. Heat and humidity has the same effect on EFI as it does a carb, i just have to manually tune mine to suit the weather. Cold would be no different except that once a carb is warmed up in cold weather they generally run harder than any other time because of the higher density of air. Your little rule about no tuning is the only way you'd have an edge, but i bet you i could find a sweet spot in the middle that would make up the difference on either day
And what a huge edge it is. Even if you find that sweet spot in the middle I'd venture to say the carb would loose out on both ends (without re-tuning). Let's face it…for those that daily drive or just cruise…re-tuning is just not going to happen. You can have huge temperature/barometer/humidity swings on a day to day…or even day to night basis. I'm in no means dissing carb setups…lord knows I've had my fair share of cars with em. For all practicality though…EFI is tough to beat. As far as cost goes…with DIY setups such as megatune running about now a days, the it's almost a non-issue. It gives you the ability to tune as you drive with almost no need for a dyno. The only exception would be to tune the timing curve…but even that can be put in (albeit not optimized) on the road.
I've woken up to 30s and had it be in the high 70s low 80s that very same day. Granted I doubt you would have to tune the car differently in the morning vs the afternoon, but it will most likely run a good bit different as the day progresses.
So you're right but only by the one chance that two guys would meet up on a hot humid day. LOL that's a lot of factors that have to fall into place just for the sake of being right. Practicality, yeah sure. Efficiency? Absolutely, why not. None of that equates to any reason that EFI makes more power than a carb setup. You're also thinking that the weather has some kind of astronomical effect on the carb's ability to make power, but that's just not so. If the weather is bad enough to make my carb run crappy then the EFI is going to be sluggish as well. That's just a plain simple fact of weather and air quality vs. the internal combustion engine, and a/f delivery isn't going to change that enough to make a win or lose difference. This debate comes up like every other month, and no offense to anyone in particular but it just gets so tiring hearing the same thing over and over from people that i suspect have 0 carb tuning knowledge (again not directed to the quoted person, just an observation). People tend to be biased to what they know, and i'm just as guilty of that as anyone because i honestly know more about carbs than EFI, but i do know how EFI works in relation to a carb, and i do know that it all comes down to the tune on the carb...plain and simple. It'll take more work, sure, but the reward is the same...it's all horsepower and torque at the wheels, it just depends on how you want to get it and what you're willing to learn and do to make it.
