Carbed or EFI?

[Lex]

Ok guys. right now Ihave a *cough* *cough* 2.3L. My first project is swaping in a T5 to ditch the crappy AL4D. next year however I will have a 5.0L 302 in my stang. I'm saying next year cause I want to do it proper with headers, dual exhaust, better rearend, and brakes (among many other changes I need). The question or maybe just an opinion, but what do you prefer. Carb or EFI. I'm thinking Carb cause its more controllable and less crazy wiring. I plan to get a doner 5.0L so I shouldn't be short on the require parts. This is my big project for next year. So whats your comments. (please no "go buy a 5.0L stang complete" I know its probally cheaper)

Thanks

 

[88stangmangt]

efi is more accurate that is what i am running with my combo.

 

[Boss 351]

IS your car in very good shape? If the body is all rusted out and needs new floor boards, etc... it won't be worth it to build it up and swap to a V8 IMO.

I went with carb because it won't be my daily driver and the look is very clean for under the hood. EFI isn't real complicated to wire up if you have all the parts ready but finding the parts was near impossible in my area maybe you'd have better luck.

Carb will give you more power for the money, a set of good heads, intake, cam, and carb will create more than enough power if your used to a stock 2.3

 

[88stangmangt]

Carb will give you more power for the money, a set of good heads, intake, cam, and carb will create more than enough power if your used to a stock 2.3

seriously...................

 

[Michael Yount]

Alex - do you have any emissions regulations/laws to adhere to up in Nova Scotia? If so, you may want to check out what they have to say about swaps like you're contemplating -- the results of that conversation could have a big impact on your carb vs. efi decision.

 

[Lex]

No we don't have any emission regulations (if you mean yearly testing required). The only thing that just came to my attention is the the Motor Vehicle Laws says I have to get my car inspected before and after the upgrade. I'm still looking into that. I work at a mechanic shop, so getting new/used parts won't be hard, and my Dad and Bro are mechanics (I'm a mechanic in training) so I guess I will have enough support and tools to do the job. Just a dumb question, why would emission be the factor for Carb VS EFI. I'm in learning remember

 

[Boss 351]

carb is less accurate so emissions will be higher. I'm leaving on the 4 cats just so when or if I get pulled over for a "suprise inspection" they'll leave me alone. I dumped the air pump but kept all the parts (will put it back on if I would ever have to do a sniffer test).

Just pick up all the EFI parts including all the smog and keep them in storage because laws will only become more strict as the time goes by. You never know what can happen. Just imagine every stang owner out there looking for smog parts, just be prepaired lol

 

[Michael Yount]

It depends on the nature of the laws/regs. Down here they vary state to state and even county to county. In some areas, converting a car that came with efi to a carb won't pass the emissions inspection - you could only put a carb engine in it if it originally came with carb engine. And even if you could get around that, any place that has a sniffer test to pass - it's almost impossible to get a carbed car to pass the smog limits that are applicable to the vehicle that originally came with efi. The efi with feedback from O2 sensors and catalytic converters does a much better job controlling (O2 sensors and efi) and cleaning up (cats) the exhaust than you can do with a carb. But it's usually a moot point - most locales down here that have really rigid requirements - you would never get an efi to carb conversion on the sniffer in the first place - they'd fail you on the visual for the car not having efi.

But all that's moot if you don't have those types of laws to live with. And not all places are like that down here - most places have no emissions inspection or there's a way around them.