efi to carb: neeed to ask a few things

[87fromMI]

Well my '87 lx had a really bad electrical problem, so I had a carb and intake in the barn I put on it. im 17 and dont have help with it, so im trying to make shure i do this righ and dont rig it up, or buy parts that are good enough or wont work. Heres the parts i have"

• oem 85 distrutor w/ steel gear
• holley 600
• edelbrock 289 performer intake

1. Now I need to find a fuel pump. the local parts store carrys the MR. Gasket 12S fuel pump that puts out 7psi and 35gph. would that be good enough? also what kind of regulator should i run with it?
2. next is i have the oem cardone replacement distributor for a '85. I believe i have to change the ignition system to work. I have a msd 6al box and coil, would that work?
3. And with the changing of fuel pumps, I need to get a different sump in the tank. is there any cars i could take one out of that would work, or make one, or buy one.

 

[ID89GT]

Why do something hard to fix something easy? Just fix the electrical problem?

 

[giddyup306]

IMHO you're making a bad mistake. If you can't fix the electrical problem, then you probably can't properly tune a carb'd vehicle. A lot of people will just use the "throw a carb on it" approach to solve all their problems.

 

[2000xp8]

Seems like stangnet is riddled with these excessively difficult solutions to simple problems lately.

Let's see, instead of fixing an electrical issue, which can probably be fixed for free, i'll spent hundreds of dollars on extra parts and throw some old junk i have laying around on the car.
I just don't get it.

Probably going to take you 20 hours and $500 worth of stuff to make that carb work (if it ever does).
You see that as easier than sorting out an electrical gremlin?

 

[Mustang5L5]

In all fairness...whats the electrical issue?

WOuld suck to switch to carb, and find out it's still there.

 

[90mustangGT]

Agreed with previous posters.

It seems everyone thinks they are a mechanic as competent as someone who does it for a living and up to par with the pro's at the dealerships and other shops. Far from the truth. Take your car to a pro and that professional will have your problem fixed for a fraction of what it cost to throw parts at it. Not to mention, drop if off in the AM and you'll get it back running like a top in the PM.

Just be ware of these "performance tuners" that have little performance shops here and there, 9 out of 10 of them couldn't cut it at a real repair/service shop.

Go Carbed and you'll have a hard enough time finding someone who even will help you out with it. The shop I work in, we rarely will mess with someone's frankenstien monster they bring in.

 

[rd]

To the OP, offer up some details of the electrical problem. I agree that fixing it is easier.

The change to carb is going to take a good bit of changing, particularly the fuel pump.

Having said that, to put a mech fuel pump on, you need to have an older mechanical fuel pump timing cover, and a fuel pump eccentric that bolts onto the cam and cam gear, with the right cam bolt and dowel pin.

There are some retro fit fuel pickups for the tanks, that go in the opening your pump is in now, for the mechanical or remote electrical pump. Then you could use either a mechanical or a separate electric pump, such as a Holley blue or something. But that takes some wiring effort, relays, shutdown switches/sensors, and has to be done right to be safe.

An 82-85 donor car would be ideal.

Also do a search on this site, this has been covered and nearly every detail you would need is here somewhere.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Carb = bad
EFI = good

 

[87fromMI]

I already have the intake and carb on it. I live in michigan and only going to drive it in the summer, so a carb if fine for me. plz leave helpful posts or dont post at all. a factory ford tech couldn't figure out the problem, so I think I exhausted my options, and did what i could do. I also got the car for free so if i put a little money in the swap I'm not going to care.

 

[jrichker]

What is the nature of the electrical problem?

 

[Mustang5L5]

a factory ford tech couldn't figure out the problem, so I think I exhausted my options, and did what i could do.

Give us a shot. What's the problem.

 

[2000xp8]

Not sure he's going to tell us, now he has to justify the switch to the carb.

The whole thing makes no sense.
He's asking us for help in making his car carb'ed, why not ask the ford tech that led him to believe his car was non repairable.

Honestly 87mi, put the intake and parts back on, and let us help you out.
I know it seems like we are just giving you are hard time (and we are) but it's for your own good, trust me you don't want to be the next idiot that ruined a good car with a carbuerator.

 

[87fromMI]

http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...rich-dies-if-idles-lower-then-1-900-rpms.html

I already asked for help and couldnt figure it out. never mind I asked anything

 

[ratio411]

Is the car an AOD or 5 speed?

If you have the AOD, you also must outfit the carb with a mechanism to operate the cable, or you will burn up the tranny. I believe they sell linkage kits for that.

 

[mob]

Well my '87 lx had a really bad electrical problem, so I had a carb and intake in the barn I put on it. im 17 and dont have help with it, so im trying to make shure i do this righ and dont rig it up, or buy parts that are good enough or wont work. Heres the parts i have"

• oem 85 distrutor w/ steel gear
• holley 600
• edelbrock 289 performer intake

1. Now I need to find a fuel pump. the local parts store carrys the MR. Gasket 12S fuel pump that puts out 7psi and 35gph. would that be good enough? also what kind of regulator should i run with it?
2. next is i have the oem cardone replacement distributor for a '85. I believe i have to change the ignition system to work. I have a msd 6al box and coil, would that work?
3. And with the changing of fuel pumps, I need to get a different sump in the tank. is there any cars i could take one out of that would work, or make one, or buy one.

To at least answer your question you really should not use that pump, they suck. I work at a parts store and they come back every time. You have to mount them a certain way for them to even work at all and even then they still suck. The Holley Blue pump would be a much better option.

The 6AL box and MSD coil should work fine. Maybe someone could elaborate more on the ignition system for me.

Not quit sure on the tank but I would imagine you have need to modify the fuel pump hanger in some way.

Oh and I think going carb is a bad idea. I don't think anyone can tell you what your should and shouldn't do, but we can give you some advice. An untouched/unmolested mustang is a jewel these days and you are going to greatly decrease the value of the car by converting it to carb. That's enough reason for me not to convert to carb, it may not be to you.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

never mind I asked anything

No sweat. With an attitude like that, consider yourself ignored.

 

[jrichker]

I re-read your previous post "HELP: '87 runs super rich and dies if it idles lower then 1,900 rpms" and it seems that you left a lot undone in the diagnostic/discovery process. No code 11 and the computer has problems. It sounds like your wiring is a hack job, Mustangs never came with a push button for the starter.

while i was looking at the wiring diagram, I looked at the black/white 46. The first thing it passes through is the neutral gear switch. mine is broken. they just took a piece of speaker wire and jumped the starter solenoid and connected it to a push button to start it, its kinda rigged up but works. if that switch doesn't work, will it inhibit the flow of electricity through the system. the car doesn't start by turning the key. you have to turn the key to give everything power then hit the button to turn the motor over, if the car isn't in neutral or the clutch isn't pushed in and you hit the button the car will role forward because of the starter

That may affect how the starter works, but it will not affect the computer in the manner your post describes, making the engine run rich and not idle. What will happen is that you may not be able to dump the engine running codes.

It is possible that the O2 sensor wiring harness is damaged or missing, seeing that some of the starter circuit wiring has been tampered with.

Diagram courtesy of Tmoss & Stang&2birds

The Mass Air conversion requires moving wiring pins in the existing computer wiring harness, adding some pins and wiring for the MAF, or replacing the computer wiring harness with one from a 89 or later 5.0 Mustang. The Mass air harness is not compatible with the Speed Density computer. You cannot swap computer back and forth without changing the wiring and pins to match the computer. I did not get the impression that you had done that when you switched computers.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Well my '87 lx had a really bad electrical problem, so I had a carb and intake in the barn I put on it. im 17 and dont have help with it, so im trying to make shure i do this righ and dont rig it up, or buy parts that are good enough or wont work. Heres the parts i have"

• oem 85 distrutor w/ steel gear
• holley 600
• edelbrock 289 performer intake

1. Now I need to find a fuel pump. the local parts store carrys the MR. Gasket 12S fuel pump that puts out 7psi and 35gph. would that be good enough? also what kind of regulator should i run with it?
2. next is i have the oem cardone replacement distributor for a '85. I believe i have to change the ignition system to work. I have a msd 6al box and coil, would that work?
3. And with the changing of fuel pumps, I need to get a different sump in the tank. is there any cars i could take one out of that would work, or make one, or buy one.

1. Stay the hell away from those pumps. Do it right and either get an electric pump designed for a carb setup along with a proper fuel pressure regulator, or swap out the timing cover and install a mechanical pump and eccentric and run it like stock. Don't eff around with fuel management.

2. Your MSD should work, but the wiring/installation is different.

3. You can swap the whole tank for an '85 or older tank.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Carb = bad
EFI = good