Recently sold the 360'' and 833 four speed out of my 1964 Valiant convertible, feel a little sad about that but as my wife refused to drive it (heavy clutch)and I got good money for it I decided to let it go. It was very fun as long at it lasted though. Got a 1988 Dodge B250 for free some time ago and was thinking to use the engine and trans from the van, so I'm back to the Torqueflite again. Question is, shall I try to get all the EFI and SMEC and wiring and sensors etc. etc. to get fuel economy and driveability or shall I just let it go to the recycler and buy myself a new intake and a carb? In other words; is it worth the trouble? Appreciate any input.
Carb! No question. The EFI wont gain you anything in fuel savings. If you want fuel economy, get a 273 (24-28 mpg). Nice Valiant
Gas isn't getting any cheaper and I'd rather buy more gold chains, but a Edelbrock Performer #2176 with a Holley 0-80555C on it will run really well with a lot less headaches...
I say go EFI, keep all your old sensors and run a Megasquirt computer. It'll make you happy, and you have the option to put it together yourself. At the end, you'll know a HELL of a lot more about fuel injection than you did before, and if you don't like it, you can sell your whole setup for probably twice what you paid for it and get a carb. http://www.megasquirt.info/ I may take some flack for dissenting, but it really depends on what you're using the car for. On a spouse's car that you don't want to mess with a lot, go EFI. If you like to play with carbs (which I do) go with a nice 4-bbl. To each their own. ~Jason
EFI seems like more trouble than it's worth ... my vote goes with keeping computers out of the engine bay. A well-tuned carb can come real close in reliability and economy.
That old Chrysler EFI is really a throttlebody. They are generally troublesome. There is newer Mopar EFI available and also aftermarket. MoparAction.com is running a build-up series using a 1964 Savoy with a 360 and EFI. Check it out. If I go EFI I'll do it that way. Also! More photos of you car, please. I like how you radiused the rear wheel openings. What did you do to the rear?
What did everyone do before there WAS such a thing as EFI??? They ran CARBURETORS!! It's all you need, Man!!
My only question is "why bother to ask?" The answer seem so apparent. People around here remove FI and replace with carbs. Maybe good for your daily driver that needs to have the emissions checked periodically, but for an old anything? Get me a carb.
You could hire a midget to lay on top of your hood with a spray bottle of gasoline and squirt it into the hole where the carb or EFI used to be. Hey, as long as it gets atomized, man.
I'm with you; a sensor went out on my wife's late model and the code was general to about 6 sensors, took the shop some time to figure out which stupid sensor it was. The car ran like **** til they found the right sensor and then had to order it. What is this so-called reliability of EFI? I've fixed carbs on the side of the road and been on my way. With EFI, you need a tow truck Give me a carb any day!!!!
Ha Ha...I went to high school with some goofball that was going to try to fire up his freshly built 440 Mopar using that exact same method! He didn't have a carb handy and was itching to hear the motor fire up! I was slow to catch on when I saw him filling a Windex bottle with gasoline, but when he got poised to spray it into the open intake plenum and told me to "crank 'er over!" I told him he was ****ing crazy! (That coming from ME!!! Tells ya how nuts I thought it was!) I told him I'd love to see him do it, if I could get far enough away and had a good set of binoculars!!
A friend of mine tells a funny story about starting an engine in the car with the carb removed. He wanted to us the engine in another car and didn't want to go to the trouble of putting a carb on. He never considered the fact the engine was gonna run wide open with no carb and the fuel pump was still gona pump with the fuel line pointed right at the hole where the carb used to be. He had quite a runnaway! Anyway I wouldn't recommend throttlebody chrysler stuff its been my experience its pretty reliable but no real performance stuff for it . If I was set on fuel injection the later MAGNUM style stuff is much more versatile. Chad
318, Will get better gas mileage than almost anything. Carb is a great way to go. No h***le . Maybe you could squeak another mile pre gal on EFI but is it worth the h***le? i doubt it
chrysler efi motors are speed density so they really dont have alot of sensors and junk. tuneing is easy as hell on them. timing with the cam, fuel injector timing with the distributor. extremely easy to tune for an efi system. also you dont have to run a intake tub you can run a regular air cleaner and you wont have any problems. speed density is amazingly easy to fool with there arent many complicated parts to it. i would go with the efi but thats just my $0.02
I actually sold a 12a Mazda using a spray bottle to prove it ran when the fuel pump was shot! You could go with a Holley throttle body system. Maybe the computer and fuel pump is all the you would need since it already has a Holley TBI unit. I would personally score an Offy dual port intake and a small 4 barrell then start tuning.
OK, here's more pics. The rear quarter lower is actually pieces of the opposite side upper, the front wheel openings are lifted so I got rid of the ''Bresjnev lip'', the ''hairpin'' was removed, the headlamps moved up and out, the bumper shortened and a stainless grill made. Oh yes almost forgot, the soft top is lowered about 1 1/2 inch. Don't know what to use for a rear bumper yet. And thank's guys for the input, I got the answers I wanted, and expected.
im kind of in the same boat . i just picked up an 87 302 FI witha T5. i contemplated converting to carb but it didnt seemed worth the trouble considering this is a temp motor. (deciding to either rebuild the 351c that came with or trying to get a flathead down the line a little) .
I can't really add much to the EFI/carb debate - carb will be less expensive and easier to set up, but EFI would be slick if you have the time, inclination, and talent to do it. Beyond that, I just gotta say you've got a REALLY cool Valiant there! I've got a '64 'vert as well, and you have incorporated a lot of the mods I've dreamed about. Thanks for posting more pics, and for giving me some inspiration!
''Bresjnev lip'' You mean this guy? Any further pics of the build would be appreciated. I'm working a 65 Barracuda and a 65 Dart Convert. I like how you have handled this Valiant.
That's the guy. when you look at him you see what I mean. The body on this Valiant will not be m***aged more than it is now, I feel like I am finished with that part. But I'll post more pics. Glad to hear that you liked my little soft Custom. By the way Bresjnev was a collector of US cars of what I have heard!
When you lowered the roof 1/2" did you chop the windshield or lay it back? I just noticed the door handles. You've managed to give the car an "Italian" look.
When I lowered the top one and a half inch I chopped the frame and windshield AND laid it back some degrees and cut the inner and outer moldings of course. The front frame for the top is adjustable so that also helped a little to get it rigth. In the back I simply moved all mounts one and a half inch down. The wheelhousings (hope that's the right word for it) that already from the factory are shopped (if you compare to a HT or sedan) had to be cut accordingly. The door handles are Opel -71 up to I think -76. Sorry I have no close up pics of the car rigth now and very few of when I did the work, did not have a digital camera then. The car is in a tight spot rigth now but I WILL move it later for the engine work and if you are doing a similar project I will gladly help with pics and answers. Just send me a PM.
I canned the EFI and i'm going for an edelbrock intake and a Carter/Edelbrock AFB, anybody know if I could use the EFI distributor to trigger the ''old'' chrysler electronic ignition and if so what wires go where? There's two wires on the old dist. and three on the EFI.
Blueswede if u reallly want to find a good efi motor find a late 90s 318 or 340 there in that era of half and half they still have a distrubter and coils with a tbi set up dont be scared of efi its actually a lot eaiser to tune than a carb set up and plus ur gonna get better mpg wheater ur hott roddin the hell out of it or just luggin throu town but if u just want the efi or tbi or ffi edelbrock makes a kit it wont have any sensors its a lone set up like the only thing u would have to actually work on it puttin a intake and **** on other than that its all plug and play, if that didnt help any i would sugest buying 4 barrel carb intake cuz it should still have a distrubtor on it and just converting it over from efi to carb
You did some nice work on the Valiant. Cool car. I'd probably try and get the EFI stuff and try that first. Those were pretty simple systems. If it doesn't work for you..you could always convert later.
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