Can a traditional car have EFI?

Keep the hood closed!

 

Hahaha!!

My grandfather was into old tubes.

He had a few different tube testers... and would fix radios and TVs for people.

Man... not many people into THAT stuff anymore!

But wouldn't that be cool to look at... hahaha!! I trunk FULL of tubes!

Sam

 

Sure, but remember that its not much different than the whore who tells you she's a virgin.

Defining traditional is near impossible, like defining pornography is nearly impossible, you know it when you see it. If you can see the EFI it would be out of the definition of traditional. Places it squarely in street rod by definition again nearly impossible to define. That could be more like the virgin telling you she's a whore. Lol.



D

 

"Pretty traditional"??

Except for the metal flake paint and interior on a '40's style car, and the intake mounting the carbs up high, and the spiked air cleaner nuts, and the ribbed for your pleasure spreader bar and the new rims, flat firewall and the headers...

Other than that... it's "pretty traditional".



Sam

 

It must have been a mess by the end of the day, people tracking it all over. If it's real salt I'm surprised they let him spread it on what looks like concrete? Yikes. I think it's one of those things that sound good at the time.

 

Its your car do what you want! Thats the rule i follow if no one likes it keep walk'n!

 

My $.02 worth.....

YOUR car can look any damn way you want it too..it is your's after all. BUT if you run anything on it that wasn't made during the time period you are shooting for, then it isn't traditional. It is or it isn't...simple as that. Chances are, if you have to ask, it isn't!

 

That's what I mean; though transistors date from the late '40s and were fairly common by the '50s. Using transistors but not microchips would, I submit, meet my above requirements for "hypothetically traditional".

I have virtually no expertise in this, but I think one can set up a no-microchip EFI as three or four variables, each adjustable by a potentiometer or set of filtered pots (i.e. effective graphic equalizer), together controlling fuel flow. I can't see this being particularly huge. And, it would be analogue and, therefore, potentially more accurate than digital, if harder and more dependent on skill and experience to tune.

Alternatively, fit SU carbs with custom needles and call it "pneumatic fuel injection" ...

 

dual master cylinder are a must in my book. If you ever lost a wheel cylinder or a brake hose you would understand. I have and I will always try to run dual brakes

 

You see, as a Kustom guy this is exactly why I should always keep my mouth shut about hot rods.
Paul

 

Flyan Brian has a street rod that is very tastefull built that runs a late model mill. I don't know how traditional it is in the strictest sense but it is tastefully built.

I don't think that you can call it traditional but if it looks traditional on the outside and you never ever open the hood in public I guess you can pass it off as a traditionaly styled street rod.

Here is my thoughts on it steel wheels on a street rod doesn't make it traditional.

 

I have an injected 5.3 LS motor in my car. I keep the hood closed and enjoy it. It moves my 52 Chevy effortlessly. I could give 2 shits about the ignorance of the jerk offs who always claim

"it aint a hot rod if you cant fix it with bailing wire!"

You shouldn't be fixing anything with bailing wire. I see this type of crap all the time on the HAMB where being a hack is somehow a time honored tradition and wiring up sequential fuel injection is for the idiots.

I have never planned for the car to make it into the rodders journal, and I enjoy it exactly how it is.

 

i think that if you are building a daily driver car with overdrive, efi, a/c, and any number of other non-period correct attributes, it is still okay for it to have the exterior appearance of a traditionally built car. BUT, i dont think that it should be considered a "traditional" build. If you want the title, traditional, well then get out your checkbook, find the right parts, and dont compromise anywhere. because everything must fit the part.

that said, i do believe that whatever spins your crankshaft is what you should do. building a car with the parts/knowledge you have isn't the worst thing you can do. the worst thing you can do is let another piece of vintage tin rot away or be crushed, so just do SOMETHING with it! just so long as it is built with safety and quality of craftsmanship in mind, it has to be respected for what it is.....just dont post pics of your ls1 powered resto mod here...because people wont accept it.

 

You see a lot of ignorant things on the HAMB we attract the ignorant and uninformed.

We are not talking bail wire repairs here we are talking traditional verses modern. Pretty hard to build a "traditional " car with something that didn't exist.Maybe if someone had a time machine they could take a modern car back to say the '50s and get it in a magazine. Then a stock late model 4 door could be considered to be a traditional custom.

As for EFI I am pretty sure that a couple of the manufacturers played with electrically actualted injection, Mercedes is one that I am thinking of. I don't doubt that someone tried to make it work on an old car from the era. You already know where I am going with this right? Take a vintage electrically controlled fuel injection unit with all the capaciters etc and make it work on whatever engine you deem fit for your hooptie. You just built a traditional car with EFI.

As for modern drive trains the best you can pull off is a traditionaly styled car no different I suppose than hiding an IPOD jack in the car and using it for tunes. You just have to decide if you have the disipline that it takes to build a totally traditional car or not.

 

I have pondered over the essence of your question for a couple of years and have faced many a crossroad in my personal builds. What I have decided works for me...The great cars are not about exclusively period correct parts. Doan's car isn't magic because it has all period correct parts, that was all that was available when it was built. It was the builder's eye for stance, proportion and the execution of an amazing design, it is pure X factor. The attention to detail and the ability to solve the engineering challenges in a manner that doesn't look like a work-around is what makes a great hodrod great. If you solve a mechanical challenge with a CNC machined universal fit whatever, the end result will generally show it. I have seen late model parts incorporated into hotrods where I thought "clever" and "welldone". Of course, I've seen a hundred more that made me wince. I remember trips to the junkyard with my dad where we would pick up whatever we could find that he thought he could make work. We needed a rearend or headlights or whatever. He never gave a thought to "is this approriate", he was a hotrodder, his only thought was can I make this work and will it go like hell.

Final thought, for hotrodders who owe their Genesis to pre and post-war free spirits who took ultimate pleasure from their form of creative expression and swam upstream against a more repressive society than ours, we sure spend a lot of energy telling the other guy "you aren't doing that right". Design it thoughtfully, build it skillfully and drive it exuberantly and you'll get no flak from me.

 

Who rated this laughable mess 3 stars, thats what I want to know.

 

I vote period traditional's cool, non period traditional's cool,.....wait what were we talking about?

 

My 2 cents....

Fuel injection has been around a long time so I'd call the "mechanical" fuel injection traditional.

As far as "electronic" fuel injection being traditional I say HELL NO!

But then, it's not my car. I don't have to live with it nor would I listen to anybody on how my car should be built.

 

Special Ed said it quite well and truthfully. Rags

 

Glad you got the humor, mate!

I rib friends all the time... it's nice to see it can be done at times on the net and not be taken so personally!

Sam

 

I will say wow, this is just the discussion I was hoping for. I am impressed and intrigued by some of the responces. I have been into hot rods of all types since I can remember, I get the traditional movement and respect it. I was also taught by the best hot roder I know my dad, traditional hot roding is building it with your own hands the way u want it. Not order everything from catalogs ect and build it the way someone else thinks it should be and at the end of the day drive the wheels off it and have fun, that is what it is all about!

 

Yon know I'm thinking about this now for my428 for d. Next time my wife and travel 4000 miles on a road trip it might help the pockit book u think

 

Depends on how much it costs to install, the payback might take many 4000 mile trips to break even but it is fun to mess with.

Vergil

 

Very few cars that were built 'back in the day' are still made today. One of the best is still in production. And it fucking rules the roads. The new Corvettes absolutely kick ass. Wold I put a new Vette motor on a traditional hot rod? No. Would I build a '53 Corvette with a new Corvette engine? Hell yeah! But it would NOT be a hot rod.

 

Keep your hood and mouth shut and no one will know difference.