Running Mechanical Fuel Injection on the Street??

With an automatic trans, you have to richen the idle to compensate for the drop in RPMs when engaged in gear. A manual trans makes dealing with the lack of an accelerator pump, a little nicer. Im building a 408sbc w/ an Enderle 2 3/16" fly Injector. My barrel valve is using a "blank"(no hole) screw in pill, in the barrel valve w/ a Kinsler external pill quick change. I'm using Hilborn Jets 0.090- 0.120 in increments of 0.005 to get me started. No.19 nozzles, an I had Enderle rebuild and flow the 80A 0(single ought) pump. 2 GPM@ 2000 & 3.8 GPM @ 4000 RPM So now I know my bassline.

I plan on running this on the street, in my 55 Chevy. A friend of mine ran an Injector on his "if I wanna go somewhere, I have to drive my 29 Roadster" everyday. You just have to be invloved. Really invloved!

 

I run a mechanical system on a race car and they are very finicky to get set up for WFO operation. Leak down on BV settings are critical, down nozzle size is critical for the engine and pill selection is critical and determined best during dyno runs prior to installing in the car.

Earl Gearte of Gearte Racing Engines (Indiana) had a 55 Chevy Pro Street car several years ago and got the system (Kinsler) to work fairly well on the street. The issue is part throttle operation as these sysems are designed to (again) work at WFO ! Low and part throttle operation is the issue as others have indicated. Earl uses mechanical FI systems on 90% of his sprint car engines and knows these systems inside and out.

As far as starting the engine, if you are going to run on methanol (alky) it will be a real issue..... I use a seperate gasoling system which has it's own tank, electric fuel pump, variable flow/check valve which routes thru a small #3 line into the manifold. Works very well but as you would expect, requires fiddlin with it to get the setup correct.

Might give him a call and discuss his setup, he's an easy guy to talk to......

 

Applecrate,

I have heard many who swear by them to be much more tolerable than stack units and tunnel rams. My favorite was a 6-71 puffed 392 with a barn door. It had hours of tweaking and tuning but there was nothing trick done to it. The car was automatic so it did start to load up on fuel in stop and go traffic. Idle and WOT were it's strong suit of course but it was often cruised. Really the cost fuel is the only thing that would keep me from driving a car like that daily. Nothing like seeing that thing running around town or rolling through Mickey D's.

One reason for this is other then being pressure fed is that a blown car's fuel need squares to a point that more of the fuel that often drowns a stack unit is put to use. So basically instead of rich-lean-rich-lean condition you can get to point were the engine is getting what it needs more of the time.
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Pork and Beaner mentioned going with the belt driven pump. The idea is to modify your pulley ratio just right per your pump size vs the need. Most belt drives are generally 1/2 engine rpm reducers which is exactly the same as running a cam drive as is. Swapping pulleys, adjusting additional bypasses or select a jets with various other tricks like custom spools and it becomes possible to drive the car.

Something else that may be useful to some is that opposing butterfly stack units (which the majority of the mid 60's back units were) benefit from is tossing the under over linkage. It is impossible to index throw and movement equally between the two banks at the same time this way. In a drag race the difference is rarely a major issue but anything that sees part throttle is always off from side to side. A single bell crank or jackshaft set up makes for huge difference in throttle response. It's alot like having the throw of half of your 4-6-8 deuce linkage setup shorter than the other. Even if everything else is perfect the engine is still fighting itself.

 

In the 70's, their was an article in Hotrod about a T/ Hemi w/ Hilborn injectors running on street. It has always been in my mind. Only thing I can rember for sure they were adjusting the fuel with the pill size on the return line.

 

I have hilborns on the street, it is difficult but if set right they work. Gas mileage is not so good at idel. Most important is to get the butterflys right at running temperature. You get the car to 170 or so and set them with a pair of same manufacture 3/8 extensions, then 1/4 extensions use these as a feeler guage if both are tight you know the butterflys are opening at the same time on both sides. Then measure with a 2 thousandths feeler guage ALL need to be the same ie 1 through 8, after this is done go back to the extensions and check, this may take a few times. Make sure nothing can hit the linkage on either side of the linkage, do not use a real heavy spring for the return and make sure the return spring is from the center not one end or the other. If you can get the car to idle at 800 rpm at 160 degrees you are very close the slower the idle the longer the notch in the barrel valve. the rest follow the book set the barrel valve for throtle response and the main pill for rich lean on the top end. Hope this helps

 

Shakey Puddin those are Pete Jackson injectors on the Nova I have two sets we ran one on the Jr. Fuel car in my avatar. I always liked the taller butterfly location on the Jacksons.

 

I have an enderle barn door - I am thinking of converting to efi - what are some thoughts/opinions on this concept - I have never used efi before - this would be going on top of an intake manifold - not a blower - Joe

 

I don't know if it really makes a big difference but when I had fi on my I6 in a '65 Chevy II, I had better luck with it the greater the butterflies and nozzles were from the valve the easer it was to make a smooth transistion from idle to part throttle under load. I think it had something to do with the small amount of fuel that was in the intake behind the butterflies. I also set the butterflies so the bottom half opened toward the head to pickup the extra fuel that had puddled along the floor of the runner. I also ruffed up the lower half of the intake track (horizonal stacks) to help the air flow pick it up.