worth watching
- Thread starter Grumpy
- Start date
bytor
Well-Known Member
Is anyone on the forum running one of these systems? It would be interesting to see how well they perform.
I have been looking at these systems for a few years now. The ‘self-learning’ of some of these systems is impressive. Bolt it on, plug in a few basic engine parameters and start it up. I liked the ability to tune across the entire driving condition range another benefit of EFI. The tuning knobs and switches most of these systems offer is impressive. My experience with carbs and a wideband O2 meter was it’s a bit of a compromise from a tune perspective. I always ended up with an area somewhere in the RPM curve that was a little bit rich or lean but not really noticeable. I could live with the compromise as well as more $$ in my wallet. But, I'm a bit of a computer nerd when it comes to this stuff.
Look at it slightly differently from a cost comparison. With your carb setup, you may need wideband AFR meter to assist getting the carb dialed in. So, let’s say $500 for a 750 Speed Demon carb plus the Innovate LM-2 Wideband OS kit at $350. Now you at $850. Getting close to the cost of one of these EFI systems. Most but not all of these systems also have ignition control as well as cooling fan and fuel pump control. Add those features into the equation and it makes for a nice upgrade.
The ability of these EFI systems to control other things like ignition, cooling fans, AC, fuel pumps and so on shouldn’t be overlooked.
I’ll admit I’m no expert tuner but learned a lot about carbs with the use of the wideband on my C3 vette. Typical tuning session. Pull the carb bowl, make a jet change, drill some brass restrictions for high speed air bleed, put it all back together and go for a ride. Analyze the LM2 logs and make more carb adjustments. Ooops, messed up my off idle due to the changes I made to the top end. These EFI systems make it easy to dial in every possible operating range of the induction system perfectly. Not having hands on experience with these systems, I suspect you can still get into similar tuning loopholes just like with carbs.
All of the ‘carb’ types of EFI bolt on systems still have the same challenges as carbs when it comes to the intake manifold and even air fuel distribution. On carbureted engines, the intake manifold is “wet” and contains fuel droplets. When a cold engine is first started, additional heat is needed to help vaporize the fuel.
In my opinion, these systems provide a whole new level of drivability on the street that you would be hard pressed to match with a carb. The ability to have a full range of control of fuel delivery and ignition timing for any driving condition is nice. Again, I have never owned one if these systems but they look impressive.
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...-thoughts-on-the-difference.10372/#post-42802
http://www.enginelabs.com/news/entry-level-self-tuning-efi-showdown/
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/1403-car-crafts-giant-efi-test/
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/1305-self-tuning-efi-systems/
I have been looking at these systems for a few years now. The ‘self-learning’ of some of these systems is impressive. Bolt it on, plug in a few basic engine parameters and start it up. I liked the ability to tune across the entire driving condition range another benefit of EFI. The tuning knobs and switches most of these systems offer is impressive. My experience with carbs and a wideband O2 meter was it’s a bit of a compromise from a tune perspective. I always ended up with an area somewhere in the RPM curve that was a little bit rich or lean but not really noticeable. I could live with the compromise as well as more $$ in my wallet. But, I'm a bit of a computer nerd when it comes to this stuff.
Look at it slightly differently from a cost comparison. With your carb setup, you may need wideband AFR meter to assist getting the carb dialed in. So, let’s say $500 for a 750 Speed Demon carb plus the Innovate LM-2 Wideband OS kit at $350. Now you at $850. Getting close to the cost of one of these EFI systems. Most but not all of these systems also have ignition control as well as cooling fan and fuel pump control. Add those features into the equation and it makes for a nice upgrade.
The ability of these EFI systems to control other things like ignition, cooling fans, AC, fuel pumps and so on shouldn’t be overlooked.
I’ll admit I’m no expert tuner but learned a lot about carbs with the use of the wideband on my C3 vette. Typical tuning session. Pull the carb bowl, make a jet change, drill some brass restrictions for high speed air bleed, put it all back together and go for a ride. Analyze the LM2 logs and make more carb adjustments. Ooops, messed up my off idle due to the changes I made to the top end. These EFI systems make it easy to dial in every possible operating range of the induction system perfectly. Not having hands on experience with these systems, I suspect you can still get into similar tuning loopholes just like with carbs.
All of the ‘carb’ types of EFI bolt on systems still have the same challenges as carbs when it comes to the intake manifold and even air fuel distribution. On carbureted engines, the intake manifold is “wet” and contains fuel droplets. When a cold engine is first started, additional heat is needed to help vaporize the fuel.
In my opinion, these systems provide a whole new level of drivability on the street that you would be hard pressed to match with a carb. The ability to have a full range of control of fuel delivery and ignition timing for any driving condition is nice. Again, I have never owned one if these systems but they look impressive.
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...-thoughts-on-the-difference.10372/#post-42802
http://www.enginelabs.com/news/entry-level-self-tuning-efi-showdown/
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/1403-car-crafts-giant-efi-test/
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/1305-self-tuning-efi-systems/
