Two part question ,

1 - What was the last year Ford used carburators on their Cars & Light Trucks ?

2 - What is the last year you can install an intake and carburator in and not mess up the system ?

I know '92 and older chebby trucks will work fine with a Holley carb / HEI distributor but the 93 and newer auto transmissons shift by the computor system . My newest Ford is an '85 but I never know what will follow me home .

Thanks - Ken(Ark)

 

Electronic auto transmissions started appearing in trucks in 1989 so you may want to consider that the cutoff, otherwise the 5.0 went EFI in 1986, the 4.9 and 5.8 in 1987, and the 7.5 in 1988 if I'm not mistaken.. could be off a year on the last one. Converting a 5.0 or 5.8 of any vintage from EFI to carb is no problem as the heads never changed so a carb intake will bolt right on, but the 4.9 and 7.5 got EFI specific heads so converting is more complicated/expensive. That said.. if the EFI system is intact and operating normally you're not gaining anything by putting a carb on it and despite some popular myths the EFI system is not restricting power output and will adapt to bolt-on upgrades including cams, heads, and exhaust without any outside adjustment.. as long as the cam selected is considered EFI friendy.. which means no lumpy idle.

 

no the computer won't adapt. You have to invest in a tuner to override thru the J3 port weither its MAF or SD.

 

I own a TweecerRT and as a result have see the EFI system self adapting, it's the reason you pretty much have to force open loop to do any tuning.

 

Worked at Ford dealership back in the early to mid 90's and ran across a 1985 F150 2 wheel drive that was a 5.0L multi-point fuel injected engine factory. Come to find out they was a mid-year introduction in limited numbers due to problems like bad injectors and ECU's. Worked on one myself and it ran pretty dam good after the upgrades suggested by Ford through OASIS diagnostics. The cars I do remember seeing carbs around 81to 83 when they came out with that friggin Variable Venture design which was a major bomb. They offered a Holley carb replacement kit to get rid of that system. After that was some throttle body injection . I'm almost certain it was called CFI injection. After that the cars started getting multi-point roller motors. Think the Lincoln Town Car was the first in 86 for that but not exactly sure.That is the best I can recollect. Hope that helps ya. WACDAD67!