Anyone played with converting an FE to run a msefi system? Their system looks pretty good, especially for a daily driver. Someone was talking about it a while ago wondered if anything came of that or if anyone else is looking into it, Matt.

 

That would be the cats azz! I almost did one for my 460. But I'm going to a diesel instead.
Keep this in mind. You will only see about 2mpg difference between a good carbset-up and a EFI. So keep that in mind.
Also if you do go with it. A TBI and everything would run ya $1500 to set one up. So you got to ask yourself if it is worth it......... JMO

 

Thanks for the reply, mpg wouldn't really be a concern, more the drivability and tuning options, plus just the fun of doing it.
Why would the tb cost so much, most ms users just source their parts from junkyards, seems with a little time and effort you could get into it for way less than that.

 

You might be right on the price. But after doing a few projects, it always cost more then what you planed on. Wires, sensors, adapters, nick nacks and so on. Of course using the MSII is what I figured for price. Thats why. JMO

 

I'll let you know how mine turns out...

I've already embarked on this project.

(not to mention cobbling up a serpentine conversion, to boot)

I'm not going to use TBI, which would probably be the easiest option in the end, but go with the BT intake manifold for webers, and fab up a plenum box that I can mount a TB from a '88 351W.

But that intake runs about $650, which is about the starting cost of MegaSquirt itself. There's almost too much to figure out.

Jim

 

Glad to hear someone else is interested in this. You probably know more about this than I do but for absolute simplicity couldn't you use a stock manifold and fab a tb? Isn't that basicly what the old GM tpi systems were? An adaptor between a stock manifold and an existing tb unit would be pretty easy to make, and modifying sensors not stock to the fe should be pretty simple as well. Yes/no?

 

Absolutely.

If you delve into is some more, you will find that Ford did have a few motors that were TBI, and that would work great, but the resourses for that are ePay, and maybe, if you're lucky, somewhere in the back of the salvage yard. You can put an #ahem# other manufacturers TBI setup on there easier (and there's a lot of stuff out there), but I prefer to keep it Ford, even if it costs me a bit more. But it is very do-able.

I feel that MPI is the better option, and I am willing to go the lengths that I need to get it. If I had a windsor motor or a modular that I was making the conversion on, this would be soooo much easier, 'cause the design and fab work has already been done for me, and is waiting in the local salvage yard. But FEs never had production EFI - I'm not willing to cut up what I consider a little bit of history to make a cast iron EFI intake manifold, and so I've decided that (for convenience) I will get the BT intake, mill it for injectors, and fab my own upper plenum that I can mount a Ford throttle body to. But you can very easily run your intake down to your favorite local machine shop, and have them mill injector pockets for you. TBI will be easier to set up, though.

It isn't that great a difference, in the end, between a carb set up, and a TBI, unless this will be a daily, long distance driver, where you need every bit of fuel mileage you can get (IMHO). There's a couple other benefits, like if you want the convenience of not having to pump the accelerator in the morning and such, but there's a very good reason that Ford didn't stick with TBI. In the end, the benefits of TBI aren't great enough to outweigh the production and maintenance costs. It was a great mid-step between carbs and MPFI, but once the buying market realised that the fact the the TBI systems weren't that much greater than good carb setups (and Ford's engineers were some damn good designers, production intake runner lengths are almost perfect for the FE, in most cases), and the thrill of buying something "Fuel injected" went away, Ford moved on to a system that the public would purchase, and that met the gov't's increasing demands for economy and environment - in other words, a better design.

So, sorry for the rant, but the way I see it, from an economy perspective, it's not worth it to do this conversion. It IS (comparitively) a very inexpensive system, and it works great(!), but I'm doing it because of the conveniences, for doing something different, because I love FEs, to be able to say I did it myself (stuck it to the man), and because I'm into electronics and I love the challenge.

Jim (whew, I probably won't type this much for another five years or so....)

 

Thanks Jim, I deffinetly see what you mean about the limitations of tbi. Like you I'm looking at this swap for reasons other than just practicality. The motor in my f100 runs good now, it will be the last step in rebuilding the truck. What i would like to do in the meantime is a basic tbi system using the shall we say more plentiful tbi systems to be found at the local yard. The main purpose is to get a foot in the door as far as a basic efi system goes, getting used to the various sensors and plumbing, fuel curves etc. Then when I do build the 390 I'll be able to make a more informed choice on what kind of induction system to go with. I appreciate your input on this, I'll be really interested to hear how this works out for you. Thank, Matt.