I have an '85 Econoline E150 van with a Carter YF "Feedback" carb.I recently rebuilt the carb and now the engine wont start in the morning without priming the carb. The problem is obviously in the accelerator pump area, but the accel. pump assy in this carb is without doubt the wierdest, overly engineered, complex, rube-goldberg design I have ever come across (who ever came across the brilliant idea of burying the pump INSIDE the middle of the float bowl with small piece of plastic tubing - thats inflexible as hell- connecting the pump to the rest of the carb. UGH!!!). I am fairly adept at figuring out how something mechanical is supposed to work, but this stupid design leaves me clueless.
My question is this: is there a Holly - or other 1 bbl carb I can replace this piece of junk with? One that has the accel pump on the OUTSIDE where Holly has been putting them for decades and is straightforward? What I would really like to do is replace the carb entirely, and replace it with a bolt on throttle body unit if it is not too costly or involved. Anyone had any success with a carb to TBI conversion??
My engine has the TFI distributer which means all the engine ignition timing is controlled by the "computer". I am seriously considering dumping the distrubuter also and going with a distributer with a time-tested and easy to maintain mechanical/vacuum advance where you KNOW what is going on. Anyone had any success doing this? I am living in a smog exempt area so thats not a worry. I just want the engine to run as smoothly and, more importantly, as easy on gas as possible.
Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Tom

 

Tom;
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Dumping the smog YF isn't really that big a deal along with keeping TFI and eec. Keeping the TFI is a good thing, it's a multiple spark HEI ignition. My F-150 '86 300 is pretty modified, so I went with a holley 4bbl and an Offy manifold, and the engine runs great. You could probably find or make a 2 bbl adapter plate and go with a Holley, Carter or Edelbrock. I live in a smog state, so modifying all the computer driven evaporative controls to work with the Holley is still a bit of a work in progress, but cold driveability is getting better. Once warm (less than a mile) it runs like a scalded cat. If you don't need the smog stuff, then the mod is a piece o' cake.

The TFI and EEC need an O2 sensor, coolant temp sensor and MAP sensor to work correctly. Put a voltmeter on your O2 sensor to tune whatever carb you end up with to read between 400mv and 900mv at cruise. The computer seems to like that exhaust gas temp range. The coolant sensor advances the timing when the motor is cold, or cycles it if its too hot in order to circulate coolant. At operating temps, the MAP sensor advances or retards timing according to engine load as indicated by manifold vacuum. The O2 sensor tells the eec about the quality of fuel combustion, and if the feedback solenoid were present, would adjust the amount of air in the mixture. But if you have your "dumb" carb set to the above indicated values, it seems satified. I just disconnected and taped off the feedback solenoid and low-idle dashpot connection, and went with a manual choke.
There are guys who have done the EFI conversion, but there are some compatibility issues, and it ain't cheap. Log on to www.cliffordperformance.com or the Ford Six cylinder performance forum for lots of info.
Good luck