The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Holley fuel injection for Stovebolts?

Just ran across this. They are ugly as sin, but......... id try it.



https://www.holley.com/products/fue...iper_efi/sniper_1-_and_2-barrel_systems/


1barrel
https://www.holley.com/blog/post/upgrade_your_1-barrel_autolite_1100_carb_to_efi/

Mod Edit: As this is the HiPo forum, several posts were removed that were not helpful or relevant to the discussion. Please keep this conversation polite and on topic.

Does that "lipstick on a pig" come in different shades? Putting throttle body fuel injection on a cylinder head that was designed in the 1920's doesn't make good nonsense! Throttle body injection systems in general are an unholy corruption of carburetion and real fuel injection in the first place. That's why General Motors and the other manufacturers only ran it for a short time while they were developing sequential port injection.
Jerry

There’s a member in Nebraska, whose name escapes me, who installed the Autolite version on his 235. His install was pretty discrete, and he seemed pleased with the result.

Took a custom adapter, I believe.

Id be interested in hearing more about it.

I am normally a vintage tool, equipment, technology, engine guy but these EFI units have really peaked my interest. I am going to dive into it. With the troubles were are having with the gas we use, quality carb parts and rebuild kits, while currently available, may not always be available, carbs going bad over the winter from sitting, good cores becoming scarce, mechanical fuel pump issues, it seems to me these units, if workable on our old motors, might be a nice improvement.

Here is a link https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...0618/holley-sniper-install-on-a-235.html

If I stayed with the 283 I was going to buy this set up. I still bought a sniper to go with my 383. Looking forward to easy and smooth running.

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about these kinds of systems.

The purists says carbs worked fine for my grandaddy and they are fine for me. And that is true, the carbs work almost as well today as they did 120 years ago when they started being used.

On the other hand, a multi-point fuel injection system is undeniably better than a throttle body based system in pretty much every metric other than cost and appearance.

Is there a place for TBI units? That depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

I say that there is because they are cheaper and easier to install than a full multipoint conversion. The peak performance of a TBI setup will not be superior to a well tuned carb because the limits on power are not caused by the carb.

To me, the biggest benefits are:
1. A TBI system has a sealed fuel system so you don't get fuel evaporation from the bowl and you don't have to deal with the constant buildup of varnish and other deposits left when the ethanol breaks down.
2. Once you tune a TBI unit, it stays tuned. You don't have to open it up to tinker with rods or jets or adjustment screws because you are at a different altitude or temperature.
3. You don't have to be an expert to tune a modern one. You hook it up with the O2 sensor, put in a few starting parameters, and just start driving. It adjusts itself to the AFR that you set.

People make a big fuss about how "you can't fix fuel injection on the side of the road". In 40 years, I have had precisely one fuel injection system leave me stranded. In constrast, carbs have left me stuck more times than I can count.

I put fuel injection on all of my older vehicles because it just works. When I want to go drive my 84 or my 78 or mt 58, I want to get in, turn the key, and drive no matter if it has been sitting for a day or 6 months. With fuel injection I can do that.

In response to HRL comment that all of the manufacturers went away from TBI after only a "short time", that is true if you consider a decade+ a "short time". But the other fact is that once TBI was invented basically everyone switched to it over the course of a couple years because it was so much better than the carbs.

TBI was not necessarily "better" than carburetion (I was there, teaching the subject and attending factory training schools, when it came along)- - - -it was just more "tamper proof" by the average vehicle owner, and the manufacturers were soiling their undies under the threat of massive retribution by the government if their outrageous exhaust emissions standards were violated. It was not vigorously enforced, but the penalty for altering a vehicle to exceed emission limits was 5 years in jail and a $5,000.00 fine FOR EACH VEHICLE ALTERED! A muffler shop in Nashville Tennessee was caught with five vehicles ready for delivery with "catalytic converter test pipes" installed, and got fined $25K. The feds were bragging about being "lenient" and not jailing the shop owner. The shop was forced out of business, anyway. The dual TBI unit (Cross Ram) on certain Camaro and Pontiac Firebird 305 engines could be outrun- - - -easily- - - -by an identical engine running a Quadrajet.
Jerry

Which really only supports my point. When you set the parameters on a TBI unit, it just stays and works.

And if a fully tuned quadrajet setup put together by a competent shop did not outrun a stock vehicle tuned for emissions, you went to a pretty garbage shop.

Any of the modern systems under discussion can be tuned for power just like your carb.

If someone wants to run a carb, that is just fine but there is not a right or wrong solution.

No special tuning- - - -the factory stock QJ on the carbureted cars just had better CFM, so the engine could wind up tighter. TBI is a solution in search of a problem, and/or something to brag about.
Jerry

Chastise me if you will, but I absolutely hate a carburetor. Especially a 70 ish year old one. Rebuilding on one of these is still "polishing a turd" to me. That's my opinion. On another note, I tried FiTech on my old 235 and had the worst experience with it. It Ran right for less than 500 miles and then myself and FiTech never could make it run right again. I eventually canned it and put on a 350 cfm Holley 2 barrel straight from the box. Ran good, but still a finiky carbureted vehicle. I now enjoy my injected 4.8 LS motor. My truck is a my daily driver and I want trouble free starting and driving year round. I have heard positive feed back about the Holley sniper systems though. If my 235 was still in my truck I would certainly try again with a Holley unit.

There are valid reasons to convert fuel injeftion and there are valid reasons to stick with a carb.

Which solution is better for you depends on what you value more. There is not a right or wrong answer and neither solution makes you a better person or mechanic.