Thread: Carburetor or Fuel Injection

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I'm finishing a 1937 Dodge pickup built on a 1989 S10 frame with a 1990 350/350 turbo, I built this truck as an every day driver and plan to drive it for years to come. My question is about what type of induction would get me the best fuel economy, carbureted or fuel injection, I'm looking for maximum fuel economy not performance. I may change the tranny to a 700r4, don't know if it would help the fuel economy that much.

It currently has an Edelbrock Performer intake and carb on it. The engine was a rebuild or possible warranty engine I pulled from an '87 Chevy pickup, it has a roller cam and rockers and is around 200hp.

Could I get better fuel economy from a stock GM TBI or TPI system, what about one from Holley or Edelbrock, they show up on ebay for a few hundred?

The last car I built was a 1930 Model A Tudor old school hot rod with a stock 4-bolt SBC with a Performer intake, Holley 650 and a 5 speed out of a Camaro. This car weighs about 2300lbs but only gets around 16-18 miles per gallon, usually less can't seem to keep my foot out of it.

Is it possible to get an average of 20+ miles per gallon out of an early SBC?

Once dialed in the fuel injection should get a bit better all around fuel mileage. As far as which is better I let the guys who are a little more knowledgeable answer on which one would be better. I do remember a few years ago I researched a Holly Projection unit. As I recall the feedback I got on that was that due to the limited number of sensors used to provide feedback it wasn't the most efficient unit out there.

On another note I don't suppose you could post a few more pictures of your project. I really like to see a side shot of how the wheels center up in the fenders with the S10 frame. Also and pictures of the mounts would be nice.

The reason I ask is that I've got a back burnered 37 Dodge Pickup project....original frame with Mustang II front end. Personally I enjoy playing with carburator and of course fuel mileage on mine is not really going to be a major concern.

The early Edelbrock units are no lorger supported by them,so you have to be careful buying used.You could go to their forum to read about that.

This is a pretty good read about EFI's:

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...guy/index.html

I don't have a side shot and it's partially disassembled right now. I used a long bed frame and the wheels line up nice in the center of the wheel wells, had to add 3/4" to the overall length, stretched the running boards. The front was a little narrow, used 8" wide wheels with a 3.5" backspace. The frame had to be narrowed about 14" where the original cab mounted. The rears are tubbed a few inches. It's got a fuel cell mounted at the front of the bed under the floor with a lid that tilts for fuel fill up. It's got a power rack & pinion out of a '95 Intrepid, the tie rods mount in the center of the rack so there's no problem with bump steer as the tie rods are plenty long. I was able to use the stock outer tie rod ends and steel tubes with heims for the inner.

Nice looking truck, wish mine had been as straight and complete as yours, but it only cost me $600.

First, welcome to the forum JayD. That S10 chassis swap seems to be popular in your area - I saw at least two different trucks using that chassis in the Ponca City area some time back.
I have Edelbrock's ProFlo XT system and once dialed in I like the ability to tweak tuning or parameters like the cold start curve via a laptop. To get it dialed in I consider it mandatory to use the laptop programing interface, and an experienced tuner who understands all of the variables. Trying to tune across the load range using the procedure they give for the hand held programmer would be very, very difficult and time consuming, requiring a driver and a second person to watch the unit and take lots of notes. If you don't have access to a dyno and a good tuner I would look to one of the self learning units like the ones from FAST or Holley if you're going aftermarket, and you're still going to spend several thousand dollars to get it done right. Like 1gary says, I would avoid the used aftermarket units like the plague - nothing but headaches if you don't have factory support, even if you're just looking for good economy vs top performance.

Good mileage is driven by your tire size, rear gears, good OD ratio coordinated with your cam and power curve; and then keeping your foot out of it If your engine is stock, I would think that shooting for a nominal 1750 to 1800rpm at your highway cruising speed would be about right, especially considering the Oklahoma rolling plains terrain. Based on what you've said about economy being king the stock TBI EFI would work fine, coupled with the right gears and OD tranny. You could even keep the OBDII diagnostics port with the right harness & stock PCM. If you're more of a carb guy then I think you can still get the mileage you're after with the right driveline combo and an egg under the throttle pedal. Just my $0.02, and more pictures would be great, too!