Converting from a carburetor to EFI is 100% recommended, and it's not because you might think. There are a lot of reasons to convert, what if I told you that increased power is not one of them?
Wait…WHAT?
Here’s the real reasons to convert and get that “modern car experience”:
- Instant starting in all conditions
- No need for extended warmup
- Air/Fuel (AFR) monitoring and adjustment
- Data Logging
- Increased Tunability
- Increased Efficiency
Read on to learn why!
You may be surprised to learn that in most cases, a perfectly tuned carburetor will make MORE horsepower than EFI. That’s correct! There are several dyno tests online, including one that I did Carb vs Sniper EFI, that prove this. The way a perfectly tuned carburetor mixes the fuel with the air cannot be matched by spraying fuel into the air with electronic fuel injection (EFI). However, there’s more to the story!
Notice I said, “perfectly tuned carburetor”, and that’s the key! How many people can say that their carburetor is perfectly tuned? Probably ZERO. This is because you would have to literally tune it every time there is a major variation in the weather. Where I live in Minnesota, this is like every day!
Most people buy a carburetor, bolt it on, and get it to run. They’re not carburetor experts in idle tuning, jetting, reading spark plugs, etc. It’s just too much! Not to mention staying on top of all the adjustments during a regular tune-up.
EFI alleviates this pain by automatically adjusting the air/fuel ratio (AFR) to targets set by the tuner. This means that no matter the weather conditions, elevation changes, or minor changes in the engine, the computer will adjust to the target to achieve the right mixture. Sure, there are minor exceptions such as when you quickly step on the throttle or fuel during cranking that need to be manually set. However, those can be programmed to adjust with temperature changes as well.
In many cases, you will see a horsepower increase when switching to EFI simply because the engine is now more efficient. Likely the carburetor wasn’t tuned perfectly and EFI is making the engine “happier”.
You also have much more control over ignition timing! Perhaps you installed that big cam and it would never idle right and drivability was bad, now you can fix that!
I personally have cars with race engines with large roller cams running on E85 with Holley EFI. The tunability is so great that I can reach in the window, hit the button and they start and idle instany!
All of our EFI conversions feature Holley EFI products such as:
- Holley Sniper / Sniper2
- Holley TerminatorX / TerminatorX Max
- Holley HP
- Holley Dominator
The amount of precise tuning that you can achieve with EFI brings modern drivability to your classic car so you can have the best of both worlds!