i was wondering if anyone out there has tried TA performance's fuel injection kit or has any info on it. they claim it will give up to 75 more horsepower and 9 mpg over a carb setup. i would like to know if this is anywhere near the truth. i know it will be different for all cars but i would like to get an idea. this kit is very appealing to me although the price is not. i would be putting it on a fairly mild 455 with ported stock heads, 230/236 cam, with 9.5:1 to 10:1 compression. i would like my skylark to be a street bruiser but be able to get descent gas milage especially since this car is my daily driver. i drive it about 40+ miles every day. anyway any help woul dbe much appreciated.
Haven't tried it, but I did look it up on their website. $3750 :eek2: special order for plug-and-play installation. That's about $100 for each one horsepower increase. :moonu: Cool setup I'm sure, but it might take a while for that extra 8mpg to pay for itself!
The numbers (because I was bored and curious): Say you get 15 miles to the gallon on your current engine overall. If you install the fuelie system, and optimally get an extra 8 miles to the gallon, you'd be getting 23 to the gallon. Cost of commuting 40 miles round trip for 225 days out of the year (250 work days minus two weeks vacation, say), at $1.80 a gallon for gas: $1080.00 Cost of commuting if you get an extra 8 miles to the gallon from the fuelie system: $704.34. Net savings with the new fuelie system: $375.66. Amount of time to realize the cost savings to pay for said fulie system ($3750.00): TEN YEARS. :moonu: :moonu: :moonu: Cost of this public service announcement: $0.02 (on me...) Just a thought... Good luck whatever you decide to do. :laugh:
I have been using FI on my 455 for about 12 years now. I have had port FI since 2001 on my SP1 manifold, and I think its great. I would recommend the TA intake setup, but I think they use a different controller. I use the FAST controller (www.fuelairspark.com) and I believe that is the only way to go. TA did not do the conversion on my manifold- by the time I found out they had started to do the FI manifolds, I already had made arrangements with another company (www.force-efi.com) to do mine, and it also turned out well. However TA does provide a better fuel system in my opinion, with a small fuel reserve tank. Without that, you really need to convert your fuel tank to have an internal pump. I should know, I burned up 15 or so external pumps in the past 3 years... -Bob Cunningham
They know what they're doing, so it's probably an excellent system. It all depends on how much power you need and how much you're willing to spend. As with just about anything - all it takes is $$$$$$$.
If I had money to burn it would cool. I went with an electric choke Q-jet for its efficiency with the small primarys. I still think a well built Q-jet is your best hot street carb. The Q-jet with a reasonable cam like yours and a well built 2004R tranny with a lock up converter should provide the best combination of power, mileage and affordability.
If you have the cash EFI is the way to go. Nothing like tuning the timing, air/fuel ratio, cold start, idle mix etc with a push of a button. Be careful about how you read that 75 hp claim though. Peak HP with a properly setup carb or EFI will be the same. If you have a well setup 400hp carb engine, EFI will not make it 475hp. What it can do is pump up the power at lower revs. I'd say that claim is made at lower revs where engine efficiency with a carb isn't maximized. Truthful advertising, but with an asterisk. A carb is always a compromised deal. Because of fixed booster design and venturi shape a carb will only give its best results at a particular RPM and throttle position(usually WOT). The fuel curve cannot change to compensate for weather, throttle loads etc. EFI gives you the ability to maximize your engine's efficiency at every point on the map. IMHO EFI is worth every cent. BUT, it's a lot of cents. LOL
I know it's Chebby stuff, but this guy really put together an informative website. Lots of tech stuff, diagrams and part numbers, all in easy to understand language. Worth a read. http://chevythunder.com/index.htm - Freed
I was looking at the FAST site and was wondering why they can't make a composite manifold for, well all V8s. How hard is it to mold plastic.
How about Holley's Pro-jection? I know it's just throttle body inj, but it's still FI. Last time I looked for the 900cfm it was $1300. Just a thought.
Horsepower and torque numbers can be a tricky numbers game. Listings for an engine are shown as peak at a certain RPM. Using the note above, say you have a 400 hp engine. 400 is definitely respectable, but that's only at a certain RPM. You don't get that throughout the operating range. The ratings are curved. Point being that the extra 75 hp may not necessarily be added to the 400. Then again, it might have a new high rating of 475 at some different RPM and change the whole curve. Going back to the curve, a much better reflection of engine power is the SHAPE of the curve. If you kept the same 400 hp, but flattened the shape of the curve, you'd increase power tremendously and put a huge dent in a 1/4 mile time. Buicks didn't have the most horsepower, but they had the flattest torque curve, with peak torque available at an ideal RPM. The point of all this is that when looking to add power, find out WHERE on the curve that power is going. You might add 30 horsepower where it doesn't count.
Victor- I agree. You can even make 400 HP out of a turbo'd Honda, but you'd have to wind it up to 9000rpm it sure as heck won't have a flat torque curve. It would have horrid driveability. - freed
Ever since I read an article a few years ago about fuel injection and adapting it to different cars, I wondered to myself just how hard it would be to do this to a BBB. For instance, welding some injector bungs onto either a stock cast iron or aftermarket aluminum manifold could be accomplished by an experienced welder, with a little instruction about angles and depth. Fuel rails can be made without too awfully much difficulty, the rest of it is programming, wiring and plumbing. FAST makes a darn fine product that seems to be adaptable to most any combination which takes care of the hardest part of the electronics. Please don't misunderstand. Mike did my heads, Dave has given me so much help and advice and I can't praise enough the 'stuff' I can gotten from TA. I'm absolutely convinced that if Mike says his system is Plug and Play and minor tuning, that's exactly what you will get. There also would be way less swearing, frustration, threats to unload the whole thing and general tension around Mike's product over cobbling together something yourself. I guess it's the cool factor and satisfaction of creating it yourself. I know I would learn a LOT by doing it myself. Of course, I might also learn pretty quick about burned pistons, high-speed lean out, the necessity of knock sensors etc......
I ran this for about 8 years. It was better than a carb for 99% of use, but I figure I might have lost a tenth in the 1/4 compared to a q-jet. I ran the "analog" version with knobs on the ECU (hey, it was 1993, that was all there was!). It's not a bad option. -Bob Cunningham
OK, I took the plunge and started reading some of the stuff on the megasquirt website yesterday. That little homemade box can do amazing things! - Freed
I just order a MEGASQUIRT system. I'm getting started with the computer, stimulator, relay board, and MSview. I have printed and read all the manuls four times already and am excited to get started. It will eventually be going on the Regal, and after I have masterd the tuning, I will be putting two (2) GN sized turbos on the 455 (462), one for each bank, with twin throttle bodies, and intercooler. Of course this won't happen overnight, but it's a goal I have set for myself. I will be joining the Yahoo group soom too! Dean
i ordered mine today too, but looking at the megasquirtAVS too (http://www.squirrelpf.com/msavr/index.php?page=MS-AVR). Trying to figure out which spark product to mate with the megasquirt that will be compatible with UMS later on I've learned a ton in the last 72 hours about EFI, once you get a grip on what its doing its sooo easy to understand why this is such a cool, easy, inexpensive and effective addon.
