swap to carbeurated?

Topic: swap to carbeurated? (Read 1730 times) previous topic - next topic

swap to carbeurated?

June 22, 2008, 09:02:56 PM

ever since i got my thunderbird i have been thinking about swapping the 302 to a carb setup instead of all the fuel injection stuff, but now that im having all these problems out of it i am seriously considering it. some of the reasons why ive been considering it is that there will be no major electronic stuff to work with, its gonna be a lighter setup with no computers and all the wires and such, its cheaper to build i think, if its tuned right i think you can get more power out of it cheaper than fuel injected, and it will clean up the engine bay alot without all the wires. im not for sure changing it but i am really thinking about it. has anybody on here done it? and if so was it worth it? i wanna hear what some people have to say about the swap. i have 1 friend telling me to do it while another friend is telling me it will be stupid to change it. lol

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #1 – June 22, 2008, 09:58:47 PM

On the street engine, I consider it a stupid move... You'll give up approx 40ft lbs of low end torque and 2-3 in town MPG, should be able to gain a little on the top end...

Being a old fart I messed with carbs from '66 to '93 when I bought my first fuelie... Go back???? Not no, but Hell no!!!

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #2 – June 22, 2008, 10:15:33 PM

Not sure what problems you have having with the car currently, but a carb swap is just a big step backwards IMO.

"Lighter" and "a cleaner install" are not very valid reasons to make the swap. It's not any cheaper to build. Dumping a carb set-up onto your SO 5.0 isn't going to gain you anything. To make power from either set up you're going to need to spend money to help the engine as a whole perform better. The EFI stuff isn't holding you back, the py heads/cam/exhaust are.

Educate yourself and step into the later part of the 20th Century and fix what ever is "wrong" with you car currently and keep the EFI.

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #3 – June 22, 2008, 10:22:01 PM

It's 2008 not 1978,stay with the times and keep the injection!
Do a little reaserch and diagnosis and reward yourself or take it to someone to have the problem diagnosed and put the parts in yourself.
Carb's have not been on a production car in almost 20yrs don't take that huge backwards step.

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #4 – June 22, 2008, 10:35:34 PM

i like the oppinions lol i dont think im gonna go with carburated now. i never really thought about it that way but i guess it is pretty stupid. also i have been looking at other fuel injected cars and they can make em look really clean and perform really well. i was just thinking about it cuz i was gonna take my car in and read codes today after getting gas in it and i took it around my neighborhood and in about 1/2 mile i had to restart it 3 times. everytime i got off the gas it died, so i wasnt gonna mess with taking it into town. i thought it could have been the iac valve but the car even spits and sputters and is down on power even when im driving it, not just while its idling

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #5 – June 23, 2008, 12:50:03 AM

check out coolcats.net and read every link in the tech section. You'll forget about carbs before you finish the first article. Were here to help, alot of us have been there and had the same problems.

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #6 – June 23, 2008, 07:54:15 AM

I feel, If it was born with EFI, it should die with EFI.
My father in law wants to put a carb on mine, he's been building motors since the 50s. He says its better.

It's not going happen in my lifetime. LOL

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #7 – June 23, 2008, 08:32:12 AM

Possible egr stuck open,idle set to low,iac valve,tune up????
You have to read codes to find out,read up on how to do it yourself if your not going to take it in.
You can read eng light flashes with a simple jumper wire installed.

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #8 – June 23, 2008, 08:53:13 AM

i cleaned the iac valve, the motor just had a tune up last month, i thought it could have been the idle set to low but i turned it up as far as it would go and still have this problem, and i dont know how to check the egr but i unplugged the wires from it and still have this problem. i will try to find out how to read codes by myself here in the next little bit. my check engine light comes on like all cars before the car is started then it goes off when its started, even when we have like half the sensors unplugged on the engine so its got me confused, and i dont know what to try

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #9 – June 23, 2008, 09:28:59 AM

i just read the codes off the car by the amount of flashes of the check engine light and i got codes 22, 34, 63, and 87. i think it could be more of the tps sensor causing all of this than any of the other things that are wrong with it

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #10 – June 23, 2008, 10:11:41 AM

okay so i just tried to recalibrate the tps like it says to do on jcassity's thread and now im gettin all the codes before and also code 23. another thing is that there is a little white box thing under the dash right above the brake pedal and there is 2 vacuum lines that go to it and it sounds like there is a very loud vacuum leak coming from it but when i unplug the vacuum lines it gets so much quieter. its like this thing is amplifying the sound and i dont know what it is

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #11 – June 23, 2008, 03:48:42 PM

Quote from: 88tbird5.0;224361

okay so i just tried to recalibrate the tps like it says to do on jcassity's thread and now im gettin all the codes before and also code 23. another thing is that there is a little white box thing under the dash right above the brake pedal and there is 2 vacuum lines that go to it and it sounds like there is a very loud vacuum leak coming from it but when i unplug the vacuum lines it gets so much quieter. its like this thing is amplifying the sound and i dont know what it is

Code 23 is still TPS, you're too far off in the other direction... Adj it again and plug the vaccum leaks(for now)...

Ford says to fix the FIRST code then recheck...Code 22 is the MAP, which will defiantly cause it to run like $hit...

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #12 – June 23, 2008, 03:51:38 PM

The vac lines above the brake pedal perhaps are for the cruise control. As mentioned, cap them off for the time being.

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #13 – June 24, 2008, 06:01:12 PM

i fixed the problem by changing out the tps sensor and the map sensor but the car is running a little rich now and idk if this is gonna clear up after driving it for a bit or not. any ideas?

swap to carbeurated?

Reply #14 – June 24, 2008, 06:43:32 PM

vacuum leak. The computer assumes that the air coming in through the intake is all the air that is there. If there is a vacuum leak, then some of the air in the engine isn't coming from the intake. The computer thinks the engine is starting to die, so it gives it more gas and raises the idle to try to get the air flow specs back in line.