EFI question please

[flyinmedic]

Has anyone done an EFI conversion on a BBC? I am looking at the Holly Dominator EFI system as well as the Fuel Tech stuff. Is it worth the money to change to EFI from a carb setup? The car is a 67 Chevelle with a ZZ454. The plan is to go with a bigger motor for some additional power...lol. The car will have AC and be driven a lot of miles. The new motor should make around 800 NA. There may be an addition of some turbos down the road quite a way. Any help, advice etc is greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys
Mike

[Schwartz Performance]

There are so many ways to go here. I would say the way you're leaning is in the right direction. Holley makes great stuff.


-Dale

[chpr1972]

Why 800 hp?? If you are going to put a lot of miles on it, it is best to KISS![keep it simple stupid]. You are looking at a high lift roller cam with long duration and high maintenance. Valve spring psi to control a cam for that much hp is extreme. Do you want to have to tear it apart all the time and check the rollers on the rockers and the lifters. you are going to have to go to an electric or hydraulic power brakes or run manual. My motor is a 496 BBC with 10:1[regular gas] 230/236 515/525 lift hydraulic cam. Closed chambered heads with big valves and ported to the extreme.HP EFI TPI with tunnel ram and 2 4bbl throttle bodies. Hooker comp headers and pypes violator/cutout full length exhaust. Estimated hp is 600.
Motor runs good with no fine tuning. TKO600 and ford 9" with 3:50 gears and 25.5 in tall tires.[275/30R19]
The only thing I would have done was use the 296? cam instead of the 282 comp magum cam. If you would have said it was a week end driver with no miles I would say go for it. If you are planning turbo's later or NOS later, having the motor built with the lower compression /ring gap/ piston design the motor will probably take away all that hp you are looking for.

[flyinmedic]

I appreciate your advice but 800hp is not a lot of hp and with the newer technology the maintenance has decreased immensely. The car is just a toy or weekend cruiser but it will see power tour and drag week as well. This is actually one of the more mild builds I have done as my last 3 builds were in excess of 1500hp and street driven. I am only trying to find out if the EFI part is felt to be worth the expense of the conversion. Does it give better drivability and reliability or any better gas mileage. I am not new to big builds but I am new to the EFI game. Thanks again and your car sounds nice. Do you find that your EFI is worth it?

Why 800 hp?? If you are going to put a lot of miles on it, it is best to KISS![keep it simple stupid]. You are looking at a high lift roller cam with long duration and high maintenance. Valve spring psi to control a cam for that much hp is extreme. Do you want to have to tear it apart all the time and check the rollers on the rockers and the lifters. you are going to have to go to an electric or hydraulic power brakes or run manual. My motor is a 496 BBC with 10:1[regular gas] 230/236 515/525 lift hydraulic cam. Closed chambered heads with big valves and ported to the extreme.HP EFI TPI with tunnel ram and 2 4bbl throttle bodies. Hooker comp headers and pypes violator/cutout full length exhaust. Estimated hp is 600.
Motor runs good with no fine tuning. TKO600 and ford 9" with 3:50 gears and 25.5 in tall tires.[275/30R19]
The only thing I would have done was use the 296? cam instead of the 282 comp magum cam. If you would have said it was a week end driver with no miles I would say go for it. If you are planning turbo's later or NOS later, having the motor built with the lower compression /ring gap/ piston design the motor will probably take away all that hp you are looking for.

[chpr1972]

I havent had time to find out yet. I have been fighting a valve train noise for a long time. I also had a miss [MSD coil sure tickles lol] and finally located it. The pushrods were touching the guide plates. 2 sets of busted comp cam guide plates and a dremel tool finally fixed it. To make a long story short some thing or wrong adjustment some of the valves were not sealing.So friday I pulled the heads and the machine shop redid the heads. Monday afternoon He is going to adjust the valves and the hopeful tues or wed a local shop with a dyno is going to do some adjustments. I do know the motor reuns better and starts easy. I tried at one time to get a gas milege figure from some people with FI here on the forum and had no takers.Road kill did a 55 Chev gasser with a hemi, and they started at about 7 mpg and got it up to 17 mpg. I liked that episode! When I find out more info Illget back to you.

[Derek@ModernSpeed]

I havent had time to find out yet. I have been fighting a valve train noise for a long time. I also had a miss [MSD coil sure tickles lol] and finally located it. The pushrods were touching the guide plates. 2 sets of busted comp cam guide plates and a dremel tool finally fixed it. To make a long story short some thing or wrong adjustment some of the valves were not sealing.So friday I pulled the heads and the machine shop redid the heads. Monday afternoon He is going to adjust the valves and the hopeful tues or wed a local shop with a dyno is going to do some adjustments. I do know the motor reuns better and starts easy. I tried at one time to get a gas milege figure from some people with FI here on the forum and had no takers.Road kill did a 55 Chev gasser with a hemi, and they started at about 7 mpg and got it up to 17 mpg. I liked that episode! When I find out more info Illget back to you.

Conn, I'll be happy to see some pictures of that thing assembled. Glad to hear the valvetrain issues are being resolved. To touch on fuel mileage a bit. I had a 331 sbf that made almost 400HP with a 735 cfm carb (custom). That same engine was converted to EFI back in 2003. Carb got 11 mpg, and the EFI got 17-18mpg. That being said, the carb was not tuned for mileage. It was meant to go A-B. We are actually looking for some classic cars to perform EFI conversions on this year. I've been playing in the drag car market for a long time, and I want to branch out. I intend to have a booth at PRI 2016 showcasing some of this work.