BB EFI manifolds

[Silver88Supra]

I am new to this forum so first off Id like to say Hi. My dad and I are going to be building a 65 Barracuda for street/strip. Bear with me as Im very new to these cars/powerplants so feel free to correct me if Im out of place on something. We will be installing an Alterkation (sp?) K frame and squeezin in a 400, possibly stroked. We are still up in the air as far as how much power we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it. We might just build a snotty NA and if thats not enough we can always spray or we might go with a Pro-Charger setup. We also do not know if we want to go EFI. Well, I do but my dad is unsure if it is worth the money so what Im doing is trying to come up with a price difference between carb'd and injected for this motor. I am aware of how much of a PITA setting up a standalone system is and tuning it properly but I believe once setup, we will be able to fine tune it better than with a carb making drivability better. I know edelbrock sells a complete system but they dont give very much info on the ECU/components which kind of scares me (I was thinking about running a TEC3 ECU which has WAY more features and probably better tech support because it is a fairly common standalone.) I cant seem to find a listing for just their manifold/fuel rail setup which leads me to believe they only sell it as a kit. Indy also makes a kit and they sell the manifold/rails seperate but they require you to use Indy heads which are very pricey.

So heres the question: Do any other companies offer EFI ready manifolds for the 400 block?

If anyone has any info that might be helpful or even links to other mopars that have been converted to EFI, posting them up would be greatly appreciated. Ill keep you guys updated on the project as it moves foward also.

Thanks a lot,
Zach

[Clair]

First, welcome to the Dark Side!

Second, I'll assume that you aren't aware that there are low deck and tall deck big blocks... the 383/400 block is shorter than a 440 block (there are others, but not as common). So, the Edelbrock EFI for the 440 won't just bolt up to a 400 block. HOWEVER, Mopar Performance makes a raised-intake-port head called the Stage VI that has ports raised exactly as much as the deck difference, so if you put the Stage VI heads on a 383/400, you CAN use a 440 intake. The tall deck intakes are superior, IMHO, because the runners are straighter, and less likely to have a kink in them to make room for an intake bolt. Just something to think about.

I would have thought that an indy intake might fit "regular" heads, but I'm not that familiar with their products. Edelbrock is working on a "tuner" selection of EFI parts, which will make individual intakes available. I would bet that the raised deck (RB/440) part will be available first. Might want to call their tech line and see what the real scoop is. Obviously, they're being made right now.

Otherwise, you'll have to modify a manifold to EFI specs, which isn't that hard. In the end, I'd say that the EB system is probably OK if you aren't going to be monkeying with the setup much once you're up and going. If you're going to be pushing the envelope pretty regularly, a more user-tunable (not chip-based) system would suit you better. Since you're starting from scratch, the savings of a carb won't be as much as if you had a solid carb system already, but it will almost certainly be a bunch cheaper than the EFI setup, especially if you go bling. WOT power won't be any different one to the other, but day in, day out driving will be better with EFI. Your call.

Clair

[goose]

You might want to check out Rance EFI, they make fuel injection setups for Mopars. www.rancefi.com The fuel injection they did for the Green Brick was liked very much by the Mopar Action crew.

[DartByU]

Another option to a custom intake is what a friend of mine did, he has a 69 Roadrunner with a 383, he just installed a Holley Commander 950 TBI 900 CFM setup on a Edelbrock dual plane 4BBL intake, then he had it tuned on a dyno, this thing runs really well and gets pretty good MPG too.

[ehostler]

But TBI cannot come close to MPFI...

[goose]

One popular method for making EFI manifolds is to have a machine shop add injector bungs to a standard manifold... The benefit of this is that it allows you to use any manifold you want. MA published a couple articles on how this is done, including using factory parts to round out the rest of the system. They had a parts list at the end of the article that would allow you to price it all up. Of course I don't remember which issue but it was 2-3 years back.