alternative engines, WARPED

[Frederic Breitwieser]

> you're gonna get 20 mpg.  EFI will get you 10 to 15% economy compared to a
> well tuned carb.  

Or triple if your carb sucks :)  With modern day pickups approaching 20
MPG on the highway, my 5-6 MPG ratbag truck ain't cutting it, hence the
push for EFI as well.  Turbos for towing power, crappy mileage under
load, and acceptable mileage for highway cruising.

> (1500).  If you can't or won't tune a carb, how are you going to tune EFI?

Aaaah... that entirely depends on the system you choose.  If you dump
some cash for something simpler like the Edelbrock or Holley TBI setup,
the bolt on, a few sensors are added, and both units come with fuel maps
that are "reasonable" for various engines.  A little tuning and you can
get a vehicle on the road without being entirely tortured.

For a more advanced TBI or even TPI, Haltach as well as Electromotive
come to the rescue with a more complex system, but you can get great
results with these.  Both come with "configurations" for the Chevy BB
(454), which you can "slap" in for the 440 Dodge, it should work well,
its close enough.

Its when you take a junkyard ECM (like the 7749) designed for a six
cylinder engine and tune things up for a big twin-turbo V8 that your
hair starts to flee your head.

An electromotive Tec II system with junkyard sensors, throttlebody,
wires and a bag of crimp spades/bullet connectors, you can get the
vehicle up and running for approximately 1000-1200 if you buy just the
unit, if I remember the pricing correctly.  Been a year or so since I
called them for pricing.  The ignition is taken care of, since it has
coil packs, so you can subtract the cost of a new distributor, regulator
assembly (Its a Dodge thing), and all the crap associated with that. 
With the Tec II I'd chop off the insides of the dizzy and leave it in
the block to spin the oil pump, rather than go dry sump and deal with
that complex mess of hoses.  Also, the Tec II supports 60 tooth wheels
for the crank, and 120 tooth wheels for the cam, and there is nothing
stopping someone from slapping one of those wheels on your dizzy head,
and make the timing/engine position sensors more accessable.  A friend
of mine did this with his Chevy 350.

Hope that helps.