Intro and Interesting Project (Long)

[Travis]

Hello, my name is Travis Bailey.  I'm a 17 year old punk :-) with my
sights set on a degree in mechanical engineering.  Other than an
obsession with cars and girls there's not really much else to say about
myself!  Anyway, onto my project...

I'm the proud owner of a 1971 Plymouth Duster 340.  It's in the middle
of a restification right now (actually it's been in that state for a
couple years now!), with the general goal being something that is
relatively quick, handles and brakes well, looks better than the average
car on the road, and can be driven daily and cross country without a
second thought.   Pretty much everything is irrelevant to this list,
except for my latest "Oooo, that would be neat..." of port fuel
injection.  Companies sell kits for this, but at roughly $3000 for my
application, well it's not exactly in my price range right now.  A
thought entered my mind that really the only thing that I couldn't
cobble together would be the computer/electronics and the throttle body
could be an issue (though I've heard of gutted carburators being able to
accomplish the same?).  The intake manifold might be a concern; I'm
pretty sure I could convince the shop techer to let me use the mill if I
bring in my own bits (though I've never been particularly fond of him,
which is the possible set back).  I haven't done much research but it
looks like the placement of the injector bungs on the intake runners
isn't as critical as just having everything level and lined up.  All the
manifolds I've done have the injectors placed vertical so I'd just need
to make sure the manifold is flat on the mill table.  I could possibly
con someone into welding them in place or maybe JB Weld has yet another
use?  Fuel pumps aren't terribly expensive and with enough digging I
could come up with some junkyard injectors with enough flow for my
engine (somewhere between 26 and 30 lbs/hr is an estimate I recall
coming up with a while ago; I don't expect the engine to exceed 400 HP
anytime soon, with a realistic output around 340-350 HP tops in its
current form).  IIRC, Accel's digital EFI electronics setup ran around
$900 sans any sensors, ect. just a bare computer and harness.  I have
heard of people using GM computers on SB Mopar engines since the small
block Chevy shares the same firing order.  Unfortunatly I haven't been
able to get any elaborations on what they got the computer from and how
they made it work.  I forgot about it for a while but picked up again on
the idea after reading what improvements EFI has over carburation
especailly on performance applications.  Here I am now.  Unfortuatly I'm
not much of a computer geek or electronics wizard which doesn't make
things any easier.  I think I've got a rough idea of why it would work
with the same firing order as both engines would need the injectors to
fire at the same points.  But an '87 305 certainly won't have the same
fuel requirements and ignition advance curves as my 340!  I see many
modern cars have lap top computers they use to tune and make adjustments
on the fly; is this possible with an '80s computer also?  Thanks in
advance for all input...

- Travis "E-Brake" Bailey -
- '71 Duster 340 (Project) - '74 Dart Custom 225 Super Six (Daily
Warrior) -
- The Dust-Pan: http://members.xoom.com/pentastars/index.html

"To be old and wise you must first be young and dumb."

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