Fuel Injection vs Carbs, Which is better? Options

[jgara962]

I'm considering going to look at a '73 2.0L. The only thing holding me back is the FI has been converted to Webber 40's? What seems to work better/have more potential on 914's - the FI or Carbs? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

Any advice from those that have been there would be appriciated.

[ArtechnikA]

QUOTE (jgara962 @ May 6 2005, 03:09 PM)

If carbs were so great, manufacturers would still be using them today.  But in the early 70's FI was becoming more popular on production cars, but still in the early stages of development and probably not all sorted out yet.

Porsche started putting fuel injection on street cars with the 1969 models.

initially it was for performance and so it could be homologated into the race cars.

then with the oil embargo in the early '70s and the rise of emission standards the handwriting was on the wall for carburetors, which by definition have open float bowls vented to atmosphere (FI doesn't). it was emissions that eventually killed the carburetor, along with increasingly more sophisticated and capable electronic engine management systems. stricter noise standards were the final nail in the coffin.

there's an intrinsic performance hit with a carburetor, because you must have a venturi - you HAVE TO build a restriction into the airflow for it to work. this is one of the reasons the early MFI cars picked up between 10 and 20 HP over the comparable Weber models.

nowadays - only about 40 years after the guys at Bendix started tinkering with electronic FI, flexible, programmable systems have come down in price to the point where they are the induction system of choice for even the backyard hobbyist. programmable FI and 2 hours on a chassis dyno will have your car better dialed in than 6 months with a big box of jets and reading spark plugs.