Carbs versus FI, I can buy some carbs and stuff but can I buy FI? Options

[Type 47]

Can you just buy a FI setup? Or do you have to resurrect your 50 system that has been in a box for forty years and you know something is wrong with it?

[914werke]

imo by the time you buy carbs & associated bits + then tuning you are roughly equal to what ever it will take to resurrect the OE FI. Aftermarket FI kits will be a step up in $ & complexity.

[Type 47]

imo by the time you buy carbs & associated bits + then tuning you are roughly equal to what ever it will take to resurrect the OE FI. Aftermarket FI kits will be a step up in $ & complexity.

what's on the car now is a a nice set of 40 IDF Webers that were on the car when I took it apart. We cleaned them and put the rebuild kit stuff on them.

I also have another set of those on a spare 1.8 but they are in need of some TLC.

I have the original FI in a box...I've tested some of the stuff and what i tested was operational. Of course something in the box is bad or the PO would not have swapped it out for the Webers.

I'm not interested in the original FI but some new stuff might be interesting. I'm getting frustrated tuning the Webers.

I'm going to check out some of the info that was posted.

but I'm not starting from scratch. maybe I should just man up and learn how to tune the carbs.

but i'm should investigate the new FI options.

[GregAmy]

Of course something in the box is bad or the PO would not have swapped it out for the Webers.

Not necessarily.

A lot has happened between the mid-70s (when everything was working perfectly) and the recent decade-ish (when we all totally learned about the stock FI and got on board with it.)

In between that was an area of ignorance (no one knew how to work on it) and lack of replacement parts. The result was that any problem, no matter how small or (not) costly, was answered with "toss some Webers on it and be done with it."

Not so much today. This community is well-versed the systems and their problems, and we have aftermarket support in repairs/parts. And we recognize that a properly-functioning stock FI system offers far better driveability and economy than a pair of Webers.

That said...our community has also moved toward significant modifications to the basic engine, for which the stock FI cannot accommodate.

I enjoyed the stock D-Jet on my 2L, and being the tinkerer I am I modified my stock D-Jet with Microsquirt ECU. But if I had to choose between D-Jet and carbs for a stock street car, I'd definitely stick with the DJ.

BTW, I run Dellortos on the race car, because I don't care about driveability or economy. And as much as I do know about them, I find it annoying having to re-jet them for every race weekend. One of these days there's a Microsquirt system for that car...

GA