[Amc-list] Re; Ford EFI on AMC and FWD performce - "not!"

["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

Question? 
Why put a Ford EFI on an AMC 304?
 
Answer?
Cause the throttle body fits a 2100 carburetor bolt pattern!
 
To be the devils advocate, or to question the logic or is this
considered
to be non-supportive of innovative thinking. 
 
So let me raise a question or two.
What is the CFM rating of a Ford throttle body?
A 2100 carburetor is rated at 220 cfm, if the bore of the barrels is 
1.4 inches, and 387 cfm if it is 1.7 inches as close as I can tell 
anyway, so what is the bore on the intake manifold of a 304? 
A Carter BBD 2bbl as used by AMC is 178 or so cfm. All of which are too
small for a 304 V8. Realizing of course that barrel bore is not the 
only factor, but it is a good one.
 
Now along with that you need engine control electronics, and a place to 
locate the various sensors that are going to be needed for carburetor 
control and will this also control the ignition or not? Probably not. 
 
I have seen no estimate as to costs, or what to use on this discussion
so I ask a question is there literature available so you know what 
you are looking for? 
 
And if you find it, will you know how to place it? Or check it out. 
How do you determine that you have located all of the critical elements 
or is it best to just buy a running donner car and strip it, then pay
some one to haul off the remains? 
 
I am not saying this is an impossibility but based on the information 
covered on this thread so far, it sounds like an improbability and 
even using junk yard parts, unless you have your own junkyard I am going
to guess that a budget on something like this will start to put a large
dent in a $2000.00 bill or more. 
 
And what have you got when you are done? As Frank indicated, an 
expensive kluged together electronic 2bbl carburetor with very 
little measurable change in performance. 
 
Every one has to "Bling" there own thing, but this was makes no sound
to me at all, and I have installed a Fuel Injection upgrade. For an 
awful lot of money, it got me some increased performance, some really 
bad head aches and is smog legal. If smog legal was not a primary 
criteria, a 4bbl carburetor and to HXXX with smog would have been 
a far more productive approach. 
 
Now as no one has offered an alternative to a Ford 2100 Electronic
option
so I will at this time.
Try Port Fuel injection. Edelbrock Air GAP manifold has bung location
cast 
into it and it fits a 304. GM compatible systems are available in a 
number of configurations and they are already a V8 type. 
They come with full instructions and a wide variety of applications 
and when everything is said and done, they probably also will put a big 
dent in a $2000.00 bill but when done, they will also most probably give
you greater performance potential than anything cobbed out of a Ford
2bbl 
carburetor. 
 
Although my guess with both systems is $2000 would not cover a full 
working system with the bugs all worked out of it. 
 
And for a V8, I would use the Air Gap before I even tried to find a 
used AMC manifold, however I have 2 2bbl manifolds in the garage and 
an Edelbrock Performer still in the box that I would not use so might 
I could be talked out of something.
 
On performance front wheel drive cars, Andy Granatelli of STP and NOVI 
fame could probably give some insight on that, as could others. I am
even
impressed how reliable front wheel drive cars are, I have lost more 
drive shaft u-joints than I have front drive CV joints in my life and 
I have put over 200 thousand miles on a number of front drive cars. Even

if the Chrysler automatic Front drive transmissions have completely 
redefined the term of questionable reliability.
I have constantly heard that Ford Front Drive Transmissions were
notoriously unreliable, however on my '87 Lincoln Continental purchased
new, in the 60,000 miles I put on it before the bumper to bumper 
warranty expired that was the only bloody thing that had not failed. I 
dumped the car at 60,000 miles as there was no way I was going to try
to keep the load running longer than a month at a time using my own 
money and it completely cured me of ever owning another Ford product. 
My next car was a Mitsubishi EXPO LRV (Chrysler product, rebadged as 
an Eagle Summit Wagon), it went 12 years and 270,000 miles before 
repair expenses started to add up. 
 
 
 
But the term performance front wheel drive reminds me of an old racer's 
adage.
 
You can not build a race car out of a pig, but you can make a very fast 
pig. 
For what it's worth
John.
 
 
 
  
 
 
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