Fuel Injection Conversion?

[ontherocks83]

I'm toying with the idea of converting my carb'd 1989 350 magnum to fuel injection.

Does anyone have any recommendations of where to get a good kit and ball park cost?

 

[PA-Checkmate]

Why?

 

[GTStang]

While I'm a huge fan of FI I think the positives you get from it on a marine application are pretty limited especially when you talk the cost of doing a conversion.

So I'd ask what problem are you trying to solve?

 

[corey331]

If you are just looking to do it for poops and giggles, then you really can't beat the Holley EFI systems. They have some pretty simple ones where you wouldn't even have to change your intake. It just replaces your carb with a throttle body that has the injectors in it. You run a power and a ground, wire in a new higher pressure fuel pump, hook up the ecu and you are done.

That being said, I can honestly say I have never been stranded on the water or anywhere else due to a faulty carb. They may be messed up, but they'll get ya home. I have however towed in people due to faulty sensors or messed up wiring on their EFI systems. I mean, it's an electrical system, at some point something is going to fail. Just my $.02.

 

[ontherocks83]

Officially my reason for why is easier start ups in cold weather and more consistent idling.

The unofficial answer is: if the cost isn't ridiculous then I wanted something to tinker with.

My carb is brand new and runs mint. Once started it idles in gear even if dead cold. The only annoying thing is idle after warmed up is good but idle after a hard run and she's really warmed up is really low. Can't seem to dial it in to have both be good.

To be my own devils advocate, I do agree with corey331 that carbs are more reliable. Really im just tossing around ideas

 

[corey331]

I did a Base Holley Projection system, which is the system I described in my last post, on a guy's early 80's c10 with a mild 350. If I remember correctly, I bought the system and the fuel pump for around $1000. I started on it Saturday and had it up and running on the truck Sunday morning. The computer is self learning, so there wasn't a lot of tuning to be done, but there are a few simple knobs on the ECU that you can tweak if you need to. Now, the truck did need an o2 sensor added, so I don't know how you would get around that on a boat, but I'm sure there are ways. Holley offered two of these systems for different power levels. One was essentially a two barrel with two injectors for up to 300hp, then they offered a 4 barrel version with four injectors for 300-400hp. Again, this was quite a few years ago so I'm sure the systems have changed since then, including price. But the truck did run great. Turn the key and it fired right up and would idle perfect all day long.