kiztope

I am planning on building a 400 for the 'maro one of these years, so Im actually planning for it.

Would it be best to start out with FI? or start with a 4 barrel carb?
Which would be easier to get it back on the street?

Keep in mind that it will be a fresh rebuild, brodix heads, mild street cam(Undecided).....

Which one will provide the best performance expandibility vs affordability in gas mileage and such?

Thanks!
Daniel

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Ward

iTrader: (1)

Well you have to decide between mileage and performance. A carb would be the easiest to setup, but wont give you great mileage. However, you can fine tune the carb setup to get it as efficient as possible and get fair mileage (for a 3500 Lb car with a 400). Fuel injection will geive you better mileage, but your talking alot more work and money. It would take a whole high performance FI system to feed a built 400. I am sticking to my carb for a while 1.) because I dont have alot of money for parts 2.)I know how to work on cabed stuff, but I dunno crap about FI. 3.)Its easier to upgrade.

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ede

for a trick set up i'd say FI, but it'll be harder to set up, tune, and cost way more than a carb. guess it comes down to how fast you can afford to go.

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1st & 3rd

Grim Reaper

I concur with the others, carb is simpler to setup and modify than EFI (and generally produces more power at the top-end too except when compared to something like the Miniram). But EFI will get better fuel economy (and probably emissions).

Personally, I think the overall cost difference between a good carb setup and EFI will pay for a hell of a lot of gas. Even with EFI, if you are starting to produce a lot of HP, the EFI will burn a fair amount of gas too, just not quite as much. But when idling in traffic, even EFI is a pig.

kiztope

Thanks for the help so far!

Ok, so carb is the easiest, but gas mileage sucks.

If I was to look for a FI system, I'm guessing that a TPI wouldnt supply enough fuel/air to feed it adequetly.. Am I right?

What sort of FI system would you guys recommend? This is the planning stage of what I know will be a pretty expensive project. This is why I'm planning ahead!

What intake would best fit my needs? I'm looking at wanting to run 12's eventually.

Just for thought, I know a couple of people on the board have actually put T-rams on their camaros... Would one of these things be benificial to me? I would guess that they are hard to come by, but I have plenty of time.


BTW, I want it all to fit underneath my stock hood, no cowl for me... at least until someone can come out with a good looking ram air hood.

Grim Reaper

I wouldn't say gas mileage sucks with a carb. It is lower, but maybe only 10-20% lower on the highway. In the city, it probably won't make much of a difference just because while you are idling or travelling slow...both burn a lot of gas.

Frankly, if I was building a 400 and wanted EFI, I would only consider the Miniram or the RamJet (when they get all the parts together). The stock TPI just won't be able to flow enough and given the larger displacement, it will choke at even a lower RPM than a 350.

LTRs will help remove the intake restriction but you don't need the torque enhancing properties with a 400, it already produces a ton of torque the good old fashion way, with cubic inches. Siamesed runners will help, but I still feel the Miniram is a better match, especially if you want to get the full potential of the 400 with an EFI setup.

But, for all the cost, I still say that you'd have to drive it MANY YEARS to pay for the fuel difference. It is similar to trying to build a performance engine to run on 87 grade. It can be done, but you are sacrificing a lot of power to burn the cheap gas. At some point you have to make a choice, do you want power or fuel economy?

Vader

Kiz,

Pay attention to this thread, too: https://www.thirdgen.org/messgboard/...ML/003330.html

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Later,
Vader
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pat85yellowroc

i was thinking about going with a holley tbi. pro dominator or something of the sort. not quite as expensive as the superram etc. just a thought.

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beau-t-ful yellow 85 iroc