A friend has a '79 convertible, and had a lot of trouble with the fuel injection system. He paid somebody to convert it to a carburetor. Here's what they did: Dual port manifold has the heat riser tubes cut off, probably because the '79 muffler didn't have connections for them. Oil bath air cleaner has no pre heat tube installed. Tubes from the charcoal cannister under the right fender are cut off. 34pict3 carb, 009 dizzy with the electronic ignition conversion. And here's the big concern: They left the original fuel pump, and added a pressure regulator before the carb. Regular 1/4 inch fuel lines clamped with gear clamps, and a plastic fuel filter in line, before the regulator. How much pressure does that original FI pump put out? Are those lines safe at that pressure? The car has a lot of trouble idling, and accelerating, which I bet is the lack of heat risers. But the fuel pressure thing has me most worried.
converted FI to carb
Jul 27, 2003
4 Replies
You are right to be concerned. The FI pump is a positive displacement gear pump; its output pressure is pretty much unlimited. I haven't measured it, but I would bet it's capable of way over 100 PSI. In the FI setup, there is a regulator which bypasses most of the flow back to the tank.
Put the pump (and the rest of the FI parts) up for sale and buy a cheapo electric fuel pump capable of 3 PSI or so...
I would expect further problems from the lack of a heat riser come colder weather.
Speedy Jim
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I didn't look at that. We'll see the car today, I'll let you know what they did with the heads.
The heads are the same except for valve dimensions. I don't recall anyone reporting problem with carby on the FI heads.
Speedy Jim
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