Yea or Nea on aftermarket EFI

Yes, you're right, the efi "take over" started nearly 40 years ago, but, the last carb'd production vehicles stopped nearly 30 years ago.  I want to say 1991/1992? 

 

But an interesting thing is that all other things being equal any kind of conventional EFI system physically cannot make as much power as a carb in a point design. The carb has 2 physics advantages that cannot be denied. First is that the heat of vaporization in the intake tract from a carb results in several % improvement in VE. Port or direct EFI cannot do that. The second advantage is a pressure atomizing fuel injector at conventional pressures is really a poor atomizer and does not create a good burnable mixture. You have to rely on other parts of the induction and compression process to get there. A carbs emulsification circuit is a shockingly effective vaporization system as it add air prior to introduction to the air stream - and a fuel injector cannot do that with existing technology. I did see a Honda patent where they were trying to figure out how. Back to the above comment about old engineering being pretty smart guys.

 

Any performance application on a simple hp basis a carb makes more power. Pro Stock, Nascar, etc lost power when the rules dictated EFI, and another very interesting example is the EMC where EFI and carbs were allowed to compete more or less equal - EFI got trashed. The next EMC assigned severe restrictions to a carb to make EFI competitive until EFI was able to win.

 

Also to make it clear EFI opens up other possibilities in design and usually all other things are not equal. For example a carb cannot deal as well with G loads etc. And if you have unlimited money EFI can make up most of the power deficit. My F1 info is a number of years old, but to solve the heat of vaporization they moved the injectors outside the intake tract, and vaporization is improved with insane fuel pressures. Power adder applications the control of EFI is almost a requirement.

 

And I would not dream of giving up EFI in my daily driver - that is not point design.

I’m also not “afraid” of modern EFI. 

I just don’t like it on old cars. 

And yes, mechanical fuel injection has been around a very long time - diesels have always been fuel injected, although obviously mechanical way back when. If someone has an old time fuelie then that’s very cool. 

Which is a good point to keep in mind - there are many different levels of fuel injection, from mechanical to modern direct fuel injection and everything in-between. 

My daily driver for work is a ‘92 Firebird convertible w/ an LO3 305 TBI. That one it might be hard to argue is better than a carb, lol. 

Respect the carburetor, honor it, cherish it - EFI may have been around for 30 years, but carburetors were used for over 90 years before the advent of EFI. And some cars still use a carburetor to this day, which says a lot about the basic soundness of the design. 

Remember, a CVT is superior in almost every way compared to an old 3-speed auto tranny and even a 4-speed automatic such as a 700R4, but I wouldn’t put one of them in an old car either.