i am thinking about going to a carb setup and wondering the benefits, its gonna be on my "play" motor a 318 out of a 94 ram that was burned, that im planning on stroking to a 392 and new cam and all that, but i want to do it "cheap and easy" i know it would require new intake, buying a carb, but i wouldnt have to buy a computer(right?) or as much of a wiring harness. i want a simple engine less wires and less electrical, and ltos of power. would say a 4barrel on the m1 intake be a good setup to keep me away from buying a new pcm and complete wiring harness. the engine is going to end up in a custom built frame/setup built off a chopped ram chassis.

so what do you think? advatanges/disadvantges

thanks for your input!

 

Disadavantage-Terrible fuel mileage

 

yeah, i knew that one depending on the tuning, but since its just going into a vehicle that wont even be street legal, thats not much of my concern right now

 

How much worse fuel mileage can you get, lol. It will be a pain in the but, but you can do it.

 

Dont forget you will need a different fuel pump, and have to go through all that swap entails.

I remember one day at work when nothing was going on I was daydreaming about putting a carbed big block in the ram. Haha, nice dream, not gonna do it for anything though.

 

Depends on what your plan is--if it's to fix up the burned vehicle as an off-roader, cool! If it's to throw the 5.2 magnum into your vehicle with the 5.9, it's an expensive proposition.

As a helpful cost ceiling, keep in mind you can buy a 390 HP 360 magnum stroker crate engine for $5000

--Matt

 

For a race vehicle is probably fine, but overall FI is more efficient and precise than carbs. To date, this is the best description I have ever heard of carbs:

A carburetor is nothing more than a controlled fuel leak.

 

it is going back into the currently burned truck, but it wont be atruck once i get done. and i dont want to just buy a new motor. i wanna get dirty and explore and learn stuff. plus it will be agradual build, well over a year or two, basically i ahve the money to stroke it i will do that, then save and get money to carb it, or wire it. or whatever. im not looking to spend 5k right away, im hoping to not ahve to spend 5k at all!

is it that labor intensive? any more expensive than ahve to completely rewire the the EFI? im jsut trying to figure out what all it entails?

fuel pump..
intake manifold
etc....

 

youve obviously never worked with carbs lol.

to go with a mechanical fuel pump youll have to get an LA block, there is no provision for a mech fuel pump, not a lobe on the cam to run the pump. If you want to run a carb on a magnum youll have to have an electrical fuel pump that runs off of its own power source. Forget about the wiring harness entirely. It doesnt look like the trans will be too happy without the computer, the overdrive namely (my recolection is that its an electronically activated od) so thats out of the picture. Get a 727 or something like a 200 4r with an adapter. Torque converter lockup kit, new distributor... etc. I fail to see the benifit in changing a magnum to carb, rather than getting an LA motor and putting it in place. Carb will give you better peak power, efi is better for daily driving sorta thing. Carbs dont give terrible fuel mileage if you tune them right lol. You can get almost as good. Probably not better, but not terrible in compairison.

 

Shoot I wish my Dodge had the MPG my 1975 Nova did!!! Granted the Nova had one of the greatest engines ever, a 250 Inline Six. I know it's no big bad 8 cylinder, but I'd take that engine again in a heart beat. 1996 Dodge Ram extended cab with a 250 inline six .... hmmm. How many people would mistake that for a CD? Notice no T as it wouldn't be turbo'ed. lol.