EFI for Buick 455, what do i choose ?

I bought the retrofit universal kit . The most effort was the intake, and the fuel rails. This setup is superior but isn't a plug and play solution, you have to do a lot of work yourself.
If you have a mild engine I would go with the Sniper or FiTech. Sniper has a lot better map resolution than the FiTech but for a mild engine it doesn't matter...

 

The question is..."what is considered mild?"

 

I dare to disagree! If you have a fully stocked shop with a dyno and wideband-oxygen-sensor plus all the tools to really fine-tune a carb, then the EFI may not really offer much benefit. But the average guy does not have that. If he buys a new carb or makes changes to his engine he has no way to figure out if the setup is right. He might buy any O2-sensor kit and tune the carb himself OR he has to go to a dynoshop and let an expert do it for him. In any case this is going to cost him a lot of extra money wich you have to take into account. Plus a lot of guys do not really know how to set up a carb in all the fine details. I have seen a lot of guy who have never gotten rid of stumbles. partial lean conditions, etc. How many guys run too rich or too lean without knowing it - with all the costly problems both conditions can lead to...

If you get an EFI to run (of course there are a lot of mistakes you can make), then the thing gives you livedata and tunes itself. You can rest assured that you will always run almost perfect fuel-ratios. Startup is much easier too. Throttleresponse is a little crisper. Fuel economy will be as good as it can be.

If i would buy a complete engine from you with a perfectly set up Quadrajet i would agree that an EFI would not REALLY give me much advantage....BUT this is not the situation that 99% of the guys are in. We buy some carb with some basic setting and hope for the best. Most of us never know if it is really tuned right...and if it gives troubles most do not have the knowledge to make the right adjustments.

 

I've been running 2 Osborn built Q-jets for many years. One for home @ 5500'+, the other for Vegas or Boise (2500' or so) and the one trip to Bremerton to race @ sea-level. They've worked flawlessly but I've never known if they were tuned precisely and have a helluva time hearing detonation so pretty much winging it at all times and it's always in the back of my mind.
So I've bitten the bullet and about to install the Sniper. I'll do it right and hope for good results. Planning to cruise the car a lot from 6000' to 8000' and possibly to sea-level. If this works well I'll be very pleased. Self-tuning is a top point.

 

You exactly prove my point!

 

Yeah, 2 carbs @ say $350 each(so $700) plus even a cheap O2 sensor around $200 brings the total up to $900 plus all the time to swap back and forth. With the EFI he could drive right from the 2,500 ft to the 8,000 ft without missing a beat without having to stop and swap.

 

Osborne carbs for $350? I had over $800 in a custom Q-jet.

 

I can't remember at all what I paid for the Osbornes but had good desirable number cores in 800 cfm to build. They have been great and I know it can be done to tune them but I guess I'm just not into it.

Should be firing up the Sniper within a couple days. We'll see if things work out. One concern is dual plane intake so keeping that in the back of my mind. If I go SP1 or such would have to send both the B4B and SP1 to a machine shop in Utah to match the new one up with my deck, etc.

I haven't measured yet but I think the Holley is an inch or more shorter than the Qjet so that helps if I have to go SP1. Wish I could get my ram air cleaner back on the car but.. not to be.

 

FiTech and Holley throttle bodies are about the same height (maybe a fraction shorter) than a Holley carb. Why pull the intake? Pop a 1/2in spacer in-between the throttle body and intake and be done with it. Everything I've read says you will need a spacer or single plane intake with the Sniper though.

 

Sorry, must of missed the "Osborne" before Q-jet. So yeah in that case the EFI is LESS expensive.

And that includes upgrading the fuel delivery system!

 

$800.00 for an Osborne. That’s a steal if it works great. My Dale Cubic was $1400.00,but well worth it. He built it for my engine,with all the specs and info. We then tuned it on the dyno with pump gas,and another tune for race gas,due to the different fuel weights. Can’t get it any better and very happy with it.

 

Here's my 2 cents I've been running a Pro jection 4 throttle body for 20 plus years. This is a 930 cfm with an analog box I have inside the glove compartment for on the fly tuning. I have an A/F ratio gauge so I can tweak this anytime needed and watch real time metering. The key to getting these units to run well is a 195 thermostat. If you can find them now they are cheap conversion. Set up is fairly simple needs a Tach signal return line to the tank start signal and running. My car has dipped into the 11's .

 

Time for me to come back! Installed my fitech and have it pretty much dialed in. Installation was a breeze actually.

Fresh rebuild, .030 over on a 76 block with 71 heads, no milling so around 8.5:1 ta212 cam, shorty headers, performer aluminium intake and electric fans.

Downsides, I couldn't get the thing started at the beginning. Huge pain. Crank, crank, crank. Call tech support, wait on hold for 45 min. guy come on and says, 'crack the throttle open a hair' Fired right to life!

Runs great, only have 100mile on it and it seems to be getting better everyday. I still have to crack the throttle on start up, which I shouldn't have to do. Still trying to figure that out. Idles great, even from cold. Throttle response is great. My car doesn't smell like gas anymore! Exhaust is clean and dry. My carb was always 'good enough' . Better than a lot you'd smell at the cruise nights, but not super dialed in. No more unburnt hydrocarbons!

It seems to have the world's noisiest fuel pump. Don't like that. Nowhere near as quiet as a modern OEM pump on anything you're driving today.

Off idle deceleration is going to take some getting used to. The car coasts to a stop much more like a modern vehicle, which is to say... longer.

All told, I like it. The fuel pump bugs me, as does the controller screen. The numbers (even the rpm) bounce around so much it's hard to actually get a sense of where we're at. Even at idle it seems like it's bouncing around 200rpm just as fast as the numbers can move, but you don't hear it in the engine.

 

I'm looking at doing this on my 64 with 455. The edelbrock 1407 has just about had it. Tickled to see it working for you.

Do you have to open the throttle even when warm or just cold?

 

Don't be a slave to the under 10 IAC number. So go ahead and turn the "idle adjustment screw" in a touch. That will change your IAC. Numbers are fine but you still adjust to what your motor likes.

 

^^^THIS^^^ My fitech did the same thing until I tweaked the idle screw. I followed the Fitech instructions (so my IAC numbers are still under 10, whether that truly matters as Doug said) and it resolved the issue

 

For those of you who have this "upgrade" can we get an itemized list of the cost and time it took to "get it dialed it". Did you see a difference in the fuel mileage?

I guess I'm just too cheap to even consider a four digit upgrade that I don't know if I would ever recoup the costs in better mileage. Like an overdrive trans upgrade, those costs can buy a lot of fuel. I never really had a hard time tuning a carb but it does take patience. I guess I have seen the other side with the turbo regal and its port fuel injection but these systems seem much more like the setup on the 94 suburban and I just don't see a great up side in a big injector or four dumping fuel in like a carb can.

Thanks for all the input above. It is all good info.

 

Itemized list of costs:

Master efi 400 kit was about $1500 Canadian.
One spread bore to square bore adapter was $15
A handful of clamps and brackets to attach fuel line to frame and firewall was $10.

 

So, $1525 Canadian. How long does it take to get it all installed and tuned well so you are getting better startup, cruise and mileage?