Port Fuel Injection For Studebakers Project

[SilverHawkDan]

I have been working on an idea to build a port fuel injection for Studebaker V8 that is affordable and is easy to install. I am building the prototype for my 259. I thought I would share my idea with the Stude world. I am using a Mopar/Holley set up off of a 318. I got a manifold with injectors today so now I have the pieces I need to start mocking it up. So I offer some pictures of the rough mock up I did today and will try to keep the progress of this up to date.



If all goes well our Studebakers will be able to be more fun and affordable to drive.
Dan

[SilverHawkDan]

Here is a picture of the engine as it was this morning.

Some eye candy for all of you.

[PlainBrownR2]

Cool!! Another one joins the flock, hehehe!!!

[LarkTruck]

Dan, if you can make that set up work count me in! We are all going to need something like that for our 'drivers', more than ever as Big Brother keeps destroying our gasoline.
Jim

[r1lark]

Dan, I've considered the same thing. (My '93 Jeep 5.2 has the same/similar injection system.) My thought was whether Jeff Rice can adapt the whole Mopar EFI manifold using his system of welding the manifold to his adapter plates.

[JoeHall]

Fitment onto the manifold may be the most difficult part, and it looks like you are well on your way to conquering it. For the electronics part, I'd recommend talking to Bill Hamilton at "Hamilton Fuel Injection". He has helped many folks put EFI (TBI) on their orphan vehicles, and is often referred to as the Bill Gates of EFI by folks who have gotten to know him.

He recently installed TPI on his IHI Scout, and found no significant benefit over TBI, if I understood correctly.

He did a plug & play, TBI kit for my 62 GT, which is coming up on 10,000 trouble free miles.

[gordr]

Just my .02, but if you look at the large number of late-model cars with EFI, you will note that long, gently-curved intake runners are nearly always used. EFI makes it possible, and easy, to use tuned intake runners that boost torque at lower RPM. Unless one is planning to go with the Paxton blower, why bother with welding bungs in a stock manifold?

[PlainBrownR2]

This method could be construed as one of the cheaper and dirtier method to port injection, aside from constructing a whole new manifold. We don't have any real aftermarket intake manifolds floating around with bungs already in them, and the stock Studebaker manifold easily bolts to the heads, so we need to use what we currently have. With the system I'm using it's also standard practice outside of the Studebakers to use the OEM manifold, even if it was wasn't made for fuel injection. One case that came to mind was an owner of a Jeep who did the same thing. He drilled some holes in the runners, and poked the bungs through. The main objectives of this method were; The bungs should align with the fuel rail, the bungs try to be aimed at the back of the intake valve in the head, and that the holes were big enough to either press the bungs in place and/or be able to be welded or epoxied so they don't fall into the intake manifold or the head. The main reason to weld(or to a lesser extent, epoxy) the bungs into the manifold is to not only seal them as the manifold is also using vacuum, but it also keeps them from coming loose and falling into the head! It's preferable to weld them in if an individual has the skills, and it doesn't involve "gluing" these kinds of parts together, where heat and cold could cause things to separate from each other. I did it to mine, but only because I don't have the equipment to weld aluminum to cast iron, and I had to size the holes accordingly so they pressed into place. Anyway, the bungs can be poked pretty far down into the manifold, but to keep obstructions and blockage of airflow down, it's best to keep it as flush to the inside wall of the manifold as possible.
This is also a fine opportunity to rid somebody of a 2 bbl manifold that someone doesn't need, and I know there are ALOT of them floating around. I didn't use the 4 bbl version because of how valuable those things are, so I used the commonly available late model 2 bbl manifold and machined out the plenum to the size that I needed.

[ronhusak]

Hi All..
Anyone working on a TBI for an R2 Avanti? With the altitude I live at 9200 feet and the large swings in altitude as I drive it would be a godsend..
Ron Husak

[JoeHall]

Hi All..
Anyone working on a TBI for an R2 Avanti? With the altitude I live at 9200 feet and the large swings in altitude as I drive it would be a godsend..
Ron Husak

SDC Member Joe Rink (sp?) has EFI on his R1 Avanti. We had a nice talk at SB last year and he swears by it. I understand he's gonna give a seminar at the IM in Colorado this July. I am sure he could answer your questions about possible EFI in an R2.