Carb v.s Injection

So im having a hard time deciding what I want to do as fat as induction on my 74.I picked up a 302 and AOD out of a 90 E250 van complete with harness/fuel lines/computer etc EVERYTHING.Now the problem is what I plan to do with the car.Will be a nice weather driver with possible long freeway trips.I cant make up my mind to use the injection or just go the easy way out with a carb and intake.

things that wont change
STOCK long block
AOD


Things Id like to acheive
Decent gas milage (18+)
Good drivability
Run smoothly


I know alot of you guys aren't fond of the truck ECM and intake setup but IF I go fuel injected it is the only choice im giving.

If i was to go carb it would be a performer 289 intake a 600 holley vac and a duraspark ignition.

 

I'd stay carbed,with the AOD you should have no problem getting 20+ on the highway,my Comet gets 17 w/the old C4,5.0,B303 cam,Wieand 8011/holley 600.Running smooth/good driveability are a matter of a good carb & good carb tuning.The fuelie guys will disagree,but I wouldn't complicate MY car with all that crap so I can say it starts & idles good in January.JMO

 

you do have a problem with the van EFI it is the same setups as the trucks and if you use it you will have to cut a huge hole in the hood. The efi that most of the guys are using is off of the cars.

 

Depends on your abilities. So long as you have the knowledge and time to finish the install properly go for it.
Personally I like my Mav because of its simplicity. I spend most of my day scratching my head over new car problems and trying to install software updates into modules that makes Microsoft Windows look stable.

My Mav is kind of my escape. I get a chuckle out of working on it. Couple of wrenches and a screwdriver and away we go.

 

I said carb, because I'm an old fart that can work on the older stuff. Injection is nice when it's working right, but it's a lot easier to tune a carb than fool with all the senders and computers it takes to run injection....

 

I like a closed system,,, more eficient and allot less problems,,,specially with a Ford system

 

Hood clearance is not a concern as of yet It will be something I will work around if need be.

 

I tried it on my car, since I had one off a van, it was huge! I scrapped it and bought a used Mustang intake for 100 bucks.

 

i went with a 600 holley on my engine build mainly because i can work on it unlike the efi. also im old school.

 

Efi is good when it works but when it doesnt its a nightmare.

 

carb/intake...stupid simple...I like stupid simple(since I am) but for EFI...They do work well...if you have the time...patience...know how...and necessary info at hand to do the swap/diagnostics(oh there will be diagnostics)go for it...

 

Carb. If something goes wrong I can fix it with a screwdriver.

 

Thats the big problem. Do you have access to a scantool? Your going to need it. If you need to pay for the use of a scanner then go for the carb. I'm talking a proper scantool not just a code reader. Your going to need to read live data to make sure its all up and running. Especially O2 values. Unless of course your really good and can do it all with a multimeter.

 

I have any required scantool or tools and skills needed to complete the job.

I just cant make my mind up what i want I think the fuel injection would do what i wanted it to do,but to me nothing looks better to me then a clean carb setup.

 

Injection is nice. I swapped out a 91 Mustang 5.0 complete with the injection into my Bronco II some years back. It worked ok, but I would have had more fun with a carb. I will say that I liked the cold weather start up (I lived in Minnesota at the time) and the economy was...ok. Had it been an earlier model and I could have done the carb I would have but emmisions wouldn't allow me to. Anyhow, my vote was carb.