Changing over from injection too carburator

[Pat Johnson]

I have been recently forced with a decision to make , I've had to buy my racing partner out, the question i have is , I run a small block 406 ci Dart Little M motor with Dart 215 platinum iron eagle heads 208 and 160 ,with a edelbrock tunnel ram with a enderlee bug catcher on alcohol, the motor has only a few start ups too seat the rings and one burnout on it, it's basically a new piece .Now  since I have no longer a crew too help out, is it possible for me too change the top half of the motor as far as putting a carb set up on this without having too pull the whole motor apart changing the pistons and rings,without hurting what's already in place, I know that I will have too install a radiator and remove the 80a pump, is this a possible task  with out doing any risk too this 15k motor, I just want to go racing and have fun, but be competitive of somewhat ,or just start over with a different set up so I can do this by myself. Thanks for the help.

[masracingtd1167]

Pat Why don't you just put a primer on your car and keep the injection ? Ron's fuel injection makes a nice primer system so you can start your car on gasoline . I have one on my car and it works great !   

[dreracecar]

Not saying you CAN'T, but you should not try and run the car by yourself. only asking for trouble.
you cannot get your belts tight enough by yourself
If stuck in the lanes all belted in for any length of time, tire pressure can change
somebody you trust must give the car a final look before going in

[jeff/21]

most of the time I raced by my self becaused I travelled alot, it's doable but help is nice and i agree install a primer best of luck

[wideopen231]

I agree with primer suggestions/That said.You can just bolt a intake  and crapurator on and go run.Guess my opion of carb ?
While you can run car by yourself ,it would be lot better to have one crew guy or gal help out .

FED with cab is almost like dating your sister,just not right.IMO

[Roger]

Not knowing the compression of your engine or the specs of the camshaft, I think it’s safe to say that replacing your current alcohol FI with a carburetor & gasoline isn’t much more involved that making the physical switch itself. Get the racing gas recommended by your fuel supplier to work with your current compression ratio and use your current camshaft, or possibly replace it alone with one recommended by a reputable cam company for use with gas. As far a performance difference, consider this: probably the baddest and quickest junior fueler in the world belongs to Frank & Scott Parks. They have run a best (to my knowledge) of a 6.81 ET at Bakersfield a couple of years ago. That’s a 421” alcohol engine running at a weight break of 3.5 pounds/cubic inch or 1475 pounds total weight. Now look at an A/Econ Dragster with a 397 CI gas engine running at a weight break of 3.4 pounds/cubic inch or 1350 pounds total weight. The current record for the class is a 6.60 ET. Both cars have automatic transmissions and both run down the same quarter mile track. The slide rule tells us that the alcohol engine is making about 925 HP and the gas engine is making 930 HP to run at their respective weights. Even though the gas engine is over 20 cubic inches smaller it still makes more HP than the alcohol engine. Hmmmmmmm…

Now while there are bunch of alcoholics on this board there are also a bunch of gas hogs among us too. Gas is more convenient to operate; no need to have someone squirt fuel in it to start it or have a primer system to start, just tickle the accelerator pedal on a gas car to accomplish the same goal. While alcohol runs cooler, it takes time to build the heat in the engine while the gas engine warms up quickly. The down side to gas is the additional cooling system.

But one very critical aspect not addressed so far is the crew help issue, or the lack of in your case and in mine as well. Inexperienced crew members you might get to assist at some races can be dangerous. Last time I took my junior fuel car out I couldn’t find anyone to go with me so I used an inexperienced crew person to squirt some fuel in the injectors. Even though I waved him off from squirting fuel he continued and when the car belched, it lit the fuel coming out of the container on fire and when he realized the squirt bottle was on fire, the threw it out in the middle of the return road at Great Bend. Not cool and not safe. A friend of mine out of Oklahoma had a similar problem with his JF car when he couldn’t find good help and had an inexperienced crew literally douse the entire top of the engine with fuel (he did a poor job of squirting into the stack injectors) and when the engine coughed the entire top of the engine burst into flames right behind the starting line. His car is now for sale because he couldn’t find good reliable help either.

In the end, if it’s race day and you have a car that needs more than one person to successfully operate and you don’t have anyone competent to help you, then all you can do is sit in your shop next to your car on that nice sunny day and wish you had help as opposed to actually getting out to the track and mixing it up with the other racers. Good luck to you, whatever you end up doing.

[Oldschool]

I am changing from carb. set up to Enderle injection. I am basically removing the carb. set -up and just installing the Enderle/ tunnel ram set up. I am installing a primer to have that ability to start engine easy.
Selling my cooling system to. I would not worry about your motor,if built well.