Pickles

As the title says I am new to the fox body scene. Been into the diesel performance a bit but just yesterday I bought myself an 88lx hatch back. Has a e303 cam, shorty headers new clutch etc. Only thing I am a trying to figure out is the intake on the car. Apparently the original owner(had it for 23 years) had tried to convert it to a mass air system, but never could get it running right. The guy I bought it off of, spent almost $6k at shops trying to diagnose the MAF system. Eventually the car had a 650 holley and wieland intake put on just to get it running.

Now where I am at is trying to decide if I should try to get the carb set up properly(was hacked in in a rush it seems) or install the EFI system back on and try to get the MAF system running?

By the looks of it, the distributor has a vacuum advance but no hose coming off it, I am pretty sure the carb doesn't have the vacuum secondaries hooked up and the choke which is electronic doesn't work as the car is very difficult to start when hot. All the while my garage stinks of gas from it sitting in there over night.

On a side note, my speedo, oil pressure and engine temp gauges arent working which I assume are due to the fact the computer is being bypassed for the carb setup?

All things being equal and the fact the car will be an occasional driver/strip car without any major mods, what would be the best overall setup? Carb or EFI?

foxstang302

If you have all the EFI stuff I'd try and get that working theres a very good trouble shooting guide by joel5.0 google it. The gauges have nothing to do with the computer the speedo is mechanical and is probably not hooked up and the oil and coolant are electric and probably not hooked up either. Post some pics it will help people see what you are working with.

pegasus89

i agree with fox stang. i would go efi again. im shure youll get ppl saying carb. but its what ever you perfer. what was it that was wrong with the old maf set up? it could easily be done done. it just takes sum time and patiants. manyh ppl have done the maf conversion on here. as for the guages check all your wiring under the dash and where there they connnect.

mustangGT86_05

Somewhat true, BUT the cruise control systems used a digital input and the maf computer monitored it also. They also monitor the fuel pump, so if the guy who attempted to convert it did not take those 2 into consideration this may be the problem. I have heard you can get an adapter from ford to obtain a digital output from the speed gear while keeping the mechanical gauges, but autometer makes one too. The problem with the autometer one is I believe you would have to install digital gauges if you go that route.

I have researched this a good bit because I plan to do it to my car, and the speed reading seemsto create quite a bit of issues if not hooked up.