[DeTomaso] Aussie fuel injection

[Daniel C Jones]

> I found this on Austrailian ebay, has anyone ever used one of these:

I've examined one of those units (a side draft unit for a 350 Chevy) a
few years back when Mike Fielder of Australian Muscleparts was importing
(or rather trying to import) them to the United States.  They appeared
to be very nicely made but Mike ending up dropping them because the guy
wouldn't deliver the product.  IIRC, Mike mentioned fronting the guy
money on the 351C units and 18 months later they were still vaporware.

The price looks reasonable but note they are missing the air cleaners
and sensors.  Also, the 50mm throttle bodies may be on the small side
for a larger displacement or higher horsepower engine.  He says he makes
manifolds to suit both 2V and 4V heads but IIRC the 351C manifolds were
to have the 2V port size only and you had to live with the mismatch on
4V heads (or CHI 3V heads).

> Take a look at the 4th photo down on the left. It is a totally different
> injection but much better for a Pantera.

The side draft set-ups have a couple of potential drawbacks.  First, on
a Cleveland (the one pictured doesn't appear to be for a 351C), you may
have to remove or partially disassemble the injection to remove the valve
covers.  Second, the side draft set-ups have a relatively long runner
length which may compromise the engine's peak power.  When I ran the
simulations on my 407C, the longer runner length pumped up the low and
mid range at the expense of a lot of peak power.  YMMV but a shorter
stack down draft was a better compromise for that engine, particularly
with the relatively short Pantera 4-into-1 headers.  With longer 180
headers things may be different (never tested it so I'm not sure).  On
the plus side, a side draft can potentially clear the decklid and stock
engine screen.  As I understand it, the units were originally designed
for a touring car series, so you'd need to check it for clearance on a
Pantera.  Since they were designed as race units, they may have made
provisions to remove valve covers without disassembly.

> I found this on Austrailian ebay

The exchange rate for the US to Australian dollar is pretty good for
importing to Australia.  You may want to check with Kelly Coffield on
his Pantera EFI set-up.  They can be configured as both low profile
units that clear the Pantera engine screen and decklid:

 http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery2/v/hidden/dan/dan-cars/album04/album20/DSC01502.jpg.html
 http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery2/v/hidden/dan/dan-cars/album04/album20/DSC01504.jpg.html
 http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery2/v/hidden/dan/dan-cars/album04/album20/DSC01505.jpg.html

or taller units that require notching the decklid:

 http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery2/v/hidden/dan/dan-cars/album04/album20/DSCF2754.jpg.html
 http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery2/v/hidden/dan/dan-cars/album04/album20/DSCF2759.jpg.html

The low profile unit pictured is for my Pantera and the tall unit is
for Mad Dog's.  I'm running the 54mm throttle bodies.  I'm not sure
what size Mad Dog is using but units up to 58mm are available for the
tall stack set-ups.

BTW, the links above may change in a few days.  I'm scamming space off
a friend (those are his kid's pictures that pop up in the random view
window) and he's updating the site.

Dan Jones