Carb Engines (Please read)

O'brienGotWake · Posted: Apr 09, 2003 8:11 am Post subject: Carb Engines (Please read)

Im lookin at getting a 98 air Nat the only question is it doesnt have the EFI GT-40 i was wondering if i would be making a mistake not finding one with an EFI. Is There any problems besides having to wait for it to warm up. Is there a power issue when loaded with weight. Is it worth the extra cash and/or time find a boat with the EFI Thanks for ur help (even if its not a SN please comment on this topic)

eeven73 · Posted: Apr 09, 2003 8:25 am Post subject:

I had a carb mastercraft prostar 351. If you have plans on going to areas of different alltitude, this can be an issue that will affect performance. EFI elimantates this issue

eeven73 · Posted: Apr 09, 2003 8:27 am Post subject:

eliminates not elimantates sorry

OttoNP · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 848 City: MI

Of course fuel injection is better, it all depends on what is important to you. The power difference between the two won't be that large. Also, although a fuel injected engine will start better in the cold, warm up is important for both.

Personally, I would consider fuel injection the icing on the cake and a lack of fuel injection not a dealbreaker. The modern carburetor is quite impressive.

Nick
________
Lolol

slaybell · Newbie Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

Carbs are not bad engines by any means. They are much easier (and cheaper) to work on because there is smply less involved. The guys before me are right, you may lose a touch of power, but not enough to notice. If you are running the boat at a consistent altitude, you won't have any trouble.
Also, I've heard of people going back and modifying their engines to EFI. It can be done fairly reasonably.
Don't let the deal pass you by if it's sweet. Pay off the boat and then add EFI in 3-4 years.

Breezer · Outlaw Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 246 City: Austin

How much $$$ would it cost to add EFI. I have the 310hp Indmar. An approximation is all I need. My carb engine is great, but I plan on having the boat for many more years.

mainelaker · Posted: Apr 09, 2003 12:28 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't waste time adding EFI (if it can be done on a boat?) for the simple fact that carbs work. If properly set up they work really well. With EFI there is no way to overcome a flat spot or stumble in the power band. If an EFI boat is "mapped" wrong, i.e. wrong fuel curve there is no way to compensate for it.

mkcarte2 · Outlaw Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 168 City: raliegh, nc

yes i agree that efi is an added bonus. Carbs work just fine and are easy to tune and work on if you have problems. Power should not be a problem if they are kept in tune.

glsurf · Outlaw Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 117 City: Tampa, FL

Dude, you're buying a 98 for around $20k right? Why not just keep looking and find one with EFI. I have a carb and would definitely prefer an EFI. The older they get the harder they are to warm up. Maybe it's just me and my boat, but I would definitely prefer carb.

Cowie · Posted: Apr 09, 2003 9:08 pm Post subject:

Speaking from the experience of having a carbied motor and now owning an EFI motor get EFI. Iagree with all the other posts here regarding properly set up carbies, they work and have the benefit of being relatively simple to set up and tune yourself if you have some mechanical knowledge. The biggest difference we found between a carbied motor and EFI motor of about the same horsepower was the fuel consumption. Efi is way superior. Smile

So if you are planning in running weight, Which we do try and get efi. The other thing that were pleased with was the lack of work we have had to do to the motor. More often than not we had to fiddle with the carby to get the thing running sweetly. I suppose very few car manufactureres offer carbied motors these days for a good reason.
i wouldnt go back to a carbied motor no matter how cheap.

snowboardcorey · Posted: Apr 10, 2003 10:54 am Post subject:

EFI also works much better with perfect pass, you can install it on a carbed engine, but I have heard its not as reliable or as precise.

salmon_tacos · Posted: Apr 10, 2003 11:09 am Post subject:

The parts for an EFI conversion would run you a bit more than $1K for a throttle body injection system, or more like $2K+ for an MPI system.

Those aftermarket systems usually have fully programmable ECUs meaning that there IS a way to overcome a flat spot or stumble. The only problem is that such tuning is usually done on a dyno (easy for a car...probably harder for a boat). I guess carb tuning would ideally be done on a dyno too though so maybe that's a moot point.

All that said, an upgrade probably wouldn't be worth it especially after all the labor involved in installation and tuning.

Cyclonecj · Soul Rider Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 338 City: Atlanta

If you are looking at spending 20k anyway, I would think that you could buy an EFI or MPI boat for not a lot more anyway. Financing is dirt cheap these days. And remember, you can't put a price on fun Smile

boehnkew · Outlaw Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 112 City: Kennewick, WA

I recently (last summer) bought a '95 Maristar w/ EFI. I wouldn't go back to a carb engine either. On my dad's '86 SN 2001 it was becoming very tricky to get the thing started (he finally had it rebuilt so it should work fine now). Perhaps if you know what your doing it isn't that big of a deal to adjust, but I'd rather not have to.

Good luck,

Willy