Fellas,
I have been thinking about changing from a carb to fuelie for some time now. My current set-up is a KC 482, flat-top pistons and a hyd. roller cam, Ebok 76cc heads that Keith massaged slightly, Blue Thunder high-rise intake and a QT 780 cfm vacuum secondary carb. 480/475 rwhp and Q. I just returned from a 1400 mile road trip and netted 14+ mpg...
All I have been reading indicates that converting to a well-sorted fuel injection can/will equal 10% more power and better economy. That and I need a winter project to keep me occupied.
I want to maintain the correct appearance under the hood, and I want as close to equal length runners as I can get, off of a common plenum. The appearance piece means either a single or dual quad set-up (as you all know, the 427s didn't come with webers). The common plenum is so that the cylinders all have access to the same air so the software has a consistent base to meter the fuel, and the equal-length runners just makes sense to me....
I have narrowed my thoughts to two choices. One is already on the market in several variations, that being the single quad MPFI kit from either FAST or Edelbrock, or using a combination of hardware from Edelbrock and Holley run by several options of software: Ebok, FAST, Holley, Megasquirt, etc. This is the easiest route. It maintains close to the period correct appearance (never mind the fuel rails), has a common plenum, but doesn't do much for equal length runners.
The other option I am considering will require a bit of fabrication on the hardware side, but will still be able to be managed by one of several software options.
I am thinking of starting with a tunnel-wedge medium-riser dual-quad intake from Dove, modified with the injector bossses for MPFI, dual throttle bodies, and run by either a Holley Dominator ECU or a FAST XFI (probably Holley ATT, their user interface is easier to understand).
I was thinking it might be possible to weld the injector bosses on the bottom and hide the injectors and fuel rails inside the V of the intake. Two limiting factors would be the physical space required due to the length of the injector/fuel rail x 2 fitting between opposing cylinders and extra bracketry to support the fuel rail since gravity will be working in a direction other than straight down through the injector body.
Using this intake gets me pretty close to equal length runners and a relatively large common plenum, as well as preserving the period correct appearance.
Please fire away with what you guys see as issues going forward. At this point it is just an idea rattling around in my head. I appreciate all opinions, so long as it's more than just "that's the dumbest idea I have ever heard".
Also, I would need to contract out the fabrication work on the intake, if there are any parties interested enough to offer a quote.