Is it worth it to convert from carburetor to fuel injection?

[spidermiami]

Hi everyone,

I just recently bought a 1976 Fiat Spider with 80,000 miles. I needed to replace the original carburetor to get the car running. The new carburetor that was installed gave some trouble and took two trips to the shop, but it's working now and the car runs fine. The shop I go to, Graveyard Classics in Fort Lauderdale, FL, recommended that I upgrade to fuel injection to prevent future problems with the carburetor.

Is this upgrade worth doing? I would really appreciate some opinions here.

Also, I'm based in south Florida, I would really appreciate some recommendations on Fiat specialists in south Florida.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Victor

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Is this upgrade worth doing? I would really appreciate some opinions here.

In my opinion, no, it's not worth doing. You would need to spend several thousands of dollars in parts to convert to fuel injection, and then probably many hours of shop labor to put it all together and get it running correctly. New intake manifold, injectors, different fuel pump and wiring, throttle body, gas pedal linkage, air intake hose, air cleaner, Air Flow Meter, ECU, oxygen sensor, wiring, two temperature sensors, different distributor (electronic ignition) and the list goes on.

What carb do you have on your '76 spider now? The stock carb would have been a 32ADFA 2/100 for 49-state cars and a 32ADFA 5/100 for cars originally sold in California. Not a bad carb, but by 1976, the carbs were pretty loaded down with emission control devices. Admittedly, fuel injection made almost all of these emission devices obsolete, and so if you have to go through smog checks, that is one distinct advantage of FI right there.

A good carb for your '76 would be a 34DMSA, properly jetted, and if your ignition system is in good order, the car should be fairly peppy and get decent gas mileage (high 20s on the highway).

-Bryan

[spidermiami]

Thank you Bryan. This is super helpful. I'm going to hold off doing any conversions. I don't know what carburetor was installed by my shop after I bought the car, but I will find out.

Thanks again!

Victor

[PeterParker]

Victor...I live down here so nice to know that there are more Spiders around.
Absolutely no way on the conversion. As already stated it would be cost prohibitive (way too expensive). Honestly having had both fuel injected and carbed. I actually prefer my Weber. If you would like a new mechanic I know a good guy.

[calvinconrad]

I suggest staying with a weber carb vs any copy. I have a weber 32/36.

[grrrdot]

I'll be the contrarian, I've converted every 124 I've owned ( four since about 2007 ) to some form of fuel injection.
Fuel injection provides more consistent power, is more reliable, less smelly and gives better fuel mileage. I can just drive the car! Or, if I want, I can spend hours tweaking settings like acceleration enrichment or engine warmup settings etc.

As pointed out it costs money and time to do it though. If you do the work yourself today its probably $1-2K to gather up all the parts. If you're having someone else do the work the sky is the limit.

-G

[MIGHTY 8]

Hello Victor,

I would like to recommend you this shop near Bal Harbor Miami:

Auto Veloce
1472 NE 130th St, North Miami, FL 33161

It’s been years since I worked with them, but they took great care of my car when I did.

Alas, I would offer my suggestion and not only keep your car carbureted, but upgrade to the Weber mentioned by others here.

Enjoy!