upgrade Holley 2210 to fuel injection?

[DonnieRockett Karting]

hello everyone, i haven't been in the forum a ton the last few months. i have a 1973 newport with the 400, holley 2210 and i don't have points in my distributor, but i have that little magnet with the splined thing in the middle, i don't remember the technical name. anyway, the car ran pretty well all summer and fall, but still starts pretty rough. once warmed up, it drives pretty decent.

but, i'd really like to get it where it fires up more like a modern car. i'm not concerned about performance upgrades, i just want it to run reliably, and have a nice rumble when i'm cruising around in my small town. i have the rumble part squared away. i've been looking around, and what i want, ideally, is some throttle body fuel injection swap for the holley 2210. and possibly some electronic ignition of some sort. i don't care about upgrading to a 4barrel equivalent, i don't want to swap intake manifolds, etc. i want to be able to go out, turn the key, and the **** just fires up and i go drive it around.

anyone have some tried and true recommendations? products to avoid? that kind of stuff? i'm probably going to pay a mechanic friend of mine to install, but he wants me to get the parts. so i'm in research mode now, as i want to get it all squared away in the next few months. thanks in advance for your help!

 

[SIPLOWGUY]

i don't remember the technical name

Reluctor

 

[SIPLOWGUY]

 

[Big_John]

hello everyone, i haven't been in the forum a ton the last few months. i have a 1973 newport with the 400, holley 2210 and i don't have points in my distributor, but i have that little magnet with the splined thing in the middle, i don't remember the technical name. anyway, the car ran pretty well all summer and fall, but still starts pretty rough. once warmed up, it drives pretty decent.

but, i'd really like to get it where it fires up more like a modern car. i'm not concerned about performance upgrades, i just want it to run reliably, and have a nice rumble when i'm cruising around in my small town. i have the rumble part squared away. i've been looking around, and what i want, ideally, is some throttle body fuel injection swap for the holley 2210. and possibly some electronic ignition of some sort. i don't care about upgrading to a 4barrel equivalent, i don't want to swap intake manifolds, etc. i want to be able to go out, turn the key, and the **** just fires up and i go drive it around.

anyone have some tried and true recommendations? products to avoid? that kind of stuff? i'm probably going to pay a mechanic friend of mine to install, but he wants me to get the parts. so i'm in research mode now, as i want to get it all squared away in the next few months. thanks in advance for your help!

IMHO... I've never done this conversion. I've looked into it a few times and decided it wasn't what I wanted to do. The amount of changes needed to the car are quite honestly, a little too much time and $$$ for me.

I've read other's adventures with doing the conversion and here's what I see... The installation seems straight forward. First thing is you have to decide how you want to deliver the fuel, and from what I read, the better way seems to be modifying the tank for a FI pump. That may mean also doing some mods to the trunk floor, but that all depends on the route you go. Next you'll have to change the ignition system to work with the FI. The FI system will need to work with the existing throttle cable and importantly, the trans "kickdown" linkage. It's not cheap to buy this stuff and a lot of work to do. If you are having someone do the work, that means lot's of billable hours.

From there, what I see is the guys that have done the change themselves will tinker with the adjustments to the FI and ignition. Most seem to get the car running decently, but I can see where they all have some good experience with tuning etc. Where I see it falling on its face is when they have a shop do the work, especially a shop that doesn't do those conversions regularly. That back and forth seems to get expensive with long down times in the shop and no really good results. It also seems like it's a deal where their "mechanic" has suggested this, probably because carburetors scare them and then there's the billable hours making for a good payday.

Of course, IMHO, to do this right, the engine should be in really good shape. Good compression etc. At minimum, I'd do a new timing chain, maybe a valve job. Depending on condition, an engine overhaul might be in order.

So, here's what I suggest... Start by doing a basic tune-up on the car. New plugs, cap, rotor, and maybe plug wires. If that helps, leave it alone. A carb rebuild might be in order, but have someone good do it. Chances are very good that the car will start and run better and you've saved thousands of dollars and many hours of time where the car sits in someone's shop.

I have 3 old cars... All carbureted. One even has points. All will start and run very nicely. My newish daily drivers aren't really that much better.

 

[CBODY67]

You already have a Chrysler factory electronic ignition on the car and electronic voltage regulator.

EFI MIGHT get you to your desired drivability, if that is the only thing you are looking for. But some serious tweaking on the existing carb might do that too. FYI, the Holley 2210 2bbl is for non-EGR engines and the similar Holley 2245 is for EGR applications. You should have the 2245. BOTH are of the same family and look pretty much the same, other than anything to do with a vac port for EGR vac.

Holley now has a Sniper 2bbl kit, which will bolt-on in place of a Holley 2210 or anything else with that same carb base gasket stud spacing. It's on their website.

In addition to the EFI items specifically, you'll also need a different distributor which has a signal the EFI computer can read. Not sure if the Chrysler factory electronic ignition will do that, so you might investigate that. IF the existing distributor will work, so much the better. IF you also want the Sniper unit to control the ignition advance and such, then you'll need a distributor with no advance in it, as the EFI computer will take over that function.

NOW, is all of that worth in the neighborhood of $3500.00 installed?

It kind of sounds like the existing carb and ignition system need some tweaking. One of the neat things about older vehicles is learning what THEY need to operate well rather than expecting them to perform as desired by the driver. Just an observation. I have heard many complain about their car not "working right" when it is tuned to factory specs, when I might get in them and they operate just like they are supposed to, with what they have on them. EFI can improve starting performance, hot and cold, but everything else needs to be working well before the EFI installation.

That same $3500.00 will go a long way toward a new Edelbrock AVS2, 4bbl intake, full ignition tune-up, new mechanical fuel pump and pump rod, and incidentals and have plenty of money left over. But I that's just me and not you.

Ant EFI can offer the drivability similar to a "new car", BUT you also need a competent person to install and get all of the initial data input for the computer to work with. Expect no increase in power, possibly incrementally better fuel economy from what your car could deliver when new. We bought a new '72 Newport Royal 400 2bbl as a left-over '72 after the '73s came out, so I have an idea of how they can perform.

Look on the Holley website for all information and videos related to their stock-replacement 2bbl EFI systems. You'll want to get the "full kit" rather than not.

Your money, your dreams, your car.

Enjoy!
CBODY67