I think I need this... Is that a Hillborn FI injection setup? Later 1960's Can-Am maybe?
McLaren Chevrolet
- Thread starter JeffKeryk
- Start date
I thought this thread was going to be about an LS swapped F1
I saw Denny Hulme and Peter Revson race the McClaren Can-Am cars at Road Atlanta in the early 70's. There were basically no rules regarding the cars and it produced some oddball's like the six wheel Shadow and the Jim Hall vacuum ground effect cars. The McClaren's ran a 500 C.I. big block Chevy and they raced against 3 liter V-12 Ferraris and Porsche 908's. The sounds were amazing. The big block cars went by with a bass thump-thump, kind of like listening to a Harley. The Ferrari screamed by like a box full of bees. The McClaren dominance ended when the 917/30 Porsche showed up with its flat 12 turbocharged 1,000 HP engine. One vivid memory is watching Jackie Stewart drive his Lola. He was so smooooth and while his car lasted was the fastest driver by far. Trouble was his Lola rarely finished without breaking.
Last edited:
You definitely don't need that, mechanical FI is so fiddly unless it's dialed in. But it's a cool piece of history.
JHZR2
Staff member
Millions of diesels use it every day. How is it so tough?
Because the diesels use an open throat - no throttle. No need to maintain a stoichiometric mixture - just dump in fuel. More fuel equals more power. At idle and just off idle, very little fuel is going in, in proportion to the air.
But mechanical fuel injection for gasoline engines is an order of magnitude more complex, vacuum and airflow have to be measured, and the fuel flow adjusted in order to maintain the proper mixture.
Throttle transients require an adjustment of the mixture, for example. That’s why there was an accelerator pump on carburetors.
Even the Venturi effect which draws out the fuel based on flow, and works fine for steady state operation, doesn’t adequately provide fuel when the throttle is cracked open instantly, hence the extra squirt through the accelerator pump.
My BIL has a gorgeous '62 Fuelie. Those FI units were finicky, to put it nicely. Lots were removed for 4 BBl carbs. This car wins every contest it enters. There's a reason for it. Oh yeah, he got it as a basket... I think Mark has 3 complete Mechanical FI Units.
Do a nice conversion to EFI and keep the eye candy.
