Marine fuel injection musings

[OVERKILL]

Was at a buddy of mine from work's place today to help him winterize his 2000 MasterCraft and I was surprised to see a TBI setup on the venerable Indmar SBC situated between the main stringers. Not sure if it is an Indmar vs PCM thing, but I expected to see something port injected like our '95 Supra, not TBI

Both engines are 310HP despite the induction difference, just found it somewhat amusing to see TBI on a 5 year newer boat

 

[DoubleWasp]

TBI did continue even beyond into the new millenium. Carbs got even farther.

Does your 95 Supra have a Ford motor?

You have to remember that GM only had the spider injection system available for a long time. The marine engine manufacturers were scared poopless of spider injection and decided on continuing TBI instead.

Ford had port fuel injection available on its standard run V8 engines since the late 80's. Easy in for Ford port fuel injection. Seen some really old marine Fords with PFI. Same as the automotive. No custom job for marine. Just worked.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
TBI did continue even beyond into the new millenium. Carbs got even farther.

Does your 95 Supra have a Ford motor?

You have to remember that GM only had the spider injection system available for a long time. The marine engine manufacturers were scared poopless of spider injection and decided on continuing TBI instead.

Ford had port fuel injection available on its standard run V8 engines since the late 80's. Easy in for Ford port fuel injection. Seen some really old marine Fords with PFI. Same as the automotive. No custom job for marine. Just worked.


Yeah, we have the PCM GT40, which is a 351W Ford w/GT40 heads, GT40 intake and EEC-IV SEFI.

I was expecting something like GM's SPI setup on it, not TBI

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
TBI did continue even beyond into the new millenium. Carbs got even farther.

Does your 95 Supra have a Ford motor?

You have to remember that GM only had the spider injection system available for a long time. The marine engine manufacturers were scared poopless of spider injection and decided on continuing TBI instead.

Ford had port fuel injection available on its standard run V8 engines since the late 80's. Easy in for Ford port fuel injection. Seen some really old marine Fords with PFI. Same as the automotive. No custom job for marine. Just worked.


Yeah, we have the PCM GT40, which is a 351W Ford w/GT40 heads, GT40 intake and EEC-IV SEFI.

I was expecting something like GM's SPI setup on it, not TBI

EEC-IV blew anything GM had out of the water 'til the LS engines showed up. Who wants Multec injectors or Spider (CPFI) in a boat?? GM offered the RamJet but it used Multec injectors still.

 

[maxdustington]

TBI is junk but it lasted until 95 in trucks. 2000 with TBI is hilarious in a boat, but I guess Gen 3s were not available as crate motors at that time. I remember in car magazines at that time it was all about the Superram, Stealth Ram and the RamJet on a SBC crate motor with standalone engine management. It must have been TBI on Vortec heads for 310 hp, that is very strange if that is the case.

What is strange to me is that the "marine intake" is an alternative/upgrade to the spider injectors on those Vortec 350s. There was (I assume) a conventional PFI intake made for those engines used in marine applications. I think it was made by GM, but I remember reading about it on message boards a long time ago and my memory is a little foggy. It was quite a bit of work to swap it into a truck, probably using OEM parts that are NLA now.

They should have just slapped a TPI intake on all SBCs from 1993 on. How cool would that have been?

 

[clinebarger]

The RamJet......

 

[DoubleWasp]

I think GM was just too in love with being a cheapskate. The Ford EEC/MAF combo was pretty much Jetsons vs. Flintstones compared to TBI.

The marine industry obviously loved the small block engine to death in the 90's, but had a total hate affair with everything GM stuck in between the cylinder heads.

The hilarious part of the 310HP marine TBI is the components list:

1995 454 TBI throttle body
Edelbrock intake manifold for 4-barrel carburetor on Vortec
TBI-to-4-barrel adapter plate
GM Ramjet 350 camshaft
1.6:1 roller rockers

Adapting the marine intake to a land Vortec engine is a decent pain the rear. The Ramjet engines used the same GM MEFI computer system as the marine engines.