318 4-barrel from the factory?

[Toolmanmike]

The objective is 20 to 25.

You might get 20 but 25 will take an overdrive transmission with a lock up converter if you even get there. That is really pushing the limits. Remember, the Dart Lite's

 

[Just Carbs]

In 1981 my healthy stock 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta with 305 automatic (two barrel/four barrel?) repeatedly got 24 mpg at 65 mph. The car had 70k miles on it. Nice little car it was. A pretty bronze color.
I bet the aero dynamics were not near as bad as my 1975 brick Dart are. Carter two barrel.
The Dart has a fairly tall rear gear as it is, don't remember the number.
I want the 20 in town.

 

[RemCharger]

If your 318 engine had the California 4 bbl package, it was not lean burn. Lean burn was a joke and led to Chrysler going bankrupt in 1980. Driveability was crap and that "Lean Burn" mess was what made California recall the lean burn package.
The California 4 bbl package was a stoichiometric air fuel mixture that was just slightly rich - my group in California used the catalyst to clean up emissions while the slightly rich mixture provided good driveability, good fuel economy and performance. That box on the side of the air cleaner housing has nothing to do with air fuel mixture, it only controlled spark advance despite the label on it and the California package also provided a lot of spark advance for performance/fuel economy.

Lean burn was sold to the chief engineer because one ivory tower engineer who had more ego than brains said he could save Chrysler the cost of a catalyst by using lean burn to keep emissions low. Instead it led to Chrysler going bankrupt in 1980 and also cost Chrysler to have to add a catalyst anyway to fix the problem. I was there to witness it all going down.

The story I read from those times was the engineers wanted a fuel injector and the bean counters said " f*#k no! Those are a hundred bucks a piece!!!"

 

[saforwardlook]

The story I read from those times was the engineers wanted a fuel injector and the bean counters said " f*#k no! Those are a hundred bucks a piece!!!"

I stayed with the Corporation through 1980 when they went bankrupt. No talk of fuel injectors at that time at Chrysler. Maybe after Lee Iacocca took over the company that discussion might have taken place.

 

[saforwardlook]

I stayed with the Corporation through 1980 when they went bankrupt. No talk of fuel injectors at that time at Chrysler. Maybe after Lee Iacocca took over the company that discussion might have taken place.

I reflected on this again today and then I realized that Chrysler had been working on a new electronic fuel injection system that was introduced in the new 1981 Imperials that Lee Iacocca had wanted as a unique upscale vehicle. It was called the Frank Sinatra edition. It was really not ready for production and every one of them had to be recalled and retrofitted with a carburetor as all the other regular cars had - this included new instrument panels, fuel tanks and so much more. It was a disaster and Iacocca was really humbled because Frank Sinatra was pissed that the car was a complete disaster with his name on it. It was not a multipoint injector system but rather more like a carburetor with electronically controlled fuel metering. It was a sealed system and when either a vacuum leak in a hose or even a small vacuum leak in the air cleaner lid seal to the air cleaner base, the engine would stall. When I left Chrysler there was no mention of this development project in the works as the company wanted to keep it secret.

Iacocca did much better with the Omni/Horizon and the k cars and the minivans and did eventually turn the company around.

 

[CHARLES374]

I reflected on this again today and then I realized that Chrysler had been working on a new electronic fuel injection system that was introduced in the new 1981 Imperials that Lee Iacocca had wanted as a unique upscale vehicle. It was called the Frank Sinatra edition. It was really not ready for production and every one of them had to be recalled and retrofitted with a carburetor as all the other regular cars had - this included new instrument panels, fuel tanks and so much more. It was a disaster and Iacocca was really humbled because Frank Sinatra was pissed that the car was a complete disaster with his name on it. It was not a multipoint injector system but rather more like a carburetor with electronically controlled fuel metering. It was a sealed system and when either a vacuum leak in a hose or even a small vacuum leak in the air cleaner lid seal to the air cleaner base, the engine would stall. When I left Chrysler there was no mention of this development project in the works as the company wanted to keep it secret.

Iacocca did much better with the Omni/Horizon and the k cars and the minivans and did eventually turn the company around.

I find your stories working at Chrysler very interesting.

 

[CBODY67]

In some respects, the Chrysler EFI system is simplistic, everything consolidated on the "fuel plate" (so little disruption to the assy line processes), but is quirky as the air cleaner top must seal all the way around the air cleaner body. Reason? The Mass Air Flow sensor was hidden in the snorkel, so all air must pass through it. Well before most people knew about such things! So when the air cleaner top was removed, the MAF lost its signal and the engine stopped. Which further confounded people.

In a book I bought decades ago on automotive fuel injection, it mentioned that the development of the Chrysler EFI system was farmed out to Chrysler Aerospace. Obviously, the system was rushed into production, with some failure-prone vendor parts that were inexpensive to purchase?

I was amazed at the things included in the retrofit kit. In modern times, probably best to put a current-era add-on EFI system on them that will also control spark timing. And slip a 4bbl intake and stroker crank into that 318, too!

CBODY67