Ranger Mike said:
I would not bet on the carburetor going totally obsolete. There are some critical things to consider on fuel injection.
The orifice on the “ injector is super small when compared to the huge fuel jet a carb uses. Typically dirt is a bad thing in the fuel system but a very expensive killer on injectors. You need a micron mesh fuel filter. a high pressure fuel pump must be used. We are talking about excess of 85 psi pressure. These are mostly electric and located in the fuel tank. If you go mechanical pump it is a high parasitic drag item. You need high pressure fuel line to plumb it to the engine. You need a computer to monitor and control the injectors.
The venerable old carb needs a supply of gasoline and in some cases gravity feed is good enough to supply the gas. A paper fuel filter is good enough to keep out the big clumps of dirt. The venturi vacuum action is enough to suck the gas into the intake. Very simple to operate , trouble shoot and repair. And it is cheap. So I think the carb will be around for a long time.
Mebbe.
Since carbs are pretty much obsolete as OEM equipment, their numbers are necessarily dwindling over time. There are only so many old cars in use or which can be restored which still use carbs. The pollution and emission regs in inspection states are also stacked against carbs. Are there enough units still in use to keep a manufacturer like Holley in business over the long term?
Dirt's not good for any fuel system, carb or injected.
When I drove my '84 Camaro Z28, the Rochester 4-bbl worked OK, but you didn't want to get any dirty fuel in it, otherwise you would be looking at a carb overhaul. Due to emission regs., these carbs also had electronic controls which kicked in the minute you first turned the ignition key in the morning. The car would go immediately into a fast idle of about 900 RPM to get the cat. converters up to operating temperature, after which you could blip the throttle and get the idle speed down to a lopey 600 RPM or so.
The cost of FI systems is built into the price of a new car, and what you describe would be the outlay to convert a vehicle with a carb. to FI, which is an ambitious project under any circumstance. Still, there were some aftermarket kits made to adapt carbureted engines to use a throttle body injector in place of the carb.
A one time, Chevy made special crate motors that came complete with FI and the ECU which could be dropped into older cars made without FI, as a resto-mod, or as a replacement engine for newer cars which needed a boost in horsepower:
http://www.chevrolet.com/performance/crate-engines/small-block-ram-jet-350.html
After I parked the Z28, I bought a '97 Ford T-bird with the 4.6 SOHC EFI motor. A much smoother and more comfortable cruiser than the Camaro. The only FI problem I had was the idle air control valve would go out periodically, which meant the car would stall unless you kept your foot on the throttle. Still, this valve was easy to replace with simple hand tools, and the injectors, fuel pumps, and ECU always worked perfectly.
