I have been surprised at the recent flurry of carb postings.  I assumed that everyone was doing EFI.  having experienced total electrical failure in march on a trip to the Bahamas I was thinking a lot about that Neanderthal carb bolted under my O320 and the magnetos, all unaware of what was going on in the radio, GPS, and nav lights departments.    the reality is that you don't want a reserve battery to get you to the ground safely, you want to get to the Bahamas and back and THEN look into what's wrong.

my questions are "how much power/performance is lost with a carb, and which carbs can do manual mixture?".  is it stupid to ask if the Lycoming carb could run a 13B?  someone mentioned Harley carbs having a good history of rough service.  what about marvel/schebler?  is this question heresy? :-)  isn't efi a bit of overkill for an engine that basically runs at 100% power, 75% power and idle?  scanning thru the archives I see a lot of postings regarding mixture, mapping, abrupt failures and such.  does this complexity buy us 5%, 20%?  the question of turbo-charging seems to beg similar line of questioning.    kevin

 

Kevin,

It's probably my fault, with a number of chaps helping me out with information.

My Buddy Bill Jepson will tell you nothing beats EFI and when it's running well, he's absolutely right!

Not only that it is the best for  fuel efficiency, leaning reading fuel flow etc. etc.

However I'm developing a single rotor and looking at all sorts of issues including cost effectiveness of less elaborate installations. I'm also not keen on high pressure

fuel under the cowl.

Most importantly I'm not an electronics person and seeing the problems experienced by others has me more than a little nervous, in regard to EFI.

Of course I know very little about carbies, so their helping me with this as well.

The Revmaster might be the choice for me, but I'm awaiting the sticker shock!

George ( down under)