85_Ranger4x4
Wallows in rivers
TRS Forum Moderator
TRS Event Staff
💻 TRS Socials
Article Contributor
TRS Event Participant
TRS 20th Anniversary
VAGABOND
OTOTM Winner
V8 Engine Swap
TRS Banner 2010-2011
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2007
- Messages
- 35,286
- Points
- 2,001
- City
- Frankfort
- State - Country
- IA- USA
- Vehicle Year
- 1985
- Engine
- 5.0
- Transmission
- Manual
The more crap you add to an engine the more you choke it down...all the emissions stuff does is choke your engine down, you loose a lot of power. Even removing the cats will gain you quite a bit of power as you aren't restricting the engine's ability to breathe.
Electronics hasn't done anything other than provide a false sense of more power as it does nothing more than compensate for all the power robbed due to the emissions stuff. Not to mention all that crap just adds a bunch of weight to an already heavy vehicle.
How many factory 400+hp 302's where there back in the day? Run 12's in the quarter? That was big block turf... and it took a darn good stock big block to do it.
Now any stock Mustang GT does it with ease. With A/C, leather seats, radio, full exhaust, passing emissions and will crowd 30mpg really hard on the highway.
My brother's '11 Mustang GT weighs about the same as my dad's old SS396 Chevelle... and for that matter his 4dr '57 Chevy with a 283 as far as this supposed weight gain.
I don't know about you, but I've got far better things to do with my time than adjust a carb or set ignition points on my daily driver. It gets gas and oil changes as needed, and that's it. It starts every time. It's never flooded. It works the same in sub zero temps as it does in triple digit temps. My time is one of the few things that I can't buy or make more of and I'd hate to waste such a valuable resource on making sure I can get to work on time in some low-tech beater because I didn't like electronics.
Oh, now they ain't that bad.

fuel+fire+compression=no worries can be a beautiful thing too.

I have several carb/point/magneto machines. Ignition and fuel system upkeep are pretty minor. They don't stray far from home for elevation changes but they do get ran quite a bit year round (not this year so much, no snow worthy of plowing)
Last edited: