so while doing nothing at work i was thinking about a project im about to start with a left over drivetrain from a 88 NA car. if you pulled the crank angel sensor and put in a distributor from a fb, would that work? would the ecu be ok? i guess what im trying to figure out is if you can get rid of the ecu all together. run a carb with the first gen distributor.

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure you can do that. But why?

 

Well like i said im starting a new project with a engine and tranny. im going to build a sandrail or some sort of cool off road thing with my extra engine and i would prefer not to have an ecu in it.

 

Ah, I must have missed that part. I'm pretty sure the distributor drops right in place of the CAS.

 

thats what i was thinking too. to bad i dont have a first gen anymore to try it real quick. so if i did that and then did like a holley carb setup or the weber carb setup could i do away with the ecu altogether?

 

its possible... i dont know why on earth you would do such a thing but it's been done before.

 

well for the second time now im going to be building a sand rail with an na drive train in it and i dont want to run an ecu in it. much simpler to run a carb and distributor.

 

I'm pretty sure you could run the engine that way, but I'm not familiar with how to drive gauges, etc that way. I guess with the project you have in mind you'd be using all aftermarket gauges anyway, so it's not as much of an issue.

 

to my knowledge the distributor can't replicate the appropriate crank position signals. You would need the ECU from the weird European spec ones that run distributors. Those use vacuum advance like the GSL-SE 1st gens.

 

^

Why would he need a Euro ECU?
No injectors to fire. What else is the ECU responsible for?

I personally don't like carburetors, but that's just me.

Carb controls your fuel. Distributor controls your ignition. Strip out all emissions control solenoids (Use a mechanical PCV for crankcase ventilation and possibly a mechanical EGR to keep exhaust temps down.) It's all you need.

 

I run a carb and left the CAS. It runs great and idles smooth. From what i read the ECU needs a TPS signal and MAF to adjust timing but my car has neither.

 

I think the sand rail is gonna see a lot more abuse than a street car. The simplicity of no electronics will put up with water and dirt getting into everything more than finding a place to put the ECU and attempting to water/dirt/shock proof it.

 

No...

The FC ECU won't trigger from the ignition coil like the GSL-SE ECU will. The only choice in this regard is the Euro ECU or something aftermarket.

If you are going to run a carb with a dizzy, then you don't need the ECU. The dizzy has ignitors which fire the coils directly.