Holley vs. Holley

Like Chevy versus Ford, good versus evil, and The Rock versus Triple H, the classic confrontation between carburetors and electronic fuel injection is one that will probably never end. Carburetor fans rightly point out that their favorite air and fuel mixer is reliable, easy to install and tune, affordable, and capable of making serious horsepower. Champions of EFI counter by describing its excellent throttle response and driveability, precise tuning capability, and potential to build big power across the entire powerband.

When Holley Performance offered PHR the chance to match up their new Commander 950 EFI system for big-block Chevys against a Holley 750-cfm vacuum secondary/Street Dominator manifold setup, we gave into temptation. We screwed a 9:1 compression, iron-headed 454 together, threw it in to a '80 Camaro, and headed to the chassis dyno at Paul's High Performance in Jackson, Michigan.

Proprietor Paul Svinicki has plenty of experience with both carburetion and fuel injection systems, and his help proved invaluable. For added insurance, we brought along Cary Redman from Holley to do the tuning chores on the Commander 950.

So which system won--carburetor or EFI? As our test results will show you, the answer isn't quite clear cut. Let's take a look at what we found.

What Did We Learn?
When the tire smoke cleared and the computer spit out its results, several things were obvious: The Commander 950 likes more fuel--a lot. With the original 30-pound injectors, we made a best of 306 rear-wheel horsepower at about 4,300 rpm. Factor in a 20 percent drivetrain power loss, and that figure translates into 367 weak ponies at the flywheel. With the 36-pound injectors, rear-wheel horsepower jumped up to 323 at 4,700 rpm, or about 387-plus at the flywheel. That's 17 more rear-wheel and 20-more flywheel horsepower, with just an injector change. Throttle response was awesome, too; the Holley system gave our big-block a throttle more commonly associated with high-revving small-blocks.

The carbureted setup was pretty darn good, too. It made slightly more rear wheel horsepower (309) than the EFI with the 30- pound injectors, but 15 less than the EFI with 36-pound squirters. To squeeze 15- extra horsepower from the carburetor would have required rejetting at the very least, and perhaps upgrading to a 750- or even 850-cfm double-pumper. This doesn't include the considerable amount of time to swap and recalibrate a carburetor. What would take a good half-day with a carb took us less than two hours to do with the Holley system.

We chose the wrong torque converter. Not that there is anything wrong with the 3,500-stall B&M Holeshot converter, it just stalled far too high. The Holeshot worked well with the carburetor, which was track-tuned for making midrange- and upper-rpm horsepower. But, it was all wrong for EFI and its natural low and midrange-torque capabilities. As you can see from the dyno results, we did not get any data below 3,000 rpm--right where the Holley system makes most of its torque. We tried "rolling" the throttle to get some data below the three grand, but the high converter stall-speed, combined with the EFI system's throttle response, made that impossible. As a result, the carburetor looks to be the torque king, but that is misleading. We're convinced that with a 2,000-rpm stall converter to put us in the meat of the Commander 950's powerband, the EFI will produce monstrous amounts of torque.

Out of the box, the Holley systems were very closely matched in terms of peak horsepower. Even with some jetting changes, we don't think there's much more to squeeze out of the carbureted system without stepping up to a bigger unit. But with bigger injectors and a little reprogramming, the EFI made more ponies, even with a mismatched torque converter. Install a lower stall converter, and the Commander 950's torque-producing capacity, throttle response, and ease of tuning becomes very, very hard to beat.

SUMMARY
Will this test put the carb versus EFI controversy to rest? Probably not. In our case, the systems were very closely matched in terms of peak horsepower and torque. But with bigger injectors, a lower stall converter, and another session at Paul's High Performance, there's no doubt we can get a bunch more power out of Holley's Commander 950 system, especially down low. You never know--we may be back for another round of Holley versus Holley!

INSIDE THE COMMANDER 950>/strong>

While the Commander 950 MPI Engine Management System is not a "plug-and-play" deal, Holley has made it very user-friendly for the enthusiast who has a basic understanding of how EFI works and can get around in a Windows-format laptop computer.

System Basics
The Commander 950 measures airflow by either Speed Density or Alpha-N. Speed Density calculates airflow and fuel requirements by comparing engine vacuum (measured by a Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor) and rpm to a value table in the Electronic Control Unit (ECU). This requires camshafts with less than 240-degrees duration (at .050 with a 110-degree or higher centerline) to keep vacuum high at idle for maximum driveability. Alpha-N is for race engines with aggressive cams and/or fully prepped cylinder heads. It doesn't rely on engine vacuum--it determines air and fuel requirements by measuring engine rpm and airflow via throttle position.

The Commander 950 comes with an oxygen sensor to run in "closed loop" mode for good part-throttle driveability and fuel economy on the street. For racing, you can run "open loop" without the O2 sensor. This lets you richen the air/fuel mixture for maximum power without fighting the ECU's programming. Since our 454ci V-8 is a relatively mild street/strip engine, we stuck with Speed Density in the closed loop mode.

Tuning
Tuning is based on maps for fuel enrichment and spark, easily accessed by pull-down menus. The maps are organized into cells, which represent fuel injector pulse width (fuel map) and degrees of timing (spark map). You can change the values in the cells while the engine is running so you can see the changes in real time. There are also pull-down graphs depicting the shape of the fuel and timing curves. The graphs are useful for smoothing out any high and low spots in the curves. The maps and graphs from our dyno session show you how the Commander 950 plots fuel and spark.

The Commander 950 has additional tables for Idle Air Control (the motor on the throttle body that controls idle quality and part-throttle driveability), closed-loop operation, and operating a nitrous oxide system. There is also a Data Logger feature that allows you to gather data on the engine as it's running, then save it to the computer for later evaluation. It's a great feature for fine-tuning or pinpointing problem areas.

Tuning the Commander 950 is the electronic equivalent of swapping jets and changing distributor weights, but the system gives you far more control over engine performance than you could ever have with a carburetor and a conventional ignition system. Once you get the hang of it, EFI really is the better way to feed an engine.