I've just completed a very successful installation of the aftermarket Howell EFI kit on my 71 F engine and I can't believe how well this engine runs, idles and accelerates. My biggest apprehensions about going EFI was trashing the OEM air cleaner and cobbling a functional and reliable throttle linkage. Although I still don't know if my improvised OEM Air cleaner adapter is feeding the necessary 650 CFM of air the throttle body requires, I sure can't tell when fully accelerating or running down the highway at 70mph. If you look at the picture you will see that I basically knocked off STEVE H's (a fellow MUD member and forum contributor) design he use on a 2 F engine. All it required was taking a 2-3/4" section of 5" ID truck exhaust pipe that surrounds the throttle body and clears the top of the inject harnesses. As Steve H illustrated so well, I welded a thin sheet metal plate over the 5x2-3/4" stub and installed it on the throttle body. I will point out that it was necessary to pry the air filter housing bracket (bolted to cyl. head) up approximately an inch so the collar on the filter inlet was level with the plate on the adapter. Once the air cleaner was placed in the exact position to mate with the adapter, I traced the circle where the hole needed to be cut into the blank blank plate and cut it out using a 3" hole saw in my drill press. As much as the air cleaner collar looked centered on the adapter when tracing the hole pattern, it was not and is eccentric as the finished product shows. To complete the connection I welded a 3/4" long section of 3" ID steel exhaust pipe to the hole, finish ground it, painted and installed it. If you know something I don't regarding the function of this please don't hesitate to let me know. Otherwise, many thanks to Steve H and the help he gave in doing this. My next post will show a simple way to use the stock throttle cable to adapt the Rochester throttle body without modifying or changing any original parts on your Cruiser.
