[Formulajones]

Guys are cheap over here Kris They won't spend money on the fuel system.

But I hear ya, I see about the same amount of poor install issues that cause all kinds of drivability issues, and most of that is subpar wiring. Some of it is just the old wiring in the 60 year old car, or people not finding a good clean source for the pink wire. Sadly though a lot of that stuff gets wrongly blamed on the EFI unit.

I'll just give an example on the fuel system stuff. A bunch of years ago when FAST had their EFI unit, I think this was before Holley and FiTech really took off, I installed a FAST setup on a 57 Tbird for a guy. Happens to be my neighbor. Of course he was cheap when it came to fuel delivery and just wanted an external pump mounted at the tank with a vette style regulator/filter. After all that's how they advertise these entry level EFI's to keep the price attractive so it must be okay right? LOL
I advised against it as I've had plenty of experience with external electric pumps using carbs with just 6-8 psi, knowing they don't like heat and extended run time, they just eventually wear out brushes, get weak and die. If you're lucky and pay attention you see the signs before you get stranded somewhere. If you want reliable transportation it's not the best route. There are a lot of reasons why the OEM's put that stuff in the tank. Of course all that was ignored. So I did as he requested.
Sure enough later that summer driving back from Phoenix the pump got hot and died, left him stranded about 80 miles from home. Needless to say the car came back for a new fuel tank with a nice in tank pump setup and new fuel lines all plumbed properly. That was probably about 15 years ago now, maybe more, and he's still driving the car today with no complaints or issues.

So these days when a car comes in and wants an EFI install, I just tell them up front what it's going to need for a fuel system and be prepared to add another $1000 to the price tag. If they bulk at that I tell them I'm not your guy and kindly turn them away. I'm done with putting my name on something that I know is just going to either perform subpar or simply just fail down the road, because somehow it ends up being all my fault

Now for some guys they may go for 2-3 years before they see an issue with those quickie fuel systems, keeping in mind they don't even drive 1000 miles a year, while others won't even get through the summer here in Arizona. They just roll the dice, but eventually they'll be revisiting that fuel system at some point.