1980 Fuel Inj. -- What month did production begin?

[RRoller123]

No, the beta is the early style TPH, with the soldered "tuna can" style. The later ones had the supply hose come in from the side, not parallel to the big air intake hose as on the earlier one.

[bjbrown]

OK, in addition to the owner's manual photos I posted earlier, I just ran across these in the factory Service Manual. These clearly show the fuel-injected engine without a throttle heater of any sort and the pictures imply a brand-new engine to me. So, two official documents from the factory showing the EFI engine without the heater. Could it be that the add-on heater ("tuna can") was added later than the original shipments? If so, why did they go to that expense and further, to the expense of adding the more integrated version later on? The only realistic reason I can imagine is that it had some benefit in meeting the stringent USA emissions control requirements.

Like I said before, I got my spider (1980 EFI - built in January, I believe) with the engine pretty much as shown in these pictures. I never had any trouble with the engine starting or running in either hot or cold weather. Here in Boise, it often gets over 100 degrees in the summer and well below zero in the winter.




So, I'm just wondering if there was a brief time when the factory shipped these engines without the heater (it would explain a lot). And, I wonder the benefit of the mechanism. I've read in the past that it's usually good to have the fuel come to the induction system cold, but does that mean it's beneficial to performance to have the air warm? Mitigate vapor lock? Help to meet emissions standards?

[vandor]

> If so, why did they go to that expense and further, to the expense of adding the more integrated version later on?

I believe it was a federal requirement to have a throttle heater to prevent the throttle plate from freezing in certain high humidity/cool weather conditions.

[bradartigue]

Like I said before, I got my spider (1980 EFI - built in January, I believe) with the engine pretty much as shown in these pictures. I never had any trouble with the engine starting or running in either hot or cold weather. Here in Boise, it often gets over 100 degrees in the summer and well below zero in the winter.

So, I'm just wondering if there was a brief time when the factory shipped these engines without the heater (it would explain a lot). And, I wonder the benefit of the mechanism. I've read in the past that it's usually good to have the fuel come to the induction system cold, but does that mean it's beneficial to performance to have the air warm? Mitigate vapor lock? Help to meet emissions standards?

What does it explain? Of course its possible but the pictures earlier in this thread show a car with the plenum having been removed and the water tubing simply bypassing where it should be. Does your car have a "T" in the big heater hose and a nipple on the intake manifold near the bolts that hold it to the head? If so then someone removed your plenum heater. If not then it's likely the heater hose was replaced with a solid one and the nipple removed and a bolt installed.

[ClarkTheShark]

Who the hell is Dan Vano? The line of text that says "Designed by Dan Vano" appears in a Wikipedia article, then seems to have been copied all over the place from there.

updated the wiki page. maybe some generation after yours and mine can at least read about them after they all rust....

[4uall]

This might help

http://www.globallistics.com/spidersweb ... iesgb.html