The last production vehicle to come with a controlled fuel leak is almost 25 years old by now. the fact of the matter is a usb port is the modern equivalent of the long flat blade screwdriver. pound for pound the same motor on efi will live longer make more power use less fuel and have better overall driveability in all weather conditions over its life.

yeah lots of us can still tune a carb but when we use one we just use it and tune it and don't ask what people would recommend cause it's old butt tech.  i mean you can only retool a holly or carter so many times and anodize it so many colors and call it a demon/edlebrock/supervelocotoiletbowl.  i recommend the one that flows enough air to feed the cubic inches you have. and if you are proficient at carb tuning then efi should really be pretty easy for you.

if you do carbs properly you already understand rich, lean, the concept of mains and in some cases idle jets as well as needle taper and shape. i would assume you are using a tailpipe sniffer or wideband 02 sensor and not just your crotch chronometer and an eyeball on the plugs to tune with. so injector size is just your main jets.  do they flow enough at max load wfo to feed the motor? we will talk about open loop which means the ecu is running preprogrammed values which is exactly the same as how a carb would operate (x amount of throttle position and vac = given amount of fuel.) the beauty of fuel injection is we can infinitely vary the needle taper by modifying the fuel delivery tables at a very exact rpm.      deciding that it needs a little extra spritz at 3200 rpm if that is what the o2 sensor is telling us as we aim for given air fuel ratios. once the fuel delivery is taken care of you can attack timing and use the knock sensor to keep if from self destructing as you tune for max power without pinging it apart.

Your little ranger used something called speed density which assumes a given preprogrammed volumetric efficiency for your engine/cam intake exhaust combination. it does not actually measure the amount of air entering the engine. it calculates it based on the air pressure / temp and the above mentioned assumed v/e  by altering the cam you change that ratio.  for want of a 30 dollar j3 adapter from moates.net and a half hour with some software you could have fixed the issue and updated the computer.

most of the stuff that is recommended is mass air based which means it actually does measure the amount of air entering the engine so changes like exhausts, cams and intakes are in many respects compatible upgrades. it is not until you get into computer component upgrades like injectors and mass air sensors that you have to start programming  The obd 1 eec IV in the fords is one of the most powerful and flexible efi computers ever designed and is actually very easy to learn to hack. check out  http://oldfuelinjection.com/

I get what you are saying about carbs but appreciate that for want of understanding a few sensors, hooking up a half dozen wires to activate the ecu  and the basic concept of altering some database tables you are missing out on the ability to really tinker with the motor and run clean doing it.  After the initial curve efi is just easier.  And i know from whence i speak.  having just played the game of gas tank body work air box throttle linkages and carbs.  tear down 4 carbs change mains assemble undo change low speed jets. repeat remove adjust needles. repeat again and again tuning the 4 carbs in my streetbike last spring.  you know what that is in fuel injection.    enter tab tab click enter tab send. miller time

OhSix'

Check MegaSquirt.

well first thing first i’m still looking into what OhSix9 and racer99 said....

The trick today is to find a good tuner for modern EFI. I don't know sh!t about it either

i’m assuming you are talking about finding someone who can tune modern EFI. well that’s money. lol if i could throw money around like the OPS (Outlaw Pro Street) guys it wouldn’t be a problem. but i’m a no money hillbilly.

now if the things that OhSix9 and racer99 are talking about is like setting up a carb but just on a laptop, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. i can tune a carb. no, i’m no Grumpy Jenkins. but i can get it about 80% right and i have a friend that if i buy him a couple of 6 packs he can get it really close to perfect.

well i guess the days of lighting your eyebrows on fire are over...

my engine will cost $18,000

wow... lol my hole charger, everything, buying the car, fixing it up, and mods was under 18,000. but then again you're a hole lot faster.

hell most of the hot rod magazine budget build articles i have to laugh at. b/c that's not a budget build to me. when they say they're going to put a $10,000 crate motor in. and here i am trying to build a motor for about $2,000.