Apparently Holley permanently shuttered Hilborn Fuel Injection yesterday. Founded by Stuart Hilborn after WWII, the company found huge success in many forms of racing. Stu’s streamliner was the first hot rod to go 150 mph in 1948 with Howard Wilson driving. The big individual runner mechanical, and later electronic, fuel injection systems were popular on many dragsters, gassers and land-speed racers and were always kind of a sign that you were looking at something pretty serious.
Wow, that's the end of an era! Exactly, when you saw those open stacks, you knew there was serious E36 M3 happening. They always look the business.
I am sorry to hear of this. Life goes on and all that but...
One of my favorite stories I read about Hilborn was this guy building a hot rod with a 368 Lincoln Y-block a few years back. There weren't a ton of performance or dress-up parts for it, and he wanted a better-looking intake, maybe with dual quads, but no one made one. He then stumbled across a set of Hilborn injectors, and he took them out to Hilborn to have the setup rebuilt and converted to EFI. He's standing there watching an employee take them apart and inspect everything, and this old guy cames tottering up and goes "Oh, those are for a 368 Lincoln. Only made about four sets of those," and then wandered off. He looks at the employee and goes "Who was that?" and the employee goes "Oh, that was Stu Hilborn". Then he paused and goes "Oh, you didn't park in the parking lot, did you? Stu still drives himself, and once a week he backs into a car in the parking lot."
From what I'm reading, Holley ownership didn't do Hilborn a ton of favors. They closed down the original shop in California and moved everything to Kentucky and people said you couldn't get anything anymore and the support was pretty bad.
At least they didn't sell to private equity....oh wait...
In reply to A 401 CJ :
E36 M3, I'd forgotten that Holley went the private equity route.
That's sad to see. I actually spoke a number of times with one of the head guys from Hilborn that made the jump to Holley when they were acquired. He helped me tune the Atomic 2 system on my Power Wagon. Really great guy and he was super helpful in showing me all the stuff I did wrong when I was configuring my tune. Turns out I was dead wrong with a number of things!
Unfortunate reality is, there are probably not a lot of people using Hilborn injection anymore. With the advancements in DIY EFI over the past 10 years, it's basically made it obsolete, and as sad as it is to say, the guys who prefer the old mechanical stuff are dwindling by the day. I still think these setups are as cool as anything, but I don't know of anyone who would install one on a modern (or even nostalgia) build these days, even if they do look cool.
There have been places that could convert Hilborn mechanical injection systems to electronic, so they aren't necessarily obsolete.
It used to be that you could call up Hilborn with a serial number and they could tell you what the system was for and who bought it originally, I suppose that information will be lost.
I had an old VW drag bug that had Hilborn injection ,
Also there is a lot of old aircooled VW Hilborn stuff that was used in midget racing , most of those were at a 45% angle to fit the VW motor in the frame.
stuart in mn said:There have been places that could convert Hilborn mechanical injection systems to electronic, so they aren't necessarily obsolete.
Hilborn actually sold the stack injectors as electronic fuel injection as well. You could get them with mechanical or electronic, same with the injector hats for putting on top of blowers. I believe Holley hyped the deal as bringing Hilborn into the fold so that the Hilborn EFI kits could use Holley harnesses, sensors and modules.
I thought mechanical was required for some circle track classes.
To be honest I am amazed that they were still around!
Kinsler still makes mechanical FI.
Sad to see them go. I remember working on a '36 Ford that had an EFI version of Hilborn stacks on a flathead.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:I thought mechanical was required for some circle track classes.
To be honest I am amazed that they were still around!
Right you are. Not required, but was once the shizzle for upright sprinters and offset roadsters with big inch engines and in/out gearboxes. Now classed as Super Modified. Very specific in purpose. I suppose it's a little nostalgic for me to watch things change as I age. I realize I've been going to the same local 1/4 mile oval since I was a kid. Gonna have to get to it this summer and get another ground shaking fix, I guess.
The coolest thing at local track when I was 8. That was 60 years ago.
I apologize for wrangling the thread, but for those unfamiliar this might be interesting. I get the feeling that many here are younger than me. Indulge me a little, eh?
What Exactly is a SUPER Modified? (youtube.com)
Quote from comments in video:
:The bastard child of an F1 Car, an Indy Car, a Stock Car and a Sprint Car .No one knows it's genetic makeup and everyone is just too afraid to ask"
Super Modifieds do some exhibitions at our local paved oval every summer. On a quarter mile track thy are just terrifying to watch. Not that I would ever miss watching.
carbidetooth said:The coolest thing at local track when I was 8. That was 60 years ago.
Me too. They ran Modifieds at The San Jose Speedway quarter mile asphalt oval more than 60 years ago. I first got to go when I was about 8 so 59 years ago. You could hear them on Saturday nights 5 miles away. Going to the races then probably has something to do with my hearing loss but, MAN, was that amazing. It also has something to do with why I'm on this forum...
rdcyclist said:carbidetooth said:The coolest thing at local track when I was 8. That was 60 years ago.
Me too. They ran Modifieds at The San Jose Speedway quarter mile asphalt oval more than 60 years ago. I first got to go when I was about 8 so 59 years ago. You could hear them on Saturday nights 5 miles away. Going to the races then probably has something to do with my hearing loss but, MAN, was that amazing. It also has something to do with why I'm on this forum...
Huh? Speak up, man!
Hey!
Thanks for the Super Modified video.
Gotta put Oswego Speedway in my bucket list.
Rog
stuart in mn said:Kinsler still makes mechanical FI.
Came here to mention that.
Went to Kinslers about 20 years ago, its pretty small. Still don't understand how these systems work.
Holley also bought AEM and the end result was similar. They shut down the ECU side of the business, screwing existing customers and creating an uncertain future for everyone who has what was a $1400-2000 ECU. But hey, it's all about profits, so it's all good...
In reply to kb58 :
There are other very good reasons to shut down a programmable ECU business these days.
Sorry to hear about the demise of another pioneering shop. When Bill and Teri Cardell were looking to retire and sell Flyin' Miata, it was very important to them that it didn't just end up as a brand owned by a conglomerate. Hilborn is an excellent example of why.
Keith Tanner said:In reply to kb58 :
There are other very good reasons to shut down a programmable ECU business these days...
AEM had been catching heat from the EPA due to customers running the ECU in street cars - something outside their control. I'm guessing that Holley decided that whatever profits there were wasn't enough to take on any continued EPA concerns.
In reply to kb58 :
"Outside their control" means they weren't doing enough to try to control it, which is a problem. But the threat of legal action from the EPA is far more likely to be the reason for the demise of the AEM ECU than just "profits", as those EPA fines are scaled to hurt badly. Although I can tell you that selling programmable ECUs means you have to spend a lot of money on tech support.
We actually had S/N 001 of their Miata ECU back in the day IIRC.
Holley has been trying to sell a lot of other programmable EFI systems, while meanwhile AEM's EFI was often licensed from other companies such as Engine Lab and GEMS. That may have been another factor in why Holley dropped it. And if they hadn't kept any of AEM's support staff, it would likely have been a real problem for them.
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