I was never impressed with the factory TBI. For me it would be a last resort I guess. Just too much going on and not enough tune ability. Even the lower performance aftermarket setups have super ceded the old TBI. Plus there is a lot less wiring and nonsense. I mean a factory setup will be used stuff and no guarantee that it will even work correctly to begin with. The Fitech setup is looking like the easiest performance based FI for the money. I know there are others and I might explore those as well but for now I can see no downside of the Fitech setup other than price which I am willing to pay.
Eh...if something goes wrong, where do you get parts? TBI was designed, tested, and proven by the OEM, no aftermarket manufacturer can afford to invest anywhere near what GM did.
Factory EFI has been proven over decades to be robust and reliable. Any of the aftermarket stuff has what, maybe a few years at best now, since they keep changing them? My distributor is 1988, I've replaced the pickup and coil, but those only failed after ~15 years of use. Injectors lasted nearly as long. All the wiring is original 1988. IAC, TPS, MAT, MAF, probably some I'm forgetting.
There is no more simplicity with the aftermarket setups IMO, because to get the same results, you have to have the same components. You might make things *cleaner* by putting everything in the same housing, but the same operations have to be completed, the same general sensors have to be used, unless you go with something like Ramjet where they remove O2 sensor input, which doesn't really make things much easier IMO.
Tuning is probably one advantage aftermarket has, especially considering any that are stock with a wideband O2. That really does come into play if you are modifying things with TBI, as tuning IS more difficult. And I will definitely concede that point. But generally, up to this point, simplicity comes at the cost of function or performance...with the wideband O2 setups, that may have changed.
Most of the more modern aftermarket setups do seem to work pretty well, but time will tell if they are going to last I suppose. At some point there will be diminishing returns for the aftermarket to make this stuff as the LS swaps continue to take larger chunks (consumers) out of the SBC/BBC market.
