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AMC had intended to offer the Bendix unit on its 1957 Rambler Rebel, a quick little 327 powered car that could match the 300C's 0-60 times. The picture below from the New York Auto Show features the Rebel. In front of the car is the engine with the Bendix unit. This was to be the first electronic fuel injected production engine, but problems with the Bendix "Electrojector" unit meant that only a few engineering and press cars were built, estimated to be no more than six units, but at least two were known to have been built. One was sent to Daytona Beach for Speed Week. It was the second fastest car on the beach, bested only by a 57 Corvette with mechanical fuel injection, and only by a couple tenths of a second! The EFI 327 was rated at 288 hp, the production 4V carbureted model at 255 hp. All the EFI cars were reportedly converted to 4V carb before being sold -- none are known to have existed outside the engineering department at AMC. The main problem was that early transistor electronics just couldn't keep up with the demands of "on the fly" engine controls. Here is an excerpt from the owner's manual:

"Electrojector" Fuel Injection System
The optional Bendix system is monitored by an electronic control box, located on the right side panel under the instrument panel, to gather the following data; full throttle enrichment, acceleration enrichment, idling requirements, fuel enrichment for quick starts and warmups, and deceleration fuel cutoff. The control box gathers this information and correlates it for timing the fuel charge by electrically actuating the injectors. The injectors spray fuel directly into each intake port in calibrated quantities at timed intervals.

Horsepower: 255 @4700 RPM (4-barrel carb)
288 @4700 RPM (Electrojector equipped)



Fuel delivery is accomplished by a trigger selector unit driven by a flex-cable from the ignition distributor. This breaker point control unit controls time interval for fuel delivery to each injector.

An electric fuel pump delivers fuel at a constant pressure (20 PSI) from the gas tank to the injectors by a common-rail fuel line system with a tank return line. This fuel pump is adjacent to the gas tank and is activated when ignition is turned on. A fuel filter in the engine compartment insures against foreign particles.

Your authorized dealer has factory-trained personnel to service the fuel injection system.


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Chrysler records show only 35 cars built with the complex multi-port system which had two dual-point distributors; one for the ignition, and one for the injectors. An electric fuel pump was mounted in the gas tank, and two "black boxes," a resistance box and a modulator box, were mounted to the radiator support and were the brains of the system. (Apparently the brain suffered from a tumor.) The system was built by Bendix Aviation in Elmira, New York, and was first used on aircraft during the Korean War. Aircraft engines require fuel systems that only need to work at idle or wide-open throttle, so the Bendix engineers had to devise a way to make the system work in a car. In theory it worked, but the system proved very troublesome due to the crude wax paper covered capacitors inside the black box, which failed often. Me, I would have used aluminum foil from a TV dinner. At least that way, when the thing crapped out in the middle of nowhere, you could have something to eat. I kinda like those Hungry Man Veal Parmigiana dinners myself. Across town, GM's simpler Rochester mechanical fuel injection system proved far more reliable, though few people wanted to pay for it.

The Bendix system had many components modern fuel-injection systems employ including a fuel-pressure regulator, fuel rails, individual injectors, throttle positioning valve, an electronic cold start and warm up sensor, primary and secondary throttle bodies, manifold vacuum sensor, idle sensor, air temperature sensor, acceleration sensor and two fuel lines. Roller skates in the trunk were under consideration when the option was discontinued.

The difference between a carburetor and fuel injection is how fuel is supplied to an engine. With a conventional system, a fuel pump mounted on the engine gets fuel from the tank and forces it into the carburetor. There, the fuel is mixed with air and passed through the intake manifold to the engine's combustion chambers. A fuel injection system supplies fuel to the engine by an electric powered pump in the gas tank. Injectors on the intake manifold backed by electronic controls determine the exact amount of fuel to be delivered into the cylinder's intake ports. The advantages of the Bendix system were faster warmups and performance gains while the engine was cold because the proper fuel-air mixture ratios and distribution were more easily maintained. The main disadvantage was sore feet from hoofing it to the nearest telephone booth to call for a ride home.



This is how the Bendix system was supposed to work:

Electronically controlled and electrically actuated, the Electrojector had a transistor equipped modulator, about 5 inches in size. Watch it, I know what you're thinking. The brain took a timed electrical signal from the ignition distributor. It sensed, through tiny electronic transmitting devices located at key points on the engine, the engine's temperature, throttle position, manifold pressure and even the altitude (or density) of the air being sucked into the cylinders. The modulator integrated all of the information received and instantly translated this data into a control signal that actuated the injectors. This was according to an article in Bendixline, a company newsletter dated Sept. 28, 1956, obviously written by an optimist. In a 1956 Bendix newsletter, company President Malcolm P. Ferguson announced that fuel injection "will replace the carburetor and improve performance." Sorry Malcolm, sober up and smell the death threats.

Ferguson also said in that issue, "Compared to the latest four-barrel carburetor designed for high performance engines, the 'Electrojector' system provides between 10 and 20 more horsepower — achieved at lower engine rpm throughout the whole range of speeds, boosts fuel economy, achieves quicker starts and warmups, eliminates the 'smog' problem created by unburned fuel exhausted from the engine and is a system with a minimum of moving parts." The one part that tended not to move at all was the entire car, but what the heck, these guys probably drove Oldsmobiles.


Tom White's 1958 DeSoto Adventurer F.I. Convertible

One man who knows a lot about the Bendix system is Tom White of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, who owns a 1958 Adventurer, one of only 82 convertibles built that year. Today, only five 1958 Adventurer convertibles are known to exist; White owns two, there are two in Sweden, and the fifth is in Wisconsin. But White's car is a little different, and just a tad more valuable. Chrysler Historical Records show White's gold Adventurer to be the only DeSoto built with and retaining fuel injection remaining.