FITech Installed - Runs Great
 

So I finally installed a FITech fuel injection system and it went really well.
Two and a half years ago I asked for help to get the right parts for this project.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...54#post6156354

I took your advice and bought those parts and they sat while I retired and moved and worked on a house. But yesterday I finished the installation of a FITech 30002 Go EFI 4 600hp unit. The engine cranked twice then caught and started right up. Idle was crazy low - 500rpm - so I opened up the throttle adjustment so it would run. After it came up to temp I set the idle IAC in Idle Set Mode. Shut off engine so it stored the idle IAC. This was a critical step.

Minutes later I’m out driving on a mountain road and it’s running nicely. I’m so happy I did this.

The engine is a 455 with 87cc KRE heads, 60919 cam, 10:1 cr, headers, Dave’s Small Body HEI, and TKO 5-speed. I installed a Tanks Inc tank with a 255 Walbro in-tank pump. I redid Supply and Return fuel lines with 3/8” steel and PTFE lined -6AN hose. I put a 10 micron filter and pressure gauge right before the throttle body. I shielded the length of the blue TACH wire with 1/8” metal braid grounded at the throttle body.

No external fuel pressure regulator. No Timing Control either because my Dave’s distributor was totally dialed in - I learned that I could get more advance at cruise with that than with the ECU controlling timing.

I had a couple helpful discussions with FITech support during install, just making sure I was wiring and plumbing it correctly. They also suggested leaning out my target AFR a bit. I’m at 7000 feet altitude.

Going forward I need to adjust Fast Accel - it bogged when I stomped the pedal.
There was occasional hanging rev when shifting. And I want to make sure that injectors are off when I’m coasting downhill. I’ll be adjusting the DFCO settings I imagine. I look forward to helping this unit learn by driving in lots of different load and rpm situations.

Awesome!!! :thumbup:

That’s great - what is that plate underneath the TB?

That looks like a heat shield.

I have an old GM heat shield on the Chevelle that I've had on the car since the 80's when it had a carb. I just left it in place with the Sniper Stealth.

Yep. It’s a heat shield. Hot start difficulties led me to do everything I could.

I love my Quadrajet, but the newer FI setups are getting much more compelling.

Sweet! I love fuel injection. Carbs always give me anxiety, especially sitting in traffic on hot days.


That said...

I got an FiTech unit for my 77 TA. It was dead on arrival. Wouldn't fire the injectors. Turned out to be a dead ecu. Their customer service gave me the run around. Sent it back and told em to pound sand. It's too bad, I really wanted it to work.

Now I'm going with a Holley Sniper.

Had FI Tech and had too many problems. Put a sledge hammer to it and replaced it with Holley Sniper. Runs great.

Sorry to hear about the bad service. Fitech was really good for me when my ECU died. I learned a lot about the system as they walked me through the trouble shooting.

Welcome to the club. I've got them on my Pontiacs.

With the manual transmission, good luck on your DFCO settings. I still haven't got them right. I disabled mine and have been pleased with them being off. I never could quite get it dialed in with the AC on. No change in the gas mileage that I've charted with the DFCO on or off.

So I’m idling at 800 rpm pulling 16-17 inches of vacuum. This means I should be on the Cam 1 setting. A Ram Air IV cam (Crower 60919) in a 462 with Rhoads lifters is MILD. Kind of funny. And 1980 TA, thanks for your advice on the DFCO settings. I don’t have AC though. I’m still gonna give it a try. What settings got you close? I had a Honda Accord manual car. Going down long mountain passes I loved seeing the OBD gauge telling me I was getting 999999.9 mpg. Would be nice to not put fuel through the Pontiac engine going down these grades.

Every car will be different. What you want to do with the DFCO settings is datalog your MAP readings during powered cruise and coast. You want to set the enable threshhold under where your powered cruise usually sits so you don't accidentally enable DFCO while under powered cruise.

Next, search for your lowest MAP readings while in coast and set your DFCO return MAP a bit above that. For manual cars you may need to increase the fuel return amount and how quickly it occurs. That is what will keep the engine from stalling.

Thanks. I will be datalogging but have to wait for my PC, a refurbished cheapo laptop to arrive. $129 at Newegg. We are an Apple Mac house.
Also I want to run catalytic converters. I know this is the opposite direction most people go. I am just sick of stinky exhaust. I’ll wait till I have my settings dialed in and running close to stoichiometric as possible, then install the MagnaFlow Universal cats with metallic substrate.

I'm in the same boat regarding cats. Would prefer to not have a smelly exhaust, and the high flow cats supposedly don't hinder performance very much. Supposedly...

A good quality high flow catalytic converter isn't going to kill enough power on a street car to really be noticeable. If it's a cruiser, not smelling of exhaust is kind of nice.

I've debated catalytic converters myself. More specifically because if you have a vintage plate in Colorado they try and limit your use of the vehicle. I'm fairly sure that's ex post facto law, but that's another day.

The problem is I'm not convinced that where the cats would need to go wouldn't effect the reading of the oxygen sensor in the header collector. If you can place the cat 10-12" down stream of the oxygen sensor, that would be best, but then the cat isn't going to function as well as you've already dissipated a good amount of heat from the combustion process. OP if you do decide to go that direction, I'd love to hear how it works out for you.

Both of my 455's with EFI don't smell of exhaust when I pull in the garage. No smell on the clothes but I do leave the door open until I walk by the wall switch to close the door.

One of the things the wife loves most about the EFI is the lack of old car smell.

Customer service seems to be a second thought and evil necessity for many business these days. I have a Sniper XFlow...product problems right out of the box as well. I didn't find Holley to be particularly helpful either. Once it runs works great but these units with the controller built into the throttle body leave me wondering about longevity. Glad to hear the OP got it running.

FWIW I've had an early FiTech 30001 on my Firebird since August 2015. It has about 30000 miles on it. I've not had any heat related issues with the ECU.

The only issue I have had with the system is a burned up main harness connector. The early FiTech units used an undersized fuel pump power wire that created enough resistance to melt the main connector. It cost me about $40.00 bucks for a better weatherpack connector and about an hour of my time to rewire the main connector.

FiTech updated the harness to solve that problem around 2017.

Point being, I wouldn't worry about heat related ECU issues. It doesn't appear to be a common failure point with these systems.

80-90% of issues you see on boards is the result of poorly installed units
10-20% are the results of manufacturing issues with the biggest issues being an ECU that is DOA or a faulty injector.

I do also agree with this. Once the bugs worked out so far it's been great. I wouldn't talk anyone out of going this route but if making any decisions based on customer support and responsiveness,...seems to be hit-n-miss.

Ultimately I did have an ECU failure out of the box but before that could be confirmed I ended up trying different O2 sensor (x2) and TPS sensor and then finally the ECU. It wouldn't run in closed loop.

All in all, no regrets. Support just took a lot longer than I was prepared for. I will give them the benefit of the doubt as we were in the height of the COVID thing.

Congrats to the OP in getting up and running. The cold starts are a wonderfully uneventful thing.

I had an FITech for 4 years and I was chasing bugs the whole time. One day it would run great and the next not so much. I had(have) two systems the 600 Power Adder and the 1200 PA. I have a manual and A/C. I finally got tired of it and dropped back and punted. Much happier now with another brand...Just my experience.

I have an original Fitech unit, I did wire the fuel pump through a new connector and run the Walbro pump with no PWM.

I have been very happy with it, but had one lingering problem as I was chasing the accelerator pump for years.....just couldn't figure it out. I had an off idle stumble that would not cure with the accel pump adjustments. More fuel seemed to help but not correct it, I ended up making a lazy engine off idle with too much fuel.

I eventually put a vacuum gauge on the port timing and revved the engine, I had no port vacuum until 2000+ rpms. I had checked the secondary linkage several times by eye and it looked just fine, seemed to move together and WOT was fine. The Fitech port timing is very sensitive, I adjusted the secondary linkage one turn if I recall correctly (very little) and got it where the vacuum gauge was moving with any touch of the throttle and it smoothly added vacuum. I also added a couple more degrees of timing (14/35 all in by 2750) and it runs much better. I was able to pull out a ton of fuel for the accelerator pump and that really woke up the off idle power.

If you're having a tuneability issue with the Fitech, put a vacuum gauge on it and see what's going on. I think Fitech has it very close from the factory and works for most, but there is a tolerance build up in the linkage fittings etc. that may make it where it is just ever so slightly off, and it will have a major effect on port timing. I think this is plaguing some people that just could not get the EFI to work after trying everything. I would suggest this as a required check with any install of a Fitech EFI. Trust me, your eye is not accurate enough for this check.