[JLMounce]

...with another FiTech.

About 1.5 months out from 10 years on the my car, I got to the point of needing to replace my FiTech.

I've been working directly with their tech support, but I believe that the coil driver in the original ECU has an intermittent fault, that has been getting worse. During cruise, this is showing up as random lean dead spots causing a momentary bucking. At wide open throttle, it's less prevalent, but it may drop spark and that sends a bunch of fuel into the exhaust where it ignites.

The system stopped creating logs, so I wasn't able to do much actual troubleshooting. It was still otherwise functional however.

These are infinitely rebuildable since FiTech is committed to backwards compatibility. However, there have been some updates to the throttle body itself and given the cost, it was kind of a no-brainer to go for a completely new unit.

I always said I'd be completely transparent about these things. So after 9 years and 10.5 months of service, I'm calling this a complete failure. I could have continued to limp this thing a bit, but after spending close to 10K on a new engine last year, I'm not betting that against a $1000.00 efi system.

My total cost of ownership breakdown is below.

FiTech + frame mount fuel system - $1122.45
Tanks Inc tank, with in-tank pump and sender - $468.90
Weatherpack 6 Pin connector - ~$45.00
Various fuel system parts including replacement fittings, filters etc. $202.60

Total 10 year cost of ownership - $1838.95

Call it $200.00 bucks per month.

In that time, the only fit the system gave me was when the main harness connector burned up. That occurred after about 3 years of service and fortunately did no leave me stranded anywhere. I purchased the aforementioned weatherpack connector and spent about an hour repining the connector.

The system has been on three different interations of my engine.

-455 based 462 with stock #62's and a Comp 280h cam
-Same 462 shortblock with as cast KRE D-ports and a mild 232/238 hydraulic roller
-455 based 465 with 310 cfm KRE D-ports and a wilder 240/248 hydraulic roller

It ran great on the two previous iterations of my engine. It has run good on the current engine. However, it's my thinking that some of the tuning issues I've been chasing getting this system to my level of acceptable on this much more radical engine may be a result of whatever was going on with the ECU. I'm just now diving into tuning the new unit, so I can't comment yet on that.

It's been my experience so far, that the FiTech's fuel very well. There's no issues in the delivery department. For milder combinations, the spark control is adequate. As the engine combination gets more radical, in order to excel at street manners, the spark map needs more granularity.

Ideally, I would have upgraded to a Holley Terminator X-Max which would have given me that added granularity, use of coil near plug and the ability to control my 4l80e without the need for the secondary computer. However, when I priced this out, at nearly 4K, I couldn't honestly say that the car was going to drive $3000.00 better. So another FiTech tops the engine.

Now for some of the changes. The throttle body casting and machining is much nicer than my original unit, especially on the sealing surface. The IAC port is larger and is cast into the throttle body instead of drilled. The throttle bore openings are machined nicer, without the step of the bore sleeve as it attaches to the top plate. The butterfly shafts now have counter-sunk allen head bolts instead of screws. Finally the mounting bosses are a bit more robust.

The harness is much improved over the early iterations. The relays, and fused circuits are now divorced from the ECU and the wires have been what I'm going to refer to as "right-sized." The load channels like the constant power and fuel pump circuits were 16 gauge previously (too little especially for the fuel pump) and are now 12 gauge. The ECU is now larger and without the imbedded relays likely provide better heat sinking and dissipation for the chip and memory modules.

The intake air temp and MAP sensors are now brass instead of plastic.

The handheld controller is much larger and the display is much nicer and more feature rich. The construction is not as nice as the previous model which was more robust and had a weightier feel. The new handheld is still metal, just not as robust.

Over all I'd say that the actual product is noticeably superior to the original iteration and they've done it without increasing the price. That's commendable.

Like the first unit I purchased, I'll continue to be transparent about any issues or successes I have with this one. Knowing it's limitations in granularity, especially on the spark map, my intentions are to add an MSD-DIS stand along coil near plug setup. That will probably be a next year project. Although it adds another box to the car, I believe allowing the FiTech to fuel, while having a much more robust spark controller can likely get me 80% of the way to a Terminator X at a little over half the cost.