[Jeffs64Cat]

Ok here’s the story. Since starting my build on my 64 Catalina I was looking at doing some kind of fuel injection. Didn’t know what to go with. I mean they all have their problems. I’m the type to read and read to find the right choice to go with. Well my mind was going back and forth on what to do! I thought about Holley then the Port injected be Edelbrock but that was going to work on my motor so looked at fitech and then read about problems from them. So I brought a Carter competition off eBay installed it on the motor and broke the cam in with it. Made the car run great but was running to rich at a idle. So rebuilt the 3326 that was on the intake when I brought it off eBay. With a kit from the Carburetor shop. It ran good but had its own problems with a hunting off idle. I had the top of the carburetor off 6 times in one afternoon adjusting it. I talked to many people here and just adjusted it to where I was told to. It ran ok. Still had to off idle flat spot where the car jerked in any gear.

All along I had be messaging a member here about fuel injection and he told me the Fitech system was working for him great and if he brought another system it would be a Fitech. Well I continued to read up on it. He had suggested the forums on Facebook. So I joined there and kept my research going. Then after a while I wrote him back saying I was afraid of it because a lot of bad things were being said about it.. He told me the people installing it wrong and not following the directions correctly were giving it a bad rap. He continued to tell me he brought another system for his wife’s car and it was working flawlessly to just follow the directions and I’d be good. To put in tank fuel pump on my car which is the best way to do it.


Well I went ahead and brought the Fitech Go Efi 4 600 system with the Fuel Command Center 2.0.
Reason I didn’t do intank is my tank is only 5” deep and the intank setup wouldn’t work. Plus no one makes a tank setup for efi for my Catalina. The new FCC 2.0 was better than the original.

In all the research I did I found out that I needed to run a extra ground from the fitech unit to the battery, buy a AC Delco temperature sensor, run a return line to my tank and installed a vent in the tank. I also ordered a weld in O2 bung because I didn’t like the setup included with it. I also brought a 30 amp relay for the FCC system.

I started off removing my tank and installed the return and vent fitting in the tank. Then ran 3/8” steel return line. Then drilled and tapped my intake to 1/2” Npt for the temperature sensor because I want to keep my original one for my gauge set. Then installed the FCC next to the battery inside the front fender. Ran line under fender and out at rear by windshield washer. Next installed fitech unit on 1/2 spacer and torqued down routed wiring away from dizzy and hot sources. Drilled 7/8” hole and welded in O2 bung. Installed o2 sensor and routed harness.
Wired relay for fuel pump, and fitech harnesss.
Primed system to check for leaks and then programmed info into the ecu. Started within two spins for the motor and I let it warm up to closed loop and shut down did the IAC Steps and restarted engine and let it learn.
Ran in garage for 30 minutes and shut it down and got car ready for test drive.

I’m going to tell you this system is worth every penny I spent. Test drive was unreal. Throttle response out of this world and it woke up the beast in my motor. No jerking no problems at all just smooth driving.

I want to give special thanks to JLMounce for putting up with all my questions and concerns over the past year. He quickly returned all my messages with expertise advise and explaining everything.

[1funride]

The single best improvements I made, love it. I only have experience with the FiTech, it works great. I imagine the other systems work well also.

[JLMounce]

Jeff, glad to hear the install went good! These TBI style injection systems (holley, fitech, fast etc.) are great little kits for people that just want to get out from a carb. As I mentioned, the install just has to be done correctly and the car needs to be free of electrical issues that the carb may be masking.

As you continue to drive and put miles on it, you'll find little things here and there that you'll want to tweak, but there's a lot of information out there to help you out.

Appreciate the kind words

[napster]

I have Fitech on my 1970 GTO. It works fantastic. The only thing I suggest is to make sure you keep the battery hooked up to it. I have a battery cutoff switch and used it once at a show. Big mistake. When I went to leave I had a really hard time starting it up. Turns out the computer is wiped clean when the battery was shutdown. All of the items the computer learned was lost and had to start all over to relearn everything.

I now have a hookup to the computer so when I use the battery cutoff switch it will not stop power to the ECU.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by napster

I have Fitech on my 1970 GTO. It works fantastic. The only thing I suggest is to make sure you keep the battery hooked up to it. I have a battery cutoff switch and used it once at a show. Big mistake. When I went to leave I had a really hard time starting it up. Turns out the computer is wiped clean when the battery was shutdown. All of the items the computer learned was lost and had to start all over to relearn everything.

I now have a hookup to the computer so when I use the battery cutoff switch it will not stop power to the ECU.

I bet some people would do exactly the same thing (I also have a Battery Cut-off in place).
When I go EFI at some point with my Warrior Intake/Holley Plenum EFI set-up I will make sure I power the EFI on a separate circuit vs the Starter/Ignition Circuit.

Thanks Again, napster.

Tom V.

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by napster

I have Fitech on my 1970 GTO. It works fantastic. The only thing I suggest is to make sure you keep the battery hooked up to it. I have a battery cutoff switch and used it once at a show. Big mistake. When I went to leave I had a really hard time starting it up. Turns out the computer is wiped clean when the battery was shutdown. All of the items the computer learned was lost and had to start all over to relearn everything.

I now have a hookup to the computer so when I use the battery cutoff switch it will not stop power to the ECU.

That shouldn't be happening. The ECU is solid state and doesn't need a constant battery source. What can cause an issue is if the battery is removed, or a kill switch engaged immediately after shut down.

The ECU saves it's learn data on each shut down of the system. If you're watching the hand held, that process has completed after shut down once the data on the handheld disappears. At that point the ECU has stopped communicating with it's sensors and has powered down. You should be safe to remove the battery or engage a battery kill at this point.

If you're not watching the hand held, just wait about 45 seconds before killing the battery.

[Jeffs64Cat]

Originally Posted by JLMounce

Jeff, glad to hear the install went good! These TBI style injection systems (holley, fitech, fast etc.) are great little kits for people that just want to get out from a carb. As I mentioned, the install just has to be done correctly and the car needs to be free of electrical issues that the carb may be masking.

As you continue to drive and put miles on it, you'll find little things here and there that you'll want to tweak, but there's a lot of information out there to help you out.

Appreciate the kind words

Your Welcome Jason,

I’ve been driving and enjoying it. I’ve got over 500 miles on the system. I installed it at my 500 miles on the breakin on my motor. Now my motor has 1000 miles on it.

[goat1964-2004]

Did you need an adapter plate for your intake?

[Jeffs64Cat]

Originally Posted by goat1964-2004

Did you need an adapter plate for your intake?

Goat,

No I didn’t need a adapter plate. I had the wood spacer under my carb and decided to leave it under the Tbi unit for heat control. Fitech fits our intakes.

[JC455]

What is this GM Temp sensor you speak of?

[XLR8STEVE]

Love my Fitechs. I now have 2. With in tank pumps and PTFE braided lines, they are a dream. 99% of problems are usually install related. Vac and exh leaks, bad wiring, etc. I love them on stick cars you can tune the DFCO variables to make it cackle on downshifts.

[JLMounce]

There's been several individuals that have tested most of the known coolant temp sensors and the AC Delco part appears to be the most accurate.

Here's the deal on those temp sensors. What people are seeing is a discrepancy from what the TBI units are showing as coolant temp and what their auxiliary gauge is showing them. It's natural to want those to match as much as possible, and for the most accurate fueling, you don't want an inaccurate coolant temp reading.

That said, no two points in the coolant system are going to by the same temperature always. Additionally, minor differences in coolant reading doesn't really effect fueling that much because of how it's used to calculate cylinder temperature.

The coolant temp is weighed against the intake air temperature to produce the average cylinder temperature. The computer then uses that data along with it's other sensors (wideband o2, MAP, TPS) to calculate the amount of fuel to deliver. Against the whole of the calculation, a variance of 10 degrees or so in CT doesn't make a big difference.

If your goal was to get as close to perfect as possible, you would actually want the CTS to be a quality unit and it absolutely should be in the head. It's going to always read higher there vs in the water cross-over. anyhow.

Point being, if you're worried about the CTS accuracy against your mechanical gauge in the cross-over, it's really not that big of a deal. But the part is cheap, so if you want piece of mind, have at it!

[Jeffs64Cat]

Originally Posted by JC455

What is this GM Temp sensor you speak of?

As Jason commented on many have problems with the one included in the system to read 15-30 degrees off. So I changed mine out. It was only 12.00 to do so. Below is the one Bryce from Fitech recommends.

[1968GTO421]

Originally Posted by Jeffs64Cat

As Jason commented on many have problems with the one included in the system to read 15-30 degrees off. So I changed mine out. It was only 12.00 to do so. Below is the one Bryce from Fitech recommends.

Did you acquire the AC/Delco one through FITech , a GM dealer, eGay or who?
Thanks!

[JLMounce]

You can probably get it from all of those sources. Here's a link to it on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/ACDelco-213-9...gateway&sr=8-3

[JC455]

Cool, thanks fellas! I was unaware of a discrepancy in the sending unit provided, but I'll gladly upgrade the sensor in my Summit FI unit(made by FiTech), just for the piece of mind... I like things to jive, when I'm comparing data from multiple sources.

[Jeffs64Cat]

Originally Posted by 1968GTO421

Did you acquire the AC/Delco one through FITech , a GM dealer, eGay or who?
Thanks!

Amazon

[Mace1971]

Originally Posted by Jeffs64Cat

As Jason commented on many have problems with the one included in the system to read 15-30 degrees off. So I changed mine out. It was only 12.00 to do so. Below is the one Bryce from Fitech recommends.

So FiTech recommends changing their supplied sensor with an AC Delco? Who makes theirs?

[JonW]

I have a FiTech system on my '62 Lincoln. Have 6000 trouble-free miles on it. Put a FiTech system on my '79 Lincoln that was giving me considerable trouble with various fuel issues. No more, it runs like a champ. My '68 Cutlass that I'm getting back in a couple of weeks has it, and my GTO will have it as well. I'm a huge fan of fuel injection in general and FiTech in particular.

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by Mace1971

So FiTech recommends changing their supplied sensor with an AC Delco? Who makes theirs?

I don't think FiTech themselves recommend it, but users of the system do. There's no actual conclusion as to why the temp sensors don't read accurate to mechanical gauges, but one theory is differences in resistance in the sensors themselves. It's important to note that this isn't a FiTech only issue. You can find the same complaint to one degree or another for all of these kits.

I mentioned previously, that ultimately it's not a big deal unless it's just a piece of mind thing. The only thing that you absolutely have to have from the temp sensor is a reading above 150 degrees. The system will not start its learn function until that threshold.

If the temp sensor is off large figures (like 30-40+ degrees) you could possibly run into a situation where the fuel table is off enough from the commanded AFR that you don't have enough learn and trim to get there. Depending on the direction of correction (lean or rich), between the learn value and the trim, you have as much as 50% correction available to you. As long as you're in a reasonable distance to true temp, the system will be able to trim it's correction to get you to the commanded AFR.

I should actually try and take a video of that at some point. I still use the sensor that shipped with my early run FiTech. It lags behind my mechanical gauge on warmup by about 5-7 minutes, but once at operating temp is always within about 3 degrees of my mechanical gauge. You can see this in the cold operation trims.

My learn and trim values at operating temp are typically pretty close to zero, never more than about a value of +- 5. But on warmup, the trims and learn are both around -18% adjustment. What that tells you is that to reach the commanded AFR, the computer is pulling out fuel. This is because the engine is hotter than the unit thinks and doesn't actually need as much fuel as the fuel table suggests it should. Because the system has the ability to read that information real-time from the wideband o2, you wouldn't ever know that was occurring unless you were actually looking for it.