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09-27-2011, 10:28 AM

1978Quinn

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460 EFI Conversion

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9; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> Don’t get me wrong I like the simplicity and reliability of carburetors. They have their place but I wanted to give my old Bronco a chance to shine in 2011 or at least by 2012. If NASCAR can EFI then so can the rest of us. I have done many searches on many forums and there is not a ton specific information on adding fuel injection on carb’d 460 ci Ford engines. From what I found the “kits” –Holley, FAST Efi, ect.- cost a lot of money and underperform. Once upon a time I had a Holley kit installed on my Bronco, I put the carb back on.
I was lucky enough to work with someone who had a simple answer-Megasquirt. There is a little bit about Megasquirt on this forum but not very much. The guy I worked with has a Magasquirt engine controller on a heavily modified BMW, turbo charged, Ford EDIS ignition, electric fans, water injection all being controlled by Megasquirt. This car hauls a@@. After seeing the success that he had with his car I started to research performing this on my 460 powered 1978 Bronco and it did not seem impossible to do. The information on the Megasquirt fourms is really straight forward. I admit that I have a good resource to help with tuning and assembling the actual Megasquirt. But now that his project is nearing completion I feel that if you put in enough time reading and researching what you want to achieve, EFI’ing anything you want is possible. The cost of the technology and the abundance of junkyard parts make the expense of this conversion much lower than any prepackaged EFI system.
I have a 460 out of a 1978 van in my Bronco. I rebuilt it in 1997 and it has about 25000 miles on the engine. My initial plan in doing this conversion was to replace the top end of the engine with the top end out of an EFI 460. One quick note here it is 100% fact the efi heads and manifolds are different than the carbed heads/manifold. This would give me all of the fuel injectors, tps, iac, ect that you need for Megasquirt. I found a complete engine out of an 89 F250 on Craigs list. Got lucky on this I bought a complete engine, transmission, and transfer case for $200 and sold the transmission two days later for $300. I removed the heads and took them to get machined and checked out. They ended up being cracked. Looking back this was a good thing because now I had to figure out how to make the carb’d manifold work. This really was not difficult, I asked a question on the 460ford.com forum and I got a replay back from someone who could help. I took off the Edelbrock performer manifold to have injector bungs and fuel rails made for foundation of the fuel system. I have to say this is the way to go, it also looks pretty cool.
While the manifold was being modified I installed the serpentine belt pulleys and brackets. I actually got half of the set up from a 94 van so I would have the Saginaw pump. One trick here is on the older model vehicles (70’s-mid 80’s) with Saginaw pumps, if you take off the power steering hose and it has a 45 degree flare on it take the fitting out of the back of the pump. This fitting will replace the fitting in the back of the newer pumps and allow you to use 45 degree flare fittings so you can make a power steering hose. I then went to a hose shop and got two 45 flare 90 degree reusable hyd. fittings and made a hose. I also installed a Lincoln/Cougar two speed electric fan, 3g alternator, and engine oil cooler.
When the intake manifold came back there were just a couple of things to figure out. My plan was to use the EFI upper plenum on the carb’d manifold. Doing this will allow me to use the idle air control motor and throttle position sensor. This of course did not bolt up, but I made a simple adapter plate out of some ¼ inch steel plate. The throttle body was installed upside down so the throttle linkage would hook up on the left side. I had to make a new throttle rod but the old throttle rod end fit on the throttle body so pretty simple. I used the EFI Hall effect distributer and will also use the EFI coil. I have not gotten them but I will use a GM air intake temp, GM coolant, and an Innovative Motorsports LC-1 wide band O2 sensor. This covers all of the sensor inputs.
As far as the fuel system goes this is also pretty straight forward. I got a good eBay deal on 8 new 24lb hr. fuel injectors rather and cleaning up the ones that came with the used engine. The factory injectors were 24lb hr. my engine is pretty mild so these should work well. Once the injectors were installed I started to plumb the fuel lines. I also bought a used Walbro 255 LPH electric pump, this a universal inline electric EFI fuel pump, cut the factory fuel line and mounted the pump on the frame. I put a fuel filter on the suction side of the pump and will put one on the pressure side, haven’t figured out the second filter just yet. I had to remotely install a fuel pressure regulator-also used from ebay- and from the fuel regulator I ran a fuel return line back to the tank. I cut the fuel fill tube and put in a tube with a 3/8 inch barb to return to the tank. For now this was faster and easier than putting the return directly into the fuel tank, and this set up worked when I had a Holley EFI system.
This is where I am at now on this conversion. Probably the easy stuff is done; the tuning and wiring are going to be the challenge. If it works it will be worth the effort. I am planing on getting the wiring completed in the coming months.

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