My FiTech is on the shelf, that company is so infuriating and unhelpful its unreal. The ECM was dead from day one and the replacement took 2 months to get, the lack of full control on the tuning was a nightmare. I gave in and went with the Holley and have been very happy and it was much easier to dyno tune. The Holley had a bad fuel injector spray pattern. One call to Holley and a picture of the spray pattern later I had a complete new EFI unit sent to me. All I had to do was put a CC on file they paid the next day air and return shipping. Lots of complaints on multiple forums worth reading about FiTech.

 

Well after almost not getting home from work with the truck last night I decided to tie into it and try and figure something out. I did find and repair a small vac leak. I also load tested my 1000a battery and it failed. I replaced it and reset the fitech to an old tune I had saved a year ago. After some adjustments and a 50km drive I think I am almost back to where I was! Need a few more trips to restore my confidence though. I did purchase fitechs 50001 external fuel pump kit. I will ditch the command center in the spring assuming it stays running that long!
Cheers
Brent

 

Brent:
Sounds like you might be "on the right road" to getting back. I know that some have criticized computer-driven fuel delivery over analog (carburetors) because it's harder for the home builder to trouble shoot. I guess that's the down side, but I hope your problems get solved. I always believe that the answer is "out there". Usually you're not the first one to experience a problem, its just a matter of finding someone who has gone through the same dilemma and solved it.....Good luck...

 

I have heard that there is a FiTech "facebook" place to get way better help (from actual other FiTech users), than from the actual company customer service.

 

Thanks for all the replies.. It is working somewhat better. I did finally get a reply from tech support and they provided me with some software. I haven't looked into it yet but I think that may be part of my problem. My only issue this am at - 10 degrees celcius was a high idle after warm up/ 20 min drive. Scrolling though the data showed a target idle that was 300 rpm higher than my programed value.

 

I have found that when setting the target idle speed, it takes some driving for it to stabilize. I'm not clear on how the software works, and whether it has to do with the unit's learning curve, but parameters are inter-dependent. When you change the A/F, the idle is apt to change as well, so not all adjustments and ranges are instantaneous....or even possible. I still have a lot to learn about fine tuning the FiTech and, fortunately, mine has run well so I haven't had to dive in too much. Still learning as I go....

 

Well new software installed.. Truck runs great but still high idle when hot. Still thinking I must have a vac leak. Tomorrow's project I guess...

 

I have an older #30002 system and I have never been able to get it to run right. Bought in late 2015, started the install in 2016. I got frustrated enough with the truck that I still have not got it on the road (mainly because I just parked it in the back yard and only messed with it a handful of times). It has always ran super rich, would barely idle in the cold weather. It is likely that all these issues were my fault, or so I have been told. I have spent countless hours on the phone and communicating via email with Fi-Tech and have not really gotten much resolved.

I started working on it again a couple weeks ago and the handheld controller was acting really weird and jumpy, with the screen flickering. I sent an email off to Fi-Tech and got a response within a couple days. They said to take the controller apart, reposition the glass and put it back together, as that sometimes fixes the issue. I promptly did as instructed. The display is not re-positional, nor is the glass, everything has a set place that it goes in. I put it back together and it was quite a bit better, but none of the buttons at the bottom of the screen will work. Now they tell me the only option is to replace the controller with the newer style one, which between the controller and new cable, is over $200. Now I don't even have a system I can take off the truck and sell... I honestly have less than two miles on this system, as I never got it to run right and it has only gone around our neighborhood twice, the rest of the time has been idling to warm up, or tune. And now I would have to drop another $200+ to only try and continue to get it running right.

I am pretty much over it and plan to pull everything off, re-do the fuel system again and go back to a carb.
I have not decided if I am going mechanical fuel pump, or electric. I will start a different thread about this.

Not happy about the whole situation at all.

 

Nobody would be happy about that. Been hearing both the tales of woe, and successes all along since they came out.

Have you tried an RFI shield trick yet? Even though you're pretty done with the whole thing, maybe try an experiment just for kicks.
Make some kind of a temporary block, from wood or metal, and stick it in-between the distributor and the TBI unit. See if doing so makes any difference at all.
It's not a 100% guaranteed fix, but has worked for so many, that even Holley just came out with their Sniper 2. Just happens to have moved the ECU/computer from the front of the TB to the side. Go figure...

Not sure if grounding a metal shield would be better or if it makes any difference. But I like the thought of grounding it out. Just like some people fixed most of their issues by simply grounding the throttle body to the engine directly. Rather than relying on just the attaching studs/nuts to do the job.

Speaking of which... Did you update and upgrade the grounding scheme of the system when you got started on this way back when?
Sorry if it's just re-hashing all the bad vibes, but figured I'd throw some of that out there just in case.

Best of luck. Either getting it running, or getting it sold!

Paul

 

I had not thought about the RF Shielding, but may, as it is a free and easy thing to try.

I have a ground from one of the mounting studs, directly to the negative terminal on the battery.

I was thinking about the Sniper2 kit, but did not have the $2600+ for the complete kit, which if I try again, that is what I would do.

It'll all come together eventually. Thanks for all the info.