Conversion to Fuel Injection
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 124
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Conversion to Fuel Injection
Well I finally did it. My old carb started acting up so instead of spending $40 on a carb rebuild kit I converted my truck to fuel injection. With all the work I’ve done to this truck and all that still needs to be done, clearly any sane person would have just bought a new truck, but not me. I have grown quite attached to my old 82 F-250, but I am spoiled by my daily driver a 98 Ford Crown Vic that starts right up in all weather and just behave. I was originally considering the Holley Commander 950 system, which looked like a nice easy install, but I’ve read mixed reviews on how much programming is necessary, quality, etc. I finally decided upon the Mass Flo system http://www.mass-floefi.com/ this system is MUCH more expensive, but appears to be a far superior system. Of course I never actually tried the Commander 950 system to comment on Holly’s offering.
The Mass-Flo system is a direct port sequential EFI system based on the 89-93 Mustang using a modified high flow Mass air sensor. It comes with a modified Edelbrock intake, throttle body, injectors, rails, sensors, coil, distributor, and Wire harness. It does not however include fuel pump, regulator, fuel lines, or fuel fittings. The fuel supply system adds up quick using all of those little aeroquip fittings. One of the best things about this system is that it’s mostly Ford parts, so down the road when you need a sensor or something they will be easy to find. The only sensor that is not a Ford part is the Mass Air sensor, for that you will have to go to Chris.
This system is NOT cheep, but it’s all top quality stuff! One item that impressed me is that each wire in the wire harness has printing right on the wire indicating what it’s for and it repeats every foot. So if you ever had to hack into the harness in the middle or something you can see what the wires are! With me being colorblind I appreciate this very much! For me all of those colors kinda wash together for me. The harness is only taped together every couple of inches so that you can still adjust it, then seal it with loom tape provided.
The support is absolutely the best! You call up and talk to Chris. Chris is the owner and knows his product, not some 20 year old that just started last week, but think he knows everything. Try calling some of the big companies a couple times with the same question and you will get different answers every time. I harassed Chris with every possible question you would imagine before I dropped down my cash. Many phone calls, many many emails and he never lost patience with me.
<O
</O
After my install it started right up! Stumbled & stalled a bit until the base idle adjustment is made. Then took it for a drive. It ran pretty dam good! The “no tuning claim” is surprisingly close to being accurate, but I did need to experiment with the ignition advance and needed to bump the fuel pressure from 39 to 44 and make a TPS adjustment. All minor tweeks. It runs awesome now! drivability, throttle response, idle quality, just plain nice. It is impossible to know if I picked up any power as I made so many changes to this truck I don’t have a good baseline. I have no fuel economy numbers either as my gas gauge does not work right now, so I fill it often. I’m sure it’s still going to suck an obscene amount of fuel, but perhaps it will go from deplorable to merely awful. No matter how you spray it those 400 horses still gotta eat, and with a 460, C6 auto, 4.10 gears & 33x12.5 tires it’s not going to win any EPA awards for fuel economy anytime soon. Perhaps the next mod should be a overdrive.
<O</O
The one thing that bothered me more that anything before purchasing the system is that it seemed to be a non programmable system. Chris’s accurately claims that this system does not need to be programmed because he calibrates the Mass-air meter to the injector size and that this non programmable aspect is a feature not a problem. I was still afraid that I might run into some un-foreseen problem that would have been an easy fix in the computer, but I wouldn’t have access to it. Well you can program it! If you buy a Tweecer RT http://www.tweecer.com/ you can change anything in the computer yourself with a laptop. Of course this means yet more money. I have not had to buy the tweecer RT yet although I still I might some day It seems to open the window in everything that is going on inside the computer and looks like it would be a awesome tool for diagnostics also. The tweecer is the safety net in case you did need to program it. The other option is to have a custom chip burned. Chris burned me a custom chip with a few changes to make it a little more aggressive for towing and to change my cold weather idle speed.
<O</O
The Bad: Not much, Price for one. Not saying that it’s not a good value for the bucks, but you’ve gotta really love your truck to throw this kind of money at it. While the throttle body is TOP quality piece. I think the base idle screw could be positioned better, and I had a hard time adapting my kick down cable to it. I also was not crazy about the recommended air cleaner mounting. As I’m putting this in a truck and have plenty of hood clearance I chose to mount my air cleaner above the Mass air sensor. The only advantage to this is that you can just take off the one wing nut and get the air cleaner out of the way when working on the engine. Mounting the air cleaner on top like I did requires welding a new base plate to your air cleaner and boring a smaller size hole at the base. These are all minute gripes.
Overall: If you are smart you would probably just buy a brand new F350 turbo diesel, but if you got the bucks, and are committed to your old truck Buy it! You wont be sorry. I don’t feel this system can be beat the quality & support are excellent. I just have to save my nickels now so I can buy another one for my 73 Camaro. I’m probably the only one out there that spends more time and money on the tow vehicle that the racecar in the trailer. As far as I’m concerned I’d be a happy man if I never have to mess with a carburetor again! Fuel injection is the way to go!
I'll post back Fuel economy numbers & dyno results as I get them.
The Mass-Flo system is a direct port sequential EFI system based on the 89-93 Mustang using a modified high flow Mass air sensor. It comes with a modified Edelbrock intake, throttle body, injectors, rails, sensors, coil, distributor, and Wire harness. It does not however include fuel pump, regulator, fuel lines, or fuel fittings. The fuel supply system adds up quick using all of those little aeroquip fittings. One of the best things about this system is that it’s mostly Ford parts, so down the road when you need a sensor or something they will be easy to find. The only sensor that is not a Ford part is the Mass Air sensor, for that you will have to go to Chris.
This system is NOT cheep, but it’s all top quality stuff! One item that impressed me is that each wire in the wire harness has printing right on the wire indicating what it’s for and it repeats every foot. So if you ever had to hack into the harness in the middle or something you can see what the wires are! With me being colorblind I appreciate this very much! For me all of those colors kinda wash together for me. The harness is only taped together every couple of inches so that you can still adjust it, then seal it with loom tape provided.
The support is absolutely the best! You call up and talk to Chris. Chris is the owner and knows his product, not some 20 year old that just started last week, but think he knows everything. Try calling some of the big companies a couple times with the same question and you will get different answers every time. I harassed Chris with every possible question you would imagine before I dropped down my cash. Many phone calls, many many emails and he never lost patience with me.
<O
</OAfter my install it started right up! Stumbled & stalled a bit until the base idle adjustment is made. Then took it for a drive. It ran pretty dam good! The “no tuning claim” is surprisingly close to being accurate, but I did need to experiment with the ignition advance and needed to bump the fuel pressure from 39 to 44 and make a TPS adjustment. All minor tweeks. It runs awesome now! drivability, throttle response, idle quality, just plain nice. It is impossible to know if I picked up any power as I made so many changes to this truck I don’t have a good baseline. I have no fuel economy numbers either as my gas gauge does not work right now, so I fill it often. I’m sure it’s still going to suck an obscene amount of fuel, but perhaps it will go from deplorable to merely awful. No matter how you spray it those 400 horses still gotta eat, and with a 460, C6 auto, 4.10 gears & 33x12.5 tires it’s not going to win any EPA awards for fuel economy anytime soon. Perhaps the next mod should be a overdrive.
<O
</OThe one thing that bothered me more that anything before purchasing the system is that it seemed to be a non programmable system. Chris’s accurately claims that this system does not need to be programmed because he calibrates the Mass-air meter to the injector size and that this non programmable aspect is a feature not a problem. I was still afraid that I might run into some un-foreseen problem that would have been an easy fix in the computer, but I wouldn’t have access to it. Well you can program it! If you buy a Tweecer RT http://www.tweecer.com/ you can change anything in the computer yourself with a laptop. Of course this means yet more money. I have not had to buy the tweecer RT yet although I still I might some day It seems to open the window in everything that is going on inside the computer and looks like it would be a awesome tool for diagnostics also. The tweecer is the safety net in case you did need to program it. The other option is to have a custom chip burned. Chris burned me a custom chip with a few changes to make it a little more aggressive for towing and to change my cold weather idle speed.
<O
</OThe Bad: Not much, Price for one. Not saying that it’s not a good value for the bucks, but you’ve gotta really love your truck to throw this kind of money at it. While the throttle body is TOP quality piece. I think the base idle screw could be positioned better, and I had a hard time adapting my kick down cable to it. I also was not crazy about the recommended air cleaner mounting. As I’m putting this in a truck and have plenty of hood clearance I chose to mount my air cleaner above the Mass air sensor. The only advantage to this is that you can just take off the one wing nut and get the air cleaner out of the way when working on the engine. Mounting the air cleaner on top like I did requires welding a new base plate to your air cleaner and boring a smaller size hole at the base. These are all minute gripes.
Overall: If you are smart you would probably just buy a brand new F350 turbo diesel, but if you got the bucks, and are committed to your old truck Buy it! You wont be sorry. I don’t feel this system can be beat the quality & support are excellent. I just have to save my nickels now so I can buy another one for my 73 Camaro. I’m probably the only one out there that spends more time and money on the tow vehicle that the racecar in the trailer. As far as I’m concerned I’d be a happy man if I never have to mess with a carburetor again! Fuel injection is the way to go!
I'll post back Fuel economy numbers & dyno results as I get them.
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