Beginning Fitech 2 barrel

[Crankyolman]

Be VERY VERY difficult to prove a "numbers matching" deal on any FSJ.
AMC just didn't do it, and any records they do have are sketchy or don't exist.

That may be so but it's kind of like goes on with some car competitions. I read about someone who was upset because he had points knocked off for having something on his engine with a date code of 2 months after his car was built. My valve cover tag shows MFG in March '72, I can prove heads are late '71 by casting number, I think there is a date code somewhere on the block but can't swear to it but I do know on the original timing cover there is also a May '72 date code. There are many other things that are dateable and unique to late '71 &72. Many other cars are viewed as numbers matching in a similar way.

You should be able to find a brass fitting(s) that'd work for hose install of sender in plumbing aisle?
Sender is just NPT

That is my plan, go to Lowe's and see what I can find in the plumbing isle.

[Crankyolman]

The other day I ordered the Delco temp sensor recommended by some people on a Fitech forum. Today I went to Lowe's and bought what I needed to install it in the heater line and installed it. Took it for a drive and it now indicates between 185 and 195f which is where I expect it to be given I have a 180 (or is it 185?) thermostat.




I've read the Fitech starts learning at 140 but doesn't learn properly until it reaches 170 because it thinks the engine is cold below 170 and richens the mixture a bit.


So, so far so good, it does bother me that starting requires considerable more cranking time than it did with the carb but hopefully that is something I can adjust, or maybe something it learns.

[FMJBT]

Looks good! I did the 4 barrel Fitech conversion on my 73 Wagoneer a few months ago. It has also developed that issue where it needs to crank a long time before starting. When I first put it on, it would fire right up with barely any cranking. Took about 2 months to become sluggish when cranking. I'm thinking it may be fuel filter related. The 30 micron filter before the throttle body might just be gunked up enough to impede that sudden burst of fuel needed for cranking, but still allow enough flow to allow for normal acceleration and driving. I even re-set mine to factory settings to see if that would fix the issue, but it made no change which is why I think it may be something external to the throttle body like the filter.

[babywag]

Why guess?
What is the fuel pressure when you turn the key on?
If good probably just needs to be tuned properly.
A fuel filter should not be "gunked up" in 2 months.

All fuel injection systems need to be tuned.
Regardless of the marketing BS of self tuning or self learning.
That's why it came with a manual and the means to change settings aka "tuning". From their site...

Cranking fuel adjustments:
With the key on go to the Go EFI Tuning menu, find Crank and Warm up. There you will see three cranking fuel selections. For cold starts add or subtract fuel from Crank fuel 65f, for hot starts add or subtract fuel from crank fuel 170f. Changing these settings should help with your start up issues along with setting the IAC. A good starting point is to change the settings in intervals of 10 to find which way you need to adjust the system to work better.

[Crankyolman]

I've now driven a total of 88 miles with the fuel injection, which includes 5 days back and forth to work and a 13 mile round trip from Burian to West Seattle on Hwy 509 at 70 MPH. The truck drove very well and only had one thing that greatly concerned me.



When I came to a rather rapid stop where I turned around the ALT and oil lights came on for a second. I thought I had stalled it but when I looked down at the tach it was fine, maybe just a hiccup from sloshing fuel, but idling just after a rapid slow down seemed to make the oil pressure drop excessively low for a second. However there has always been an issue with electrical interference with my electric oil pressure indicator which has gotten worse with the FI installation. I assume this is because the fitech wiring runs with he oil pressure wire for a bit. Before the FI with the headlights on my oil pressure would read as much as 10 pounds lower than it was and certain stop lights with inductive loop sensors tend to interfere with the oil pressure drastically. This drove me crazy for a long time before I figured out what was causing it but now it is reading a whole new low at stop lights. I had planned to replace the wire with a shielded wire like I used with my tach but right now I think I'm going to go with a mechanical gauge for accuracy. The real problem there is the only gauge I like the looks of costs $100 and I'm too cheap to buy it so I'm going to get a cheap one and mount it where the digital one currently is until I know if I have a real problem, then maybe save up some money and buy the expensive gauge.



Once I get that sorted out it will be time to start tweaking and adjusting the FI. I'm having trouble finding and understanding information on exactly what should be adjusted and what it should read, it seems like everybody on forums about it just seem to know this info and expect everybody else to without explaining anything or sending anybody to a place they can find and understand the basic stuff. Hopefully I can figure that out and get everything set where it should be. Overall I'm actually quite happy with it, I would like it to start a little quicker cold like it did with the carb and I think I need to get the warm idle bumped up a little bit. It idles at 600 in gear when warmed up and it should be 700 but at least I think I understand how to fx that.

[babywag]

If you have questions on specific settings or what not just post up.
It may seem overwhelming all the info., settings etc. but lots of reading the manual a few times may help?

EFI is very dependent on good grounds, and good voltage.
Any fluctuations affects all functions of system operation.
If voltage drops fuel pump output changes, injector output changes, sensors provide ecm with different values etc.
So be 100% sure it's all good.

[Crankyolman]

If you have questions on specific settings or what not just post up.
It may seem overwhelming all the info., settings etc. but lots of reading the manual a few times may help?

EFI is very dependent on good grounds, and good voltage.
Any fluctuations affects all functions of system operation.
If voltage drops fuel pump output changes, injector output changes, sensors provide ecm with different values etc.
So be 100% sure it's all good.

Thank you Babywag, it is very intimidating but I'll work at it slowly and see what happens. I know all my connections are good and are soldered rather than crimped and my grounds are good. If there is a problem in the electrical system it's with the 30 amp Motorola alternator. My next planned upgrade is to a 50 or 60 amp GM alternator so I have a bit more juice.


I keep reading what is out there trying to understand it. To me Fitech seems to make things a bit vague but hopefully I will get to where I understand it.



This afternoon I changed the cold crank fuel settings from 0.0 to 3.0, which I hope isn't too much but when I started it after changing them it seemed to start closer to what I'm accustomed to. 5:30 tomorrow morning is when I will know something for sure.

[R69US]

Congrats on getting it up and running. I've had the FiTech on mine for a couple years now, and it's been good. There is a steep learning curve for sure, but if you are careful with tracking changes systematically I found it all starts to make sense pretty quickly. BabyWag covered the basics of the issues I had as well...any voltage drops, bad connections or ground issues will cause trouble. The cranking time on mine is a bit long as well, though it can be tuned out quite a bit as mentioned in the cold start tables.
If you're using the inline pump kit from FiTech, you may have to adjust the pump PCM settings down...it was set to 100% on mine, which isn't needed or great for the pump. I believe you can go down as far as about 65 as long as it doesn't affect AFR at idle.

[Crankyolman]

Congrats on getting it up and running. I've had the FiTech on mine for a couple years now, and it's been good. There is a steep learning curve for sure, but if you are careful with tracking changes systematically I found it all starts to make sense pretty quickly. BabyWag covered the basics of the issues I had as well...any voltage drops, bad connections or ground issues will cause trouble. The cranking time on mine is a bit long as well, though it can be tuned out quite a bit as mentioned in the cold start tables.
If you're using the inline pump kit from FiTech, you may have to adjust the pump PCM settings down...it was set to 100% on mine, which isn't needed or great for the pump. I believe you can go down as far as about 65 as long as it doesn't affect AFR at idle.

I've been doing a whole lot of reading trying to learn this fuel injection stuff. The guys over at a site called Fitechtuning have been helpful, unlike Fitech tech support. I keep doing little adjustments then taking it for a drive and seeing what things look like. IAC count was way too high but I've gotten that down where it should be. They tell me everything looks pretty good but there is something wrong with AFR giving it too much fuel. The theories about that are a vacuum leak or high fuel pressure. I've checked all the vacuum stuff and can't find anything there and it's pulling a pretty consistent -17 on vacuum so my next thing is fuel pressure. I just ordered a fuel pressure gauge and fitting today which should be here Thursday so I guess we will see what's going on there and get the PWM set.


I've been concerned about the PWM from the beginning since it was pre-set at 80 when everything I've read says it should have been 74.9. I also found something on Fitechs site that says that 74.9 is the preset for the frame mounted pump but if you are using the fuel command center you should reset PWM to 40. Although I am not using the frame mounted pump I'm not using the command center either but I am using the same pump they use for the command center only mounted in the fuel tank so I'm wondering if the PWM should be set much lower than it is but I need a fuel gauge to know for sure.


I was also reading on the tuning site about someone with a Buick 455 having trouble with slow cold starts. His solution seemed to be turning the prime shot off completely.I had planned to get the other stuff dialed in before I start dealing with that but morning temps are still below 50 here so maybe I should be playing with the prime shot before it gets too warm and see what happens.



All in all I'm pretty happy so far, Throttle response is really quick but I am still having trouble with the idea of not feathering the throttle when I start off and it's cold.

[R69US]

When I spoke with tech support R/ PWM settings, it sounded like the limiting factor is really just AFR stability at lower RPM. So he mentioned 65 as about the lowest for the inline. That said, my AFR was going lean when the pump got hot towards the end of the day (I was driving cross-country from San Diego to Austin at the time) so I ended up at about 75.
I haven't seen that website...I'll have to check it out. Interesting theory on the prime shot. Mine is set low for sure, because it was definitely going rich on the start. A lot of that was my fault, going the wrong way with cold start settings haha. ( I thought it needed more when it was actually too rich).
The only issue I still have is a slight hesitation/stumble off idle, almost like an accelerator pump problem, though adjustments in that table haven't made much difference. It just goes lean (like 15-5-16.5) for a half second off idle.

[Crankyolman]

I'm just beginning to learn about this stuff. I haven't even begun data logging while driving but haven't noticed any hesitation whatsoever off idle. I did have it die on hard braking once and almost die another time, which from reading is a known issue caused by something called the DFCO which I guess helps save gas but they say it can be turned off with no ill effects so I'll probably do that. It's not really much of an issue for me, most days I drive 6 miles to work and 6 miles home and only one mile of that is above 40 MPH and don't usually brake too hard except when some idiot in a Prius or something like that pulls out in front of me and I need to scare the crap out of him by locking up my brakes. It's actually kind of funny to think about, we now have an entire generation of drivers who have never heard the horrible sound of locked up brakes followed by the crash because they have always had anti lock brakes.

[Crankyolman]

I thought I'd update you guys on this.


It's been a while since I put this on. I have most of it dialed in but I'm still working on getting the prim shot dialed in. Otherwise it's running real nice.


Some of the things I have learned is that it may start and run right out of the box but there are things you have to do after that.


To begin with almost everybody needs to adjust the IAC step, which is basically the butterflies that let air in at idle. IAC step should be 3 to 10 but many people are happy with up to 15. Out of the box mine was set at 82 so I had to turn the screw that opens the throttle quite a bit, which gives the engine more air at idle and brings the IAC step down. Once that is done you just drive it around for a bit. Mine took probably 100 miles before it dialed itself in for the most part.



Another important thing is you need to buy a fuel pressure gauge for tuning purposes so you can adjust PWM, which has something to do with the fuel pump. In my case preset PWM was too high and actually caused some problems. With the fuel pressure gauge you adjust PWM down until the fuel pressure begins to drop then turn it up a little bit. I actually reduced PWM from a preset of 80 down to 66 without any pressure drop. This fixed the fuel issue it had although I'm not really sure what it did but it got everything where it should be.



The last really important thing is air. I have always gone to great lengths to keep my truck as stock as I can. I have made some compromises like HEI ignition and some other minor things and plan on upgrading the alternator. I've never really cared for open air filters. I like the look of the stock air filter but always thought it looked unbalanced and like the look of a dual snorkel. Well as luck would have it I go the opportunity to convert my air filter to a dual snorkel and noticed some changes instantly which is something I wasn't expecting. The engine runs smoother and is quieter. Sometimes at stop signs I have to look at the tach to make sure it's still running. On the controller also showed signs that it made a difference.



The only conclusion I can make from this is the early single snorkel is too restrictive for the Fitech injectors. Adding the 2nd one allows the system to breath how it needs to.


Right now everything is tuned and running well and I'm quite happy with it.
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