Plastic Fantastic tew

[SuperBuickGuy]

for those who need to hear... the smoke is just oil burning off the header wrap...

[DanStokes]

Something's wrong with your flashlight - it's blinking. (Actually had a guy tell me that once).

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

Something's wrong with your flashlight - it's blinking. (Actually had a guy tell me that once).

Dan

I use it for doing the "please start" dance.

[SuperBuickGuy]

back to where I was 3 months ago...

[cstmwgn]

back to where I was 3 months ago...

It sure looks pretty. I hope the (refreshed) combination works well.

[SuperBuickGuy]

time to make front grills... I have no idea what template they used for the fiberglass nose, but I can tell you it wasn't 1976


all this so I can put tow hooks on the front

[DanStokes]

Hope you never need those tow hooks! But if you don't have them you probably will.

BTW - Dick (the Volvo owner) is thinking about abandoning the EZ EFI and going with Holley or FiTech. Any input? Our dyno guy is doing a Holley system on another customer's car right now so that means he'll have some hands-on with the Holley though at this point we don't know if that's good or bad. Anyhow, you have more experience with these than anyone else I know and would appreciate your input. Also input from anyone else reading this.......

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

Hope you never need those tow hooks! But if you don't have them you probably will.

BTW - Dick (the Volvo owner) is thinking about abandoning the EZ EFI and going with Holley or FiTech. Any input? Our dyno guy is doing a Holley system on another customer's car right now so that means he'll have some hands-on with the Holley though at this point we don't know if that's good or bad. Anyhow, you have more experience with these than anyone else I know and would appreciate your input. Also input from anyone else reading this.......

Dan

I had EZ Efi on my last Corvette.... not a fan - I like FiTech for these two reasons: 1) when you call, odds are extremely good that you will immediately talk to a tech, and 2) they stand behind their product.

Just for comparison, call Holley and dial in for tech. It could be days before you actually talk to someone.... Holley has a bit more tuning capabilities - but for most the 30002 system is more than they'll ever need... and you get help immediately when it fails. As other read this, my caution. Buy the EFI system just before you are ready to drive it - FiTech's warranty isn't that long and often a project takes longer to get on the road then the warranty lasts.... with that said, with my current car, the warranty had expired but they still stood behind their product and replaced the bowl for free.

[DanStokes]

Thanks Aaron - really useful info. I'll pass that along to Dick. It will be interesting to see what Randy's (the dyno shop owner) experience will be with Holley's customer service. I'm pleased that he gets to learn whatever he learns on somebody else's car!

We've never been able to get a reliable idle out of the EZ EFI and the fuel economy is terrible. It seems to go pig rich randomly and after a lot of dyno time Randy (who's pretty experienced) hasn't been able to make much headway on it. I don't think the HP output is where it ought to be either. We've given it more than a fair chance and either the one that came with the engine is somehow flawed or the system just sucks. I hope BluePrint has gone to a different system.

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

Thanks Aaron - really useful info. I'll pass that along to Dick. It will be interesting to see what Randy's (the dyno shop owner) experience will be with Holley's customer service. I'm pleased that he gets to learn whatever he learns on somebody else's car!

We've never been able to get a reliable idle out of the EZ EFI and the fuel economy is terrible. It seems to go pig rich randomly and after a lot of dyno time Randy (who's pretty experienced) hasn't been able to make much headway on it. I don't think the HP output is where it ought to be either. We've given it more than a fair chance and either the one that came with the engine is somehow flawed or the system just sucks. I hope BluePrint has gone to a different system.

Dan

I went through an amazing number of O2 sensors trying to make it run right. What I found still makes my blood boil. You can't actually change the fuel tables, it has a baseline then you can propose corrections to it. The system will take your input under advisement then see what the O2 and other inputs are telling it. Soon enough it back to whatever the base table tells it to be (which is great if the tables are right for your motor... which they're usually not).... that, of course, kills O2 sensors and sanity. FiTech will do whatever you tell it to do and die doing it. Can you make mistakes? sure, you can leave their base tune alone - which will likely run the motor so lean that it'll ping itself to death. My way of tuning it is go to the rich end of the stoich then back off the fuel until you hit your sweet spot. Requires reading plugs. On my FJ40, the 30002 system, I didn't get much better economy (maybe 1 mpg over the TBI), but I got at least 1/3rd more hp and torque.... the biggest issue with the '40 was the TBI (Howell's) had the spark curve set very conservatively, and it killed power.

[DanStokes]

We had the same untunability issue with the Volvo. When Randy contacted EZ EFI they told him the same thing about the tuner only allowing you to change the targets not the fuel and spark tables. Then they said "For only $XXX.XX (don't remember the price but it wasn't cheap) you can buy our fully adjustable ECU." Dick popped for that and while Randy was able to improve it greatly it only went from "undriveable" to "sucks". Pretty disappointing. I'll pass along your FiTech experience and Randy can mix that with his Holley experience and maybe come up with the best system for this engine.

As far as FE, the current setup is HORRIBLE. Like 7 MPG horrible and that's about a 2 MPG improvement over the first ECU. That's one of the reasons we built the bigger tank. I'm thinking any improvement in the EFI ought to result in better MPG.

Again, thanks so much for this info

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

the biggest changes in fuel economy came from spark control

[SuperBuickGuy]

well, I've signed up for Optima Challenge at the end of May at Willow Springs; potentially could do the event at UMC (Utah) in mid July as well... also signed up for a couple autocross days... add a few sessions with an instructor and hopefully I won't make an utter fool of myself (fool is likely, just don't want to be an utter fool)..

[SuperBuickGuy]

so it sounded like it was missing
set up for bumping it over

indeed it was


I'm not thrilled with indicated oil pressure at idle (18-20psi), so I'll put a mechanical gauge on the block... also there seems to be condensation on the right side exhaust.... not blown head gasket but yet another thing to watch. My guess is I still have too much fuel at idle.... but too much is FAR better than not enough. I suspect that I can add 2-4 degrees (16 now) of timing (I only saw 27 degrees above 3000)

ain't this fun?

[silver_bullet]

WOW