Anybody ever tried FI Tech fuel injection?

[xoman60]

Kind of on the fence on this. I started this project several months ago but ran into a problem, not with the fitech unit but my car had an issue. I knew it was going to be a while before I could fix the issue so I put my carb back on. My 69 runs a little rough sometimes and the other day I hit the accelerator hard and it stumbled pretty bad with a loss of power. That was enough for me to bring it to my local mopar guru and he found several problems with the carb, the timing was off and a vacuum hose was not in the right place. The car runs fantastic now. Its hard to describe the change but I like it at the moment so maybe I should keep it stock. So I'm not sure now if I want to even install the fitech efi. I have read a lot of good things on here though so it appears to be a good efi setup.

[RCCDrew]

My opinion, if you already have it then put it on. Driveability and piston ring life will probably be much better. As for my personal car, if I can get the carb to run really great, I will probably keep the carb. If you have a breakdown with an old setup, replacement parts are as close as the nearest parts store. With FItech, if it fails you are done. Tow it back home.

[Derwud]

Yes Durwood, it's the vent line/rollover valve breather.

Myk, I'd like to hear what others have done also.

But the guys running the stock tank and the Fitech fuel control unit won't have this problem though.

I have been driving the car alot today and am happy to confirm the new location in the sail panel is still working great. I'm still glad I went with the tanks Inc setup.  

I think this is a 70 Charger or any post 70 model with non-vented caps. We don't have a filler neck vent on these cars, so we have to get creative.

[raymond73]

Hi i have driven 2500 miles With my 1200 fitech system now and its perfect but i had a lot of truble first.. And i will replace the fuel comand center to a setup to a New tank from tanksinc. And i will boost the 440 this winter☺ so i hope the fitech Will work perfect With that to!!

[69wannabe]

My opinion, if you already have it then put it on. Driveability and piston ring life will probably be much better. As for my personal car, if I can get the carb to run really great, I will probably keep the carb. If you have a breakdown with an old setup, replacement parts are as close as the nearest parts store. With FItech, if it fails you are done. Tow it back home.

That was my biggest fear I think about the fi tech set up. If something fails you are stranded basically. With the holley I am pretty sure I can get it going fairly easy and I can tell more about what's going on with it. The fuel command center is a waste of time and money and if you are going to do the swap go ahead and plan the tanks inc fuel system pump and tank IMO. Mine would have done much better with the pump in the tank instead of the command center i'm 100% sure but the cost's of all the tank's inc stuff was more than i wanted to spend so I swapped back to my holley at no costs at all and traded the efi kit for a paint job on my old truck. The only thing I really miss is that the fuel smell with the efi was alot less than the holley idiling but overall that's about it.....

[John_Kunkel]

The fuel command center is a waste of time and money

Have to disagree there, cheaper in the long run and easier to maintain.

As far as being stranded by a failure, you're in the same bucket with most aftermarket components...carry a cell phone and a credit card.

[TexasStroker]

I'm not quite sure if anyone has really tried to find "simple carb parts" at the "local parts store."  A lot has changed in the last 10-15 years regarding what is actually stocked.  Can they order it, sure...but you can too, and it costs less.

If you are around an AutoZone/O'Reilly etc., just waltz in and try to get something like an accelerator pump diaphragm, power valve, or similar "should be stocked" item and let me know how it goes.  Maybe some of you have a mom and pop speed shop, an older store, or chains in your area stock more, but I think I'd be much more likely to have luck getting an injector in store than what I just listed.  I speak from experience and I don't like how things are trending.  If I didn't have a machine shop that builds race motors, everything would have to come in from Summit.

Most of the aftermarket EFI kits have very common, stock replacement parts (this is a big reason costs are coming down), and again, I would think I'd be much better off to have to waltz in AutoZone to replace an injector than I would to replace a leaking diaphragm on the front of my Holley.  Now if the ECU goes, yeah...you'll be sidelined.  But, given I can't get most $5-10 carb parts locally, I'm not much better off than that guy.

I nearly pulled the trigger on a FiTech Unit earlier this year when the sale was active...my only hold up was how well the electronics would hold up being built in to the throttle body...there is a lot of heat under the hood and a summer of mainly 100+ days wouldn't help...Kind of wish I had gotten it to know how it would do.  That said, it remains a pipe dream for now...but all the ethanol induced hardships have resulted in me ordering in more parts from Summit than I can get locally   

Raymond73, are you going with a centrifugal setup?  Would love to see the results there!

[raymond73]

Hi i hope you can read my bad english!!! yes i going for a procharger set up from supercharger store With water injectors! Working hard for saving up rest of the cash!!! It was 6400.- for a complete set up!!! But i think that's the store to bye from because i have get a lot of help to set up piston and cam and intake from there support. And they are super fast to answer on email. I was in contact With paxton and the New tourq storm but i Just get silly and no brainer answer from those!!

[JR]

Just checking in to give a reliability update.

My Fitech/tanksinc combo has been installed for over 8 months of hard use now. I live in the Southeast and see high heat/humidity/underhood temps, and not a single hiccup.

I still maintain this this the best thing I've ever done to my Charger.

[igozumn]

Agreed, JR.  Have about 800 miles on mine and not having any exhaust smell is wonderful.  Only issues so far is occasional fail to start on hot soaks.  Had it happen about 3-4 times.  Found a thread over on Chevelles.com about tuning/tips for the Fitech.  Has over 40 pages of info so far.  Printed it all out and am getting ready to make some adjustments to try and weed out the hot start issues and get the idle to not dip when coming to a stop.  Best of all, I won't have to get any gas on my hands to adjust it.    

[TexasStroker]

Hi i hope you can read my bad english!!! yes i going for a procharger set up from supercharger store With water injectors! Working hard for saving up rest of the cash!!! It was 6400.- for a complete set up!!! But i think that's the store to bye from because i have get a lot of help to set up piston and cam and intake from there support. And they are super fast to answer on email. I was in contact With paxton and the New tourq storm but i Just get silly and no brainer answer from those!!

Sounds awesome...looking forward to seeing how it progresses!

Very cool JR, thanks for the feedback.  I hope to make the switch to fuel injection as soon as possible!

[recon68]

Does somebody got photos of their command fuel center vent line?
Im installing one in my 68 Charger and dont know whats the best option.

Thanks a lot

[RCCDrew]

I'm not quite sure if anyone has really tried to find "simple carb parts" at the "local parts store."  A lot has changed in the last 10-15 years regarding what is actually stocked.  Can they order it, sure...but you can too, and it costs less.

If you are around an AutoZone/O'Reilly etc., just waltz in and try to get something like an accelerator pump diaphragm, power valve, or similar "should be stocked" item and let me know how it goes.  Maybe some of you have a mom and pop speed shop, an older store, or chains in your area stock more, but I think I'd be much more likely to have luck getting an injector in store than what I just listed.  I speak from experience and I don't like how things are trending.  If I didn't have a machine shop that builds race motors, everything would have to come in from Summit.

Most of the aftermarket EFI kits have very common, stock replacement parts (this is a big reason costs are coming down), and again, I would think I'd be much better off to have to waltz in AutoZone to replace an injector than I would to replace a leaking diaphragm on the front of my Holley.  Now if the ECU goes, yeah...you'll be sidelined.  But, given I can't get most $5-10 carb parts locally, I'm not much better off than that guy.

I know what you're saying, but if an accelerator pump, power valve or similar fails, your car still runs. Not sure about FI tech, but if your crank sensor or map fails, the car is done. I don't know if FI tech parts are stock GM parts or not. I'm not bagging on FI though, and I'm still thinking about getting one.

[TexasStroker]

I'm not quite sure if anyone has really tried to find "simple carb parts" at the "local parts store."  A lot has changed in the last 10-15 years regarding what is actually stocked.  Can they order it, sure...but you can too, and it costs less.

If you are around an AutoZone/O'Reilly etc., just waltz in and try to get something like an accelerator pump diaphragm, power valve, or similar "should be stocked" item and let me know how it goes.  Maybe some of you have a mom and pop speed shop, an older store, or chains in your area stock more, but I think I'd be much more likely to have luck getting an injector in store than what I just listed.  I speak from experience and I don't like how things are trending.  If I didn't have a machine shop that builds race motors, everything would have to come in from Summit.

Most of the aftermarket EFI kits have very common, stock replacement parts (this is a big reason costs are coming down), and again, I would think I'd be much better off to have to waltz in AutoZone to replace an injector than I would to replace a leaking diaphragm on the front of my Holley.  Now if the ECU goes, yeah...you'll be sidelined.  But, given I can't get most $5-10 carb parts locally, I'm not much better off than that guy.

I know what you're saying, but if an accelerator pump, power valve or similar fails, your car still runs. Not sure about FI tech, but if your crank sensor or map fails, the car is done. I don't know if FI tech parts are stock GM parts or not. I'm not bagging on FI though, and I'm still thinking about getting one.

No worries...I'm in the same boat.  If I had the funds I'd have pulled the trigger earlier in the year when they had the sale.  As much trouble as I've had with the ethanol blended gas and inability to get parts that use to be common place for carbs, I consider it a wash in that department.  I kind of want to try FiTech on the Duster and then do the same, or try Holley's new set up for the Charger...for now, I've just stocked a bunch of carb parts from Summit and am hoping for the best.  I also sprung for a nice canister filter that will hopefully improve things for the carb and is rated to work with EFI...it is a nice stepping-stone, lol.

[John_Kunkel]

Does somebody got photos of their command fuel center vent line?
Im installing one in my 68 Charger and dont know whats the best option.

I epoxied a fitting to my fill pipe and ran 1/4" rubber hose to it.

[69wannabe]

The fuel command center is a waste of time and money

Have to disagree there, cheaper in the long run and easier to maintain.

As far as being stranded by a failure, you're in the same bucket with most aftermarket components...carry a cell phone and a credit card.

I feel like if there was more room under the hood then the command center may have worked out better but having heat soak issues wasn't part of the plan with having just installed a efi set up. I had my heat soak issues with my holley down to very minimal. There were just a few things that I didn't like about it and i guess i'm old fashioned and was missing the feeling of my old double pumper. I usually keep extra carb parts and usually it's an ecu or a ballast resistor or a coil that puts you to walking but making the fuel system electronic just seemed to worry me and it seemed to run great sometimes and not so great other times and with my holley carb it is always the same every time I drive it.... Really just my preference to go back to my carb not any major problems with the efi kit.

[Aussiemadonmopars]

There is also some good Mopar related info on the for a bodies only site:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/fitech-efi-system.321984/

Hope this helps.

[Aussiemadonmopars]

On the FABO forum they talk about using a phasable rotor inside the distributor cap, these are available for the MSD units.

[igozumn]

Figured I'd give a quick update.  Have 1000 miles on it now.

I went in and adjusted the idle screw in order to get my IAC counts down.  They are now around 10-ish at idle.  This changed how the idle came down on deceleration.  It seemed to hang a bit, like the throttle was sticky.  Adjusted the Decel open IAC to -25 and it drives like it did for the first 850 miles after yanking the carb, and like the carb did on deceleration.  I was having an occasional issue on hot soak, where it would fire initially, but run at like 450 rpms and then die.  Crank and crank and crank with no restart until I let the system shut down and re-prime, I guess.  I went in and adjusted both the 65F crank fuel and 65f after start to 5, and the 170F crank fuel and after start to 10.  Car hasn't had an issue starting since, but of course more seat time is needed.

I had the system off the other day to take a head off for a broken manifold stud, and noticed the cheap thin vinyl vacuum cap on the front had split.  Replaced it with a thick rubber one and all was well.  Last night, it backfired a hair up through the throttle body, probably due to trying to creep away from a stop light at super low rpms.  Immediately noticed higher idle, AFR was in the 10's, and IAC while cruising was 0.  Pulled over and both caps on the front AND rear were gone, LOL. Quick stop at parts house to buy new ones and all is well again.  So, maybe grab a couple extra caps for your traveling parts box, eh?  Maybe a zip tie or two to help retain them in case of some acid reflux post chili dog consumption.

[JR]

Just giving an update to replace some misinformation I gave earlier in the thread, for anyone who searches for through in the future.

I found a good thread regarding timing control.
Here is an excellent thread from Johnny Pace of Pace performance who explains things much better than I can.

http://www.forcbodiesonly.com/mopar-forum/threads/fitech-efi-question-and-answer.27076/

Hope this helps someone in the future.

I'm still learning about timing control, sorry for the misinformation. I hope to have that feature operable soon.

[68CoronetRT]

I believe you can run a 2 wire distributor as long as you can lock out the timing. All your doing with the fitech is telling the coil when to fire. Once you set base timing or physical timing then you can adjust electronically.

It will not control an HEI style distributor. You must have an ignition system running already.

[Dino]

So Fitech can control my Firecore distributor with built in ECU? I didn't think it could do that...

[TommyGun]

Will not work with the RTR units has to be the basic two wire distributor.

[JR]

Whoops, sorry guys. I misread things the other night. Please disregard that post. And don't post after a long day working.

[JR]

Well, I'm about to get a crash course in the timing control feature. I just ordered the two wire MSD distributor from Pace performance, and will install it this weekend. I'll post an update with the results.