Got the kit yesterday. Today was first day of assembly. I went down to local shop and had the o2 sensor welded on for a whopping $20, then started to fiddle with the adapters.

The clifford manifold 4 barrel adapter has 4 single holes, one for each barrel. I had to cut the center "cross" out, because the adapter that came with the kit converted holley 4 barrel pattern to gm 2 barrel tbi, which had the barrels centerd. So just as I was putting it together my pops comes along and tells me why dont you just drill the clifford manifold pattern into the plate that came with the tbi kit, so you only need one plate. The thought had crossed my mind but I didn't think I could drill that straight enough to tap it. But duh, the plate doesn't need tapping the threads are within the manifold itself.

So after all that cutting and mess to the clifford plate (I didn't have a bandsaw, I used a combination of hacksaw, diegrinder, angle grinder, and dremel) the holes were drilled in the howell adapter plate and it went on. The throttle body went on fine, and linkage fit well. The only downside is in certain spots I only have about an 1/8" of gasket material width with metal under it, but I realized that that was also true when I had the clifford adapter with my holley 390cfm carb. In the future, I may get another throttle cable so I can turn the body sideways with injectors parallel to the engine for better fuel distribution. Next up is getting the harness in the car, then installing the pump/fuel lines. Here are some pics of what the engine bay looks like now

I got the harness through the clutch pedal hole in the firewall and am in the middle of getting it situated.

I went around hunting for some fuel hose today. The metal lines no one has by the foot/roll, all in precut lengths with fittings already on them. Bleh. Fuel injection rubber hose goes anywhere from $5-10 a foot. But then realising fuel injection line was meant for mpfi 100+psi situations, I asked how much pressure their regular hose can tolerate. The napa guy looked through his book, and said 50. Well I think that is plenty since the pump max is at 20 and the regulator drops it to 12 or so. I was about to buy a few metal sections of pipe for the return line, then use rubber at the end to get it to the throttle body. But then the guy suggested, you can use the current fuel line for the incoming, and then the vapor return line for the return, and just remove the cannister. Derrr why didn't I think of that. So I just bought some rubber hose and fittings.

Had to get some fittings for the coolant temp sensor too because the one in the kit was 3/8" and the one on our beloved /6 is 1/8". Ended up with 3 fittings because the store didn't have a 1/8" to 3/8" adapter, I had to go from 1/8" to 1/4" then to 3/8". No biggie, the water pump keeps enough pressure in the system to shoot the mixture up a bit more then it would go stock.

Got the fuel pump / filter in today and did a bit more work on the harness. Tomorrow I have to run wire for the fuel pump, extend the harness branch for the coolant and o2 sensor, and wire up the power connections on the inside. If all goes right, cross your fingers for me, I will give it the first crank tomorrow.

It was raining this morning so I couldn't get started until about noonish, then at 3 or so the wind started picking up and soon after it started to rain. About 2 or 3 more hours maybe and I could have started it, but I guess I shall wait untill next weekend. Man I was so anxious too... grr

So I had a nice time to work. Took care of the odds and ends... I came to run the rubber line from tbi to the former vapor return metal pipe... but I noticed there was rust in the metal pipe. So I took out the vapor seperator tube in the trunk, flushed the lines with boatloads of carb cleaner and blew it all out with an air compressor untill I got clear carbcleaner coming out the other end. I squirted some carb cleaner into one of the vapor saver lines, and when I turned it back over it came out clean, from all the 4 other lines, so I knew that wasnt clogged or dirty. During all this I noticed that the metal return line to the tank is actually two pieces, with a small rubber hose joining the middle of the right torsion bar. This was leaking air when I was blowing through the metal pipe, so I cut off the (original!) rubber hose/clamps and put a new piece of hose and clamps on it.

All what is left is running power to the computer inside, and one more rubber hose from the original "pressure" line to the tbi. Then I should be able to fire it up... oh goody goody gumdrops! I still have to screw down the computer and such inside but I'm gonna leave everything just dangling for my first drive then do the buttoning up.

Peirre
That system looks just like the Turbo Citys system i used for my conversion on my 72 RoadRunner .What kind of computer do you have?
If it is a 7747(last 4 digits in the pt. no.)I have a diagnostic cable to hook to a laptop and there is an online program to read the computer while you drive .I think that the program is WIN-ALDL.COM, IT WAS A FREE DOWNLOAD but im not sure if it still is.

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Ive got a slanted attitude and a heavy right foot.

Slanted Attitude - Interesting, yes the program is free, I looked through google and found the homepage - http://www.winaldl.webhop.net/ I might add this in the future for the heck of it when I get everything squared away. Your roadrunner had a 225 in it??? And yes the last digits of the ecm were 7747

I started the system up for the first time today... first thing I noticed is that there is waaaaaay too much fuel coming out of the injectors, the engine got flooded very quickly. I thought the regulator wasn't working right because there might be a restriction in the return line, so I unhooked the return line and just fed it to a spare plastic tank. Same result.. lots of fuel out of the injectors. By now after several tries of starting I have liquid coming out the tailpipe... that deffinately smells like gas. If this isn't a sign that its too rich, Im not sure what is

So I decided to get creative and run only one injector. The engine fired up and ran for a few seconds, a bit rough, then died. This made it pretty concrete that the calibrations are way rich. I also noticed with the engine off one of the injectors was leaking a few drops.... To get the engine to start again, I had to unplug BOTH injectors, start the engine to burn off the flooded gas (it ran for at least 15 seconds, sometimes maybe 30 with no injectors plugged in), then plug one injector back in

And during all of this, no codes were stored in the computer. My guesses are - wrong sized injectors for applicaiton, pump gone bezerk and is making too much pressure, regulator is bad, tps out of whack, or grossly miscalculated ecm mappings. Lets see what howell has to say about this tomorrow....

Might be a good idea to invest in a ($15-20) inline fuel pressure gauge for tuning.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Howell said the leaky injector deffinately needs to get replaced. As to the running rich - they said it could be that the computer is getting falsely triggerd, or the filter they built into the computer on the coil lead needs to be rebuilt. They want me to tell them the colors painted ontop of the injectors, and the labels on the chips to make sure I got the right stuff, then go from there.

Slanted Attitude - When you put the system in your roadrunner, what ignition system did you have? I may try putting the points distributor back on there just to see if that makes a difference, its an easy enough swap since I have left all the wiring intact for it.

Lou - yea Im planning on getting a fuel pressure gauge and a noid light for diagnostics. Things like that are too cheap not to have for an efi system

Change the oil & filter!! You've probably gotten enough fuel past the rings by now that it's thinned out. Cheap insurance to keep from eating the main bearings.

Roger

Ahh...

They said they had a guy running a system on a 87 dodge ram with a 225 in it with a mild cam and stock everything else... is the ignition system on a 87 ram the same as the 73-74ish on up mopar electronic ignition? Right now I'm running a kragen electronic ignition box for a 73 or 74 I believe.. I have an extra (neihoff brand I believe?) box I could try. That one is painted grey, the one I have in there now is plain metal, unpainted.

They said they are going to send me the same program as the guy previously mentioned has, with some minor accommodations for the cam. This will at least prove if it is the program or not.

As to the leaky injector, this guy told me that sometimes when the fuel gets a chance to soak into the seals they swell, and then seal themselves, so we are going to wait on this and see.

So if this new program doesn't work and the other ignition box doesn't work then I may throw the points system back together just for the heck of it to see... or see if I can dig up a scope to see what the pulses at - side of coil look like. Argh.. frustrating, but at least the folks at Howell are nice and helpful.

By the way- these gm tbi injectors are color coded at the top - yellow and blue. Anyone know their rating, and if two of these are appropriate for a /6? The ignition problem sounds like a promising route but I just want to cover my bases.

Can you turn the fuel pressure down?

Tom

Pierre,
My RR had a 360 magnum crate motor but the same style of injection as you have only I had a 670 cfm thottle body(2bbl).As for the ignition I had a lean burn dist that was used as a trigger for the gm igntion module and the timing was controled by the gm spark control module. My system nearly identical to a 90 model gm truck with a 350. Although i never had the prblem you have (mine idled great)i had a very annoying and embarasing off idle stumble that I never did get completly stopped.I had several chips made for my computer and they were always just a little off some how.After it was all said and done I wasnt very impressed with my system as it didnt really perfom any better and the milage was only margially better. After about 1800$ I still wasnt really any better than my 750 holley vacumm secondary. I hope you have much better luck than i did. Check out diy-efi.org ,there is a section on there just for this type of system,maybe someone there can help get you on the right track.

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Ive got a slanted attitude and a heavy right foot.

Well I'll see what will happen with this new chip, If I have to I suppose I could convert to the GM ignition or go msd.

Tom - As to fuel pressure, yes I think it is adjustable but I believe it might require taking apart the tbi.. it is a 500cfm gm rochester unit. Supposedly this was all set and ready to go...

I got home with about an hour or so of daylight left so I didn't work on it much, but I got the new chip in. Not as much fuel coming out the injectors this time, but still too much to get it running. This time with one injector, it seems to run longer, maybe a minute? I rev'd it a few times and seemed to hold well, then rpms steadily dropped until it just died on its own.
I noticed a code 33 - low engine vacuum. But by then it was getting dark and couldn't investigate further. Tomorrow I shall look into this, and probably put a fuel pressure gauge inline.