Spittybug - Designs for converting stock setup to EFI

[Spittybug]

Progress.

Idle air block has been made in aluminum and blueprinted. Stock GM IAC valve. Blank off the stock hole in the bottom of the manifold where the idle air/cold start fuel come in.

Fuel rails/injector combo is now being sized to fit below airbox and to the side of the boxy side rails of the stock manifold. Looks like they will fit; just have to determine best fastening method.

No throttle position sensor needed, the MAP sensor can control the acceleration enhancement. Water temp sensor in either Y pipe or thermostat housing. Air sensor into the air box, air hose or otherwise mounted in free air. I've noticed that where I have mine mounted (in face of my aluminum air intake box) isn't optimal. Too much engine heat soaks into it after shutdown. It is therefore of the belief that incoming air is much hotter than it really is. I will be relocating mine.

We're getting closer and closer to the full prototype and then maybe kits ...... stay tuned.

[opethmike]

Cool stuff, Owen.

[Spittybug]

Nope. They fit remarkably well. Depending on o-ring tolerances you may have to gently tap them in with a piece of wood but mine pop in exactly as tightly as the old K-jet units did.

Adam, do you have any clearance issue with the forward mounting bolt of the A/C compressor and the driver side fuel rail? It looks tight when eyeballing it.

[AdmiralSenn]

Yeah. Serious issues. I had to reverse the bracket and I think I may have removed one of the bolts to make it all work. Sorry I forgot to mention that - I am a poor EFI evangelist.

Specifically the fuel rail and injectors fit fine, but the connector for the #6 injector runs right into the mounting bracket for the compressor. I've been trying to figure out a better way to solve that problem. One way would be to use a different fuel rail design that lifts the body of the rail up, so the injector can be pointed forwards or backwards. Alternately, different injectors, or a redesigned bracket might work.

[The Aviator]

Spotty what happened to ur efi setup with the fabbed aluminum intake elbow and peugeot intake?

Why are u converting the stock upper intake?

[opethmike]

He isn't converting his set-up. He is working on designing an EFI set-up that will integrate into the stock manifold with a minimum of fuss. Developing a "kit", if you will.

[Spittybug]

OK ladies and gentlemen, the fun has begun. Lazabby (Shannon) has started his voyage towards EFI. 3 Delorean owners and a friend ripped off his manifold and all K-Jet stuff to get down to the valley. He will be cleaning it out and POR-15ing it over the next few days. The fuel fittings, hose and megasquirt have arrived in the mail. As soon as the fuel rails arrive I will be getting them drilled out for the injectors and the test fitting can begin. I already have his idle air control block machined (see previous posts) and the fuse bank and relays have all been built as a "drop in" unit to connect to the RPM relay socket. We worked carefully and used PB blaster. No issue removing the Y pipe bolts nor the fuel fitting connection on the return line; two common areas for difficulty.

He will be documenting the process so that others can follow suit. We hope to provide both step by step instructions as well as a vetted list of components to make this a readily do-able conversion. Wish us all luck as we charge full speed ahead!

[The Aviator]

He isn't converting his set-up. He is working on designing an EFI set-up that will integrate into the stock manifold with a minimum of fuss. Developing a "kit", if you will.

Ok I thought that was the deal lol thanks

Spitty any idea on how much all the mega squirt stuff costs to covert a car? And what are u doing for ignition trigger wheels? Well.... Since ur keeping the distributor u won't need a trigger wheel correct?

[Spittybug]

1/27/12 Status. Fuel rails were measured up and drilled yesterday. We're using 48mm injectors to keep the profile low. Dry fit shows that the rails will not interfere with the forward A/C bracket. I've designed the fuel system to use AN6 fittings, flared for hose connections and O-ringed for connection to rails and regulator. We didn't have the right tap to thread the rails yesterday, so that will hopefully be resolved today. Measuring for the rail hold-downs will be a bit of a challenge, but I think we've got the right idea of how to do it.

Wiring harness from DIYautotune has been fitted with soldered on connectors and plugs for the various connections. I'll be testing & burning the initial tune into the controller later today.

We won't get done this weekend, but we may be able to at least dry fit the setup and get some wiring patched into the car. The fuse box/relay/power feed harness I built will plug right into the RPM relay socket and one additional (fused) connection to the battery (to eliminate issue of MS resets due to fuel pump motor noise).

We're blueprinting the various aluminum work so that we can reproduce them at will. My buddy Al is a retired machinist with all the cool toys in his garage to do all of this. I've told him that there are a lot of folks that have expressed interest in a "EFI in a box" kit that would allow them to do it for themselves.

By PM rather than in this thread, would you let me know if you might be interested in one of these kits (assuming that the conversion of Shannon's car is successful of course) so that I could give Al some kind of heads up? No commitment at this point, just an indication of interest. Total cost on the prototype is coming in around ~$1,400. Any selling of K-Jet parts to recoup costs is up to you.

If you are remotely considering going this route, start NOW! Clean all your grounds, prepare for a valley clean out since you'll need to take off the manifold to properly install everything and do yourself a favor and make sure your fuse blades are lightly sandpapered (or replaced) to guarantee good conduction. I also found that a slim Dremmel grinding bit fits right into the female half of our bullet connectors. This makes for a really quick and easy cleaning of them too.

Our goal is for you to be able to install EFI in an afternoon. After the prototype we already have a second volunteer/buyer to convert his car. Maybe we'll do a time lapse and YouTube it?

[Spittybug]

1/30/12 Update We dry fit the manifold onto Shannon's car on Sunday. The fuel rails fit perfectly under the air cleaner and big long box sides of the manifold. The shorter injectors really helped. We made a couple of fittings changes (90 degree hose ends rather than straight - ordered) and then looked to see how to secure the rails. Oops. Plan "A" was to use the existing manifold bolts like mine does, but being that two of them are in line with 2 of the spark plug holes and would obstruct them, that wasn't going to work. Plan "B" has been prototyped and involves using existing holes in the cast manifold to attach aluminum bar that then drops down to hold the rails firm. We are in the process of getting all the dimensions right and the proper holes/notches drilled in them. No modification to existing manifold needed. Airbox still attaches fine.

Resolved:

• Idle air block & controller
• Fuel rail placement and tapping
• Fuel rail mounting (75%)
• Short fuel injectors with correct capacity
• Wiring harnesses built and integrated into car - chose to tap straight from the battery for both fuel pump circuit and all others (MS, LC1, injectors) on separate circuits so that the fuel pump noise will be absorbed directly by battery. That and I have no idea how clean his contacts are in the fuse area!

Hoping for a SuperBowl Sunday mechanical completion. I have already burned my tune into his Megasquirt, so we ought to be pretty close out of the gate. Once idling has been achieved, we will change the jumpers on his MS board and disable his distributor's mechanical advance so that he is full EFI and timing control.

After his clean out of the valley, re installing the Y pipe and the other one in the valley took a while to get all leaks eliminated. Every step of the way we identified "while you're in there" items to replace. Welcome to modernizing a 30 year old car.

But, we are so close you can smell it!