EFI conversion questions - lots of random ones

[Gunnibronco]

So everything is moving a long well, but I've misplaced the damn ECT sensor. I'm hope I'll run across it tomorrow, or hopefully Carquest or Napa will be open & I can get one. Tomorrow I need to get the throttle cable installed to the gas pedal, install the upper intake, t/b, mas, & air filter, wire it, and reinstall the HP pump & accumulator, radiator & new clutch fan. It will be a long day.

Chad

[ZOSO]

Looks good chad. It will be nice to have EFI.

[Gunnibronco]

Trouble reared it's ugly head in the form of hydrobooster/intake manifold interference. Also the intake is riding on the hood, but an air saw will fix that.

Gonna take my old angled power brake booster back this afternoon and see how I can move my booster. Not going to run today.

[Rox Crusher]

keep at it brother

curious that your having fit problem

the angled bracket will fix it

[Gunnibronco]

keep at it brother

curious that your having fit problem

Yeah, its not even close to clearing. I'd have to move the h-boost over about 1/2"-3/4" to get any clearance. The accumulator bulge on the h-boost body is hitting the intake manifold. I saw a pic of a truck on CB.com w/Explorer EFI & Mustang h-boost, but he must have had a body lift. Based on the condition of my body mount locations & rubber mounts, I'm betting I've got about a 1" body drop, from stock.


I didn't get a chance to work on relocating the booster, but I hope the bracket will work. Unfortunately, I cannibalized part of it to build the Mustang h-boost. So there will be some thinkin' involved w/ fixing it. Today was one of those days when everything seemed to fight me, not nearly as much progress as I would have liked. On the plus side, I did find my ECT sensor, tangled up in the RJM harness/box.

I did finish installing the clutch fan, radiator & new belts & hoses. The 69 GTO upper hose fit perfectly. I got the throttle cable bracket, bell crank, and gas pedal all but finished. I also got the fuel rail attached to the feed & return lines.

Still lots to do, looks like I'll be staying late at work a lot this week.

[Justin]

Track down Vintage Iron Fabworks on CB.com. They make a simple bracket for $10 that allows you to rotate the HB unit 90 degrees. May solve your problem.

[Gunnibronco]

Thanks

Is this what you are talking about:
http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showth ... p?t=193028
I saw those a while ago, but forgot about them. I wonder if I could just flip the h-booster over 180, so the accumulator was at 5 o'clock. I'll do some staring tomorrow.

Chad

[Gunnibronco]

Justin, thanks for making me think about rotating the h-boost.

I can't use the product you suggested, rotating the h-booster 90, 180, or 270 will all interfere with either the valve cover, intake, or steering shaft. But as a quick fix to get the truck running, I can rotate it about 20 degrees clockwise & still maintain clearance. Unfortunately, it doesn't' give me a way to mount the master cylinder, even with a custom cut adapter plate. The m/c will be slightly off level, but I don't think it will matter. Before I do much driving, I'll have to rebuild my angle bracket & fab up a new system. I was hoping to do it without opening the brake lines, but that isn't going to happen.

I swapped the ECT, IAB, and TPS sensors from my 351, to match the RJM harness.

Is it a problem that I drove my truck for a couple weeks with O2 sensors installed without being hooked up? Can/should I clean them? I hope I didn't ruin them.

I'm going to start wiring it and then hook up the fuel pumps, should be ready to fire up then. Assuming my h-boost is easy to fix. I bought the unloomed RJM harness, and now I'm glad I did, I think I'm going to have to move a few sensors.

[Viperwolf1]

A little angle won't hurt the master cylinder. I was thinking of clocking mine the same.

I don't think you would have damaged the O2 sensors. Definitely try them out before anything else.

[ZOSO]

Everything I have read about o2 sensors say that will ruin them. But try it and see.

[Gunnibronco]

Thanks guys, I guess there is only one way to find out, that is to fire it up. I'll do my best to make that happen by the end of the weekend. I'll keep you updated, and try to take some more pics.

Chad

[Rox Crusher]

Everything I have read about o2 sensors say that will ruin them. But try it and see.

I don't understand how they would get ruined by being run without being hooked up ?

[Gunnibronco]

They heat up when the system is on, and it keeps them clean. If mine have gummed up, they may not clean up and read correct. I think.

[ZOSO]

They heat up when the system is on, and it keeps them clean. If mine have gummed up, they may not clean up and read correct. I think.

Yep. I know for a fact that my sideband says do not run it unless its wired up and operating.

[Gunnibronco]

Home for lunch more photos.

Got the h-boost rotated & mounted yesterday, and the gas pedal bolted in.




Today I've finished cutting open the wiring harness & temping it in. I cut the hole to route the harness & pulled it through.






Now I've pretty much reassembled everything & run the wires to most the locations, I need to lengthen the ECT & IAB wires.







The list & pile of parts is getting smaller.

[Viperwolf1]

They heat up when the system is on, and it keeps them clean. If mine have gummed up, they may not clean up and read correct. I think.

Yep. I know for a fact that my sideband says do not run it unless its wired up and operating.

I think you mean wideband. Sidebands are completely different but are also capable of conveying data.

I don't think they would get very gummed up unless there is something wrong with the motor. You gotta figure at startup the O2 heaters take a while to get up to temp anyway.

[ZOSO]

They heat up when the system is on, and it keeps them clean. If mine have gummed up, they may not clean up and read correct. I think.

Yep. I know for a fact that my sideband says do not run it unless its wired up and operating.

I think you mean wideband. Sidebands are completely different but are also capable of conveying data.

I don't think they would get very gummed up unless there is something wrong with the motor. You gotta figure at startup the O2 heaters take a while to get up to temp anyway.

yes i did mean wideband. Fat fingers on my little phone.

[Gunnibronco]

Kept plugging away at the swap this afternoon/evening. Only took one pic, just before the upper intake went on:


Got lots of wire loomed, and further organized. Added a little dielectric grease to all the connections as I've gone. Throttle body is installed & throttle cable "adjusted". I had to make some small changes after I realized the throttle body wasn't closing completely.

Still need to drop the dizzy back in, finish wiring & plumbing under the truck, and make the final electric connections to the RJM harness. I also need to make a bracket to mount the MAF & airfilter, and mount the coil & BP sensor, plus keep looming wire. I'll clean up the O2 sensors with some scotchbrite & keep my fingers crossed. My only fear is that the truck ran most mornings with the carb choked, but I also made some longer trips that got things heated up.

[Gunnibronco]

Two more full days working, less a few hours to paint a Scout door, and its still not done. I did do a little backtracking, my airfilter/maf plumbing didn't work, the air filter was in the top of the battery.

Lots of tedious progress today, but no pics. I checked out an O2 sensor, and there was a little carbon, but not much else, so I cleaned it w/some scotchbrite. The right sensor is a PITA to get out, so I left it in, considering how the other one looked. Modded/painted & mounted the coil & bracket from the 351 motor. Stabbed the dizzy roughly enough to start & get a timing light on. More wiring routed & tied down, mounted BP sensor, installed spark plug wires, & battery. Started working on installing the HP pump & accumulator, it should go quickly, the mounts are done.

All the hardware & auto stores were closed yesterday & today, so tomorrow I've got some stuff to buy to get things finished. I'm going to change my battery & alt grounds, hopefully to fix my charging problems.

I'm down to finishing the accumulator/hp pump plumbing & pump wiring, and the powered connections to the harness, then I think its ready to go. There will still be some things to clean up, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for all the help.

Chad

[Moab Mike]

Great work Chad, it looks like your coming along nicely. It should be purring like a Lion in a matter of days. {:-)

[Booger]

Looking good Chad.

[Gunnibronco]

Thanks guys, it'll be up & running soon.

[plumbdoctor]

Chad, in the last pic... it looks like you were able to keep the temp sensor in the stock location?? I didn;t think it would with the dizzy installed. If so, ow much room do you have to adjust timing?

[Gunnibronco]

You are right, I kept it in the manifold, because I didn't build a bypass in the heater hose, and thought it would be more accurate. I have lots of room to rotate the dizzy, probably 30d. I think the Explorer front accessories limits the rotation, but mine seems to have plenty of room. I'll take a better pic tomorrow.

[Gunnibronco]

Pretty much took last night off, but got back at it today & made some good progress.

Here are a couple pics of the dizzy clearance I have:



When the dizzy is turned all the way counter clockwise, the cap adapter hits the fuel rail, not the sensor.


Here are a couple pics of air inlet V2.0. I pulled the ACT apart, separated the twist lock part (it used to fit in the airbox of a Taurus SHO) and glued it into a new elbow. A 3" ABS 90d sewage elbow fit perfect between my air filter, yeah kinda ghetto, & the MAF fittings (the MAF & rubber reducer between the MAF & elbow is also from the SHO). I actually like this better, than V1.0, using the Explorer plumbing. This way the ACT threads into the elbow, not twist locks.




Also got a little more done with my fuel pumps & accumulator. I put my old belts back on and decided to return the new ones. I'm going to install a double v-belt pulley on my alt, now the new 69 GTO coolant hose makes room for a second belt. I've had the pulley for a while, but no easy way to install it. I wonder if the belt was slipping, causing no charge, but I never heard it squeel. I'll get back at it tomorrow after work.

Here is the finished Scout door that has prevented me from getting my Bronco done. But now its done, so no more getting sidetracked. The color match looks better outside, but we had no codes to work from & even our computer match sucked.

[Rox Crusher]

Keep up the great work Chad..............yesterday's snow bashing trip was motivational but I still took a break tonight.............I can only keep pace for so long.

Do you know McGyver ?

[Gunnibronco]

I've been called McGyver a few times in my life. Once earlier today, while putting a Thule rack on a friend's 4Runner. The first time was at a party in Crested Butte, someone had an English keg with an American tap. That equals no . I saw a pile of discarded ski poles & asked for a hack saw & cut a small section of ski pole to act as an adapter to fit the tap to the keg. I was a HERO!

Living in Gunnison makes you pretty crafty. You should see how some of the houses were built around here. Necessity is the mother of invention.

[Viperwolf1]

Good progress. Almost ready to fire.

[ZOSO]

Chad do you have a screen in front of the MAF? if not with it right before your bend you will not get accurite readings. I dont want to see you fry that motor cause your maf is in the wrong spot. You need a a straight section ~5-6" before the maf to let the air "straighten out". If you put a screen in front of it it will straighten the air and you wont need the straight piece in front.

[Gunnibronco]

Thanks I did not know about the screen/straight section. The MAF has a factory screen on the inlet side of the sensor, is that enough?