Well Im finally finished with a couple of recent additions to my corvette. Fitech had a great rebate running this spring and I jumped. I picked up the 600 hp unit for 899.00 after the $100 rebate. I also decided to utilize a tanks inc fuel tank with an internal walbro fuel pump. The tank installation was straight forward enough. Running the fuel pressure and return lines neatly was not a problem, but as usual for me, took longer than It should have. The FI throttle body is very straight forward, although I unneccessarily complicated matters by trying to also use FI tech to control timing too. In the end I reverted back to my timing setup I had previously had my car setup too. So after a little head scratching and deep drinking, I mean thinking, I proceeded on. I also added new rear brake calipers from wilwood, while under the car installing the tank and running lines I noticed the RR caliper leaking. Again. It was a sleeved unit and Ive thrown 2 seal kits at it previously.
So anyhow, today I took the all buttoned up car out for a good road test. All I can say is I am very pleased. Ive started and stopped the engine as well as driven around the block enough times for the computer to self learn, and adjust the map. Now with a good solid non leaking brake system, it was time for a nice cruise.

 

Looks awesome! I keep putting one in my cart to order and never seem to actually get it. One of these days I'll do it. Sounds like a night and day difference from what people have been saying.

 

I'm in the same boat. This is my next upgrade, but just the 400Hp version for my stock engine.

Gotta finish the Steeroids install first.

Ken

 

Sunstroked,

I am in the middle of this install myself and am curious about something. Why did you abandon the timing control element? Was it not working as advertised or just changed your mind, or something else?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

Well, the reason I switched directions was the car wouldnt start! I marked the location of the distributor before pulling it. It is an MSD 2 wire distributor and requires the CDI box to trigger the distributor. So, I locked out both the mechanical and vacuum advance, reinstalled the dizzy, triple checked my wiring. I couldnt get it to fire. Hmm, made a call over to FItech. I was told that if you had already had a good distributor setup, which I certainly had. I had spent plenty of time playing with advance springs, stops and initial timing, that you really dont gain much of any advantage by utilizing the timing control function. Really? IDK. So anyway, I pulled the distributor, undid my lockout putting it all back as I had it. Fitech told me to get it running then if I wanted to play with the self timing feature, to do it after I had the car running. Had I not decided to pull the dizzy and do all of that, Im sure the car would have fired up without the self induced drama.
The advantage of the FItech over the carb is the way the unit adjusts to altitude, cold starts, no fuel in a bowl to boil out with a hot engine, and of course the A/F ratio. You can watch it in real time with the display that is included with the unit.
I thought I had the car fairly well sorted with the 650 speed demon carb I had on it, the new FI seems to have found a few extra ponies hiding somewhere. No dyno pulls to prove it, but when you push the pedal down it really responds!

 

That is certainly a good reason to change course. I bought a used MSD 2 wire distributor and refurbished CDI box for doing this swap. I guess that if I can't get it going then I can always go back to the stock HEI distributor. I will take your lesson though and get it started with the stock setup first, then play with the timing stuff. Good to know and it's great to hear that you are enjoying the EFI. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Did you go with a whole new fuel tank or their little sump tank? If sump tank, where did you put it?

 

I thought about their sump tank but read a lot negative reviews about it. Looks like they are having, or have had, some problems with it. I then considered going the route that Sunstroke took and installing a Tanks Inc tank with internal pump but decided to go with the Aeromotive Phantom setup in the original tank instead. It's a pretty slick unit.

 

My FiTech 1200HP Power Adder unit is in the mail as we speak I have the MSD 6al-2 programmable box so will not use the Fitech for timing. The MSD allows you to really customize curves where the FiTech from what I hear only allows 3 values to set (good enough for the average build, but I'm dealing with forced induction).

 

I believe the power adder allows full control over all areas of the map (timing and fuel) via laptop, but only a simple ignition curve via the handset.

Interesting to read of the dramas with timing control. I have an msd dizzy and old 6al box and have been tossing up which way to go for initial startup. I'm putting in a new stroker engine to replace my stock tired l48 at the same time with the fitech, and trying to decide what to do for timing. My options are:
- Refit my original hei dizzy - I know it works, but it's definitely not setup for the new engine.
- Fit the msd without timing control - should work, but hasn't been used for a few years, and was previously on an engine much more similar to the one going in the car.
- Fit the msd locked out with ignition timing from the fitech, which will allow me to get the ignition timing setup more easily and on the fly once the car is running.

Any advice from anyone who's been there and done that?

Good to see it's up and running and working well for the OP!