Nice small article on the CF by Bryan Wood. I would also like to thank Bryan for the manifold link and a pic of my new motor. It didn't even hit me until while reading the article I said to myself... That motor looks familiar, then realized it was mine, the unique fuel tube arrangement was the giveaway. Thanks again Bryan.

 

Because most people just don't understand it well enough. Then Tuned Port injection came out right on its's heals and that was a very good system so many turned their noses down at the Cross Fire. Biggest complaint we usually got was "My car idles rough".
If it's dialed correctly and maintained, there's nothing wrong with that system.
Remember in the 60's how many people pulled the FI systems off their Corvettes and replaced them with aftermarket 4 barrel carbs? Usually because they just weren't familiar with the system. Back then their biggest complaint was lean popping.
Greg

 

well I have a 84 with crossfire ,had it 20 yrs. now and never had a problem with it ,no complaints at all ,it seems the people that bad mouths it has never had one ,but seems to know everything about it!!!

 

Buccaneer, include the link to the subject article.

 

Sorry about that. Here is the Corvette Forum link from the main page.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/articl...m-get-bad-rap/

 

At the time that C/F system came to market, it was a quantum leap better than a carb. I had a new '84 and could get 20 mpg at 100 mph!! Efficient, smooth, good idle, easy starting...all the things that more modern EFI systems provide.

Are they as good as more modern systems? Probably not. But they are very close and much better than a carb set up. As with any fuel/air induction system, it needs to be correctly set up for it to work as intended.

The biggest problem with the C/F system is that there are very few folks left who know how to set up the system properly. If the hardware is in good condition, I don't think setup is akin to "brain surgery"; but it does take some knowledge and experience to do it.

 

I heard that, contrary to previous non-FI corvettes, this first (sorta) generation, could not easily be enhanced for performance.

Performance was down in 70s, but it was relatively straight forward to enhance.. Less so with the Cross Fire.

That is what I heard, FWIW.

 

Larger TBI units and better C/F intake manifolds are available. Upgrading the power is not much different than with any other Chev V8 enigne: better cam, better heads, bigger intake manifold, larger flow fuel components. And, you can do that while still retaining the stock controls system.

 

Now. But back in the day ? Was it as straight forward?

 

No...but I can only go back to "the day" in my head....

 

Lolololol. Yer reminding me how old I am.

 

IMO, the 82 CF got a bad rap for the TBs. Nobody back when new and even a lot of years later had a clue on how to make them work correctly, including the dealerships. Most thought of them as a carb, which is not even close really. Once you start messing with the TBs like a carb, most will screw it up and never get it back running properly and eventually switch to a carb which is more their comfort level and are happy...kinda.

Now, I don't think there are any dealerships left that know how to work on a CF. Example... A few years back, I had a dealership in the Phoenix valley call us at the owners request since we had refurbished his TBs and told them that we were probably the only company around that could fix his CF car after the dealership replaced an engine for him and could not get the motor to run properly.

I went over to have a look and talked with the head mechanic for a bit. After which I looked at the balance that was way off and because of that, the TPS was set way off as well. Next, I went to check the FP and a guy who "used" to be a GM rep back in the day, now retired walked in and asked me what I was doing. After telling him, he said that there is no way I can adjust the FP on the CF TBs. Really?! He then went to the dealership manager and told him I was doing things wrong on the customers car and I had no clue about CFI. WOW! When they all returned back to the bay, I told the manager, "if you want this motor to run correctly, get this guy out of my face and let me work, you called me, remember? Since you couldn't get the motor to run".

After the old rep was told to leave, I told the manager to watch the FP as I adjusted it to the proper setting, something the rep said was impossible. After that, the manager just said nice job, please just continue and fix the motor, I'll keep the has been rep out of your hair.

When I left, the motor was running just fine and idling great. I wouldn't take any payment for the job, but finally the manager said "at least let me pay for your gas over here" and gave me a $100 gift card. Nice! The customer was happy and the dealership mechanic leaned a few things about CFI, since he had NEVER even seen one before.

I think this is pretty typical with most places today, they have never seen CFI, let alone know what to do with it. This is one reason this forum and a few others are so important. People that have these cars and have issues can come here and "most" of the time get the right answers to getting it running again in good order.

I personally like my 82CF and it runs well, probably one of the top five in the country, maybe the world, who knows? BTW, my next project is a completely new ECM converted over to the stock harness and an EFI system for the people that don't want TBs or Carb. CF forever.

 

Buccaneer...I LOVE IT! or at least the part on how you told the dealership manager to get that @ss-hat out of your face when they obviously had no one who could do what you did.

I get that from time to time in my area. I go to a shop to get something to work correctly and I have a crowd of techs trying to tell me what I need to do. So I stop and talk to the owner of the shop or service manager and let them know to get these people away from me..and all they are doing is causing the amount of time I spend in this to increase and you are paying for my time.. does not matter to me if I stand there and talk or twist wrenches.

They are not hard to get to run correctly if the person knows what they are doing and what to do when they find problems.

DUB

 

nice reading i realy love the crossfire

 

yup, better fuel pumps, manifolds, cams, throttle boddies,
as long as the computer gets its info in range it expects
it runs nice.

 

Thank You Dub. You jus gotta love it when a plan comes together. Like you, we have had some strange calls over the years. There are some very talented folks on this forum and hope the information pool continues on CFI.

 

Dub, it's good to see your name up in lights again - how is your book coming along? I'm down for an autographed (seriously) copy when the day finally comes!

 

Book?

 

YES..my major problem is TIME and trying to make sure that try to cover as many bases as possible. This has been going on for while now...and it is slowly getting there. I am just rally picky.

I have many 'books' that lack any serious information. I want mine to be down and dirty and really get into the nitty-gritty and show people things that many of these other books do not show....but rather seem to show photos of this and that...and even many of those are not worth a crap. So this book will not give any of the technical stuff such as block casting numbers and so on. Anybody can find that out....but.... how to take out your heater box on a 1978 with air and do it...is something else.

So you can imagine I have a lot to try to cover to make the book or books complete as possible. And also covering body repairs and all that good stuff....like how to pull off an outer door skin and put it back on, etc.

DUB

 

When it either hits the internet as an E-book or an actual paper book...you will get by mark on it...that is for sure.

DUB