Nice! Let me know how that goes with Rob.

 

Will do. I'm in no rush at this very moment. It's drivable. Needs some fine tuning is all.

The metal in the oil... I'm choosing to ignore.

 

Another general update: over the last few days I fixed the following:

• intake on the car
• Ported throttle bodies built and installed
• Messed with FPR... more on this
• Bent some new hard line and re-flared the ends, they weren't sealing.
• New rubber line with better efi style clamps.

The fuel pressure regulator... that was a story and a half. So remember I said it was 24 something psi? Well that was a lie. Well sort of. It was 24 psi at some point. However today I was checking it and what do you know... running it only had 20 psi of un vacuumed fuel pressure. So I bumped it up to fix it and adjusted the BPC in the tune. I then checked it a little while later and it was low again... wtf? Then it clicked what happened... I was using the "low" pressure spring on my regulator which according to aeromotive maxes out at 20. I guess it was able to make 24 for however long and simply lost its spring rate after being compressed for that much that long. So I put in the higher pressure spring and set pressure to 27 psi which gives me about 20 psi at idle. A little high but I have some duty cycle at idle still. With that fixed I'd imagine the tune will stay much more stable over time now lol.

for the reasons above I've decided I want to add a fuel pressure sensor I can datalog in EBL with. That way I'll be able to see what is happening real time and I won't have to rely on the aeromotive gauge which I am starting to think is suspect...

more to come I'm sure.

 

Do you have that already? If so, which one did you get?

 

I do not, I was going to use a honeywell MLH050PGB06A per Bob R and just wire it into the second ADC channel. It is somewhat cost prohibitive at the moment however.

 

Gotcha!

 

If I do end up doing it, and that's a big if, I will probably mount it down by the fuel filter. They don't do well with vibrations and heat I've heard. Originally I was going to use the last port on the VRFPR.

 

I think you would find that there are lots of pressure sensors out there that would work. You can use an oil pressure sensor because there are in the right range. Some may have the correct thread and others may need an adapter. I was looking at a 4 pack of stainless steel ones on fleabay recently that would do the job. Alternatively jump on Rock Auto and pick up any Chevy sensor and a pre-made connector with fly leads.

 

It needs to have a built in amplifier circuit to update properly over the ADC channel. Same as the holley and auto meter sensors which are equally as expensive sadly. There are cheap units on ebay/amazon but have reported high failure rates and 15% inaccuracies. A OEM one could work... but a good one would probably be equally as expensive and I don't know if it is amplified...

 

oh yeah gotcha. In hindsight I should have probably gone with a Haltech. Easy to tune lots of I/O etc.

 

Think we've discussed this before. I do and don't think it has its draws for sure. But I did meet a guy with one and it does have its own issues/quirks as well. We should've all just adapted micro squirts or terminators though. Those are so flexible its not even funny.

 

Yeah I think we have. I’ve heard good and bad about MSs but you know people say all kinds of ****. Our racing BMW runs a Haltech Platinum Sport 2000 and I am about to convert the big racing 84 Vette to EFI and use another Haltech PS2000, I’m pretty comfortable with them and it’s been bullet proof in the bmw. They do make a Platinum Pro GM plug and play ECU. I think they are actually made for late 80s early 90s Holdens (here in Australia) but same same, batch fire with HEI distributor.

 

Yeah I think they're based on the 7747s successor iirc. They do work but I'd probably just go with what I said for the simplicity of anyone around here is able to tune/work on it as well. If its popular there then for sure thats the way to go. Its just i know id still be mostly on my own with tuning with say a haltech.

 

Yeah 7747 and the later truck ECUs. I think that’s the key use what all the local tuners can tune. Haltech is pretty popular here. I thought they would be quite popular there because I see them on TV on those “Street Outlaw shows”. You know the ones where they spend more time yelling at each out than racing 🤣. I watched a YouTube (from the US) about good and bad ECUs. The guy basically said the same as you. He said Haltechs were good but most tuners didn’t know them that well.

 

Exactly. It's the same reason things like hondata are popular, that's what those guys know. If you get help it's no issue. Most guys won't touch EBL but it is really a lot closer to an OEM than most people realize. It has limitations on its capability, mainly resolution, but it does work quite well for what it is. The P4 or SFI EBL is an entirely different animal though by comparison.

 

The bloke who helped me with the EBL is a Haltech dealer but has had lots of experience with different ECUs of the the years. He had a business cracking ford ECUs at one point. As soon as he saw the EBL he knew exactly what he was looking at. In no time he had it dialed in. He recognized the Whats Up Display as well, I just can’t remember what he said it was/looked like. He is the sort of guy you need, not some young bloke that has done an HP Tuners course and think he knows everything but can only tune in very specific parameters.

 

That's why I reached out to Rob.

A lot of the shops here have the know how to do it... just for liability won't because they're unfamiliar. Anyone ive shown says tuner pro looks a lot like HP Tuners and the holley software. The dashboard is kind of like the fitech if I recall correctly.

 

So it's been a while. I've just been driving the car and I must say it's very different. I let a friend drive it a bit and his reaction was that it pulls good at any speed in any gear. So that was a solid seal of approval imo. The tune is actually okay. The acceleration enrichment parameters need work, banging gears hard and quick leaves a notable pop/backfire out the exhaust when you do it. Sounds cool as hell but I'd imagine isn't the greatest thing ever for the engine.

Which leads me to my next statement. (This is in the other thread) Since it's running pretty well I may reach out and have it dynoed now, using the same tables and such as it did prior so it's a more fair A/B just with the fueling corrected to what it wants. Rob hasn't gotten back to me and I don't want to bother him as I know he's probably very busy so thats fine. When he reaches back he reaches back. Car drives awesome anyway.

So with that we'll go from there. Also, may have secured a dirt cheap set of forged pistons for the rotating assembly for a price I won't say or believe is real until they're at my door lol.

 

Hello Mr. 84 4+3, have been enjoying your journey and the heartfelt support you have been getting (thank you to everyone contributing to this thread too). It is so awesome to follow along vicariously while waiting to do my own car. I have been cutting and pasting all the valuable information. It would be awesome to do the new dyno run. I saw your old dyno numbers very impressive for a CFI!!! Your short videos and the awesome sound of your car is sensational.

Once I did work on my 86 my exhaust would plop once you let off the gas and make it sound like an old European Ferrari, it has never caused any problems and it turns heads especially gear heads who wonder why a C4 sounds like that. I did the BIG Mouth Intake, ported and extrude honed polished and massaged SLP runners with different size dividers. my vette also pulls well to 6,200 rpms, of course my ignition was optimized to allow much more. MSD 6A etc. with the rev chip of I think 6,400rpms. I too use the 3.07:1 gear in my stock DANA 44, because our engines pull well in the midrange of 3,000 to 6,000 rpms this gear keeps it there long enough to get the torque down to the road. One I go MINI-RAM I will need to get the gear up, my best gear ratios back in the muscle car days was 3:55:1, I often would beat cars with 3:73: and 4:11:1, later C4's came with 3:42:1 and 3:45:1 which is the best for street/highway and drag racing, IMHO...

Please take your car to the strip and see if you can get into the 12's. Good luck with your pistons and your future stroker. In these uncertain times I would get most projects done sooner, cost me $88.00 to fill up my mini-van yesterday and talk of $7.00 to $10.00 per gallon gas, God help us. Ok, that's my inflated 2.5 cents adjusted for inflation comments, keep up the great build on the awesome 84 Crossfire (Biggest Secret Good Car).

Sincerely,
Jarrod

 

Thanks for the kind words. Almost forgot the driving video.