Should I go Fuel Injection?

For everything related to using Fuel Injection in an FSJ.
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gutieee
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 12:23 pm

Should I go Fuel Injection?

Post by gutieee »

I currently have a 2bbl carb on a rebuilt 360 and am having a vacuum leak problem that's making me crazy. This is one of the reasons I'd like to upgrade to a Bill Hamilton TBI, so I no longer have carb problems!
Should I upgrade to a 4bbl TBI and if so, how do I go about selecting an intake manifold? I'm not looking to turn my GW into a race vehicle, but if I could increase performance just a tad, that would be great! I suppose I could always consult with Bill's shop, but I thought some of you wouldn't mind helping me to learn something about intakes. If there's a website you could recommend, that would be great too!
Thank you!!
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TeaBag
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Re: Fuel Injection or Carberation?

Post by TeaBag »

My 2 cents based on my experience.

I converted to FI 8 years ago. At that time, the most affordable option was to purchase a GM TBI kit from AFI and I did. I installed it on a otherwise stock motor that had about 60k original miles.

Regardless of who you by this type of kit from, you will almost certainly need to tweak the tune to get it to run optimally-which will require an ALDL cable and a laptop PC to enable you to drive around and record data and send back to them so they can make the adjustments to the tune.

For me, this was a long (about 2 months after install) and frustrating process to getting it to run satisfactory- consisting of taking data, emailing it to them, having them review it and burn a new chip with new settings and ship it to you. They wanted the old chip back so of course, I would ship those back every time. I think we went through 5 different tries to get it right, I can't remember exactly.

Customer service response was not always as fast as I thought it should be and I was using my car as a daily driver so the added time it took to get it right continued to add to my frustration. I did use their timing control and that no doubt added complexity to the tune and extended the process.

I drove it for about 3 years with the GM TBI set up and did not have any issues after getting things sorted out.

After a few years, I was ready to do some performance upgrades to the motor, 4b intake, performance CAM, etc, which of course required me to start the frustrating tune process all over again. After 3 weeks of back and forth communications and finally getting a new chip (that still was not right), I gave up and purchased a FITECH TBI with timing control (something I should have just done to begin with). Installing it was much more simple than the GM TBI as the FITECH ECM is integrated into the Unit, so a lot less wiring, running wire bundles, no drilling holes in the firewall as the GM ECM is not weather proof and needs to be mounted somewhere inside the cab.

Most important- it was 100% tunable by me!!!! I have been running it for 3 years with zero issues. I also recently upgraded to headers and true dual exhaust and was able to instantly tweak the tune to accommodate.

I don't work for FITECH and my intent is not to bash the "mom and pop" shops, it is just to give you insight on my experience and perhaps for you to consider things you haven't thought about. This is all knowledge I wish I had before I started the process 8 years ago.

Installing fuel injection will make your engine more reliable and start better. It will also give you a more responsive throttle, run cleaner and possible a few more HP but it will not turn a stock 360 into a performance engine or give you incredible gains in fuel economy.

Neither will just adding a 4brl intake to a stock setup. The late model manifolds and exhaust are very restrictive and the stock CAM and compression are pretty anemic for what the engine is capable of.
Last edited by TeaBag on Fri Feb 26, 2021 5:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Stuka
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Re: Should I go Fuel Injection?

Post by Stuka »

gutieee wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:20 pm I currently have a 2bbl carb on a rebuilt 360 and am having a vacuum leak problem that's making me crazy. This is one of the reasons I'd like to upgrade to a Bill Hamilton TBI, so I no longer have carb problems!
Should I upgrade to a 4bbl TBI and if so, how do I go about selecting an intake manifold? I'm not looking to turn my GW into a race vehicle, but if I could increase performance just a tad, that would be great! I suppose I could always consult with Bill's shop, but I thought some of you wouldn't mind helping me to learn something about intakes. If there's a website you could recommend, that would be great too!
Thank you!!
I split this off into its own topic, as this was originally posted on a 3 year old topic.

However, fixing vacuum leaks is a FAR easier task to than installing EFI. EFI is great, but certainly more work.
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1978J10REDWHITE
Posts: 263
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:25 pm

Re: Should I go Fuel Injection?

Post by 1978J10REDWHITE »

I looked at Howell systems.
Event pulled the trigger yet thought am thinking sooner then later for my 360 2bbl

89_Wagon
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:24 am

Re: Should I go Fuel Injection?

Post by 89_Wagon »

If you do decide to go efi, rip out the automatic choke wire at the fuseblock. It's powered and not fused. It can cause fires and melt wires.... At least that's what happened to me.

I did AFI. Good kit. Pretty simple. Mine died a few seconds after cold starts before and after efi conversion. After installing an HRC oil pump from bull tear, that stopped. Maybe something else is going on, but it worked.

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