How is the EFI?

[pbrown]

Brian,

How is your EFI setup working for you. The last report was that you were going to do some dyno tuning. Did you get everything sorted?

I've been thinking of using the same setup is why I'm so curious.

[nolastyankee]

Patrick,
Sorry for the late response, I have been a little distracted from the site driving the Cobra and watching the Olympics!

Tuning the car was an incredible experience...I'll try to put a few videos up on YouTube. It was violent, noisy, and thrilling all at once. Hearing my just bolted-together engine screaming on the dyno at 5500 rpm made me a bit nervous, but after I figured out that we would not scatter parts out the bottom I began to enjoy it.

We went from a car that was completely undrivable to ready to run in just a little under 6 hours. The throttle response is ridiculous - the car simply leaps when you hit the throttle. We used a eddy current dyno to run the car into all the cells of the engine load/rpm fuel map. The shop set the dyno to not roll over 30 mph (there is a current resistance on the dyno) and then started putting down the throttle. The more gas, the more the dyno pulled back on the car. Imagine this - the car in 3rd, wide open throttle, only rolling the tires at 30 mph! Then we repeated at 40, 50, and 60.

At the end of the day we made a little under 300 hp and 400 ft/lbs at the wheels. It's a little less than I hoped for, but in the ball park for a 9.1:1 iron head motor. We could use a few more horses, but that's another project.

The EFI is fun, but these stack systems are a different animal. I'm not at all convinced that we have all the power dialed in and the car seems to have more in it. Because there are so many stacks, many software combinations, and few folks using them you really find yourself in a heavy-duty experiment mode.

I love the look of the system, and the performance should be flawless, but we aren't quite there yet and it's a LOT of learning and experimentation to get it perfect. We could have spent a week on the dyno dialing it in. I would have selected a little different software if I were doing it all over and maybe would have had Kinsler build the system since our DC&O hardware is from overseas and very lightly supported.

EFI stacks are not for everyone, but then again, the challenge is part of the fun!

[Jeff 427]

Brian,

Glad to hear you got things sorted out!!

I know its been a long journey!!! Now you can enjoy the good times!!

[nolastyankee]

Finally took the time to upload to YouTube...Check them out here!

http://www.youtube.com/user/nolastyankee

[diegokid]

Where did you hook the tie down straps at?

[nolastyankee]

We hooked them up where Alan suggests that you not hook them up...To the rear control arms. On the dyno we used there were no much better options.

- To clarify this note, we hooked up to the suspension arms, not the forward trailing arms. I don't think Alan suggests using either of these, and it's a fact that the suspension arm attaches to the vehicle through just a couple bolts. We didn't have a better option and decided to use these but understand the risk.