Powerjection III Install and Review

its now priced at 1495 w/o fuel system...i remeber when it was frsr priced at 2400 lol ..awsome

750cfm w/ 75lb injectors is what i'll most likely end up with
that should handle 650hp to 700ish

 

Yeah, I know I should just go drive it, but I have great fears of it dying on me again. Maybe today, I'll put some gas in her and take her for a stroll around the block with my fingers crossed.

 

Don't fear the reaper.

 

Nice work I'm curious to know how well those will auto program as my friend is looking to go the powerjection route.

 

LOL, yeah...my legs start shaking as soon as I even think about having to push that car around again if it dies.

 

Okay, so I FINALLY took the car for the drive yesterday and it didn't die on me. However, it ran like absolute ****. I had suspicions as to why but when i got home I hooked up a vacuum guage to the manifold and couldn't believe my eyes...8" of vacuum at idle. I thought maybe my gauge was busted so i hooked up the laptop and sure enough, the dashboard display verified the gauge reading. So, I checked all my hoses, torque on the intake bolts, torque on the throttle body studs and all were good. The ONYL thing i can think of is that I used a square bore spacer instead of a squarebore to spreadbore adapter spacer and that's causing the leak, so I'm going to switch spacers today and see if that makes any difference.

The weird thing i noticed which indicates a bigger problem is that when i rev the engine, instead of the vacuum dropping to zero, it INCREASED! So, I'm a complete loss at this point. Help anyone?

 

Did the system lean itself out? If you were running fat before it would of added vacuum as it was more efficiently using the extra air. If it leaned out the vacuum would drop and the pump shot might be richening it up enough to pull more vacuum. EFI does weird things that you'd never see with a carb when the settings are off!

 

Do you mean when I rev the engine? I don't know, i wasn't watching the AFR at the time. I did noticed that as I drove around the AFR was staying around 11.5 which is way fat so.

 

I don't know really how your EFI system works. If it's a mass airflow system then vacuum leaks are going to do hokie things to your tune, but usually results in a lean out (which you might be seeing at idle). If you are a speed density system then it might be compensating for the vacuum leaks and putting the tune in a place where it "thinks" it's under load because the lower vacuum and adding fuel (at idle and driving). Can you check a fuel map while the engine is running/idling? That could tell a lot.

 

Here is a picture of what I see on mine. The upper area is lower vacuum (more throttle) and lower more vacuum. Higher RPM's on the right, lower on the left. The fuel amount is the rises and falls of the plane. Red is more fuel, blue is less fuel. I was driving when I took this picture (I don't recommend it) so my fuel point is in the middle. If you have a vacuum leak and it's putting the point in the upper area (and the area is defaulted probably to be richer rather than leaner) then you'd have issues.

 

It's an SD system and yes I have the ability to datalog, but I'm still very new at the whole tuning thing so I don't really know what I'm looking for. I did read somewhere that when there's no load on the engine and you rev it that it's not unusual to see an increase in vacuum. So today, I'll take it for a drive and see if the vacuum increases or decrease as I put load onto the engine.
Just saw your pic and I think i understand what I should be looking for. Regardless, I'm pretty sure I should be seeing more than 8" of vacuum at idle. I wish I had taken a reading before I removed the carb.

 

Too much fuel or too little will both drop vacuum, as will timing.

 

Yeah, timing was another thing I thought of checking. The last time I set it was with a carburetor so I just assumed it would be okay with the Powerjection. Just another thing to check I guess.

 

If it was good with the Carb it'll be good with the EFI (for now).

 

Well, good news and bad news. First the good: I installed the new spacer and it had absolutely no effect on the vacuum, so there's another 25 dollars gone. Once the engine got up to temp I hooked up the timing light and damn it if the timing wasn't WAY off. When i had the carb on I had it set at 6* BTDC and when i looked at it today it was down below the 0. So I adjusted the timing and immediately the vacuum shot up to around 13-14. YAY! Took the car out for a spin and was actually able to drive it with some light to mid acceleration jaunts. These tires don't stand a chance...I got a SAT optest out of the posi!
So, now with the bad: I only went for about a 10 minute drive. As i was heading home the car started surging again and the fuel pump was getting loud. I couldn't get the car faster than 30mph. I got her home and turned her off, turned her back on and the fuel pump was quiet again even as i revved the engine. However, as soon as i put her in drive and start to move, the fuel pump starts getting louder and louder. I drove in circles a few times with no improvement. So i pulled into the driveway again and now, even the idle is having problems. The fuel pump is screaming and when i looked under the hood at the FP gauge it was showing 30psi! So, I'm assuming the fuel pump is about to go.:af::af::af::af::af:
I'm not sure if it's a problem with the filter(s) or maybe the tank is still too dirty and the pre-filter is clogged or what. But now that i have the timing and everything else down, it's really frustrating to be chasing down fuel ghosts again. I'm very tempted to say screw it, get a fuel cell and a another new pump and just be done with it.
I will say it felt great when i drove it at first. I didn't even get to WOT and this things hauls ass and lights those tires at even the slightest press of the pedal.
Anyway, any suggestions would be welcome.

 

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?p=1440091#post1440091

I ponied up and got one of the Spectra Premium tanks via Rockauto.com then bought one of the Walbro 340 pumps from one of the vendors over at Turbobuick.com with the proper fittings and electrical connector adaptor for a GM installation and have never looked back. I keep the generic in tank pump (that came in the tank from Spectra) in my trunk for emergencies. Hopefully I won't need the spare, I put a few thousand miles on the car with the F.A.S.T. system on it last year and it's still (knock on wood) running good this year.

I don't know if you are running a return style regulator or dead head but most electric pumps won't live long dead headed. Keeping it in the tank helps keep the pump cool and muffles some of the noise.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

I agree with Ken, either get a new tank or take yours out and clean it well.

 

I wish that was an option for me, but Spectre doesn't carry a tank for Riv's...at least not that i could find. Oh well. As long as the pump isn't already f'ed, I think I'll start by removing the pre-pump filter and see how that goes and if I still have problem, I'll remove the the after pump filter and if that fixes it, I'll replace the filter and if none of that works, then I'll get the fuel cell and new pump.

 

Two things that come to my mind. First is as mentioned, do you have a return line? Most high pressure EFI pumps don't like being dead headed. Second is, Where is your Pressure Gauge located? Funny thing I was warned of and proved to be true, if you have a liquid filled fuel pressure gauge, when the engine warms up and some heat gets put into the gauge it will read low, like when set to 43psi cold it will read 25-35psi warm, because the liquid is heating up. The guy that warned me told me that he drilled a hole in the gauge and drained the liquid and his gauge read normally after that. I didn't do that, but I freaked out when I first saw it then remembered I was warned about that.

 

I do have a return line and the fuel pressure gauge is right next to the throttle body as part of the fuel line, so the heat isn't really an issue as it's a few inches above the manifold or anything else that heats up. And when it was running well, i was seeing 45psi steady and the water temp was 201 while idling.