CFI to EFI Swap

[FatNasty]

Got most of the small stuff sorted out, but i do need an efi throttle cable, which i think is a few inches shorter. I'l be picking that up at the junkyard today, then installing the rest.

Where does the engine vacuum canister hook up?

[gadget73]

the soup can on the fender? on the vacuum tree there should be a one-way check valve with one connector on the tree and 2 on the other side. one line goes to the soup can, one goes inside the car. Should actually be the same on a CFI.

[FatNasty]

Everything is done but the vacuum lines to the egr, and the TV cable issue i'm having.
Whenever i tighten the nut down on the tv linkage at the tranny the cable no longer moves. Everything is the same between efi and cfi as far as i can tell, the stud in the tranny looks the same, but when its tightened down the two linkages touch instead of having a small gap. Cant figure out why its doing this now since the tv rod worked fine and it attaches the same. My only idea is to add a washer behind the tv linkage to push it away from the shifter linkage more.

[Nathan in MI]

Any chance you could snap a picture of the problem? Probably would make it much easier for the rest of us to understand...

[FatNasty]

FINALLY DONE!!!! As far as i know that is, i have a heater hose to tighten up, but other than that everything is installed. Fixed the tv cable issue by putting the locking washer behind the tv linkage instead of right behind the nut. Shouldn't be that way, but it was working beautifully, have loktite on the nut so its not going anywhere.

When i was checking for fuel leaks i noticed a little pool near #6 but after pushing down the rails and moving the injector around it stopped, it might not have been seated correctly. Either way i will be keeping a close eye on that. Was very nervous about starting it, no clue what sorts of things i could have messed up but turned the key and it started right up. Only let it run for a few seconds until i got scared and killed it. Sounded a little weird, not metal-ish sounds but like fluid moving through things. It also smoked a little bit, not from anywhere specific as far as i could tell. Nothing really went wrong, i'd just like to test it outside in the daylight to be safe, and its 3am now. Dont want to burn down the house if something goes wrong. I'l get an update when its driving around, for now heres a pic of what it looks like now. Have made zero attempt so far to clean anything up or organize wires etc.
that was quite a project...

[86VickyLX]

FINALLY DONE!!!! As far as i know that is, i have a heater hose to tighten up, but other than that everything is installed. Fixed the tv cable issue by putting the locking washer behind the tv linkage instead of right behind the nut. Shouldn't be that way, but it was working beautifully, have loktite on the nut so its not going anywhere.

When i was checking for fuel leaks i noticed a little pool near #6 but after pushing down the rails and moving the injector around it stopped, it might not have been seated correctly. Either way i will be keeping a close eye on that. Was very nervous about starting it, no clue what sorts of things i could have messed up but turned the key and it started right up. Only let it run for a few seconds until i got scared and killed it. Sounded a little weird, not metal-ish sounds but like fluid moving through things. It also smoked a little bit, not from anywhere specific as far as i could tell. Nothing really went wrong, i'd just like to test it outside in the daylight to be safe, and its 3am now. Dont want to burn down the house if something goes wrong. I'l get an update when its driving around, for now heres a pic of what it looks like now. Have made zero attempt so far to clean anything up or organize wires etc.
that was quite a project...

looks like you got some antifreeze leaking on the valve covers. The smoke is probably oil and other shit on the exhaust manifolds while you were changing everything. How does the exhaust look?

[FatNasty]

Wont be able to test the car until after my work week, probably sunday. Still a little worried about injector #6 leaking. I'l keep a close eye on it, the good thing is its the easiest one to watch. I have the stock airbox to put in for now, but eventually id like something a bit more custom. I'l see if i can get a video of it running to. I'l try to get that writup started asap while i remember everything. I was good at documenting toward the beginning of the project, but things went downhill as i got pissed, which happens with everything. I guess i would rate the difficulty of the project as more difficult than a rear end swap, and easier than a tranny swap. of course 30% of the job was messing with the broken intake bolt, then the broken intake, 20% figuring out the wiring, and 20% screwing around with that tv cable nut, so if i were to do it again it would go way smoother.<----hehe, i love that emotocon

looks like you got some antifreeze leaking on the valve covers. The smoke is probably oil and other shit on the exhaust manifolds while you were changing everything. How does the exhaust look?

Yep, thats from that heater hose back there, needs tightened i think. Exhaust looks fine despite the issues i was having with it. Dual exhaust will be installed soon

Yeah me too. Especially if I get my hands on a CFI Vic MGM or Townie. So to get a general idea, how much was it for all the SEFI components?

$150 maybe, plus another $50 for some random other stuff. All the cost is in labor

[Tiggie]

Congrats mang! Got any codes?

[FatNasty]

Fixed the coolant leak and finally did a test run of the merc today. Started up just fine again. There is a bit of an exhaust leak where the drivers side manifold bolts to the downpipe but i'l be replacing that all soon. There is a lot of noise that sounds like exhaust but i cant really tell. It goes away for a second if you rev then let off. Idle is smooth but a little low. I took it for a test drive around the block, couldn't do a very thorough test due to the snow and ice. From what i could tell the only two problems are:

1) Seems to shift to early, i'm assuming that is the tv cable in need of some adjustment. Is it the farther the cable moves, the higher the pressure, the earlier it shifts?

2) There is some hesitation on acceleration, not much from a dead stop but as you are driving. What are some things that could be causing that. Haven't scanned for codes or double checked the timing yet, so hopefully that will clear some things up.


Couple things i noticed right away that i like are the different throttle response over the cfi, starting without getting the gas pedal involved, and after idling the car in the driveway for 20 minutes then driving around the block twice mostly in second gear i still got like 15mpg. I barely got 15 with cfi on the highway in the winter. Here is a video of her running, crappy cell phone quality with equally crappy sound but its something. Enjoy

[gadget73]

no. More pressure = later shifting. If it shifts early, the pressure is too low. You're using an 87+ cable, right? To get more pressure, you want more cable extending past the adjuster block. Pull the locking tab, slide the block a little bit towards the rear of the car, then lock it again. Small steps, those things are touchy. Just make sure you don't end up with full TV pressure before you hit WOT or the throttle won't open all the way.

[FatNasty]

Had to add the extra ground loop wire on the tripminder that the 86+ cars had, the fuel reading was inaccurate. Adjusted the tv pressure a little but its still shifting early, need to mess with it again later. its shifting 1-2 @ 11MPH and 2-3 @ 18MPH, not sure about the other shifts since i'm not going to fast on the ice, the roads royally suck right now.

Where is everyone else's 1-2 and 2-3 shifts at?

[85MercPark]

Where is everyone else's 1-2 and 2-3 shifts at?

I hardly notice my 1-2 shift, I adjusted it till that one went from very noticeable to just noticeable but my 2-3 shift is around 35-40 at 3/4 throttle.

CFI is nice in that you can just turn the screw to fine tune it.

[Tiggie]

With zero throttle, I get into 3rd at about 18-20MPH. With very light throttle, 3rd never comes in until after 25. Thats with a decent amount of TV pressure, 3.08 gears. I put an '87 tranny in my '82 and it went seemless. Good luck getting that TV pressure right mang.

[gadget73]

Had to add the extra ground loop wire on the tripminder that the 86+ cars had, the fuel reading was inaccurate. Adjusted the tv pressure a little but its still shifting early, need to mess with it again later. its shifting 1-2 @ 11MPH and 2-3 @ 18MPH, not sure about the other shifts since i'm not going to fast on the ice, the roads royally suck right now.

Where is everyone else's 1-2 and 2-3 shifts at?

The ground loop on the tripminder, thats the 2 pins connected together thing that some of them have? Hmm maybe thats why mine reads off, I don't think I have that connection. It shows less fuel consumption than is correct.

[gadget73]

oh, anyway back to the topic on hand. My shift points with a 3.55 rear under light throttle:

1-2 15
2-3 30
3-4 48


thats a stock AOD with a high speed governer, and i do have the pressure possibly a bit on the high side. It shifts where it feels and sounds good to me tho.