2nd GMN CFI to SEFI swap

[Lincolnmania]

excellence!

[Tiggie]

Now I know who to call if I happen to get a CFI box and need some assistance on the conversion!

[85crownHPP]

well most everything is buttoned up, now only one medium sized problem that doesnt seem to affect drivability.
She runs well, very well...

Here's some eye candy for now untill i go into details - the pic should raise some questions, so blast away. Ill be making tech write-up too.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pic, but my camera doesnt seem to like flourescent light. There will be more pics, plus I still have to tidy up under there anyway, and install a couple more things.
This pic is as it sits after the end of a 3 day window I had to do this in... should be more "proper" by next weekend

[85crownHPP]

a more put-together vid

[gabegt90]

looks great pete I see you but the cold air and ho upper from 87mefull did you use the 91 computer? plus you gonna put 3g?

[85crownHPP]

yep its all 90-91 stuff, I wound up using the stock start circuit for the 85. It was pretty much plug and play except for the two simple splices - you could do this to any car, carbed or CFI... I wanna do conversions on old carburated cars now!!!

I defininitly wanna do a 3G swap too, once I do I can get rid of the ugly 1G wiring and regulator, and the old 85 coil wiring is in that harness too so I can get rid of half the wiring on the driver fender.
Then I can install the electric fan too, that's been sitting in storage forever.

[85crownHPP]

Well Ive been driving it around and everything seems good, the stupid aftermarket chrome thermostat housing was leaking, and i keep expecting the fuel lines to leak for some reason...
However, a couple things that seem odd but may not be a problem...

Sometimes when i start it, it revs WAY up for a tiny split second before it levels itself out to a low idle... I know its supposed to do that a little, but this is a LOT, sometimes.

Also, it sounds like my fuel pump is louder now, seems like it is occasionally while idle. Not so much at startup or while driving... could this just be due to more fuel volume being circulated through the lines??? Or could i be missing some kind of resistor like the original coil uses??

[Grand Marquis GT]

Well Ive been driving it around and everything seems good, the stupid aftermarket chrome thermostat housing was leaking, and i keep expecting the fuel lines to leak for some reason...
However, a couple things that seem odd but may not be a problem...

Sometimes when i start it, it revs WAY up for a tiny split second before it levels itself out to a low idle... I know its supposed to do that a little, but this is a LOT, sometimes.

Also, it sounds like my fuel pump is louder now, seems like it is occasionally while idle. Not so much at startup or while driving... could this just be due to more fuel volume being circulated through the lines??? Or could i be missing some kind of resistor like the original coil uses??

It is probably just learning. I'd wait awhile, it might learn it's way out of it.

[85crownHPP]

And for the medium-sized hopefully-easily-fixable problem :

The TV lever on the transmission... is hitting the gear selector lever!! (in park)

The selector lever on the 91 sits strait up at 12 o'clock (in Park), but the one on the 85 sits closer to 2 o'clock...
Im not sure how it is on 87-89 cars, but hopefully the fix is as easy as swapping in a TV cable/lever from a car of that year, or as hard as swapping that last gear selector rod and the lever. Swapping out the slector lever lever is a PITA, much harder than swapping the TV lever... but you gotta do what you gotta do.
I cant use the 90-91 gear selector mechanism, becuase its a cable instead of a rod, and had a different connection at the steering column, AND a different lever at the transmission.

You can see in the pic they are pretty close - the pic makes them look a lot closer than they realy are, but once you are in neutral or drive its cleared...



To install the TV cable in the 85 I pulled the transmission bracket from the 91 donor car, but the bracket also held the selector cable at the bottom portion of the bracket, and this was in the way of the selector rod on the 85. So, I cut off the bottom and smoothed it up, and put it behind the bracket for the rod selector, which uses the same bolt.

[85crownHPP]

I got this all done in about 3 eight hour days... everything went pretty smoothly.

Day one, I set up my work area, got all the parts together, and started the fun part - removing all things CFI and everything hanging off the manifold:



then swapping out the manifolds :




You can see here I put the Engine Coolant Temp sensor in an unused port in the back corner of the manifold, due to my heater hose rig. It makes it a chore to change later, but so far so good.



I called it a night once i got the lower bolted on...


Day two I put the injector o-ring kits on the injectors, installed them and the rails, fuel lines, ECM wiring and the upper. I had to fab up a bracket to mount the coil and figure out what splices to make, but I called it a night once I heard it run.








FUEL LINE TIP!

When you get fuel lines from a donor car, cut them at the plastic portion just past the disconnect at the bottom of the motor. Not only does this prevent you from fighting another disconnect, it also lets you cut the plastic off leaving you a nice barbed quick-connect fitting to use to splice the line in with. Do the same with the other end, as you see in the pics.
I just used high pressure rubber fuel hose with fuel line hose clamps. You could use a plastic fuel line repair kit to make it real fancy if you wanted.


Day three i spent fighting with the o2 sensors, installing the throttle/tv cables, tucking everything away, using what i had to make the CAI work, and cleaning up.

[LTDMan83]

Sweet! The '85 goes to the Next Level.

[85crownHPP]

you aint kiddin' ... shes like a whole 'nother car now!!!!!
This makes me want to make use of the storage unit full of parts for other mods Ive been sitting on!!!

[gadget73]

TV lever pics of my 86, possibly this will help you some. I took these when Fatnasty was having TV lever problems with his

http://www.grandmarq.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=363&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

The C shaped lever you can't see as well is the TV lever. There are 2 more in that gallery, possibly they'll be useful too.


I wouldn't worry too much about the fuel pump as long as the pressure is good. If it dies, it dies. There isn't any resistor or anything, so its possible its just moving more fuel than it used to, or is running at a different pressure. EFI runs like 32 psi at idle with vacuum, not sure what CFI runs at.

How's it perform compared to how it used to? Is it more like your '90 now? Looks like its a roller cam motor, guess when they stuck that 86 motor in, it kept it's camshaft. SHould have done a HO stick

[91waggin]

My ECM always behaves goofy for a little while after I have to disconnect the battery for whatever reason, and the most noticable thing is the IAC's behavior while it re-learns where it has to sit at for a good idle during various conditions. I would wait a week and see if it goes away.

[85crownHPP]

ok good it sounds like its no big worry and time will tell then...

as far as performance??? it would walk the 91... from a stop and from interstate speed... I love it! It (open 3.08) turns over the 255/55/17's like the 91 (open 2.73) could the stock 215/70/15's... and then some, no brakes needed. Dont get me wrong, its still not "fast" though...
I did get it to spin from a slight rolling stop... I could have been on a greasy spot in the road or something though...

Im going to the junkyard tomorrow for an EGR connector, SEFI cruise unit, the right vacuum box/relay holder, and some sort of levers or another.... then more buttoning up, and installation of emissions crap, and hooking the tach & A/F gauges.