Another CFI to SEFI thread

[fmansfield444]

Hello everyone, since I got my car I have been planning to upgrade to sefi and now I finally got the parts together. I went to the junkyard today and picked up:

Upper and lower intake with egr and throttle body

Fuel lines and injectors

And an ECM with complete harness

I still need to get some gaskets and an o2 sensor and I'm going to clean the parts up a bit before I put them on but I should have most of what I need.

I got all of this from an 88 Vic so there may be some wiring differences from my 85 but I got most of the wires figured out.

No doubt I will be reading through Fatnatsy's and 85HPP's threads often. But I'm sure I'll have my own questions and hopefully you guys can help me out.

Thanks and I will be posting my progress on this!

[86VickyLX]

You'll need the throttle cable, throttle valve cable for the transmission, the tv lever from the SEFI car as well. And if you're keeping cruise control, the SEFI cruise control cable. You need an exhaust that has provisions for 2 O2 sensors. One for drivers side and one for passengers. Wiring diagrams for both your 85 and your 88 wiring harnesses. I think that's basically it...

[85crownHPP]

You will also need a way to secure the transmission TV cable - you could swap out the bracket from a 87-89 car. This bolted to the side of the transmission and also holds the shift selector levers in place. I pulled the bracket from a 90-91 car not knowing they are different but I made it work. 90-91 cars use a shift selector cable, not a lever/linkage. I was able to just cut off the lower portion of the bracket, leaving only the upper half that holds the TV cable. I just bolted this portion on with the same bolt holding my selector linkage bracket, it works great. There are pics of this in my thread.

And I hope you grabbed the sections of fuel line that go from the engine fuel rail and down the block - it makes the fuel lines go much easier.
A good trick is to get ALL the metal pieces, including the metal quick connector end that would be left behind unless you cut it out of the short length of plastic line that joins them to the hard lines on the frame rail. Cut the plastic right behind it - once you slice off whats left, it leaves you with a nice barbed nipple you can use to join the new with the old. You can do the same at the other end. Be sure to use high-pressure fuel injection hose and hose clamps made for rubber fuel line.

It took me a year for my lazy ass to finally wire in my vehicles speed sensor signal and start circuit into the new ECM - one of those two cured a high-rpm startup issue I had been ignoring. Also I *think* doing this let me use the new ECM's integrated cruise control. I originally did not have the wiring harness for the transmission from a 90-91 (I pretty sure thats what it was from...) to use to make it 'almost' plug-and-play to make all that proper. You could easily hard-wire that stuff in if you want, I just wanted to minimize the number of splices/connections I made that could go bad later and keep an un-molested look to my wiring harness.
The wiring for the CFI was getting out of control, I had been re-locating things, some things several times, lol.

One thing I have yet to do is try to wire in the O2 sensor heater circuit - that's another part of the transmission wiring harness mojo, they share a connector in the harness. Im pretty sure that just helps you get a more economical and less-emissions engine warm-up... meh.

[fmansfield444]

I did take the tv lever assembly off the 88's transmission with the bracket. I also got the throttle cable but the cruise cable was cut. hopefully I can use mine or get it later. Mine looks the same.

I disconnected the fuel lines at the quick disconnect part with the disconnect tool so hopefully I can still hook them up without a huge problem.

I have 1990 Lincoln logs so they have a spot for the extra o2 sensor.

I started removing the CFI today and already ran into a problem where I can't get the intake off. I removed 12 bolts and a bolt holding an arm to the alternator and it is still stuck. Then I removed all the sensors and it is still stuck. Any advice on how I can try to pry it off?

[86VickyLX]

One thing I have yet to do is try to wire in the O2 sensor heater circuit - that's another part of the transmission wiring harness mojo, they share a connector in the harness. Im pretty sure that just helps you get a more economical and less-emissions engine warm-up... meh.

That must be a later model thing... My 86 has the trans harness separate from the computer harness. The O2 sensor harness is separate from everything and plugs directly into the main harness. I think all that wiring became one large harness when they started doing that integrated cruise control bullcrap.

[86VickyLX]

I did take the tv lever assembly off the 88's transmission with the bracket. I also got the throttle cable but the cruise cable was cut. hopefully I can use mine or get it later. Mine looks the same.

I disconnected the fuel lines at the quick disconnect part with the disconnect tool so hopefully I can still hook them up without a huge problem.

I have 1990 Lincoln logs so they have a spot for the extra o2 sensor.

I started removing the CFI today and already ran into a problem where I can't get the intake off. I removed 12 bolts and a bolt holding an arm to the alternator and it is still stuck. Then I removed all the sensors and it is still stuck. Any advice on how I can try to pry it off?

Did you take the distributor out yet? If you have all the bolts out then just pry it out. The gasket holds it pretty well sometimes.

[fmansfield444]

No haven't messed with the distributor. I was able to get the efi off without messing with it but maybe the CFI one is different.

I'll have some time Tuesday to mess with it and I'll try to pry at it a little harsher. Just trying not to crack it because if I can't get the efi to work ill use it with a carb

[fmansfield444]

And yeah the o2 harness I got was a separate piece too. I got the oxygen harnesses but they were just connected to the main harness

[gadget73]

Take a putty knife and tap it between the intake and the block. Once its in, gently pry on it and the intake ought to lift off. The gaskets glue it down pretty solid. I've never had one just lift off without a little extra persuasion.

[85crownHPP]

You can use the same distributor and same TFI module

[fmansfield444]

Finally popped the intake off before work today. Had to wedge a huge iron bar into the water inlet. A little ridiculous but that old intake is pretty nasty

[86VickyLX]

Why does your Crown Vic have a Grand Marquis hood ornament?

[85crownHPP]

I reckon he put it there, mmm hmm

[drhill]

Good luck with the swap - looks like I'll be tackling this at the same time as you are...it doesn't seem that hard with all of the excellent info that has been given on this site. I should have mine started by the end of this week - finishing up in less than two weeks if I didn't forget any parts

[fmansfield444]

Good luck with yours as well. It seems pretty straight forward. The only parts I'm not looking forward to is the vacuum lines and tv cable.

And yeah it's got a marquis emblem cuz I can't find a proper Vic one that isn't rusty. And the marquis one is cool

I got my intake gaskets today. Autozone wanted 40 bucks so I got it at oreillys. Ten bucks there.

I have a question about the gasket (probably stupid). Should I use any sealant with the gasket?