Carborated 3.4 - wanting FUEL INJECTION

[Second Skin Rep]

The shop that built the engine on my Sand Rail made it just like every other 3.4L V^ they have done before. Carborated and turbo charged.







They have been trying to Fuel inject the shop owners rail for a while now and are getting closer, but still don't have it down. The engine is a 3.4 but everything that gets bolted on is from a few different types of cars...

Can anyone give me some advice, or point me in the right direction for fuel injecting a 3.4?

[Blue89rs]

I guess I'll start.

What kind of injection unit do you want to use? Throttle body or fuel injector?

Either way, just grab the entire engine harness that goes with the fuel setup and install! Use a camaro as a last resort because it may have a VATS system.

[ryan.hess]

ewww! Carburetor!

Is your 3.4 out of a RWD camaro? Best bet would be to go to the junkyard and grab everything from one... Harness, manifolds, ECM, etc. There are wiring diagrams on the net... done.

oops, missed the turbo part. You'll need the above, a 2 bar MAP sensor, and somebody to help you tune it with $8F / TGP code.

[Second Skin Rep]

Engine was a crate. Brand new.
They are trying to do a throttle body at the shop. (owners rail) Forgive my ignorance but I don't know the difference..
What are the pros and cons of each option?

ANT

[sharkey]

well, being we are talking turbocharged, id go with a stand alone computer, i like the megasquirt setup myself because of how cheap it is. i would then build a custom harness.

as for hardware, id use an early camaro intake manifold (the 3.4l intake has no room for distributor) or a fiero intake. if they want to spend more money, id look into a trueleo intake for a fiero. its pricey, but the nicest intake out there. i would then use the fuel rail from whatever the intake comes from, spec out the injectors for what you need. as for a fuel pump, an on frame (opposed to an in tank) would work out better. you can get an aftermarket one, but they are pricey, and i hear an early ford ranger/explorer uses an external high pressure pump that can do the job.

[Ortie666]

ewww! Carburetor!

Ya too bad carburetors rock for performance.. NO?? Injection is getting better, but nothing ur going to pull off of a car in a junkyard.. if anything i would suggest running some bad ass webers on that slut, Make your own intake manafold.. or have it made.. C'mon we can turn the 6-60* into a hotrod engine after all!!!! And by bad ass webers I meen the prosche ones that would damb neer bolt rite up to a 3400 intake manifold if there was a way to distribute the spark

[sharkey]

imho, carbs are ok if all you do is race it, i mean, your either at closed throttle or WOT. thing is, with carbs you can tune some aspects. you never get it perfect in all aspects, you always are compomising something to improve something else. with efi, you are able to perfect all aspects of everything. for example, with a lumpy cam and a big , you would have a rough idle and wouldnt have good mid range fuel mixture, and it wouldnt be very streetable. with the big cam, big throttle body and efi, you are able to smooth that bad idle a bit, and you are able to get the right air/fuel mixture and make the engine smooth through the rpm range.

there is hot rodding an engine and making it a nice motor to drive. id much rather take the latter.

[Ortie666]

By far driveability is key but this is a sand rail were talkin about, and the pictures of the tripple barrels are very tunable even with a big cam, and being that there is one for every cylender it would be just like fuel injection.. the olny reason that a big cammed engine can't run smooth at idol if it has a 4bbl is simply because the outside cylenders have a tougher time tuging on the carb than the inner, hens the surges, and because they dont make a whole lot of vacume at idol compared to a stock cam.. but my v6 has a 4 bbl on it and it has great drive ability, under 2800 it gets awsome gas milege and juss chugs away w.o making a whole lot of noise.. above that it comes into peak performance, and the exhast opens up (gets loud and raspy) and the tires start to spin untill the top of 3rd gear.. on normal pavement..(not rubbered up stuff)

[Second Skin Rep]

I am having a hard time following you guys on this.
I am wondering if one of you guys could break down each of the components necessarry for a fuel injections system. Start to finish..

anyone?

[Canyonero]

An ECU, wiring harness, a couple fistfulls of various sensors, intake mainifold, fuel rail, injectors, high pressure fuel pump... As has been said, your BEST bet is to strip the injection gear from another engine. Talk to some of these Trooper guys that pulled it off in favor of the TBI.

[ryan.hess]

By far driveability is key but this is a sand rail were talkin about

yeah, but you don't want to stall when you're bouncing off sand dunes. Carbs are great and all, but they're mechanical and you have to deal with fuel sloshing around the the bowl, etc.

Fuel injection is much more reliable in adverse conditions.

Besides, this isn't a debate, the guy has a carb, now he wants injection. Going from one carb to 6 isn't going to get him where he wants to go.

Anywho, to the junkyard!

[Canyonero]

Do you know the source of your engine? Crate engine or a Camaro rebuild? Wondering if it has all the plugs where the sensors would normally go.

What I did was buy myself a Camaro service manual and examine the wiring diagrams, emissions and ECU sections that concerned me.

For simplicity, you may want to first get everything you can from the salvage yard or where-ever, then get a "standalone" wiring harness. I've conversed with a guy at fuelinjection.com - they seem slow on responding to email so I just called them. I don't have their product yet, I'm trying to work with my factory harness and ECU first - if I fail there, I will pay up and get their standalone harness and ECU programming.

[Second Skin Rep]

Came straight from detroit.. Crate engine. Not sure about the plugs and sensors. I am going to give fuelinjection.com a call on monday for sure!

[Canyonero]

Since I have my 3.4L on the pallet still, I'll go over it and snap pictures of the sensor locations for you. I just went over it yesterday to inspect and label the wiring harness, so I'm pretty familliar with them now.