Fuel Injection Conversion - Fast Forward

Braided lines with AN fittings are used to connect the rails to each other and to a fuel supply.

The throttle body gets additional reporting abilities from installing a throttle position sensor (TPS) and the idle air control (IAC) valve. This gives the XFI a means to control and maintain the engine idle speed under varying temperatures and conditions.

Here is the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor. The MAP sensor tells the ECU what the manifold pressure is, which varies with load.

Moving on, it's now time to install the distributor. First, a little assembly lube is applied to the distributor gear, which is driven from the camshaft.

The techs move the crankshaft around to TDC, or top dead center, on the number-one cylinder. Without doing this, you can mistakenly install the distributor out of phase and nothing will run, since your spark timing will be off.

Now the distributor can be put in place with confidence.

Final position adjustment of the distributor is decided by a built-in LED that confirms the crankshaft sensor signal.

With that work complete, the distributor assembly can be finished and the spark-plug wires installed.

The wiring for the individual fuel injectors needs to be hooked up, of course, and the included harness simply lays on the intake and the labeled connections are made to the injectors and surrounding sensors.

The last of the connections to be made brings everything to the XFI controller box. We're just about ready to get started, but first. we need to get the laptop talking to the XFI System for some initial setup.

With the engine in the dyno cell and running, finer tuning can proceed. It's always best to start with the basics of fuel and spark maps.

Before long, a 3D map emerges showing spark advance versus manifold pressure and engine rpm.

With other settings in a safe range, it's time to make a full dyno pull, here to just over 6,100 rpm. BSFC is showing as 0.532, which is about 5 percent higher than our rule of thumb for normally aspirated engines. The results: 462 flywheel horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque! This will make any midsize Ford a true blast on the street or the track.