Hey guys,

My names is Brandon and I just registered on this board looking for some help. I have read through a lot of info already, but I am not going to lie....it's all pretty intimidating for me.

I just picked up a 1991 Mustang lx. It is a T5 swapped car still running what I found to be the A9P computer. I had the infamous code 67, but through a lot of reading, repined the O2 harness and repaired the pin 46 trace on the EEC...but that is besides the point.

Here is the deal I need the communities help with. This is my first EFI muscle car...as well as my first Ford. I am a big carburetor guy. It is what I know, it is what I am comfortable building/ tuning, and furthermore I understand how they operate. EFI on the other hand I am very green. I understand the basics and the parameters that the EEC uses to calculate fuel and spark delivery, but I am by no means confident changing things around, and the price of the parts seems to add up quick....but I want to learn.

I am in the process of building a turbo setup for the car, and as it is quickly coming together I need to make a decision in regards to my fuel and ignition system. What is everyone's opinion?

IF i were to stay with EFI, is the oem EEC enough to handle moderate power levels with boost? How tuner friendly is the EEC? I see a lot of debate between Tweecer and QuarterHorse, and reference to Binary editor...but where do I start?

As I said before, a lot of this is very intimidating. I just don't want to invest a lot of time and money into something if I am not going to be able to actually use it. I have no problem doing the homework, but will it do what I want it to do?

Any recommendations on literature to reference and etc would be greatly appreciated. There is so much info out there that it is hard to decipher valuable from garbage and I am very tempted to just stick with my roots and go blow-through carbed lol.

So heres your chance guys....educate me and talk me out of it, im ready to try something new, but where do I start.

Thanks

welcome to the forum brandon

there is quite the learning curve, best advice i can give you is trail and error, it takes a big dummy to mess up an engine

you'll enjoy being able to make changes without rejetting the carb, anything for that matter by just pressing a button vs getting out there and getting dirty

with efi, you can actually source most parts cheap, the most expensive parts are typically the injectors, this is why i recommend buying them once even if you have excess room to grow

around here everyone is more than likely going to agree to just stick with the stock components

theres a quite a few 1500+ rwhp vehicles out there still using the factory ecu so i think you'll be perfectly fine

the eec is designed from a production standpoint, thus anything you change in the factory calibration is going to depend on what your trying to get it to do, its pretty basic once you understand how it calculates, the qh is definitely hands down the best tool for the fox body ecu's no question about it, binary editor is the program to edit the calibratiion, its the software and the quarterhorse is the hardware, im not sure what the price of 2012 is as im still using the older stuff but in any case check out eecanalyzer.net, qh can be had from moates.net

there is a few shortcomings of the ecu's, you can usually always work around them though if you put your mind to it, im referring to nitrous control, etc...

all the literature is here, read up, but the most knowledge you can gain is from actually going out and playing with values to see how they effect the engine

what 'tune' is on the ecu now if it has a roots blower on it?

if you feel you don't have the time to learn all this crap than you have 2 good options, 1> stick with what you know, 2> get some one with a little more knowledge to get you a 'base' tune so your already set to roll


in any case, this forum is here for knowledge, no question is a stupid one and don't hesitate to tote off briliance when the occasion arises

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http://www.efidynotuning.com/ford/

x2...

As he said, the only way to really figure this stuff out is to start tinkering. The good news is you can begin to do that right now, although there is a limit to how much you can learn without actual hardware and licenses.

in fact, I just went over a lot of this kind of stuff with another newbie that just joined. So I'll copy/paste almost verbatim the stuff I emailed to him just yesterday. Here you go...

Binary Editor can be downloaded & installed for free. But in order to use it for writing tunes and datalogging, it must be registered. When paying your registration, you have to send in a registration code. The code is a combination of your licensing user name and what devices you want to use with BE. For the base price, you get one major tuning device (e.g. the QH), and one minor tuning device (e.g. an Innovate Wideband). For those that want to tune with more stuff, the price goes up. For now, it will do you some good just to get it installed, opened up, and displaying tune info so you can begin getting familiar with the various settings. When talking with people on the forum about GUFx parameters, you'll often want to use the PID names for things like FN1360 or Z_AFR. Those will be more descriptive as to exactly which setting it is you are talking about.

Now is also a good time for you to read over the FAQs on the tuning forum and learn about things like exactly what scaling functions are. Understanding them is pretty foundational to tuning and you can start messing with scaling functions with BE unregistered.

A QH holds up to 8 modified tunes, each that can be flipped to on the fly while driving. That sounds interesting, but unless you are running a NOS system or setting up a tune to run regular, premium, and E85, the main thing the multiple tunes will be useful for early on in tuning is to have a "safe" tune, an experimental tune, and maybe a valet tune which is a tune that won't let the engine run over about 5MPH or over 1500RPMs. You could setup an all-out anti-theft tune which won't let the engine crank & run.

So yes, BE is the software you use to modify the tune with. BE is also the tool that lets you configure what you will datalog and will do the datalogging of the QH. The info from the QH will be displayed in real-time on the dashboards as well as saved in datalog files.

EEC Analyzer is the software that analyzes those datalogs. Strictly speaking, you don't need EA to tune and in fact some of the experts here don't use it. Practically speaking, EA is worth every penny to a newbie to help you view the mass amount of data in more logical ways. EA is used to help you dial in your MAF curve and Injector Slope/Breakpoint values. EA also has charting and mapping features which are great for looking at other aspects of your datalogs. There's a number of other tools in there, but most of the others are not as useful as they look. The one everybody obsesses over is the Injector Timing tab since that's where you enter Cam info. It looks impressive, but it really doesn't do much. Injector timing is the least significant part of the tuning. It's fine tuning, not roughing in a tune which is where you'll be for a number of weeks in the early days. Put another way, the engine cares far more about getting the correct amount of fuel than it does about the exact time the fuel is delivered relative to the intake valve. So because of this, injector timing is just not that important. FAR FAR more things to obsess over. EA is only used for analyzing your logs. While it was used to datalog EEC-V many years ago, since then, BE has taken over those responsibilities. The capabilities stay in there just because it's already there so why not leave it? None of that stuff will interest you. The main things you will use EA for is MAF curve tuning, Injector Slope/BP tuning, and using the Chart & Mapping features. That's 95% of EA's value...the rest is just stuff to play with basically.

Anything else I could say would just be a repeat of things that are already covered in the FAQs.

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...Always Somethin'

89 Ranger Supercab, 331 w/GT40p heads, ported Explorer lower, Crane Powermax 2020 cam, 1.6RRs, FMS Explorer (GT40p) headers, Slot Style MAF, aftermarket T5 'Z-Spec', 8.8" rear w/3.27s, Powertrax Locker, Innovate LC-1, GUFB, Moates QuarterHorse tuned using BE&EA

Member V8-Ranger.com

Hey guys, quick update.

I wanted to thank you two for responding. As both of you suggested, I took some time to read through the FAQ's and I also downloaded the EEC Analyzer and began to familiarize myself with the different tables, graphs as well as the help topics.

Much of the information is very intriguing to me and I am looking forward to learning and advancing my abilities and knowledge base. Once broken down into basic units of logic, the software is a lot less intimidating.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction guys.

anytime

search cgrey8's posts, all his posts are full of top notch right on information, 99% of my posts are uselss and often filled with just bullshit anyway

just a little heads up

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http://www.efidynotuning.com/ford/

Your the best Mike...

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1989 GT - 25th Anniversary 5.0, Vortech S-Trim, TFS Trackheat Heads & Intake, TFS Stage 1 Cam, FRPP 1.6 RR, 75mm TB, Pro-M 80mm, Anderson Power Pipe, FRPP 42#s, GS-340/255 lph pump, Anderson 1-3/4 shorties, 3" Borla Exhaust, Tremec T-5, 3.73-31 spline, MSD 6AL2, complete-lowered suspension A9L, Moates QH/SL v1.6/1.4, BE, EA, Innovate LC-1/XD-16.

1992 LX - 25.1c Chassis, Vortech Blown Renegade 317, Lentech Trans, TRZ Backhalf,A3M1, Moates QH/SL v1.6/1.4 BE, EA

It sounds as though you have made up your mind already, but here's my $0.02 for what its worth.

Definitely stay EFI. I have been to a carburetor before on my car and then switched back a couple of years ago when I discovered QH and BE. It was all very intimidating to me as well, but the guys on here are great and the information on here is great as well. I still have a ways to go with my car to get it exactly like I want it - just need to devote a little more time to it. The car runs alot better now than it did with the carb and more streetable.

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1988 Mustang GT
351W .030 over
10:1 compression
GT40X FRPP heads
GT40 tubular intake
Ford Racing X303 cam
FRPP 1.6 roller rockers
FRPP 30lb injectors
70 mm BBK throttle body
75 mm Pro M mass air
5 speed
3.73 gear
A9P EEC GUF1
BE/EA

thats probably the best part of EFI, streetability

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http://www.efidynotuning.com/ford/