Good news!

So, I've learned a thing or two about modern gas. It sucks.

I've had the fuel (a few gallons of 93) in the tank for less than a year. It's sat and I didn't put any fuel stabilizer in it. Didn't think much of it.

Fast forward to early this month. Wade tuned the car at idle, fans would turn off and on and temperature was completely under control...the car was running great. I put the new NGK plugs in and was ready to complete the final little bits before I drive it.

Literally, I went to start it after doing the idle tuning. It started and was running so rich, it was terrible. 8:1 at idle. I thought something slipped via a keystroke...so I pulled 40% fuel at idle in an attempt to get it to idle closer to 14:1. It ran for a about a minute, pushing fuel out of the exhaust like I've never seen. I simply didn't know an engine would even run that rich. I calibrated the O2 sensor just in case...didnt help. There was no reason that the software couldnt control the fuel curve, I had a hardware fault.

I checked the plugs, and some weren't firing.I went into diagnostic mode when I saw that some of my plugs were completely clean. I pulled the fuel rail out after I noticed that there was a ton of fuel coming out from one side more than the other. Low and behold, my #6 injector was stuck wide open. I bench tested the injectors with the rail attached. As soon as I turned the fuel pump on, it sprayed with just pressure from the pump on the line. I quickly turned the motor over and fuel sprayed out of the #6 cylinder. It probably has .25 of a liter of raw fuel in there. Thankfully it didn't fill it up while running, so I narrowly avoided hydrolocking a motor with 0 miles on it.

I went into recovery mode and checked compression. My other cylinders were at 195 and that one was at 165. I was assured by my confidants and engine builder that it was simply because the cylinder was washed with fuel. I'm going to re-test with some oil on the rings to verify that the compression comes back up.

I pulled the fuel rail and injectors and starting figuring what I need to do to fix this.

-Clean injectors and rail ultrasonically.
-Replace 10micron fuel filter.
-Change the oil and filter. It HAS to have fuel in it.
-Fresh gas, and fuel stabilizer in the tank.
-Run some non ethanol unleaded race fuel.
-DONT LET THE CAR SIT MORE THAN A MONTH WITH THE SAME FUEL.

Several sources confirmed that this 10% ethanol fuel can't be trusted, and it is very likely to make the car gum up sensitive parts with gunk when the ethanol dries. Apparently real e85 is worse at moving gunk around in a fuel system than this currently blend.







Lesson learned, don't let a car sit and clean the injectors when in doubt. I was orginally apprehensive about posting a mistake on my part, but I hope that someone else can avoid a problem by reading this. It's not a true account of the swap to this engine if I dont post the highs and the lows.

I asked about the age of your fuel, I had this happen to me a long time ago. Car wouldn't fire all of a sudden, tried lacquer thinner down the carb and bang it fired right off. 3 month old fuel was crap.

I think it would have been less of a problem with a carb. It became very obvious with the injectors.

Definitely plays havoc on injectors, I just wanted to point out that the shelf life of fuel is not much. Even race fuel needs used or its toast.

I knew this, now I really know it after having to take apart the whole fuel system and nearly destroying a motor over it.

Thanks for sharing.
This is a great heads up!

Onig

Thanks for heads up!
I haven't ran my cars in 2 months since I got a beater to daily drive to work.

Engines started right up and I ran out to get some stabilizer and threw that stuff in the fuel tank

Another huge delay. On a field assignment for 45 days. No hotrod work at all.

More parts will be waiting for me though...

Alex, where are you sending the injectors for cleaning? I have been looking for a reputable place.

I've not sent them out, but if I did...it would be this guy.

https://www.rceng.com/Fuel-Injector-Cleaning-P43C0.aspx

He spent almost 45 mins on me helping diagnose my issues. Very helpful.

I ended up buying another set of used 6.4 injectors. I'll be installing them this week and getting it fired up again.

What I did this weekend:

Throttle cable is working, needs a stiffer spring.

Shifter linkage is connected correctly, my 3/4 tab was upside down.

Hubs are fastened with the correct hardware.

Found the correct banjo bolts for the viper calipers. I can finally bleed the brakes. This is a hugely helpful article. http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/10967...nt-them-for-all

Once the brakes are working, I'm putting it on the ground again and doing the fuel injectors.

It wasn't fuel injectors.

I blew the injector drivers on the EFI box. I didn't ground it properly with the battery in the trunk, and it created a capacatior cell that zapped the injector drivers.

I replaced the injectors, fuel filter/reg and flushed the system. The problem on two injectors still happened after having nothing the same, which led to an electrical issue.

Talked to Mike at EFISource, it was my fault for not overdoing grounds and running the constant on for the box directly to the battery. I've not put the harness back in, but he made some changes and we will avoid this happening again.

FYI, mine is back in tip top running condition Alex after getting box updated. Thank goodness I didnt hurt the engine with #8 being stuck open.

Glad to hear!

I've got the time to work on it again, so I'll be back at it soon.

Curious on why you had to get the box updated Emil?
Is there a new version?

I had small issues with wiring also Alex. I ran the fattest cables available back to the trunk battery for both positive and negative to start. Then my Gold Box gets a direct wire to the positive post on battery.

As for grounds using 4 ga. cable I tied the heads and block to a ground bus bar which ties to the negative cable back to the negative battey post. Gold Box grounds to the heads and all other grounds run to the bus bar.

No issues with starting/ running

Thats where I messed up. I ran 0/1 g welding wire for the positive and a short wire for the ground. I need to overdo the grounds and run a bus bar to the grounds up front.

My fault.

Ariel I had one of the early versions with coil igniters and injector drivers all in the box. Mike said this generates to much heat and I ended up with a burnt injector driver. Now the igniters are external. If yours is one with everything contained in the ECU, send it in for updating. Mine went a year and a half before it failed. My grounds were not the culprit. I told Mike it better have Military grade components this time or things were gonna get ugly, he assured me it is bulletproof now.

Oh wow thanks for the heads up Emil!
I got my box in late August 2015.
Will definitely call Mike tomorrow and see if I have the older box!

Edit:
Nevermind

Pretty sure I have the external coil igniters

Thanks!

I had one of the first 5 boxes, so mine didn't have the external drivers.