Had a question for Holley owners and the runners on here please. How and when do you feel safe starting the car for the first time with your new ECU and tune?

I’ve read the supplied Holley checklist and manual many times. I still don’t have the confidence to push the car out of the garage and turn the key.

I am using the supplied ford 302 66mm turbo tune in the Holley filed modified for my 351, with a few options changed for the dual sync distributor(instructions), and gm stepper IAC.

Idk what to do for fuel or target AFR on my setup?

Will try looking for leaks, fuel, idk?

Would like to just attempt to get the car running and see what I have, not even risking street driving.

Thanks

 

Go over the software, the checklist,maybe cycle the the pump a few times and check for leaks. Then go for it. When I first started mine, used the same Holley start up tune and it cranked up and idled right away.

 

Wow, thanks Brian.

 

The chance of you hurting it on startup is pretty much non existent, I think your using a roller motor as well so the cam isn't even a concern. If you see it running really lean or rich, just shut it down, adjust the fueling and do it again. Too rich at idle is worse than too lean.

 

Will definitely keep an eye on the air/fuel as a priority on the Holley gauge computer screen.

For some reason I just don’t see this going smooth. Will find out with time.

Thanks

 

If starting a brand new motor , look up instructions on seating rings .

Things like dont let it idle for extended time , load the motor as soon as possible . Avoid running rich .

 

I agree. pretty sure this is a old engine though, just with new management.

Cycle the fuel pump a few times, make sure it is not leaking and holding pressure and it has gas in it
make sure you have water, oil and ps fluid in it
make sure you have trans fluid in it
Double check your dist sync settings and the overall dist install. Go through the procedure at least twice.
Charge the battery before hand. Its a good idea to just leave it on the battery at a few amps while doing all this. You want a healthy battery so it cranks quickly and fully powers all the new gizmos
Roll the motor over to tdc and compression and make sure the rotors pointed at #1 plug tower.
Grab a fire extinguisher and put it somewhere handy.
Plug in the laptop you are using and get comms with the ecu
do the sensor inputs look right? Coolant, Iat, throttle ect? If not make sure they are all calibrated properly.
Look through the basic setup page. do the injector values, displacement ect look right for what you know you got?
After all that crank it. Look for rpm on the laptop dash. If you have it you should have sync and good cam crank signals and it should fire pretty quick.
Once running, babysit it with the throttle if needed till it has some temp in it.
Keep an eye on the temp to make sure it burps or does not have a air pocket in it.
As long as your temp is ok and the cooling system is working you can start to run it in closed loop learning and it will start to sort itself out.
After it runs and all the slippery stuff stays inside it, you can begin to start tuning it. Be sure to set your base timing properly so what the dash shows as timning is what the crank and timing light shows under the hood.

 

Thank you very much for the detailed post fastspec2.

I have so many things to look for and worry about at the same time it seems. We will find out though.

Thanks!

 

You'll be fine. Have your timing light hooked up to synch the timing. Also perform the tps synch before you crank or you'll get no fuel or spark.

 

Target AFR at idle will be close to 14.7 , you dont want it leaving any unburnt fuel in the cylinders because that can lead to problems. Target AFR while light cruising will also be close to 14.7, perhaps a little less...14.0-14.5. When the engine isnt getting enough fuel it is going to stumble. So if you are at the point where you notice the stumble, then add some fuel.

These are just tips for idle and very light cruising, nothing more.

 

You can target idle AFR all you want, but in reality, you need to tune idle by a vacuum gauge (your MAP) and rpm. With bigger cams and such you can't realistically see the true AFR at idle due to fresh air bleeding into the exhaust and reversion. If you ignore the AFR at idle it will help tremendously.

 

I have a fresh startup tune and am going to try again weather permitting this weekend.

Last time I tried the computer was seeing 35-38 degrees timing.

Car did start a touch easier when I opened the throttle plate more.

 

For big cams I will turn learning off at idle. Also, you may have to go over 15 to 1 to achieve a nice steady idle with big cams, and remove learning from those cells, otherwise it will learn stupid values and start surging and possibly stall

 

I just have the basic trickflow stage 1 sir.

I’m still going over the pre start troubleshooting checklist.

Going to try and check cranking timing and staying timing to see if I am off.

I also noticed another problem:

I have a good battery tender, and I’m seeing low 13s at the post after charging and roughly 12.76 the next day after using tender. But I notice the hp software showing me mid to low 11s while I am trying to just get the car up to working temps.

There is only so long I can keep it running in the garage with the exhaust heading into the house and rag around my mouth and nose. Last few times it would stall trying to go into reverse

 

The cam still has overlap, therefore the computer sees lean and dumps fuel at it. Turning the base target af ratio leaner keeps the computer from doing that.

 

The car i'm working on right now also has the TFS Stage 1 cam. At idle the WB02 is reading in the 17's. The nose tells me it's probably closer to 13.0:1.

 

Yep.

 

Good stuff.

 

Thanks guys, that’s why I’m here. Learn something new every week.

 

I had a bad O2 on my initial start up . It was the same thing , so rich it was burning my eyes , we were laughing so hard trying to get out of the shop .

You have a screen shot of your fuel tables ?

I also dont have closedloop learn enabled at idle .......or under 3000rpm for that matter .