One Hour to EFI - Installing Professional Products' Powerjection III EFI System

[StangTV News]

When you look under the hood of a classic muscle car there are things that you expect to see, and things that you don’t expect to see. While there are different versions of the story on what should be under the hood depending on if you’re talking to a Ford guy or a Chevy guy, there is one thing that they would both agree doesn’t belong there -- wires. No I’m not talking about spark plug wires, I’m talking about all of those little extra wires that are a nasty byproduct of trying to bring your engine into current times. For example if you are looking to add the convenience and other benefits of EFI to your classic muscle car you are going to have to live with that multi-colored rat nest of a wiring harness, right? Wrong. Professional Products’ Powerjection III is an EFI conversion that is designed to give you a simple way to install EFI on your currently carbureted engine without ruining its good looks or having to earn a degree in electronics.



The thing that sets the Powerjection III apart from other EFI conversion kits is its unique design that was founded on the idea of keeping things simple and looking clean. It was designed to mimic the look of a classic double-pumper carburetor and even has the same mounting dimensions as a 4150-style carburetor. What really piqued our interest was the fact that Professional Products told us that given the right set of tools, this install could be done in an afternoon or even as little as an hour! Spend an hour in the garage and be rewarded with a running EFI system? It sounded too good to be true, but we have the right set of tools, so we rolled out our Cornwell Tool box and got ready to work.



Powerjection III

The Powerjection III is unique because of the way the designers incorporated not only the injectors into the throttle body, but the entire Engine Management System into it as well. These two components need to be linked together, and by having them in the same place there is no need to run wires all over the engine compartment to provide that link – it’s already done! That seemingly small design feature is the key to how this system works so easily. It reduces the amount time that would be spent on not only wiring, but also on mounting these components. The Powerjection III EFI system is a complete kit that comes with everything needed to install and use, including the unique throttle body and wide band O2 sensor.



Powerjection III Parts List:

• Throttle body with Stage 2 EMS
• Coolant Temperature Sensor
• Wide band O2 sensor
• Tuning software
• Gasket

As mentioned before, the most unique part of this system is the throttle body. Ken Farrel, one of the designers of the Powerjection III, explained that is wasn’t as simple as just trying to make it look like a carburetor. “There was a lot that went into the design of this system,” Ken explained. “We wanted to make something that was simple and worked.” Work it does, over a hundred times a second! That’s how often the Engine Management System is sampling the air/fuel ratio being read from the oxygen sensor to adjust the air/fuel ratio going into the engine. The EMS is a self-learning system that never stops adjusting itself to compile the best fuel map for your vehicle at that time, and will even learn to adapt itself to your style of driving just like newer OEM cars.


The carburetor on the left, and the Powerjection III throttle body on the right.

The EMS controls the fuel injectors located near the top of the throttle body, which according to Ken is right where you want them to be. “We positioned the injectors up high, providing better fuel distribution into the intake manifold,” Ken explained. “That promotes better fuel distribution throughout the manifold.” The injectors that come with the kit are good up to around 500 horsepower. If you are planning to make more than that limit, you simply need to buy bigger injectors. The injectors, regardless of whether they’re replacements for the standard pieces or bigger ones, can all be purchased at your local parts store. In fact, the same goes for the oxygen sensor.

Fuel System Options - The Choice is Yours

Professional Products gives you two different options for your fuel system when you install the Powerjection III; returnless and return-style. If you don’t already know the difference, the concept is easy to learn. Some fuel systems are set up using a return line, a fuel line that brings extra fuel from the pressure regulator under the hood back into the fuel tank, controlling pressure by adjusting how much fuel bypasses the carb and goes straight back to the tank. A returnless system, as you may have guessed, has no line that runs back to the tank, and has only the fuel supply line from the tank to the carburetor. If you are a little lost on which would be right for you engine there a few things to decide on. Of course, if your current setup already has a high pressure EFI pump installed, none of this makes a difference to you as you would be able to keep your existing hardware and just bolt it right up.



Answering a few questions about your car and engine will determine what kind of fuel system is right for your application.

How much power are you making?
For engines making less than 500 horsepower, no return line is required when using the Powerjection III. When power output is greater than 500 hp, a return line is required.

Does your vehicle already have a fuel return line?
If it does, you’ll be able to use the Return Kit from Professional Products. You also would be able to cut time on the install, as you would not have to mount and wire in the Fuel Pump Controller.

Do you want to keep you existing non-EFI fuel pump?
Again, another time saver. While you will still need to use the high pressure EFI fuel pump, you can have your existing fuel pump draw the fuel from the tank and then have it feed the EFI pump mounted closer to the front of the car. That way you would need to run less high-pressure fuel lines to the Powerjection III throttle body.

Why Powerjection?

There are lots of benefits that make the Powerjection III system a great alternative to carburetors. Ken told us, “EFI lets you easily adapt to changing conditions, where as with a carburetor you would be stuck on the side of the road changing jets.” Ken went on to explain that the ability to tune your vehicle with the help of a laptop provides the driver with the power to make changes never before reachable. One thing that is good to note is you are not required to tune the system with a laptop, but it does provide a great way to fine-tune your fuel system for exactly what you are looking for, be it economy or performance.


This cutaway view illustrates how the injectors mount inside the “float bowls” of the Powerjection III.

The main thing that makes the Powerjection III such an attractive piece isn’t its eye-catching design or its ‘no-brains-easy’ approach to tuning. The fact that the only thing that is easier than tuning it is installing it should put a smile on anyone’s face. Professional Products assured us that this install would take no more than an hour, but we were a little skeptical. Check out the timed install below!


One hour to a running EFI system? Sounds too good to be true.

Starting Things Off | 11:00 AM
Things got off to an easy start with the step that is forgotten all too often, disconnecting the negative battery cable. If you are installing this on your own car this is going to be a step that you are going to have to include if you ever need to remove the Powerjection III or work on any of its related wiring. After getting the air filter out of the way, we then moved on to removing the fuel lines from the worn-out carburetor. We decided to go with the trick returnless fuel system for that really clean look under the hood -- more on this later.


The old four-barrel has seen better days.

The throttle linkage was also removed at this time. The nice thing about the Powerjection III’s throttle body sharing its dimensions with a 4150-style carburetor is that the throttle linkage will hook right up with no modifications at all. So for now, we just pushed it out of the way.

Next, we removed the crusty old carburetor. This specimen had seen better days, so the fact that it even still worked was surprising to us. We unbolted the four bolts that held it on and removed it from the engine.



The Components That Make It Work | 11:10 AM

The Powerjection III installs exactly the same way that the carburetor came off. You simply place the gasket down on top of your existing manifold and bolt the new throttle body down the same way you would if you were installing a carburetor. The same goes for the throttle linkage. We just hooked it up the same way it came off.



The next task was to install two sensors on the engine. The first was the coolant temperature sensor. It installed into one of the coolant passages in the intake manifold using the supplied 3/8-inch pipe thread fitting. Some manifolds may require a half-inch fitting, but a simple adapter will do the trick for you.

This is also the time we installed the oxygen sensor into the headers. The car had an O2 bung already installed on its aftermarket headers. Had we needed to add one, the kit does come with a weld-in O2 bung, or you could also use the Professional Products Wide Band O2 Clamp if you don’t have access to a welder.



If you are going to be drilling your own hole and welding in the O2 bung there are a few things to keep in mind. First, you are going to want to have the bung as close to the header collector as possible. Also, you are going to want to angle that sensor so that it is oriented about 10° off the exhaust tubing. That way moisture and other deposits will not collect at the tip of the sensor, causing a false reading.

No matter which way you end up going, the sensor installs the same. Just screw it in, make sure you have enough room for the sensor and harness, and that nothing is touching the exhaust tubing.

Wiring | 11: 22 AM

This is the part that we thought would be the hardest. Even though we blazed through the first part of getting the Powerjection III unit installed, we thought for sure the wiring would take the remaining thirty-eight minutes, and we still had to install the fuel system. Ken assured us that we were making great time.

We were happy to find out that there were only six steps to the wiring portion of the install. To make sure we don’t lose anyone, it is broken down by each step to help explain.

Step One: Connect The Coolant Temperature Sensor

With the coolant temperature sensor already installed, all we had to do is grab the two-wire connector coming from the EMS on the throttle body and plug it into the sensor.


All the connections including the Coolant Temperature Sensor just plug right in.

Step Two: Connect The O2 Sensor

This is where things got a little tricky. We had to take the connector coming from the EMS and route it down to the O2 sensor we just installed in the headers. The hardest part was making sure that the route we were using for the wire was not one that put it into contact with anything that would melt the wires – Ok, maybe it wasn’t that hard, but I’m sure you are waiting for the catch to come, right?

Step Three: Wire Battery Power

Another easy step. We took an existing power lead coming from the cable going to the positive terminal on the battery and tapped into it. When then grabbed the red wire coming from the EMS and connected the two together. This provides the power for the system.

Step Four: Wire Up To ‘Key On’ Power

Ok, here you are saying, “Key On Power? What is that?” The answer is quite simple. The yellow wire coming from the EMS on the throttle body is the one you are going to need for this step. Coming from the ignition key will be a wire for ‘key on’ power. Simply tap into that wire and connect the yellow wire coming from the Powerjection III.

Step Five: Wire Up the Tach Signal

This should be an easy one. If you are running a non-amplified ignition system, attach the EMS’s tach signal wire to negative side of the coil. If you are running an MSD or similar setup, the job is almost the same. Just take the same wire from the EMS and connect it to tach output on the spark module.

That is it for the wiring part of the install. It really required no special tools or procedures. If you can wire up a tach, this should be no problem. On a scale of one to five with one being super easy to five being a master electronics tech job, I would say this is a level one job. If you can plug in your cell phone at night and use a pair of crimpers, you can do the wiring in this install.

Returnless Fuel System | 11:38 AM

We decided to go with the Professional Products Returnless Fuel System for our Powerjection III install. That way, we would not have to run a return line back to the tank. In a flash we had the old pump out and mounted the new EFI fuel pump in its place. Next was the high-pressure fuel line, and it went in surprisingly easy. Next was the Fuel Pump Controller. The controller works together with the fuel pressure sensor included in the kit to regulate pressure going to the throttle body to 45 PSI.



Wrapping It Up - The Start Up | 12:00 Noon

The hour had elapsed and we just made it under the wire. The question was, would it run? Ken himself put the key into the ignition and turned the engine over. It only took a second for the new EFI fuel pump to get fuel into the throttle body, and the engine fired right up. It only stumbled for a moment as the EMS begun to sample the air/fuel ratio being sent from the O2 sensor, and then the idle smoothed right out. After letting the engine warm up, it was time to take it out for a spin.



Our own wrench guru Bobby Kimbrough got to ride shotgun with Ken as the car went out for a spin with the Powerjection III installed. “It was one hell of a ride,” chuckled Bobby. “The power was there when Ken would get into it. There was no lag or delay; it responded right away.”

Performance Applications

While the Powerjection III was not designed to be used on all-out race cars, it would be a good fit on any high performance street machine, according to Ken. “If you are looking for performance we found that the Powerjection III works best with dual-plane intakes,” he explained. As mentioned before though, the base kit was designed for engines producing less than 500 horsepower. So what if you wanted to go with bigger numbers than that? Simple; you just need to swap out the injectors for some larger one and the fuel pump for one that would keep those larger injectors at 45 PSI. That’s it, and the EMS would take care of everything else, using the wideband O2 sensor to learn the right calibration.

On the Road

While it may have taken the full hour, Professional Products was right when they said you could convert a car to EFI and have it running in less than a day, easy. Since we had budgeted a little more time than just the hour expected by Ken and the guys, we spent the time we had left having a little fun with the newly-EFI’ed car…





Source:

Professional Products
Web: www.professional-products.com
Phone: 323-779-2020