new fuel injection engine break in

[Matt L.]

does anyone know how fuel injection engines were tested/ran in at the engine plant? i was just curious.
take care,
matt

[Joe R.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

Fuel Injection engines were nothing special at Flint! They are now according to owners and rebuilders as the price of that unit is somewhere on the moon!

All engines were treated the same at Flint and started on natural gas.

JR

PS. And yes, I am poo pooing FI engines! Any good four barrel will run off and leave them sitting at a red light! And yes, I have owned several! Do I hear a whine coming from PA??????

[George J.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

Sure. Everyone that wanted to race, and win, in the late '50's, early '60's, used fuel injection to give themselves a disadvantage. Go rewrite the history books somewhere else.

George

[Michael H.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

PS. And yes, I am poo pooing FI engines! Any good four barrel will run off and leave them sitting at a red light! And yes, I have owned several! Do I hear a whine coming from PA??????

I have a feeling this may be a long discussion.

[Tom P.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

I have a FI unit in the 56.
I have a complete 2x4 setup on the shelf.
NO QUESTION the 2x4s will low end-mid range stronger than the FI.
I ain't changing it!!!! The 2x4s just don't have the "magic" of the FI setup!

[Jerry G.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

I run in vintage racing with an FI unit. My car is a 64. If my competitors used the intake and carb that was factory available for small blocks in 1964 the FI would be an advantage. Today competitors are allowed to run 900CFM holleys with modern Edelbrock intakes. This shifts the advantage to modern intake systems. Vintage tech people can't tell the difference between an original holley carb and a modern carb so....

[Michael W.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

Do I hear a whine coming from PA??????

I have a feeling this may be a long discussion.

Not as long a discussion as it might be on 'another' web site.

[Ridge K.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

I'm just glad no one mentioned the doorstop history..........

[Matt L.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

i know the engines themselves were ran on natural gas or propane. but i was wondering when did the fuel injection units get placed on the engine and ran for the 1st time.was it at the flint or the assembly factory in st louis? i just wonder if it was up to the dealer to dial them in? or maybe they were 1st fired on the test rollers?

[Jim L.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

but i was wondering when did the fuel injection units get placed on the engine and ran for the 1st time.was it at the flint or the assembly factory in st louis? i just wonder if it was up to the dealer to dial them in? or maybe they were 1st fired on the test rollers?

The units were adjusted before they left Rochester Products and installed on the engines at the Flint plant. In the early days, AFAIK, dealer participation consisted of swapping out units that didn't behave properly.

Jim

[Jim L.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

Vintage tech people can't tell the difference between an original holley carb and a modern carb so....

I've seen this, too, Jerry. If tech could develop greater expertise in what's period correct, the playing field would be a lot more level.

Jim

[Michael W.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

No, I meant the VH site. Your buddies there still ask about you.

[John H.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

I observed the hot-test area at Flint V-8 several times in '66-'67 when I worked almost next door at the Chevrolet Pilot Line (friend of mine ran the Flint V-8 Piston Department), but I don't know how they hot-tested F.I. engines prior to '66.

The carbureted engines all ran on natural gas, with an adapter that plumbed it directly into the carb pad on the intake manifold. Don't know what they rigged up for F.I. hot-test.

[Jim L.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

By the nature of the beast, FI engines don't lend themselves to being propane powered. As I recall from Ken Kayser's book, the Flint plant went to the trouble to set up a station that supplied gasoline to the FI engines.

Jim

[John H.]

Re: new fuel injection engine break in

By the nature of the beast, FI engines don't lend themselves to being propane powered. As I recall from Ken Kayser's book, the Flint plant went to the trouble to set up a station that supplied gasoline to the FI engines.

Jim

Jim -

That makes sense - if they rigged up natural gas into the air meter, it would run with the pressure pump dry - probably not a good thing.