Retrotek/Professional Products PowerJection III EFI

[BobsZTwins]

I have a 74 260Z Scarab Stage II conversion built from an original Scarab kit: Chevy 350 with single Rajay turbo drawing through a QJet carb, wide body kit, Recaros, Simmons 3 pc wheels, louvered hood. I've been modernizing it little by little without losing the period look: J&S electronics Safeguard in place of he MSD BTM manual unit; T56 in place of the T10, Methanol injection from AlkyControl to safely add boost. But I've always been unhappy with inconsistent performance: sometimes you hit the throttle and it goes like stink, the next time it bogs badly. Sometimes it's happy with 12 degrees intial timing, sometimes 10 or 14. Well, for my birthday this year my wife bought me a PowerJection III EFI system (God I love that woman.) If you're unfamiliar with this unit, it looks like a Holley 4150 but houses 4 injectors, ECU, TPS, IAC and MAP. If you were already running a Holley, just bolt it on, add an O2 sensor, water temp sensor, vacuum hook up and hi-pressure fuel pump and drive off! For me it was a little more complicated. Had to use a spread bore to square bore adaptor plate and have it machined down for hood clearance, had to have the fuel inlet line on the same side as the throttle linkage, the other side had the turbo plumbing, no room. Had to weld an extension onto the Z fuel pump bracket for the hi pressure unit. Tapped into the manifold under the adaptor plate to add a barb fitting for the PCV valve hose. Had to tap into the bottom of a brass tee to add a fourth access into the pressure side of the manifold for the MAP. Wiring was the easy part, just disconnected the 3 wires from the oil-pressure sending unit I was using for the fuel pump cut off and reconnected as appropriate to/from the EFI (it has fuel pump cut off built in.)

 

I'm here to tell you this is an amazing piece of automotive engineering. The car is so much more driveable, has a much wider power band, when I romp on it it goes like hell every time. And as it tunes itself I'm able to increase boost, run more timing, fine tune the alky injection and I haven't had it on a dyno yet!

 

I make tuning runs with my laptop connected as my son makes adjustments to increase learning speed and do data logging that we use to do additional tweaks after each run. This thing is awesome! If you've been debating pros and cons of carbs vs EFI you should consider this!

 

Anyone else out there using a Powerjection unit?

[lazycat5]

No, but i want to . Can i borrow you'r wife, mine isn't so understanding.

[lazycat5]

All kidding aside. I can't wait to get my hands on this fi sistem, but i wonder why i don't see them at the track or even that much on line like on youtube. Is there somthing wrong with it that i may have mist?

[Tony D]

This is the "Retrotek Speed" unit with the Pulsewidth Modulated Fuel Pump (so you don't need a return line?).

 

They are great! I've told some people about them after talking with the guys that made them in Corona CA. They are 'niche marketed' to several different places with custom 'dashboards'...

 

It was one of the first EFI systems I came across with OEM-Style long and short-term fueling compensation (learning ECU). This allows the mapping to be a matter of driving it, like you said, with the ability to save the last configuration as the new map.

 

As you mention, the closer you are to optimum, the faster it will make minuet adjustments.

 

Eventually, you have a complete fueling map for 'sensor failure' mode and will be able to drive home without really feeling like there has been a change in the system.

 

Great package. The reason you don't hear about them is because they are marketed under SEVERAL different names in SEVERAL different markets.

 

BOSS EFI is one system and sold to retro-rodders who have triple strombergs on the car... you can never tell it's EFI the way they ahve it set up.

 

Claude's Buggies sells the SAME EFI CONTROLLER called something else for their VW-Niche Marketed crowd.

 

There is a LOT of press on this system, but you have to be on top of it to find out about it. It is not a 'drag racing 100% balls out' setup. It is an EFI system meant to be bolted on to an existing hot rod by someone who knows NOTHING about EFI, doesn't have, nor want to install a return line, and is under 500HP. Bolt it on, drive it aroudn in 'self tune' mode, and become amazed.

 

You could use it for racing, but it's not focused on that. It's focused on OEM-like drivability using self-learning tuning. It's the wave of the future.

 

There is a shop in LaHabra that packages this ECU as their own product, and they are big in the water-cooled VW market for racing, as well as doing other Euro-Trash cars with the system. High-End performance for the street. But you won't hear it called Retrotek there, either...

 

It's like Redline Performance EFI and who actually makes their setup...