Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU... HELP - Boost Forum

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Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU... HELP
Thursday, August 04, 2005 9:02 PM
Ok, i installed the Vortech FMU today along with a Autometer Phantom Fuel Pressure guage (got it for helping a guy at work move his g/f into an apartment.. i think it worked out to be about 30 dollars/hour lol)

Anyway, when i first started it up i was getting 60 psi.. which i find a little high for baseline isnt it? So i was like, whatever...

I got out on the road and at first boost the FP doesnt change, then when i hit about 4psi it starts climbing and from 4-6psi it very smoothly went up just about 70psi. So thats how its supposed to work right?? However i was concerned because the FMU doesnt react to the low boost, it only starts working at 4psi and up.. is this normall??

I also think my fuel pump is dying, because the FMU seemed to stop working completely after driving for about 10 minutes... the fuel pressure doesnt rise past 60psi now, and drops off 1-2 psi when i floor it, then creeps up to about 65 and kind of fluctuates under boost.

SO, is it a fuel pump?? Or should check the FMU? Keep in mind im running a RSM Stage 1 kit.... I have the FMU on the line coming out of the stock FPR, i called Vortech and got the install, inlet is in the middle, outlet is off to the side so i know its installed correctly. And yes the vacum hose is on it.

I do however have to better secure the lines.. right now im using a 500psi line fuel line (found it at work with A/N fittings already on it) I screwed the one end to the Inlet on the FMU, and slipped the other end over the metal part i cut and clamped it down tightly, the other side the same way. The return line isnt leaking but the one going to the FMU where its slipped over the metal tube seems to be wet with fuel, but not spraying. Could this be causing the lack of 5psi of fuel pressure once its warmed up??

Im going to fix the leak tomorrow and see what happens... but i AM running the stock fuel pump, and i think 70 psi is a lot for a stocker isnt it??? So i guess its time to upgrade.

Please let me know!

-Ben

BTW, when the FMU was working and upping the boost the car sounds much better, no more "lean pops" or anything, and it feels like its running stronger (i know, i thought richer meant safer but less power) Maybe it was in my head.

A/F ratios before the FMU on the dyno were as followed:

Max 14.9 (from 3,000RPMS to 4600 RPMS it was around there
Then from 4700 to 4,900 it dropped to 12.5
From 5,000 to 5700 (hit speed limiter) it climbed up to 13.2.

Im thinking it wasnt getting enough fuel on the dyno, maybe its just me but im under the impression that a 13 a/f ratio while running ANY boost isnt a good idea.


<img src="http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/3/web/831000-831999/831395_11_full.jpg">


Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Friday, August 05, 2005 12:00 AM
you need an aftermarket FPR to tune down fuel pressure at idle. go with an Aeromotive.




I was a retard, and now I'm permanently banned.
Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Friday, August 05, 2005 6:24 AM
u sure u have the FMU on the return line?

i thought RSM reflash was all u would ever need for fueling needs?

try this. the return line after the FMU going back to the tank, take some pliers and pinch it. see what the pressure goes up to. I am not sure on how high the pressure can go with the stock pump. But my walbro pump shot up past 100psi( f.p guage on rail) when that line was pinched and the car died.


also, what disk do u have in your FMU? i know there is a 3-1, or a 4-1. and some stuff in between up to 12-1. I got the cartech FMU, so all i have to do is turn a little screw to adjust the ratio.

good luck




Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Friday, August 05, 2005 7:32 AM
is a 12-1 any good.


DRIVE HARD OR DONT DRIVE AT ALL!!!

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Friday, August 05, 2005 9:57 AM
Is your boost always the same? Any boost leaks?



FU Tuning



Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Friday, August 05, 2005 9:33 PM
Well i put a fitting on the line today but still didnt completely get the leak... i think im going to purchase an aftermarket FPR, block off the stock FPR completely, drill and tap a NEW return line off of the opposite end of the fuel rail, and join it up with the remaining return back to the tank....

Hmmm... should be fun.


<img src="http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/3/web/831000-831999/831395_11_full.jpg">

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Friday, August 05, 2005 11:21 PM
Spotabee, why are you saying that man??
I know you can do better than that.
Lowering fuel pressure won't get you ANYWHERE but to hell with headaches and stuff, you need to turn down the pulsewidth or lean it out other way.
LEAVE THE BASE FUEL PRESSURE ALONE!!!
You will regret it.

Run your FMU 1:1 it is boost sensitive it will pick up on the pressure rising.




Best time:"""11.946""" @ 114.73 mph @17psi 1.83--60"
11 second daily driver!!!!
Race Related 727-561-9440
Shop of choice for your 11 second J body!

Also, built bottom end and or top end LSJ and L61's available.
13's ----12's ----11's ----10's

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Saturday, August 06, 2005 7:32 AM
Yasmin, I still don't understand what you mean by 1:1 bro... it's just not enough fuel if your injectors aren't big enough and if you have no other way to raise fuel with boost.

The stock pump craps out at 70 psi, usually can't hold it. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the FMU but the pump, bro.

As for 60 psi base pressure, that's high. Is it a cartech/BEGI unit? If it is, loosen the top screw, the screw on the side of the FMU adjusts the ratio. (Tighter screw = higher ratio)

Go get yourself a better pump and you'll be seeing much better fuel situations.

Good luck.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Saturday, August 06, 2005 10:01 PM
Well i put a vacuum line on the stock reg so it drops to 50psi at idle.

But now it wont go over 62psi even under full boost.... i think that FMU just fried my pump.


<img src="http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/3/web/831000-831999/831395_11_full.jpg">

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Sunday, August 07, 2005 7:00 PM
Exactly!!!!!!!!! You put the vacuum on it and it drops 50 base and WOT is 60 psi or when you take the vacuum off.

Chris, you don't seem to understand the concept of proper tunning.
About 80% people here on the ORG if you ask them how to run a proper Forced Induction set up they are going to tell you to get a rising rate something and most of the time it is wrong.
People run FMU's 12:1 (god) 8:1 6:1 4:1, and FPR's and stuff and drop the pressure, but all you need is a big enough injectors and way to adjust the duty cycle and the pulse width!!! It's all about THAT!!!
Right now I am not sure if anyone is putting more HP to the wheel on a ECO than me and I am not bragging about it but I am running the simplest set up possible and it works really good.

People go and by EIC's and expensive TEC's and other fuel systems and they cannot get them to work.
I got Blazer pump, bigger injectors, non adjustable FMU, and S-AFC.
I am running 50 psi base and 60 psi WOT.
My Blazer pump won't push more then 75 psi at 10 psi but I don't need more!!!!! and noone else does people think they do, it can carry a lot more volume than it can pressure. Get it
For a long time I used to think than 1:1 is not enough, but it is if you know what you are doing, and let me tell you what one to one is.
There are 2 ways of reading it properly.
1st way is, every psi of boost you get a psi of fuel, so at WOT you have 60 and at 10 psi you should have 70 right?? Well maybe.
You have to take into consideration that when 10 psi of positive pressure that Turbo throws into your combustion chambers put 10 psi of stress on your injectors or should I say air velocity that injectors have to over come to squirt hence they lose 10 psi and you lose 10 psi of fuel.

So lets see, if you didn't have rising rate of FMU or anything and you spool up to 10 psi, if you look at your fuel pressure gauge your fuel pressure from 60 should drop to 50 at WOT just because the injectors have to push through 10 psi of air.
Now to solve the problem, you run a 1:1 to even out the psi and so that you get to keep your 60 psi at WOT and 10 psi. Most of the factory FPR's WILL take care of this alone because they are boost sensitive and so are the Aeromotive and bunch of others.
People don't talk about this much, like I said cause most of the FPR's fix the problem, but it doesn't mean it is NOT there.
Another way of rising one to one is on the top of what the FPR gives you 1:1 to fix the problem you ADD ANOTHER 1:1 WITH THE FMU.
So instead 60 WOT you have 70 WOT granted you are still at 10 psi.
In reality it is 2:1, but like I said, a lot of people don't talk about the 1st thing and they reffer to 2:1 as 1:1.
It all depends to who you are talking to.
This is the one that I am running 2:1 so at 12 psi I have 72 psi of fuel.
Sorry if I am boring someone to death, but it got me thinking one day when I spooled up to 10 psi and looked at my fuel gauge top out at 75 psi of fuel and I was still rich while I had 6:1 disk in the FMU and the fuel pressure was suppose to be like 120+ psi, but the pump couldn't push it.
I crunched up the numbers and saw that if I remove the disk out of the FMU I will get what I am getting right now, so I did it kept an eye on the EGT's and everything was fine.
Now to fix the idle and tune the fuel curve a little better I used the dyno and the S-AFC.

That is it, and trust me IT IS PLENTY OF GAS AT 2:1 or if you wanna call it 1:1.

One more thing before I leave, perfect way of doing the fuel for me would be to ditch the FMU so my FPR would take care of the lost pressure and I would still get my 60 psi at WOT, but to shorten the pulsewidth and maybe increase the duty cycle by 10% or so when it starts reading boost, so that way the extra psi of stress is not being put on the fuel pump. This is the way Subaru, Mitsubishi, Saab, is doing it and even GM with the Supercharger REFLASH. LOL I will do this later tho but for now it is FMU and S-AFC.

Sorry for a long post but I hope this cleared it out.



Best time:"""11.946""" @ 114.73 mph @17psi 1.83--60"
11 second daily driver!!!!
Race Related 727-561-9440
Shop of choice for your 11 second J body!

Also, built bottom end and or top end LSJ and L61's available.
13's ----12's ----11's ----10's

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Sunday, August 07, 2005 8:48 PM
Yasmin.

I appreciate the write-up - but it's not that I "Don't understand the concept of proper tuning"... don't go assuming my knowledge, just as I don't go assuming yours.

I would much prefer to tune larger injectors with duty cycle myself, which is why I have an S-AFC, I just can't do it with boost because I don't have an emanage (it wasn't proven enough on the J-body for me to spend the $$$ and try it).

Trust me I'd rather tune with duty cycle and pulse width any day, there just is no really reliable and proven way to do it with boost.

With that said, again don't assume what i know or what I'm doing. Just because you ran a 6:1 disk in your FMU doesn't mean I didn't crunch the #'s a YEAR AGO before I got boost and about 3-4 times with Shifted (Ron)... we both came up with a max pressure for the injectors that I have at a pre-assumed horsepower rating.

What did we come up with? At about 8 psi of boost all I needed was 75 or so PSI of fuel pressure - just as you're stating. My injectors are smaller than yours so you can run more power at that fuel pressure... but my point is I AGREE with you.

I just didn't understand the "1:1".... if that makes sense. 1:1 meant 10psi over stock pressure which just isn't enough depending on the size of your injectors.

Point being is, currently I'm running about 3:1 on my FMU at 14 lbs of boost and the fuel, according to all of my calculations, should be there.

So - don't assume.

With that said, again - I appreciate the write-up as I would imagine many people on the .org will. You've been talking about "1:1" for a few months now and it didn't really make "sense"... it does now that you've explained it but as you said, it's really a 2:1 ratio.

And remember, fuel pressure ratios all depend on the size of your injector. 2:1 for you might be 4:1 for me...... going by fuel pressure alone. God forbid we throw duty cycle and pulse width into the equation.

Good luck chasing down that 12 second 1/4 mile man. You're getting close.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Sunday, August 07, 2005 9:04 PM
alright man,

u see now u have caused a big cat fight. come on ladies, now were getting off track. first of all i would just like to tell you my opinion, i have been messing with my fuel problems for the past year and im just now at the poing where i am properly tuned. ok to start off with, u NEED to upgrade the stock fuel pump, theres no question about it. secondly, get rid of that vortech fmu and go with a cartech. third, get a adjustable fuel pressure regulator. u wil also need to get some larger injectors than them stockers. dont get me wrong, u can make it work with the stock injectors but u will be much happier with a good set of RC's. if ur running about 8 psi, 370's will do you fine. last but certainly not least, get a wideband to tune that pig. i know they are a little spendy, but if your boosted and u want a boosted car properly tuned and running good, u have to have a wideband. innovative makes a very good unit that is simple to install. my personal recomendation would be to get it tuned to where its running between 11.5 and 12:1 A/F Ratio under full boost. good luck man...
Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Monday, August 08, 2005 8:03 AM
I don't assume anything at all and specialy your knowledge, and if it is true that you are running 14 psi and who am I to question that you got to know what you are talking about.
People question my 12 psi that is why when I develop my next film I snapped a picture of the boost gauge at full boost. lol

If you have a big enough injector yes like I said I am running 2:1 in reality cause I am running a 450 DSM injectors, and honestly I don't see how it wouldn't be enough.
If you are running anything smaller where 2:1 wouldn't be enough, well time to change injectors up because you are putting unnecessary stress on them.

I am running rich on idle, but I would rather have that than maxing out the fuel pump and the injectors in boost, but others see it other wise.
If you are running 370's, yes you would probably need 3:1 or what not and also if you turned down your base fuel pressure you would need it as well maybe even more to compensate for what you have taken out.

The reason I said I am going with a 70 shot until the HP Tuners come out with the program is spacially because there is NOT a good thing on the market(the way I see it) that I wanna tune my car with and since the Nitrous take care of its own fuel that is how it is going to be.
So one more time I make NO assumptions,. I just wanted to explain what I meant by 1:1 since you asked, and there is no argument here.
I am trying for those 12's man, sooner or later it will happen.




Best time:"""11.946""" @ 114.73 mph @17psi 1.83--60"
11 second daily driver!!!!
Race Related 727-561-9440
Shop of choice for your 11 second J body!

Also, built bottom end and or top end LSJ and L61's available.
13's ----12's ----11's ----10's

Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Monday, August 08, 2005 9:26 AM
Yasmin, finally glad you explained more on your set-up. Makes a little more sense. From your times, and dyno numbers it is working very well. Myself I would rather have a well balance tune. nice idle ratio and under boost. Thats why a AFPR, and a adjustbale FMU, and soon a SAFC as well. Why not have the nice idle, but still have the full under boost. They make booster pumps, and upgraded pumps for that.
I'm not talking bad about how you have done it, just saying it is not a complete tune. A complete tune is all parts, or driving under boost, not in boost, idle.



FU Tuning



Re: Installed Fuel press guage and Vortech FMU...
Monday, August 08, 2005 10:12 AM
not sure if this has anything to do with it but if he was not using the FMU prior to this and using the rsm reflash and still using that PCM the duty cycle has been turned up to 80% from the stock 65%, might have better results turning that duty cycle back down then adding in the FMU



1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85





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