Select Motor Co Car Restoration Projects Classic Customs Performance Shop Slideshow

Select® Motor Company, Inc. 6205 Monroe Hwy Ball LA 71405 USA

Select® Motor Company Inc. 6205 Monroe Highway Ball Louisana USA 71405

Select® Restoration Projects - 1981 Ford 4x4 300-6 Start Slideshow Full Screen

Programmable Digital Fuel Injection
Challenges and projects that lean toward exotic, or at least unconventional waters always intrigue our technicians. So when a customer wanted to bring in his camouflage 1981 Ford 4x4 pickup, with a one barrel 300 cubic inch six cylinder, who would have thought that their next "technical fix" would come through this vehicle.

The truck is a novelty to its owner in that he won the vehicle when it was new in a golf tournament. Today the truck is used mostly during hunting season and spends long periods of time sitting at a hunting camp.

Problems arose with sitting and the owner had to prime the one-barrel carburetor so the mechanical fuel pump would pick up fuel. Eventually the needle and seat in the carburetor froze in the shut position and a drink of fuel would not wake the truck up from its hibernation.

The customer shipped the truck to Select Motor Company and quizzed the head technician about fuel injection. The tech agreed that fuel injection would cure fuel delivery issues and noted that engines from the eighties typically had very low compression used to control emissions. The trade off for low compression and emissions would be low fuel economy and low power.

Lap top computer programmable fuel injection and spark control would be our techs goal. A through inspection of the 300 six cylinder was performed to begin the project. In addition to not wanting to start without a “highball”, the truck had low cylinder pressure when it was new and one of the six soldiers was loosing what little steam he once had.

While the machine shop was taking care of the engine build, our tech was making sure all of the necessary parts would be ready when the engine returned. The fuel injection system would revolve around the computer or central processing unit. The Holley 950 Commander Control Unit was chosen because it fit our needs very well. It has lap top programmable capabilities and the fuel curve and spark curve could be programmed in real time.

In an effort to keep cost down and use one of the few aftermarket intake manifolds available for Ford 300 6 engines, our tech chose an Offenhauser 360 degree four-barrel dual plane aluminum intake manifold. It actually delivers a dual plane, or high and low velocity, charge to each cylinder. A throttle body with four butterflies and four injectors would eventually be bolted to this manifold. A new fuel line was then run to the tank with an inline electronic pump. Filters were installed before and after the pump to ensure a clean fuel supply to our injectors. The old fuel line was used as a return line to the tank.

Exhaust on the truck was then addressed. The stock exhaust manifolds are reported to be inadequate for the 300 6 in stock form. A header was purchased and our local muffler shop ran dual exhaust using a single muffler with dual inlets and a single 3-inch outlet. This single muffler dual exhaust system was suggested to avoid the “bumblebee on hiatus” sound six cylinders will produce with headers and separate mufflers.

With our grocery list of parts installed, our “head chef” technician began to brew a way for all of these carefully selected parts to work together. Being an unusual group of parts, there were no base maps for fuel and spark curves on 300 6 engines available with our control unit. Our programmer would be required to custom design the base maps.

The adjustments for accelerator enrichment alone give insight into the tune ability that places this system light years ahead of carburetion.

Before we get too deep, you only need to know how to turn the key on a well-programmed vehicle. The finished product starts with the bump of a key, has crisp throttle response, even when cold, makes excellent torque, is fuel efficient and runs well on any grade of fuel. It’s got to be the camouflage paint!



Sign up for Our Email Newsletter Get New Product Alerts Discount Coupons Restoration Tips

or call toll free +1-800-716-9635