Edelbrock E-force Owner's thread and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

[Side]

Originally Posted by BA9092

Good idea.

Yeah, the bumper was the last and final thing I did. Granted it's not that hard to do, but I only wanted to do it once to avoid the tabs on the sides warping or breaking resulting in the infamous 'bumper sag'

My old BRZ developed bumper sag, so I preemptively bought a quick release kit for my new BRZ.

I recommend paint matching them if you do.

[BR-ZED]

So I think I fixed my fuel leak issue... a combination of sanding down the banjo bolt surface (which was very rough) and using the OEM gasket. Thanks to those who suggested that!

I took the car for a spin, and was a little rough on clutch engagement (just felt like it was going to die when starting off, but other than that felt fine). I couldn't tell if by bleeding the clutch the engagement point changed (or maybe if the level of the fluid in the reservoir is different from before) , or if I just had to give it a little more gas to get going.

I sent the log to the tuner, and he thought that the fuel pump maybe wasn't seated correctly, or it was missing o-rings. He said the fuel pressure drops at higher loads and the AFR gets lean.

I responded to him, but am waiting to hear back. I'm scratching my head... I am not sure if he is talking about the fuel pump in the back of the car, or the high pressure fuel pump in the engine bay. I touched neither. The car is 100% stock except for the catback exhaust and the Edelbrock kit. As you all know we don't touch the fuel pump in the install - except of course to switch out the line to the banjo fitting.

1. I have had the dealership replace a number of my high pressure fuel pumps (cricket issues) - but haven't had the car run poorly before. I think I have had two revisions, but the last was 2-3 years ago, so if there was an issue, I would have noticed it before.
2. I did buy the car used - if the previous owner had installed a different pump, maybe that one is still installed and is causing issues with this tune? I find this highly unlikely.
3. I did start up the car without the fuel pump fuse (to fix my leak). It idled rough and took a while (10 seconds or so) to die. Not sure if by doing that the first time around that could have caused issues tune-wise?

Here is a data log (the same one I sent my tuner). I am not really sure I see what he is talking about... when the accelerator pedal is pressed the fuel pressure raises... seems highly correlated. The AFR target / actual AFR don't match super well though.
https://datazap.me/u/br-zed/brz-edel...&data=3-5-6-18

For comparison, I did a log on the car compeltely stock (thank God!) just in case. Are any issues apparent here? Again, accelerator pedal is highlight correlated to fuel line pressure, so it seems the pump is fine.
https://datazap.me/u/br-zed/stock-dr...og=0&data=3-10


Thoughts? maybe it is a different cause? I don't know what to check on the fuel pump since I never touched it.

[AKITA]

Originally Posted by BA9092

I also had the same issue since I couldn't fill the reservoir full enough before it pumped itself dry and stopped the pump. Eventually I got it full and the pump ran continuously.

However, I first had the bumper off the entire time until I felt the car was running optimally, so I had access to the water pump below the reservoir. I initially unplugged the wire harness from it and replugged it back in every time to restart the pump/cycle. But someone here suggested just recycling through the ignition - turning the car completely off then back to ACC.

It finally worked once I added enough coolant to keep the reservoir from running low.

I just finished this install and relate to many of the issues.. went well .. working on fine tuning next week.. I hope to do a complete review as well my perspective with my tuner which is going pretty good.

while standing I would just reach through open window , turn key, grab coolant and add before it empties.. first time or two I might have come up short but after the third I just kept adding and eventually pump primed the lines.

I used copper crush washers on the high press fuel pump banjo.. others have used different solutions to make sure it didn't leak. But on the same hand for the clutch banjo I used the stock aluminum crush washers since I wasn't happy with copper crush washers I had in that size.

Bleeding the clutch can be done with the SC on... ugh don't ask me how I got there.. It sucks more.. so make sure it's right first

[AKITA]

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

little rough on clutch engagement (just felt like it was going to die when starting off, but other than that felt fine). I couldn't tell if by bleeding the clutch

I don't know your tune but don't think it should be doing this with any kind of reasonable tune. My initial DT tune did not do any of the things you are experiencing. (However I did run it without the pass PCV hose connected once "don't ask involved catch cans" it was way worse than what you are describing.. but that was a big vac leak.. I wondering if a vac leak much smaller for you may be happening.. might be worth a smoke test)

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

I responded to him, but am waiting to hear back. I'm scratching my head... I am not sure if he is talking about the fuel pump in the back of the car,

I don't think it's the rear pump... that's a lower pressure pump meant to get fuel to the HP pump..

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

1. I have had the dealership replace a number of my high pressure fuel pumps (cricket issues) -

They could of messed something up.. doesn't seem like a hard fix if you decide to put another in, but I'm not sure that's the issue.

pick your year, repair, engine, fuel pump high press
https://demos.starbase7.net/t3Portal/

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

2. I did buy the car used -

If it was stock, I doubt it.

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

3. I did start up the car without the fuel pump fuse (to fix my leak)

I don't think this caused an issue.

Looking at the logs keep in mind I'm no tuner.. done some maf rescaling.. so just my pennies. I would really like to see it in a nice steady cruise log and a steady idle log.. if you wanted to do a baby pull cause I don't see much of any pulls in the logs to really see what it does under load up to whatever you feel is safe. I don't know this for sure and if I were you I might be trying to figure out what mpa (which I believe is mega pascal ) the high pressure should be at a given rpm .. I see what you see.. at 3500 max in the what I guess is the SC installed at one spot it was 14 mpa (1mpa=145psi). Your stock tune showed 20 ma at 5k. hmm I may not understand but I think that's a lot of psi.. aI see it at 7-8 mpa at times around 3k.. again if that's mega pascal lot of psi.. so each injector needs 55 psi I believe, again I could be wrong in all this logic.

I am seeing the leaning tendencies... And the ECU LTFT constantly leaning by significant amounts at times. So in there I'm lost .. definitely make sure you don't have any vac leaks. It would run lean with a vac leak but I would think the ECU LTFT would be positive to compensate and yours never went about 0 and went into the -15 to -20 (it's subtracting fuel).. so not sure there. Hopefully somebody has something more

[BR-ZED]

Thanks. I've been reading up on it a little. Still no idea but here are some interesting observations:

1. On stock tune, LTFT maxed out at 3.09%. That's a hard stop. On the new tune (w/ SC), it is maxing out at 0. It seems to want to go higher but it can't so AFR spikes. Overall though I would have expected LTFT to vary slower. It seems to vary almost as fast as the STFT. Is the hard stop (max LTFT) a parameter in the tune?

2. On the stock tune, it is also periodically going lean, up to 20.33 AFR (I assume it is higher, but this is likely the maximum it can read)

3. On the stock and SC datalog, whenever AFR is high, short term fuel trim is almost always 0 (periodically spiking). Which seems odd to me, because it seems it should react and increase to bring in more fuel to bring down AFR.

I'm completely new to this so I'm probably way off. But it doesn't seem like a vacuum issue since it is intermittent... I rechecked the fuel lines and don't see / feel / smell gas. So still completely lost

[Kodename47]

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

Thanks. I've been reading up on it a little. Still no idea but here are some interesting observations:

1. On stock tune, LTFT maxed out at 3.09%. That's a hard stop. On the new tune (w/ SC), it is maxing out at 0. It seems to want to go higher but it can't so AFR spikes. Overall though I would have expected LTFT to vary slower. It seems to vary almost as fast as the STFT. Is the hard stop (max LTFT) a parameter in the tune?

2. On the stock tune, it is also periodically going lean, up to 20.33 AFR (I assume it is higher, but this is likely the maximum it can read)

3. On the stock and SC datalog, whenever AFR is high, short term fuel trim is almost always 0 (periodically spiking). Which seems odd to me, because it seems it should react and increase to bring in more fuel to bring down AFR.

I'm completely new to this so I'm probably way off. But it doesn't seem like a vacuum issue since it is intermittent... I rechecked the fuel lines and don't see / feel / smell gas. So still completely lost

Are you off throttle? With no throttle, no fuel is injected so AFR reads max (usually 20.x depending on sensor scaling) and there is no STFT. There can be a max LTFT set in the tune, so may be disabled if always at 0 so really it;s if the STFT is maxing out at +/-35 where the fuel trims are maxed out.

[BR-ZED]

Originally Posted by Kodename47

Are you off throttle? With no throttle, no fuel is injected so AFR reads max (usually 20.x depending on sensor scaling) and there is no STFT. There can be a max LTFT set in the tune, so may be disabled if always at 0 so really it;s if the STFT is maxing out at +/-35 where the fuel trims are maxed out.

Yes, often I'm off throttle when the AFR is that high. I posted a log above, but this link should just show AFR vs accelerator position.
https://datazap.me/u/br-zed/brz-edel...log=0&data=3-5

Tuner thinks there is a problem with the fuel pump seating or o rings, but they are stock and haven't been touched in 3+ years.

[rixon]

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

Yes, often I'm off throttle when the AFR is that high. I posted a log above, but this link should just show AFR vs accelerator position.
https://datazap.me/u/br-zed/brz-edel...log=0&data=3-5

Tuner thinks there is a problem with the fuel pump seating or o rings, but they are stock and haven't been touched in 3+ years.

You may try to get the tune from Edelbrock. The increased cost of the kit I think is due to them providing the Ecutek device not the tune. At least it would be a proven tune to verify the install.

[BR-ZED]

Originally Posted by rixon

You may try to get the tune from Edelbrock. The increased cost of the kit I think is due to them providing the Ecutek device not the tune. At least it would be a proven tune to verify the install.

That's a good idea. Had that thought as well.
I requested the tune in case I need to go down that route.

My Ecutek has my tuners name associated with it (shows in the software on the PC application). Do I need to flash back to stock (how?) before flashing the Edelbrock tune, or can I go straight from my tuners tune to Edelbrock?

While I wait to hear from my tuner/Edelbrock, any other thoughts?

[AKITA]

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

Thanks. I've been reading up on it a little. Still no idea but here are some interesting observations:

1. I don't think there is a hard stop. For that log, the ecu just never deemed it necessary to add anymore fuel during stft which in time would cause the ltft to go above 3%, which +- 3% is pretty good in a NA platform.

2. Totally normal to see that off throttle, I don't pay attention to off throttle that much in regards to this, which is why I like to look at steady cruise log.. you'll really see what its doing in CL mode over a 15-20 min period. From what I can see in the SC log, it just constantly wants to subtract ..that's curious to me in a lean situation. Even if the air were getting in before the MAF, the O2 bung picks up lean, ECU uses stft to compensate, and then makes it to ltft over time. But instead it's lean. All the while ECU is still trying to subtract fuel so no suprise it's lean... just why is the ECU doing that.. I would ask the tuner that. If it's a bad hpfp, why is the ECU trying to lean out so much ..

3. If you are in Open Loop mode which isn't hard to get into when you give it throttle... I think it will not use stft.. it will use an OL map and ltft ..least it does this in a NA tune..

[AKITA]

Originally Posted by BirdTRD

Nevermind, looking at it wrong...

Not sure why you never show vacuum, manifold absolute pressure never goes below +3.5 psi. Are you sure you have the new bypass valve installed correctly, as in not stuck closed?

Yeah that's odd .. and what map sensor?

[BirdTRD]

Originally Posted by AKITA

Yeah that's odd .. and what map sensor?

The nevermind part was referring to the inaccurate statement I made about absolute manifold pressures... I've since deleted the post to avoid any confusion I may have caused.

[BR-ZED]

Thanks guys. Was busy today so haven't had the chance to reply. Tuner took another look and said I never really got thr car under load, so requested another data log. So there may not be a problem. Spent tonight putting the bumper and all the underbody panels back on (I lost a bolt earlier so had to pull them all to get it). While I was at it I fixed a bunch of clips. Also appears as though I damaged some of my underbody panels on my first test drive since i did it without the bumper. So had to fix that, resecure by lip, front grill mesh, and fix a broken tab on the bumper. Ready for another log tomorrow morning. I'll report back.

[AKITA]

In regards to your Ecutek question. I think once the dongle ID is mated to the ECU, you can flash any bin that is appropriate for that ECU.