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

[dpfarr]

Man, this has been a long road. Bought a used kit that was missing pieces that took weeks to get from Edelbrock. Found my d box got fried from a voltage spike. Took a few weeks to get everything with that sorted w Delicious.

Well, tonight I got that thing plugged in and it fired right up. Smoothly. Can’t wait to go for a drive tomorrow!

[Swolzee]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

It takes a built engine, which is why it's rare. Furthermore, the stock trans is a ticking time bomb at that power level, so you'd want to have a spare on hand, or build/swap the trans as well.

You can take some measures to keep the torque down to make things last longer, but it won't be forever.

It seems like instead of people over building the FA20 and still being a guinea pig to see what happens in the 350+ range they are just opting to go K swap instead.

This line of thinking puzzled me at first since I'm playing catch up from reading the early literature on the FA20 to now. Speaking to what someone just commented on which is at first glance everyone was saying how much better the FA series is than the EJ, now it seems like everyone has flip-flopped on that.

It would be nice to be a purist and just for practicality keep the FA, but I certainly understand the rationale for going to a K series and only having to do the most minimum amount of internals to hit 400whp (while also saving 200lbs or so) and if the motor blows who cares there's a used one with under 50K miles for a few hundred bucks right around the corner.

Is this thought process just an oversimplification, and if so what am I missing?

[FrickingReallySlow]

Originally Posted by dpfarr

Man, this has been a long road. Bought a used kit that was missing pieces that took weeks to get from Edelbrock. Found my d box got fried from a voltage spike. Took a few weeks to get everything with that sorted w Delicious.

Just curious do you know what the cause of the voltage spike was? and what was the symptom of that malfuctioning D-box

[dpfarr]

Originally Posted by FrickingReallySlow

Just curious do you know what the cause of the voltage spike was? and what was the symptom of that malfuctioning D-box

I don’t know, I suspect it was either fucked as I bought it used or an incompatibility 13-16my D box in a 17-20my that is supposed to be grounded?

I was hanging out at the dealership trying to get info on alternators since mine was in the way and learned the amperage difference on the 1st vs 2nd? Could’ve been that? Could’ve been an easy excuse from them for a dummy that doesn’t understand the world of electronics.

I figured it was fucked because doing an ecutek log showed the pressure differences between the MAP and air pressure (I’m at sea level). It also wouldn’t show up on Bluetooth through the app.

[toast]

The voltage spike did you a favor. You don't need a d-box, you need to remote the MAP sensor. I did it a couple years ago with a metal box, but someone made a 3-d printed nylon box that is even simpler.

[B T]

Originally Posted by toast

The voltage spike did you a favor. You don't need a d-box, you need to remote the MAP sensor. I did it a couple years ago with a metal box, but someone made a 3-d printed nylon box that is even simpler.

That was me, I made some CNC remote adapters, the 3D printed model just wasn't reliable enough. I sold my last one of the batch to Zach @ counterspace garage. Maybe he still has it for sale?

[dpfarr]

What is the remote adapter?

[B T]

Originally Posted by dpfarr

What is the remote adapter?

It relocates the MAP sensor from the intake runner to the main compressed chamber of the supercharger. This gets rid of the pulsation from the intake valves opening and closing to provide a more stable signal.

[dpfarr]

That makes sense structurally. Doing that reduces or eliminates Delicious’s need to make averages for the MAP signal? Damn, I want one now.

[FrickingReallySlow]

Originally Posted by toast

The voltage spike did you a favor. You don't need a d-box, you need to remote the MAP sensor. I did it a couple years ago with a metal box, but someone made a 3-d printed nylon box that is even simpler.

So how do you hook up 2 MAP sensors into the ECU? is it a special harness or do you repurpose another random sensor like O2 or Oil pressure sender

[Tatsu333]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

It takes a built engine, which is why it's rare. Furthermore, the stock trans is a ticking time bomb at that power level, so you'd want to have a spare on hand, or build/swap the trans as well.

You can take some measures to keep the torque down to make things last longer, but it won't be forever.

Would I be correct in presuming this is less of a concern with a Rotrex or other centrifugal supercharger setup (E.G. JR / HKS / Vortech) because the torque at lower rpms is less / builds more linearly than the PD blower in the Edelbrock and Harrop kits?

Do you feel that at a mild state of tune (at or slightly above the CARB tune levels for these kits) the Edelbrock / Harrop kits could be long-term reliable on stock internals (100,000 miles+), or is it too much torque too soon in the powerband for the FA20 as-is?

[B T]

it plugs the old location and routes a new line to the MAP sensor. It also has reroutes the bypass valve to a more suitable location. I can make more, stil have the CAD files. problem is unless it's a batch of 10 or more, the costs get pretty high. they charge me $350 just for tooling before any actual blanks or CNC is done. The final part is black anodized aluminum.

[toast]

Originally Posted by Swolzee

It seems like instead of people over building the FA20 and still being a guinea pig to see what happens in the 350+ range they are just opting to go K swap instead.

This line of thinking puzzled me at first since I'm playing catch up from reading the early literature on the FA20 to now. Speaking to what someone just commented on which is at first glance everyone was saying how much better the FA series is than the EJ, now it seems like everyone has flip-flopped on that.

It would be nice to be a purist and just for practicality keep the FA, but I certainly understand the rationale for going to a K series and only having to do the most minimum amount of internals to hit 400whp (while also saving 200lbs or so) and if the motor blows who cares there's a used one with under 50K miles for a few hundred bucks right around the corner.

Is this thought process just an oversimplification, and if so what am I missing?

This is a whole lot of armchair engineering.

I've seen all of 2 people go to K series motors at this point, so I don't think it is correct to say it is a common thing.

EJ's get shit mileage, have no compression so they only make power when on boost and still blow up all the time. The FA motor is superior, but you are somehow talking about doubling its output and being suprised it blows up.

Why do you need 400 whp? What are your goals? I had ~2700 with an Edelbrock and the car was very quick, breaking traction through 3rd. 400 hp in this car would be nuts on the street. No matter how you go you are looking at $15k to get there with any kind of swap (at least) or a built FA20 and some kind of monster tranny to go along with it.

[aKaGorganZola]

Originally Posted by B T

it plugs the old location and routes a new line to the MAP sensor. It also has reroutes the bypass valve to a more suitable location. I can make more, stil have the CAD files. problem is unless it's a batch of 10 or more, the costs get pretty high. they charge me $350 just for tooling before any actual blanks or CNC is done. The final part is black anodized aluminum.

If you can get a big enough order what were you charging for one of these? I remember when the r&d was happening and all the numbers looked really impressive but it just slipped my mind and I never looked into getting one. If the price is right I would definitely be interested this time around.