Holley EFI Fuel System Kit Billet With Earl's Braided Stainless Fuel Line For Terminator EFI System

Bill: I'm sure many of you watching this are die-hard carburetor, but there is definitely something to be said for the benefits of electronic fuel injection. There's a reason Ford's been using it since 1986 ... Many of the reasons being drivability and cold start. Now why you may enjoy messing with the jets on your carburetor there's something to be said for getting in, turning the key and driving down the street. If you have a classic Mustang there's actually many ways to convert the fuel injection. One of the hottest systems right now is the EFI system from Holley. Today I have Rick in our studio from Holley. He is going to tell us about this system and tell us what you need to convert your classic Mustang to EFI. Rick, thanks for coming out.

Rick: Thank you very much.

Bill: Tell us about this system. What do we have here?

Rick: We've got the new Terminator kit. The Terminator kit is a TBI system. Works very, very easy for a guy replacing his carburetor. Basically you're going to bolt this carburetor on. You've got one plug in here. You have a plug into the temp sensor. Then you have a wide band that you're going to put in the exhaust. Then you have to have a place to put your ECU. The ECU is weatherproof so you can put it in the engine compartment if you wish to, so it really is a nice system.

Bill: So direct replacement for the carburetor ... Just unbolt your factory carb. This will fit any manifold, high rise, any style manifold out there?

Rick: It bolts onto a 4150 flange, so anything that a Holley carburetor fit onto, this will fit onto.

Bill: OK. And you said this could be mounted under the hood, inside the car, it doesn't matter. Anyplace you can put it as long as it's safe and protected to a point.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: How do you program it? How do you make it work? Give me some more details about it actually functions.

Rick: Very easy to work with. It comes with this little keypad right here. When you get everything wired up in the car and you turn the key on it's going to come up and ask you questions. It's going to ask you questions like what type of cubic inch you have. What type of camshaft you have. What type of ignition control you have. It is going to make the program for you.

Bill: So this isn't a system you have to install and take it to a local tuner and throw it on the dyno or nothing like that. You can do everything in your house by simply plug and play.

Rick: Correct. What it's going to do is after you get it on the car you're going to warm it up, get an operating temperature and go take it for a drive. You can feel it change as you're going. It's going to target the air fuel reading off the wide band O2 sensor. It's going to target that air fuel that it's looking for and tune your car for that application.

Bill: Now do you have to chose the air fuel that it's using or does it automatically pick the best one for your application?

Rick: When you're answering those questions it's going to basically do a calculation and do the best application for your, OK?

Bill: OK.

Rick: Now you do have some adjustability in that but most people never even go in and change them.

Bill: OK. And with this system here obviously there's a lot of different mustang engines the classics came with. It will work with any of them? Small block, big block ... No corrections there? No limits?

Rick: Correct. This will handle anything from down to probably as small as a 150 horses, all the way up to 600 horses.

Bill: OK. So this is good to 600. If you have a basic ... Say you put it on your 289 and next year you build a 302 or 351, this system can go with you and you're good to go. No changes necessary.

Rick: Correct. Sure will.

Bill: OK. Now to install this obviously we have the throttle body, the computer, the wiring. What else is necessary to put this on your classic Mustang?

Rick: Everything comes in one kit except for fuel system. We have quite a few different fuel systems to chose from, or if he's already got a fuel pump that's got a pump in it you can use that also. We chose our kit that we have over here. This does come with everything that you need except for return line. That is something that you have to purchase separately. They're designed separately.

Bill: So obviously this is a return style system. This system is going to give you your fittings, your pump, your filters, main feed line. Just add a return and you're ready to go.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: There's obviously several ways you can do a return on a classic Mustang. There are ways to do it with a factory tank as well which we are going to show you during the installation. Basically we have everything we need. Add the return line and we're ready to do an installation.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: All right, let's get started.

Rick: OK.

Bill: Before we get started tell us the basics of what we're going to be doing to install the Holley EFI onto our '70 Mach 1.

Rick: To start with we're going to take the shaker off the air cleaner.

Bill: OK.

Rick: Then we will replace with our TBI unit, the Terminator. When what we want to do is find a good place to put the ECU ... Depending on engine compartment or the interior. Then we're going to run our wiring system. Make sure it's done correctly as the instruction says and then we're going to have our O2 in the exhaust, and our water temp sensor in the intake manifold.

Bill: OK. We're going to show our viewers the basics of how to install this system. We're obviously not going to go into heavy detail on every nut and bolt. What would you say is an average estimated time to install this at home in your garage on your classic Mustang?

Rick: Depending on how nice they want to do the wiring. I give myself at least 6 to 8 hours. You can spend more time than that if you want to hide the wiring and make the wiring look really nice and put it away where you can't see it.

Bill: So this is something somebody could do over a weekend in their garage without any problem.

Rick: Sure can.

Bill: Park it carbureted on Friday. Drive to work Monday with fuel injection.

Rick: Sure can.

Bill: OK. Let's get started.

Rick: OK.

Bill: We are start off by removing the carburetor shaker and all the factory fuel parts, correct?

All right. So the carburetor is off. We're ready for the TBI then?

Rick: Yep.

Bill: Use the original hardware and bolt that down?

Rick: Yep.

Bill: Are there any modifications necessary to the factor throttle cable with this system?

Rick: Install that basically so we can hook it for exact same set up.

Bill: OK. Once that's bolted on then what's the next step?

Rick: Basically what we're looking at now ... What I usually chose is where to put the ECU.

Bill: OK. Rick, you said it was OK to mount this controller inside or outside. It doesn't matter where it goes?

Rick: Correct.

Bill: We decided to mount ours on a radiator support in front of our battery. A couple of reasons there. One, has to get 12 volts from the battery. It is a nice short run there. Two, it actually hides it nicely under the hood. Once the battery is back in place you won't see the controller at all. All the wires will drop down underneath the battery tray to make a nice clean installation.

We have our throttle body on. We've got our computer wired up. Well, mounted. What is the next step?

Rick: The next step ... You want to make sure these two main power wires that come off the ECU go straight to the battery terminals. That's very important. You don't want them to go anyplace else. They need to go to the terminals.

Bill: No starter solenoid? Nothing under the hood?

Rick: No.

Bill: Direct to 12 volt battery only.

Rick: Direct to 12 volt battery. Then your red and white is your key on switch. Then you also have a green that goes to your fuel pump. Then you've got a black, of course the ground; another red for power.

Bill: That black and red, are they switched or constant as well?

Rick: The red on here can be constant. But it also can be switched, either way. It doesn't make any difference there.

Bill: As long as the red and white goes to switch.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: And yellow?

Rick: The yellow wire is for a different application in the distributor. We will not use it in this application.

Bill: You'll need 12 volt switched inside the interior basically to trigger the system to turn it on. You want to make sure you're using a 12 volt switch that does have power when the car is cranking or it won't work properly.

So the wiring is done up top. We dropped the green wire down. This is going to go to our fuel pump. This is not a trigger. You can actually run the fuel pump directly off this wire?

Rick: Correct. The fuel pump that's in this is under basically 15 amps so that will take care of it. If you do anything over 15 amps for a fuel pump you'll want to put a relay on it.

Bill: I know the kit comes with a wide band. Where do we want to put that on this car?

Rick: Wide band is going to go into the header. I recommend the best is put it right in the collector. That works the nicest way to do. And that works really super.

Bill: Driver side, passenger? It doesn't matter? Whichever one is easier?

Rick: It doesn't really make a difference. It's designed to go on the driver's side but it doesn't have to.

Bill: OK. Show me what we're going to do with the tank back here.

Now what are we going to do at the tank with your new pump and new lines. How's everything going to work back here?

Rick: You're going to need to run a return line back and we'll use a bulkhead to go into that. We'll just drill a hole up here so we can slide this through and hold it in place.

Bill: Is the hole somewhere in here on the tank for the return line?

Rick: Yep. Sure would be. And then also when we mount the pump we want the pump really as low as you can get. We want it protected of course but you want it as low as you can get it so it is gravity fed as much as it can be.

Bill: That can come right off your factory pickup here.

Rick: Correct, sure can.

Bill: So the stock sending unit will work fine. No problems there. As far as it knows everything is staying in there. We're just adding the pump and line to it.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: Once we have the pump mounted on the back and the lines fished to the front we have to mount the regulator. You want to mount the regulator over towards the apron somewhere towards the shock tower area. You don't want on the firewall and you don't want to mount it to the engine itself. The base of the fuel line is going to go to your throttle body, out of that, into the regulator and that's where your return line comes off of. We mounted the bracket just underneath our shock tower on the apron in the backside of the passenger.

We have a return style fuel system installed. We've got everything plugged in, connected. What's next? How do we get this thing running?

Rick: Next, turn the key on and we'll program it.

Bill: All right, so it lit up which is always a good sign. What do we do from here?

Rick: Go down to wizard. Click on that. Start wizard. Calibration yes. We've got the Terminator. Click on that. That should be the correct part number. Click on that. I'd say this is under 400 cc.

Bill: It's a 351, yep.

Rick: Click on that. I forgot what type of camshaft we've got.

Bill: OK, so our cam being 230, you said street strip is the setting?.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: ECU control timing. In our case it would be no because of the MSG, correct?

Rick: Correct. We've got a CD box so you go down one. Push the button. That loads it up.

Bill: Load this file, yes?

Rick: Yes.

Bill: So now it's primed our pump. I hear everything happening up here so everything is turning on like it's supposed to.

Rick: Correct.

Bill: Press the button again?

Rick: Yes. Now we need to do TPS auto set.

Bill: OK. The ignition is on. Engine is not started so just hit start?

Rick: Correct. We're going to put the gas pedal to the floor twice.

Bill: OK. I'll let you jump in there and handle that for me.

Rick: Click on it.

Bill: OK. Now we're back to the start wizard.

Rick: OK. Ready to go.

Bill: Let's fire it up. Is it really that easy?

Rick: Yeah. One thing a lot of people forget. You've got to turn the key off and turn it back on.

Bill: OK. So make sure you turn the key off, and then back on to start it.

Rick: Yes. You ready?

Bill: Yeah. Start it up.

So the cold start was great. This car before ... the carburetor. You'd start it up you'd have to floor it a couple times, stay on the gas, keep it running. That time, key on, started right up. What's the process for learning now with the drivability on the car?

Rick: What you want to do is the next time he starts it up he needs to get it operating temperature, 160 degrees. They start learning at 160, OK. Then go take it for a drive. You want to drive it in all different types of load ranges. I mean drive it around town, drive it on the highway ... Any different types of load that you're going to do and really about 50 miles you feel it's just about done. You can feel a big difference. Then 100 miles it is pretty much finished but you're not going to feel much difference between 50 and 100 miles.

Bill: So once it does that it's learned and at that point you're pretty much ready to go with it.

Rick: Yep, sure are.

Bill: OK. The installation is pretty straightforward. It will take some time. It's not a one day job. Figure a good weekend. You'll be back on the road in no time.