Back in 2015 as I was getting nearer to completing the Coronet resto I decided to ditch the carb and go with EFI. The car was being built as a driver, something my wife could jump in and drive with no drama. That summer FiTech had taken SEMA by storm with their $995 throttle body EFI; ECM built into the TB so you didn't have to carve up the firewall running a bunch of wires. At the same time they released their Fuel Command Center or FCC; essentially a 1 quart fuel sump with a built-in electric fuel pump and regulator that was installed in the engine compartment. You kept the stock mechanical fuel pump and plumbed the low pressure fuel line into the FCC inlet, and the outlet pumped 58 psi to the TB. On paper it was a great idea; you keep your entire fuel delivery system stock in case you ever wanted to go back to carb (foreshadowing?).
I bought into the hype, ignoring my own rule about not being a guinea pig on new product releases. It was an easy install and when the car was finally roadworthy in early 2016 it fired right up. I ran the two wires for the handheld controller through the clutch pedal grommet in the firewall and hung the controller above the dash in the FiTech supplied stalk.
The unit never ran "right"; low idle like it wanted to die, surging at WOT. And it had a hot start issue related to heat soak. I could stop for gas and the car would start right up. But stop off for lunch or a quick beer at the local brewery and after 15 -20 minutes it wouldn't start. It would prime but nothing afterwards. I wound up carrying starter fluid in the trunk and I'd have to use it every time the car was stopped for 15+ minutes. I subscribed to a dozen EFI threads and forums, read hundreds of pages of posts, watched hours of Youtube, emailed and talked to FiTech tech countless times. I dialed in the IAC, fiddled with the Prime Mult and the Hot Start Crank.
I could prattle on forever about all issues but I'll condense the timeline to keep everyone from nodding off. In 2018 the fuel pump in the FCC died while entering the Mopars in the Park show in Rancho Cordova - had to be towed home. At that point I was ready to go back to a carb, but I had invested so much time and money into the system, plus everyone was saying it's the FCC. So the car sat for a few months while I collected all the parts from Tanks Inc. to convert to an intank pump. Got it running winter of 2018 but still couldn't solve the hot start issue.
Spring of 2019 the car was surging again and then one day it died coming to a stop sign. I was able to restart it again after about 30 seconds and went upon my way. Several days later it happened again. This time I turned around and headed home and the car died again for good as I was pulling into the garage. Long story short, FiTech took the unit back and shipped me a refurbed Gen II unit with the 4+2 harness (separating the power circuits) replacing the original 6 pin harness. To their credit, it was almost 4 years since purchase and they didn't charge me anything, not even shipping. That's either a) great customer service or, b) the felt obligated. Didn't matter, I figured I had a new and improved unit and could finally start enjoying my car. Well, the car ran fine but still couldn't solve the hot start heat soak issue. Then last year the handheld controller died. My neighbor across the street has the same FiTech unit in his pickup truck so I plugged it in and it lit up. I had a bad controller. To make matters worse, the original controller with a 2 bullet-plug input (which had sold on Summit for $100) was discontinued. Turns out over the last four years some FiTech engineer stumbled across the cutting-edge new fangled technology called a 'USB cable', converted their handheld controllers, and felt so proud of their new technology that they doubled the price to $200 (you know how pricey those USB cables can be).
At that point I was done. I had struggled for five years and in that time every major piece of hardware had failed at least once. I had to suck it up and come to grips with the wasted time and money, and the wasted moments of not enjoying driving my car for 4+ years.
I bought into the hype, ignoring my own rule about not being a guinea pig on new product releases. It was an easy install and when the car was finally roadworthy in early 2016 it fired right up. I ran the two wires for the handheld controller through the clutch pedal grommet in the firewall and hung the controller above the dash in the FiTech supplied stalk.
The unit never ran "right"; low idle like it wanted to die, surging at WOT. And it had a hot start issue related to heat soak. I could stop for gas and the car would start right up. But stop off for lunch or a quick beer at the local brewery and after 15 -20 minutes it wouldn't start. It would prime but nothing afterwards. I wound up carrying starter fluid in the trunk and I'd have to use it every time the car was stopped for 15+ minutes. I subscribed to a dozen EFI threads and forums, read hundreds of pages of posts, watched hours of Youtube, emailed and talked to FiTech tech countless times. I dialed in the IAC, fiddled with the Prime Mult and the Hot Start Crank.
I could prattle on forever about all issues but I'll condense the timeline to keep everyone from nodding off. In 2018 the fuel pump in the FCC died while entering the Mopars in the Park show in Rancho Cordova - had to be towed home. At that point I was ready to go back to a carb, but I had invested so much time and money into the system, plus everyone was saying it's the FCC. So the car sat for a few months while I collected all the parts from Tanks Inc. to convert to an intank pump. Got it running winter of 2018 but still couldn't solve the hot start issue.
Spring of 2019 the car was surging again and then one day it died coming to a stop sign. I was able to restart it again after about 30 seconds and went upon my way. Several days later it happened again. This time I turned around and headed home and the car died again for good as I was pulling into the garage. Long story short, FiTech took the unit back and shipped me a refurbed Gen II unit with the 4+2 harness (separating the power circuits) replacing the original 6 pin harness. To their credit, it was almost 4 years since purchase and they didn't charge me anything, not even shipping. That's either a) great customer service or, b) the felt obligated. Didn't matter, I figured I had a new and improved unit and could finally start enjoying my car. Well, the car ran fine but still couldn't solve the hot start heat soak issue. Then last year the handheld controller died. My neighbor across the street has the same FiTech unit in his pickup truck so I plugged it in and it lit up. I had a bad controller. To make matters worse, the original controller with a 2 bullet-plug input (which had sold on Summit for $100) was discontinued. Turns out over the last four years some FiTech engineer stumbled across the cutting-edge new fangled technology called a 'USB cable', converted their handheld controllers, and felt so proud of their new technology that they doubled the price to $200 (you know how pricey those USB cables can be).
At that point I was done. I had struggled for five years and in that time every major piece of hardware had failed at least once. I had to suck it up and come to grips with the wasted time and money, and the wasted moments of not enjoying driving my car for 4+ years.
