My tuner is finally getting pretty close to finishing my distributorless ignition system install.

Been taking them FOREVER, but they promised to finish it up this week
We will see I guess, heard that from them before.

Looks SOOO much cleaner with out big Medusa headed dizzy sitting front and
center on the engine. Everything has come together pretty good, especially for mostly using "junkyard" parts.




Modified cam position sensor out of 2000 - 3.8L V6 Mustang is in and fits perfect.


LS1 coils still need to be wired up and hard mounted but looks like they should mount on the valve covers ok.


V8 Explorer crank sensor is mounted and trigger wheel is installed now too.


V8 Explorer trigger wheel is mounted to crank pulley spacer needed for 351W swap
that makes up the difference on the 351's 28oz balancer for proper belt alignment.
Its all back together and everything lined up perfect.

 

wow that looks like quite a bit of work. what are the benefits of it?

 

80's ignition system vs. 21st century ignition system ........... basically

more accurate timing control and input
better spark control
stronger spark since each cylinder has it's own coil
no cap and rotor to wear out.

My AEM computer is incredibly accurate in controlling timing and thus
needs very accurate input and was having some trouble with my MSD dizzy
not being up to the task and would make it freak out every now and then.

 

i see your points. how hard and how expensive was it to do?

 

Hardest part was just replacing the timing cover with one
that had mounting holes for crank pick-up sensor.

Machine shop mounted the trigger wheel off an Explorer balancer on my crank pulley spacer.
Little common sense got that taken care of.

Cost:

Timing cover from 50resto ....... $80
V8 Explorer balancer with needed trigger wheel ........ $25 (ebay)
3.8L V6 cam sensor ................ $5 (pick-a-part junkyard)
V8 Explorer crank sensor ........... $75 (new from Ford)
LS1 coils complete with wiring harness ........... $150 (ebay)
LS1 coil brackets ............................ $35 for both (new from Chevy)

Plus all the need machine shop labor to modify cam sensor and mount trigger wheel.
If I still had a 302 based engine I could have used an V8 Explorer cam sensor with no modification
and just dropped it right in. They cost about $15 on ebay.

Will sell my old MSD dizzy on ebay and recoupe some of this cost too.

 

Did you ask the tuner if you gave him a run for his money lol.

So, what sort of stand alone engine management system are you using?

Is this particular setup using newly created bin files or a constructive management flow data stream into its parameters, from a set of tables already defined?

 

Using the AEM stand alone "plug-n-play" system.

Tuner knew it was going to be custom set-up
Biggest "headache" was figuring out how to make the 3.8L cam sensor fit in a 351W

No idea on your 3rd question. went right over my head, lol
The AEM is capable of driving the coils and controlling dwell time and with
proper options selected in operating system will read crank and cam sensors properly.
It does use fuel and timing tables, but you can set-up it up to run in several different modes
depending on how you want to control the engine. either on engine load or rpms ect ect.

The AEM will do everything any of the stand alone systems like FAST will do, but plugs
right into factory harness so you dont have to rewire the car to install it.

 

you running a single stage program? or multiple

 

No idea, my tuner has an AEM guru that has been setting up all the tunes for me.
Right now since its still N/A its a pretty basic tune.

I've been trying to do some basic EFI tuning research and reading so I can know whats going on
but 99% of it is still way over my head for now.

Installed it for the upcoming boost, so we could have ulitmate timing/fuel control
Even switched to speed density and dropped the MAF

Really looking forward to learning some of the neater features of the AEM like

engine controlled traction control
anti-lag turbo spooling - like a 2 step system but more involved.
gradual boost control to help with traction
ect. ect. ect.

 

Ewwwww, you put chebby parts on your ford!!! Crossbreeder![:@]

































Looks nice, hope it runs well for ya!!!