Okay guys I haven't been on here in a long time since I sold my TA (still miss it!!). I really need some help, never been more frustrated with a vehicle than I am now. This isn't a thirdgen but I know you guys are the best out there with TBI's so I'm hoping you can get me back on track.

I volunteered to help a friend with his 1969 Bronco (now regretting it). He had an old carb'd 302 that had a million miles on it and was running bad. Head gasket blown and he was always stalling out on hills/trails. My father in law is a master mechanic, so we offered to swap in a newly rebuilt 302 and convert it over to TBI so it would be more reliable starting and on the trails. We ordered the 302 long block from Tuff Dawg Engines out in Arizona, and a TBI conversion kit from Affordable Fuel Injection. Basically everything is new at this point.

Well we got the motors swapped and installed all the accessories and the kit from AFI. At first it ran very rich and fell on its face... ran poorly out the gate. After calls to AFI we found out they gave us the wrong timing to start (we were supposed to start at 6 degrees advanced instead of 0). That did help noticeably improve, but still ran rich and stumbled bad when driving. Our fuel pressure was 16lbs and instructions said we should be 12-13. I kept bringing this up to AFI during my phone calls and eventually they said they gave me 4.3L injectors and opened them up some because they couldn't find 305/350 injectors. They kept telling me to try one thing or another then call them back. It would take me weeks to get back in touch with Norm over there, and then he acted like he had no idea about my vehicle. He would start to tell me to do things I had already done, and I was getting very frustrated. He never returned my phone calls I always had to keep trying him over and over until he would answer. Despite my constant asking about the fuel pressure being so high he never conceded that could be a problem.

Anyway, we got some used V8 injectors on our own and put them in. Measured 13.5lbs of fuel pressure, started it up and drove it down the road. MAJOR improvement. Would run and drive great but still was rich and getting code 45. Had a Snap On scan tool (red brick) hooked up. It would take forever to get into closed loop despite having a 3 wire heated O2 sensor. At first when driving down the road it wasn't so bad but then when we came back and parked the CEL would come on and we would see it dropped out of closed loop. Eventually it would never go into closed loop and ran rich all the time. O2 crosscounts now read 0, so we were thinking bad 02 sensor (despite being new in the kit). Well today I went out and bought another 02 sensor and put it in and now truck won't even start. I would imagine this is just coincidence and there is another issue (to be safe I even reinstalled old O2 sensor and still won't start). Truck just cranks and cranks. Fuel pump is working and injectors are spraying.

I'm feeling defeated here... thought we were so close and now don't even know where to begin. If anyone can offer any advice I would greatly appreciate it!

 

It might help to know what ECM they gave you. Also what Bin it is running on, 4 letters on a small chip inside the removable window on the ecm. This is assuming they gave you a stock gm ecm. your ecm needs to match the injectors so it knows how much fuel its putting out and also the ecm needs to know its feeding 302ci and not 350ci (otherwise it'll try to feed it 14% more than it needs at all times.)

 

AFI did use an OEM ECM but they burned a custom chip after I gave them all the info on the vehicle it was going into. All that is on the ECM now is a sticker they put on it that says: 1227747 ECM AFI CHIP FILE #50FD3202.

 

I know you said they have crappy customer service but i think your best bet at this point is to call about that file to confirm everything is calibrated correctly.
Also I dont know much about Fords 302 but is there any chance your distributor could be 180 off? ive seen a dodge 318 run pretty good but rich being 180 off. have you checked your coolant sensor? do you have EGR? on my 350 my egr stuck and it caused rich conditions and stumbling so bad that it could knock your teeth out.

 

Well I got my father in law over last night and we spent a lot of time working on it. Biggest issue is my own fault.... out of gas! I guess it had just a bit left and I saw the injectors spraying but it really wasn't much... eventually it just stopped spraying. Gas gauge doesn't work so it wasn't as obvious at first. Once we got it started we were able to get it up to temp and the new O2 sensor was switching just like its supposed to, and no more CEL and no more rich exhaust! So I guess the O2 sensor that came from AFI was junk as well. It was surging a bit at idle so we adjusted that so its smooth and took for a ride. All was good. Hoping we are finally done with this thing!!! Thanks for the replies guys!

 

id love to have a 60s bronco....

 

Well it is back to running rich again, throwing code 45 and O2 sensor is no longer switching. Can you guys tell me this... the used V8 injectors that we put on are from a 454. In my earlier talks with AFI it sounded like his intent was to use 305 or 350 injectors but couldn't find any. The truck runs and drives great it just runs rich. Could the 454 injectors just be dumping more fuel than we need? Perhaps I need to go find some 305/350 injectors?