Holley EFI/DIS Conversion
 

This forum is full of problems so I thought I would balance it with a success story.

I'd like to give credit to Marine Kinetics and Alex Haxby for their expert assistance in my friends carburetor to Holley HP EFI conversion. I built the original 548 with AFR 305 heads, victor jr intake and 4150. It ran great, but always had the characteristics of a carb with no choke. It pushed a Nordic Rage to the low 80s at 4500' elevation. Early 2014 my friend swapped out the 4150 for a 4500 dominator. The boat picked up top speed but the low speed drivability and docking manners got worse. This winter he swapped out the AFR 305s for some custom ported AFR 325s, dominator flange / efi intake and added a Holley EFI with DIS/coil pack ignition system. Going to lake test this weekend, expecting to break 90 with a natural! The efi is awesome, after syncing the timing and verifying the firing order with the separate coil packs, it fired up like a new car. Cranked for maybe 3 seconds and the AFR was already at 13.5:1. Amazing stuff. The engine has never idled so smoothly or been this responsive. This is the second Holley EFI/DIS system I've done and it just keeps getting easier. I'd like to give a big thanks to Bob Madara and Alex Haxby for their professional help in making this a painless transition!

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Are you doing closed cooling ? Since AFR heads and I take it an aluminum Edelbrock water circ pump plus not 100 % sure of the intake manifold casting material ?

What injectors are you using brand & lbs - Bar psi ? Thanks

The intake is aluminum too. Its a raw water cooled engine but is used only in fresh water lakes. The injectors are Holley 66 lb @ 43psi fuel pressure.

I thought the intake was Alum but not 100 % about it.

did you coat any of the aluminum parts with the internal coatings out on the market today. Also wondering how well the Edelbrock water circ pump will hold up being Alum.

do you have any experience with their circ pump on a marine app ? I was always going to try one but have not as of yet.

Holley injectors would they be Bosch injectors ?

Not to burden you with questions but later I want to ask about the DIS set up.

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Used the DIS on two 572 CID, made our own mounting bracket, and alternator crank sensor mount. All the engineering and making of those parts, goes credit to Yankey.

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Used the DIS on two 572 CID, made our own mounting bracket, and alternator crank sensor mount. All the engineering and making of those parts, goes credit to Yankey.[/QUOTE]
Is this what's needed to do a crank trigger? I guess I would have to pass in that case. Good for you though, as I would love to run that set up. It would just have to be easier than new brackets, shimming accessories etc. I've seen the distributor mounted ones, but why bother; the crank trigger is going to read with better precision.

I didn't have any of the aluminum parts coated. I guess it would give you extra insurance. I've been running a meziere aluminum pump since 2008 and Trace has ran the Edelbrock since 2012. No issues in fresh water.

Those brackets look nice MER!

This is the Coil bracket I designed.

The Meziere would be an electric water circ pump correct ?

Desert - that's really well thought out - the whole package actually. Who did the tails?

BUP, They make both. I used a belt driven pump, they also sell reverse rotation if your running a serp setup.

Liquid, Thanks! I put a lot of work into the set up and harness. CMI built the tails for me off of PVC mockups. I have a 4" long piece of hose that connects directly to my transom mounted tips. Since my tips are below the water line this was the closest I could get with dry exhaust. The upside is its quiet at idle. My engine didn't like to idle at all with a dominator and exhaust back pressure from the tips underwater. The EFI made a drastic change in idle quality, its as good as the stock 496 now.

The Holley 60-2 wheel and trigger kit comes with a nice billet sensor mount, but some belt setups use the mounting points so custom brackets may be needed. It looks like MER's build used an aftermarket low alternator mounting bracket so he redesigned the Holley sensor mount to work. Moving to a crank trigger gives you very accurate and stable ignition timing since it takes timing chain slack, cam flex and distributor gear back lash out of the equation. Alex and Bob helped me with all of this.

Can you run this engine under a load @ 13.5:1......If so what compression ratio??? And your quench what are you running at??

No, but that's what's great about efi. You can put it where ever your comfortable in running. I run 13.5 all the way up through my light cruise speed ~3500rpm and then start to richen to 12.8 at WOT. My compression is 10.5:1, the orange motor is just over 10:1. Both have cams to run at 6400rpm.

Sounds like a very solid setup. How would you rate the overall difficulty on the setup?

12.8 at wot is fantastic in my book..i could hardly believe 13.5:1 Good luck nice when it all comes together makes for a short day.

The EFI is pretty much plug and play if your intake has injector bosses. If not, places like Wilson can add the bungs and stanchions. They did the EFI conversion on my Victor intake. Marine Kinetics handled the runner lengthening and porting.

The big advantage of this ECU is that once you load a base tune, it will correct to your commanded AFR. If you've ever sat on the floor of a boat and tuned MEFI you will appreciate the hours it saves! I'm not discounting MEFI's they are great systems. Just not as user friendly.

The ignition can stay very simple with a Merc efi distributor and single coil or you can move to DIS with cam sync & coil packs or somewhere in between. A cam signal is only needed if you want to run sequential fueling. The DIS isn't bad if your using the Holley wheel and kit. It can get a little more involved if your using different brands of crank triggers, coils or cam position sensors. If your comfortable reading a schematic it will go smoothly. There is also Holley Tech support, they are very helpful with software settings and pin out questions.

Great thread! A welcome change of pace around here. Some people take this hobby WAY too seriously lol. It's suppose to be fun, so thanks Rage for posting your success stories using Holley EFI!

RAGE,
I'm very happy to see a change in technical content here. I know; this threads subject is DIS, so I don't want to get off topic. I have 2 525EFI builds coming up, that are total rebuilds, I will be converting to the Holley HP EFI.

following along so in post # 19 are you talking about Wilson as in

www.wilsonmanifolds.com

they use to be the ticket for a lot of drag cars using their intake manifolds

Thanks Guys!

MER, Your 525EFI conversion projects sound awesome. Will you be able to reuse the Merc cam and crank sensors? I looked at using those parts, but my block is a Dart (MK IV).

That's the place. They do a lot of EFI intake conversions.

Does the Holley ignition have the capabilities to run different timing in different cylinders?

If your running coil packs you can individually adv/retard ignition by .1 deg increments. You can also set individual cylinder fuel trim.

Wow! That's sweet. Can't tell you how many times I've had 1 or 2 trouble cylinders and the rest were fine. That system is where it's at...

yes, if you had a cam sensor along with a crank sensor you could run sequential injection. (I have done some research on MEGA Squirt systems for my supercharged Mustang) that would clean up the bottom end even more. I am By far no expert on these HAHA
I know on the cars alot of guys run either 8 EGTs and or 8 wide band O2s. this is the easiest way to tune individual cylinders (either with timing or fuel) if you are having distribution issues in cylinders. So educate me as i am getting back into the boat scene from a 7 year absence. Where are you placing the wide band to collect the average Bank AFR? Is it just past the manifold on the riser? i am running IMCO power flow on my boat. (please don't judge they came with it).

The next question is how can you possibly check each cylinder to adjust your timing or fuel individually with wet Manifolds or headers?? each exhaust tube would need their own EGT or O2 sensor... Just Curious.

All you do is make a spacer flange to go between the head and exhaust manifold and put your sensors right at each port.

Thats correct, or you can make a spacer plate, between head and header. I spoke with Dustin W about this, the wide bands are very expensive. I run a 8 pack wide band on the dyno and take an average at the collector using the Holley wide band , my 8 wide bands are in my dyno headers

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Great looking dyno cell MER! I hear only great things about the work you do. Good to know you are another knowledgable Holley dealer. I'm not in the EFI crowd, but know some guys that could definitely use your services, and will be sure to send them your way.

Thank you for your; compliment,,,,,,,

Desert rage, what was the conclusion of testing on the water?

Also what cubic inch , heads and cam duration at .050 are you running on both of those motors you built?

AFR is suggesting their 300 Oval port and I'm not sure of that ! I like the 325 or 335 they offer Looking to build either a 548 or use a4.375 BRC crank I have and build a 557.

Thanks for any input

My motor is running just over 90 and the Orange motor is running 85-86 at 4500' both in Nordic Rages.
565ci
AFR 335 spec by Marine Kinetics
254/260 spec by Marine Kinetics
10.5:1

548ci
AFR 325 custom ported by Tony Mamo
247/252 spec by Marine Kinetics
10:1

I use Marine Kinetics for all my engines and have had great builds.

Desert Rage, what is ur 565 combo? Short or tall deck and 4.25 or 4.375 stroke ?

565 is a 9.8 deck, 4.25 x 4.600 bore.
548 is a 9.8 deck, 4.25 x 4.530 bore.

Are you changing to Holley electronics only or are you changing the intakes also?

Thanks Bill