I figured I'd do a little write up as Im nearing the end of this project because of the hours and hours of searching for information and finding surprisingly little of what I was looking for. I have an 86 pickup thats been SAS'd with an 85 front axle and 6" springs...also not possible without the mass of info gathered from primarily this forum. That build was about 4 years ago, and the drivetrain was not touched at that point aside from the 5.29's and lockers in the axles. I spent some time out in virginia and had my little bro and my dad driving it here and there just to keep things good and lubricated and hopefully prevent any dry rot of any seals and whatnot, when my poor little 22r with almost 240k on it finally wore through that plastic timing chain guide. Sad day...let me tell you, to hear that over phone from 1500 miles away sucked balls lol. Anyway, I already had a donor to rebuild slowly so i could just do a quick swap when i was done but that plan was out the window, so here comes the $$$$. I decided that id rather do one big job rather than just put a carb back in it so did some looking into an efi conversion. After checking i cant even count how many s****yards and coming up with absolutely nada for anything i needed for the swap (everything was done stripped clean) I decided to try out the stand alone SDS kit. I built the engine mostly stock, bored the cylinders and put larger valves in it along with a mid range cam to help my power band a bit. Dont forget a metal guide on that hefty new timing chain. 
I ended up buying new plenums and throttle body since I couldnt locate any anywhere close, and at the time was anti ebay. Lessons learned perhaps.... So now I have this nice clean engine built up and dropped in my truck and have to install my injection system.
One quick note, ever since I owned this truck it always took FOREVER to get heat into the cab...thermostat, heater core, everything was replaced. When I was cleaning all my parts for rebuild though I found that one of the small tubes from my timing cover to my heater hoses was completely clogged up...air pressure wouldnt even blow it out, I had to use a pick. Im sure others have found this, but I thought Id toss out this tidbit too.
Back to main topic, the install of the SDS is pretty damn easy especially when its stand alone. I ripped out every wire under the hood that came from that emmissions box in the kick panel...under the dash as well. Im pretty sure you might have strung it all a couple miles when said and done...much neater engine bay though.
The only stuff I left were the starting and charging system and of course, lighting. I plugged in the new knock sensor, water temp and air temp sensor (air temp sensor replaced what would have been cold start injector) and MAP sensor and routed the harness(es) clean as possible. The resistor pack for the injectors found a home on the firewall and the coil packs to replace the distributer are mounted where the air box would have been behind the left headlight. I also relocated the fuel filter to the passenger fenderwell, for ease of replacement.
I put a few shiny pieces on too, although I know its gonna get filthy...It looks damn good when clean lol.
The computer itself I mounted on the support bar under the dash with a couple clamps so i could angle it back some, and when I get to building the flat panel for the dash ill fab some brackets to hard mount the bottom of the computer as well. You can see in the pics ill post later that I also have a battery disconnect here, inline with the starter positive. If someone tries to start it without the key in the disconnect it just acts like a dead battery, just a solenoid click. Mounts for the mixture know and the programmer box will come with the dash build later as well.
Heres where I ran into trouble....The SDS system comes with a starter map for your fuel and timing curves. Its pretty much there just to get the engine to start and you tweak and tune from there. I got the engine started, but couldnt get a good idle unless I leaned it out to almost 1/3 of the original value, which was an obvious red flag for me. Once it idled good, It would instantly die under load....so id have to richen things up, and then the idle would go to ****. Something obviously aint right... after a few days thinking and researching and tinkering, it happened to pop in my head that the system uses either the TPS or manifold pressure for load sensing. I hadnt even looked at my MAP reading, which happened to be -3 in/hg at idle, my problem. After finding a good port and doing some revamping of my simple vacuum system (3 lines and one tee fitting) I was in business pulling almost -20 in/hg at idle. Seemed a tad high to me, but its running pretty good for the moment without being fully tuned yet.
The info I was having trouble finding was other peoples fuel maps for their trucks, the only thing I could find was a turbo forum and they run completely different fuel and timing values. Not to mention the fuel values added based on manifold pressure lol. I did manage to find two small threads that hadnt gotten a huge amount of attention with some info I needed. One was a turbo truck, but rather than using numbers I tried adjusting mine as he did and it seemed to work pretty well. The other though had a very similar set up, and after I entered his fuel values things started running pretty good. I had to add some fuel to mine, but every engine is different..naturally. Ill try to get my numbers on here in the next couple days for everyone else to find if they happen to try out this system someday. These will just by my starting values, Im still saving some extra money back so I can take it to the dyno and really see what I can get out of this thing. The truck runs pretty well now, but you can tell its not at full potential....it actually runs about like my old 22r did... still snappy, but just not quite the ass it could have. Once I get the final tune Ill post those values and charts as well, but that may be awhile yet. Its taken me almost two years to find time to come this far haha, but now im highly motivated.
Ill try and get a couple pics of the truck uploaded as well.
I ended up buying new plenums and throttle body since I couldnt locate any anywhere close, and at the time was anti ebay. Lessons learned perhaps.... So now I have this nice clean engine built up and dropped in my truck and have to install my injection system.
One quick note, ever since I owned this truck it always took FOREVER to get heat into the cab...thermostat, heater core, everything was replaced. When I was cleaning all my parts for rebuild though I found that one of the small tubes from my timing cover to my heater hoses was completely clogged up...air pressure wouldnt even blow it out, I had to use a pick. Im sure others have found this, but I thought Id toss out this tidbit too.
Back to main topic, the install of the SDS is pretty damn easy especially when its stand alone. I ripped out every wire under the hood that came from that emmissions box in the kick panel...under the dash as well. Im pretty sure you might have strung it all a couple miles when said and done...much neater engine bay though.
The only stuff I left were the starting and charging system and of course, lighting. I plugged in the new knock sensor, water temp and air temp sensor (air temp sensor replaced what would have been cold start injector) and MAP sensor and routed the harness(es) clean as possible. The resistor pack for the injectors found a home on the firewall and the coil packs to replace the distributer are mounted where the air box would have been behind the left headlight. I also relocated the fuel filter to the passenger fenderwell, for ease of replacement.
I put a few shiny pieces on too, although I know its gonna get filthy...It looks damn good when clean lol.
The computer itself I mounted on the support bar under the dash with a couple clamps so i could angle it back some, and when I get to building the flat panel for the dash ill fab some brackets to hard mount the bottom of the computer as well. You can see in the pics ill post later that I also have a battery disconnect here, inline with the starter positive. If someone tries to start it without the key in the disconnect it just acts like a dead battery, just a solenoid click. Mounts for the mixture know and the programmer box will come with the dash build later as well.
Heres where I ran into trouble....The SDS system comes with a starter map for your fuel and timing curves. Its pretty much there just to get the engine to start and you tweak and tune from there. I got the engine started, but couldnt get a good idle unless I leaned it out to almost 1/3 of the original value, which was an obvious red flag for me. Once it idled good, It would instantly die under load....so id have to richen things up, and then the idle would go to ****. Something obviously aint right... after a few days thinking and researching and tinkering, it happened to pop in my head that the system uses either the TPS or manifold pressure for load sensing. I hadnt even looked at my MAP reading, which happened to be -3 in/hg at idle, my problem. After finding a good port and doing some revamping of my simple vacuum system (3 lines and one tee fitting
) I was in business pulling almost -20 in/hg at idle. Seemed a tad high to me, but its running pretty good for the moment without being fully tuned yet. The info I was having trouble finding was other peoples fuel maps for their trucks, the only thing I could find was a turbo forum and they run completely different fuel and timing values. Not to mention the fuel values added based on manifold pressure lol. I did manage to find two small threads that hadnt gotten a huge amount of attention with some info I needed. One was a turbo truck, but rather than using numbers I tried adjusting mine as he did and it seemed to work pretty well. The other though had a very similar set up, and after I entered his fuel values things started running pretty good. I had to add some fuel to mine, but every engine is different..naturally. Ill try to get my numbers on here in the next couple days for everyone else to find if they happen to try out this system someday. These will just by my starting values, Im still saving some extra money back so I can take it to the dyno and really see what I can get out of this thing. The truck runs pretty well now, but you can tell its not at full potential....it actually runs about like my old 22r did... still snappy, but just not quite the ass it could have. Once I get the final tune Ill post those values and charts as well, but that may be awhile yet. Its taken me almost two years to find time to come this far haha, but now im highly motivated.
Ill try and get a couple pics of the truck uploaded as well.
