Scorpion F.I. conversion thread (dialup warning)

Cool!

I have seen these folding ladder things, mostly for use on big lifted trucks, that fold into a climbing area and a horizontal area. Then the other end has some shorter legs you would put on the vehicle somewhere. You lay on your stomach on the horizontal area and save yourself the back pain. Seems like something could be rigged up fairly easily.

Pete
 
Coolant outlet

Got this coolant outlet from Pete Whitstone and drilled and tapped it for the thermo-time switch. Try finding a M14x1.5 tap on a sunday, thanks NAPA. Dropped the tee off at a local weld shop to get a boss added for the Temp Sensor hole. I have that tap.
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Coolant tee, intake installed...

Coolant tee modified at local welding shop and tapped in the Budget Garage for the Temp Sensor II.
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This pic shows coolant outlet, tee installed with sensors.
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Here's the Beta intake manifold and throttle body in place. I had to swap over the Beta oil separator as well, it had a different angle on the outlet to fit under the manifold. Snug fit!
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Various coolant, air hose and electrical connections yet to be made, but I hope to have it running by Christmas, a kind of present to myself. :excited:
 
I am reading along too

I am reading along too, and I don't even have a Lancia. :)
 
It's alive!

My air filter arrived yesterday!

Got things together enough to run this evening. Took a bit of cranking, since the cold start isn't online. Discovered a fuel union I didn't tighten. Running rough, maybe a sticking injector. Still need to hook up the thermo-time switch, AAV and temp sensor. Used my limp home resistor in the temp sensor plug just to get it running. Excited! :excited:
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when you hook up the temp sensor, it will run much better. the temp sensor is very critical for fuel mixture
 
Running better...

It was not firing on #2, at first I suspected the injector but it turns out the spark was jumping from the #2 post of the distributor cap to the manifold. I made some adjustments and all is well. Test driving in a few minutes.... :excited:
 
Wrap up and test drive

Finished the L-Jet conversion today!

I had one cylinder not working, and had thought it was a stuck injector. Testing this theory by swapping the injector out helped me realize it wasn't the injector, but the #2 spark plug not firing. Plug was fine, wire was fine, turns out the distributor was leaking its spark to the intake manifold.

I removed the cap and rotor, filed the seam off the side of the manifold and also cleaned the terminals of the cap and rotor to reduce resistance. Also, rotated distributor so the closest point of the manifold was between terminals rather than lined up with one. These precautions solved the problem, so I could set the idle.

Had a bit of trouble setting the idle, it seemed to not have enough adjustment in the idle air screw. Discovered I had not set the throttle stop screw. Once that was done (difficult in place), re-set the TPS position, I was able to dial in the idle.

Cleaned up the engine bay, reinstalled the CV boot heat shield, reinstalled the tail light panel and it was roadworthy. Went for a test drive while shuttling my daughter to a sleepover. The car is smoother, runs right at temp, and the engine noise is slightly less, which is to be expected, but I had not really thought of that when planning this. My carb had a "sport" air cleaner on it and now I'm using the stock housing and filter.

Some engine bay shots, please notice the tidy wiring and fuel line work. I used black heat shrink over the wiring extensions, and a combination of rubber-insulated metal straps and black nylon wire ties to secure things to the engine and to each other. I think it looks very factory.

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Also installed the stainless coolant tank with the aid of my sawzall (the scorpion bottom mounting is too tall) and two heater hose unions. One is 3/4" to 3/4" for the large hose, and the other is 3/8" to 1/2" for the smaller return line. I tucked the unions behind the tank, again it looks like it belongs.

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Back on the road!

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Fine tuning...

Spent some "quality time" with the Scorpion this weekend. One thing I did was replace a union in the heater hose that was replacing a tee with a "flush and fill" tee. This is a union with a garden hose thread leg that you can affix a dual-female adapter to for flushing the cooling system. I wish I had thought of that before.

Another thing I did was re-route the AAV hose. This was part aesthetics, part function as the port I was using for the AAV intake was meant for the charcoal canister purge line. With this sorted, the hose routing needed redoing. Now it looks like this:

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Then I revisited my wiring extensions using Brad Artigue's F.I. guide. I compared a spare harness to how I wired mine and found two instances of crossed wires, one at the temp sensor and one at the thermo-time switch. I made notes of how they should be on the page here:

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And simply backed the terminals out of their sockets to switch them. A test found that this produced an instant start, whereas before it took some cranking. I suspect that the thermo-time switch wiring was not acting as it should prior to this correction. Then I double-checked the timing, it was almost perfect despite having removed the distributor, and reset the idle. Now it starts easily and idles well.

Another tweak I did last night was to re-visit my throttle pull. I used a pivoting ring terminal wire connector on a fixed M5 bolt at the throttle arm to create a better linkage. Now the butterfly valve opens fully and can pivot where I think my previous solution was binding.

A test drive revealed that it has more pep as well, and the mixture seems better, probably related to the cold start valve's thermo time switch etc. I also ohm-tested the used temp sensor II I used and it's providing correct resistance to the ECU.
 
Nice Work

Glad to see that it appears most, if not all, of the donor parts from the LBZ were still in decent working order.

Gerald
 
Yes, thanks...

Yes, thanks for those. I had some duplicates but in many cases the parts from you were the ones I used, it depended on which were in better condition.

For instance, the main air hose. I have one with broken tees, one with cracks, one I cut too short and I think one good spare, and the one I modified correctly and used. Sadly the injectors from your engine were very rusty at the body where the grommet fit, so I used others. That sort of thing.

But having essentially the entire system to choose from allowed me to use brackets and such that I otherwise would have had to fabricate. Modifying can be just as much work but the result usually looks a little more stock.

I learned a lot from this project, and will not hesitate to inject future cars as appropriate. After a few years this car may lose its charm and I would get something else. Or, for my daughter an X1/9 for her first car, I would inject it if it wasn't already. I better get started on that, 5 years to go...
 
So, was it worth it?

Hi Greg,

so how would you characterize the differences before/after?
 
I think so...

A couple of things noticed right away, less fuel smell. I chalk that up to a change from a carb and open filter setup. Also an intact crankcase vent system. Second; quieter, same reason. The easy starts, lack of run-on after shutdown also an improvement. I only have about 1/2 fuel tank of run time in so I don't know about mileage yet. Last night I drove about 1.5 hours round-trip to a south end FEN meetup in Tacoma. Car felt like it ran like my Bertone, albeit with 1/3 more power. It was a dark and stormy night, with high winds so I was not paying full attention to the engine, but instead watching traffic and the road.

The immediate throttle response seems less, I think it makes sense given going from the synchronous double barrel carb to a stock F.I. single T.B. The initial oomph seems less, but then, power sort of comes in a whoosh. Pedal feels smoother, but more disconnected.

I think I'd be much happier with a distributor that has a vacuum advance. Right now I don't have one and I think it contributes to the lack of initial throttle response and the way the power feels it comes on later. I have the bits to change to the cam-end distributor of the late Betas so I might do that. But that's a big job, changing cam towers etc.

So, stay tuned. :bla:
 
Done correctly........

F.I beats carbs in ALL aspects.
Switching to F.I was the best thing for my Scorp hands down over all my other updates. The next step is getting rid of the distributor all together. Ulix go for it you won't regret it.

Warren
 
Mileage update...

I've put a good amount of miles on the Scorpion since the F.I. conversion. In town, mileage isn't any better than the carb setup I had.

But, on the freeway it's doing much better. My last tankful rewarded me with a range of 291.6 miles (and the low level light wasn't even on), and 27.2 mpg. Anything over 27mpg and I'm happy. This was all freeway miles, with some traffic slowdowns; a trip to the FEN All-Italian Car Show and a club meeting.
 
Greg when you mounted the ECU in the corner did the regualer Beta FI Harness fit with out cutting?

Also do you have another X1/9 ECU bracket?

Thanks,
Ralph




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Harness and bracket...

The harness fits fine in terms of the ECU, but I extended a couple of things like the Thermo-Time Switch and Temp Sensor II connectors.

No, I don't have another X1/9 bracket but I do have at least one extra Beta bracket if that would be of use. I found the X bracket to be a better fit, and more secure.
 
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