having a pretty lazy saturday, but the rain finally stopped.

I've purchased a used Holley system from member Paulm, great price, kit looks only slightly used and very complete.

It's a 900 cfm 4 BBL TBI, with v3 pro commander 950 controller.

I'm about to go in the garage, put power to the c950 and hook up the laptop and see what she has to say.

I'll be sure to post come pics.

But first a question. I installed the software that Paul emailed me and fired it up. It is version 1.2. I think that is old, and I can't find the wideband checkbox or the voltage / afr table. I'm pretty sure I know my way around this stuff enough to find it if it was there (but could be wrong)

Can anyone zap me the latest s/w for this thing? It's the same for any holley pro system.

well, I did talk t paul, and he's gonna zip me the newer s/w, but...

I have my doubts that this thing is even powering up?

It's laid out on the bench, most everything hooked up. I connected the "bat" and "IGN" leads to the + side of a battery, the black ground wire to the _ side of the battery, even ran a ground from the base of the ECU.

The PC won't talk to it, acts exactly the same as if the cable wasn't hooked up at all, says ecu powered off or cable not connected. could be the wrong s/w, tho I'd think it would at least see it. Could be the usb to serial cable, I'll try it later on an older laptop with a serial port.

Could be wrong serial settings, holley book says NOTHING, I'm set to 9600, 8 none 1

The thing that's kinda bugging me is you'd think if the ecu was powered up and the ign was on, the output to the injector power relay would be 12 volts, and it's not. I also monitored the fuel pump output while i conected the ign lead, again, nuttin.

Jim I assume that you confirmed your serial port on the laptop is not disabled. Right click my computer, properties, hardware, device manager, com ports. Anything with an X

My laptop doesn't have a serial port, only usb. I'm using a usb to serial cable and driver that I have used successfully in the past with other programs. It lets me assign it to com 1 - 4, I've tried 1, 2 and 4...

I use a USB/Serial adapter on lots of stuff. It works with my laser and exhaust analyzer and 2 or 3 makes of PLC's we have. I had to buy 3 brands before I got one that worked though.

But there are 2 devices I occasionally hook up to that even it won't com with, and I had to get a PCMIA card that has a DB9 adapter.

I wish they had just left DB9 ports on laptops

Good Luck Jim

I wish they had just left DB9 ports on laptops

Good Luck Jim
You and me both, Tim!

Making the slightest amount of progress.

I did locate and download from holley the version 3 pro software.

Managed to get it to installed and run on the vista laptop, had to set both the installer and the program itself to xp compatibility mode & run as admin to do that.

I found this weird lil peice of cable with a dead end on it's connector, took the dead end off, found 2 terminals with nothing on them... found one had 12 volts. Well the wiring diagram showed the power lead should have a fuse, and this thing sure looked like it could hold one, so I stuck one in there.

Now when I power up IGN I'm getting power on the injector power and fuel pump leads!! Fuel pump power quits after a 4 sec prime just like it should!

It's kinda wierd tho. Voltage builds and falls on those 2 wires VERY slowly. Hoping it's just because the low resistence load of the relay coils isn't there.

And I still can't talk to the damned thing.

I'm about ready to drag it into the house and plug it into a desktop machine with a real serial port and running xp. That's quite a production tho.. The ECU, the harness, and the battery charger and dead lawn tracter battery I'm using as a power source...lol.

Think I'll give it up for the night.

Going racing tomorrow!!!

So yesterday I brought it to work. I made up an adapter cable so I could plug it into a pc for power, and had it up and talking both with a straight serial cable and my usb cable to an xp desktop.

Now all I gotta do is figure out how to make it work with my vista laptop.

At least I know for sure that the unit is ok.

Your problems could be that your lab top runs vista.
My friend just bought a new engine scanner and the instructions say it wont work with vista.


Rich

I talked to DougF (on chevytalk) and he said he has tested (semi-successfully) with vista.

He also said certain things, such as the datalogger, didn't work. Without the datalogger, I'm not sure I'm interested, unfortunately, there's no way to "un-vista" without wiping the drive.

Your USB to Serial adapter may need to be a Null adapter?

Your USB to Serial adapter may need to be a Null adapter?That's what I was thinking, but couldn't think of the name....senior moment/month.

Your USB to Serial adapter may need to be a Null adapter?
I considered that possibility, but it did work fine from the XP machine.
Tonight I'll bring a power supply home and mess with it some more.

Not in a big hurry to get this going, it's summer and I like my vert to be ready to roll at all times, but I do want to get things collected and planned so the eventual install is trouble free, and that will include putting together some base maps with the proper specs for the autometer wideband, timing curve, stuff like that.
Also need to start collecting fuel line stuff, and make a plate to mount the pump and filters on, and collect some fuel lines for the underhood connections, and figure out where to put the c950 box. Thinking of in the console, wonder if it will fit under the gauges?

I talked to DougF (on chevytalk) and he said he has tested (semi-successfully) with vista.

He also said certain things, such as the datalogger, didn't work. Without the datalogger, I'm not sure I'm interested, unfortunately, there's no way to "un-vista" without wiping the drive.

It's kind of rube-goldbergish, but you could run XP under a VMWare virtual machine on the Vista laptop. If the laptop is dual core w/ 2G RAM, then running under VMWare shouldn't be too slow. You can get VMWare's "Server" edition for free from vmware.com. If the Holley software will work with Win98, that'll run even better under VMWare. I have to use a Win98 virtual machine to use the service manual CDROM for my '00 Rustang.

Everything I have seen says it works with Windows 95 and 98. I just gort Vista at the office and constantly deal with lockups and other wierd crap. The older program may work right with Vista yet.

I've talked to it ok from XP. I bought a new cable that was recommended on another site, from DIYEFI.com I think, and brought home a pwoer supply so I could fire it up, but been so busy I haven;t got to it yet, system is still laid out and lonely on the workbench.

Here's a couple of pics of the manifold I'll be using with the TBI. It's a "period" #TM-1 from Edelbrock, also known as the Tarantula.

The second pic is kinda cool, compares the difference between the ports on the Tarantula with the ports on a Torker2. Just a lil difference, huh?

http://home.comcast.net/~Jimragtop2/tm1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~Jimragtop2/tbi/ports.jpg

Well, what the heck, may as well continue this post. Things are moving along, and this installment will detail the external fuel pump and "back of car" plumbing.

Let's please give consideration to the fact that my fabrication skill are very much "under development."
I bought this flat piece of steel, and with some help from a vise, a couple 2x4's, a hammer, and a couple zaps from the mig, made this:
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/pump1.jpg
The angled part at the top will bolt to the trunk floor, just forward of the fuel tank.
Here it is with a coat of paint and all the plumbing attached. This stuff was all included with the Holley kit. The small white filter is a 100 micron prefilter, on the pump inlet. The pump is a Walbro, and the second filter on the output is 10 microns.
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/pump4.jpg
For noise and vibration elimination, I put rubber grommets in the 4 holes, and made some spacers out of a hardware store brass bearing so the bolts wouldn't crush the rubber.
To hold it up, I used nutsert blind nuts in the floor.
Here's a few angles on everything installed and plumbed.
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/pump5.jpg
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/pump6.jpg
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/pump7.jpg
If this works, I'll probably get some different fittings and change as much as possible to hardline. If it sucks air, I'll need a thousand dollar gas tank.

Thanks for the ideas Jim, I am going to have to do something similar as well when I install my motor with electric fuel pump.

Do yourself a favor and read up on pro touring.com about the issues with heat soak in the fuel.
Mounting the regulator by the tank like a late model car or truck is a good way to avoid problems but I don't know if the holley will work without a vacuum referenced regulator.

I've read plenty "in both directions" on this "heat soak" issue. The regulator on the holley TBI is part of the throttle body, there is no way to bypass it. And yes, it is vacuum referenced, and ramps the fuel pressure up from 14 psi at idle to 21 at WOT. Also, there are millions of cars on the road with regulators at the fuel rail, and never a problem. The OEM's only went to single fuel line systems recently, and I'd bet it was to save a buck and no other reason. A previous TBI install I did, I actually T'd the return line into the supply side of the pump! No problems with heat soak.

I will keep an aye (and an IR temp gun) on it, once it is running. Time will tell.

My system was an aftermarket TPI on a 454. The car would run great for around 20 minutes to 1 hour depending on outside temperature. Then the pump would make an awfull grinding sound and the engine would quit. I got 120' on the tank with the IR gun after one stall. With the aluminum rails mounted to the intake the fuel system was basically acting like a coolant loop for the intake.

I now have a edelbrock victor JR EFI and the 1000 dollar tank you mentioned, with the reg mounted out back. I hope this setup works better.

I sincerely hope things work out for you, EFI is great. Tuning from the passenger seat and feeling the changes right away is cool.

ok, I got me an engine harness!
Every connection crimped and soldered, all solid as a rock and ready to plug into the soon to be mounted firewall connector.
I used some PET sleeving to cover the harness, the stuff looks great. Thanks to whoever sent me to cableorganizer.com!!! And Thanks to Mark for getting me the connectors!
Interesting how you can see thru the harness sleeving with the camera flash. You can't see thru it in real life.
http://home.comcast.net/~Jimragtop2/2008engine/amp4.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~Jimragtop2/2008engine/amp5.jpg
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/amp6.jpg
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/amp7.jpg
http://www.Jimragtop.com/TC/amp8.jpg
And the best part is, while the back of the motor is "rather busy" when I put the air filter on, you cannot see a single wire!

JimM, you should post up the details of that Mil Spec connector here. That's pretty cool stuff.

I piggybacked onto a similar post on Lat-g while researching, and posted complete details there. Rather than put it all here too, here's the thread: http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=12451