Hey guys, I just have to say that I am sick and tired of reading posts about ID injectors being the only injector to buy. Just so you know, this is not advertising, or paid compensation in any way shape or form, its my opinion - and Im tired of getting crap from people that tell me I should have bought differant injectors. After much debate, and reading plenty online about the differences in injectors, I came to a decision. I chose Fuel Injector Connection injectors. Im currently building my T88 turbo project and needed a ton of fuel, so, I decided to go with the FIC1000's. There is just no way to justify spending almost double on the same injectors, The same injectors you say? How can that be? Not knowing crap about really big injectors, I actually called FIC and talked to the owner Jon, and he filled me in on how they make the injectors, and the differences. Well it turns out Fuel Injector Connection has been making these injectors long before ID has. FIC has been putting on their special tip since 07 and have been modifying injectors long before that. In fact after doing some research on how these injectors are made, it made my decision even easier. You see there are two ways these injector tips can be made. On a lathe which can and will have runout, or on a computer controlled mill designed by Jon Banner (owner) for this specific use. Of course the injectors that cost almost double must be made on the superior machine right? Nope the expensive ones ID's make are made on a lathe. FIC makes thiers on a custom made CNC machine made in Begium - and designed by Fuel injector connection. All measurements are laser controlled. That's why their tip does not have any tool marks and every one is identical. All injectors are measured and batched by both flow rate and response time. In fact, FIC has been doing it YEARS before the ID guys where around. My injectors were flowed on the prototype of their new flow bench. The youtube is attached.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLL26...2I4znvhQ4jP0q2
Next thing to do research on was the data needed to program the injectors with. Everyone makes up these big stories on how ID has all this great data available, and they are the only injectors to buy. Its enough to make me wanna puke. Did you know that the ID1000 and FIC1000 use the same base injector? Yep its just a simple Ford GT500 injector with a different tip. So if they use the same base injector with the same coils, same resistances, why would the data be any different? Sure the tips are made different, but the fuel weight, density, volume, and base injector are all the same. Therefore it goes to say that the data would be the same too, right? Decisions are made so much simpler when you have the right information. What many people are saying about FIC injectors not being the same quality is not true, they are better. The company even cares enough to package them in actual packaging, and even that looks good too. (see pic below) So the first impressions are good, what about the tuning you ask? Well read on folks, cause it gets even better.
After installing the injectors, the tuning for them was super easy - more on that in a moment. I will say out of this whole experience the biggest pain in the butt had nothing to do with the injectors, it was the scaling of my first tune. After figuring that out, it was a piece of cake. The best run I ever had in my 2006 Trailblazer SS on the old injectors was 13.1 @ 102.8 MPH. That’s in a 5050lb Truck with me in it. The truck had a ported stock intake, ported stock exhaust manifolds, CAI & cat less 3" exhaust. Other than that it is a stock engine without even having had the valve covers off. Transmission has had a sonnax stage 2 shift kit and 3600 Yank as its only mods. That's not too shabby for a 5050lb brick!. I used the same data the ID1000's use, which I downloaded from their site. Why use the ID data you ask, cause it’s the same injector, and the data works – very well I might add. The new injectors, out of the box, with ZERO VE tuning, where about 20% richer down low in the 15-26kpa areas, almost spot on compared to the other tune in the regular driving areas, and about 5% lean at WOT (94-99kpa). That’s using a base 4bar FP, and setting the injectors at 63.49 across the board for flow rate. Not bad for running a scaled tune with totally different injectors that flow 3.5 times as much fuel. These injectors are very linear in how they flow. Wanna hear some more good news? I ended up having to go back to my stock intake instead of the ported one due to the top of it not being sealed correctly. (Intake was cut in two for porting & runners shortened to 5" instead of stock 12") After VE tuning the scaled tune for the stock unported intake, I netted my best time ever! 12.9 @ 104 Maybe to you that's not a big difference, but to me it was. This is due to the fact that the ported intake was worth .18 in the quarter over the stock one. So that means I beat my best time ever with the stock unported intake. That means I picked up around .2 minimum just from injectors, even with a lesser intake. That can only be attributed to better atomization of fuel at WOT as the VE was spot on in both tunes, and I was running the same AFR at WOT. To make it even better, the temperature out when I ran my new personal best was 39 degrees, and my previous best was in the low 20's!! If I was to go back to that ported intake and have a cold day, there would be a for sure another tenth or two to be had. Now that's awesome in my book.
Now if you think these FIC injectors are from some off the wall no name company, check out a list of REAL companies that use them. They mostly do wholesale to distributors, and retail places, but you can buy them off the web for only $599!! Even Hendricks Motorsports use them in their builds, what's that say for them? Here are a few other companies that are currently using these injectors. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
Vortech Engineering, A & A Corvette, Lingenfelter, Shelby American, Modern muscle, Henderson performance, Virginia speed, Carolina speed, Texas speed, Fast Motorsports, (Had to do a shout out for Brandon @ FAST!), Corvettes of Westchester, Pat Musi race engines,Vengeance Racing, etc, etc. This is just a few of the big names, he said there are 264 shops worldwide that use his injectors.
So what does this all add up too? Save your money people! Why give someone else $400+ extra for the same base injector with the same flow rate? It just doesn't make sense!! I used the money I saved on injectors for the turbo parts. All I can say is thank you Fuel Injector Connection (NOT to be confused with FIC in Florida I was told). If you have any questions, or need injectors, give them a call at 770 888-1662 and tell them you heard it here, it will make their day :-)
Thanks for listening,
Walter