McGee thanks for posting here. Sure wish we could get more guys from the UK and other places to hang out with us, and compare lots of things. But your right, the tuning situation will be different since you guys don’t have the Cobb access port support we have due to your car being MAF based and our cars being MAP based. Funny side story about that. People used to compare MAF numbers (flow) per given turbo setup to try and say one was better than the other. Ironically, the Fiesta ST (USDM) don’t look at the MAF even the remote most small bit AT ALL. It does look at the intake air temp sensor in the MAF, but it doesn’t look at MAF air flow AT ALL. If you remove your MAF sensor from the car, then go do a datalog, you will oddly find that the car some how has logged mass air flow, even while the sensor is just sitting in the engine bay. The USDM fiesta uses the MAF for 100% NOTHING. It does figure the iat, but it’s almost pointless because the ecu is much more concerned with the charge air temp.
Anyway. Just want to say I respect the info you bring to the forum Isaac. I know who you are and where you have been. But yes. That is what I’m saying. I’m saying these 100’s of guys with X47, C39, and Mcgee’s Type hybrid turbo update could likely be by-passing a soluation that would address THEIR situation, but what never offered. It wasn’t offered #1 because DHM never really had a use for a 330whp-340whp fuel system. Every turbo setup they ever fully marketed really did need 350+whp of fuel. And did they REALLY actually truely 100% test the idea of taking a real life car making 310whp with a commanded AFR of 11.1 that is seeing 12.5 AFR at 5800+ rpm and then slap in a $120 walbro 340lph? No.... they had a theory that it would not help, and moved on to $900 solutions that would support 350+ whp. A $900 soluation with a profit margin, vs a $120 soluation that could be bought from pretty much any vendor anywhere with not much profit margin ( but you do have to make sure you don’t get a China knock off, which has been an issue ).
I didn’t want to turn this into a debate or tech conversation. Mostly because honestly, it’s $120, and someone should just spend $300 at a local shop to have a walbro installed on there C39/X-47 and see what it will do on E30 before running out of fuel. But... in my research, this is what I found. Basically.
The LT1/LT4/LT5 guys actually do have HPFI upgrades and options. They have cam lobe upgrades etc. but what applies more to us and is more of a direct comparison is... the LT1 guys that add superchargers etc. what they found is... when they needed more fuel, they could buy the expensive LT4/LT5 HPFP and bolt it onto their LT1 system. But... they were disappointed to find, the peak torque was no longer an issue with fueling ( mid range RPM peak torque ), but the higher rpms, was still not getting enough fuel.
This is how this was explained. We ( fiesta ST etc ) look at pressure. “Is your fuel rail pressure dropping?” “Is your LPFP pressure dropping?”. But no one talks about the flow.
The HPFP is just a translator. Flow is flow. Pressure is pressure. The HPFP will FLOW about as much as you can throw at it ( ok, it surely has a limit at some point, but let’s not focus on that for now ). The HPFP simply takes what ever is “flowed” to it and translates it to higher pressure. If you FLOW 100hp of fuel in, it will take 100hp of fuel and jack up it’s pressure to requested (2900-ish psi on a hard tuned ST ). The HPFP doesn’t really “flow” anything. It does not dictate how much fuel is flowed or moved or supplied. It simply translates the fuel flowed to it from 90psi/200hp to 2150psi/200hp (in stock form). So you can flow 90-100psi/400hp to 2900psi/400hp.
This has been proven is LT1/LT4/LT5, as well as countless diesels. Let’s face it. This engine ( like all DFI engines ) is basically a Diesel engine that runs on gasoline.
Now don’t take me the wrong way. I’m not saying that if have a 400whp fiesta ST with an Aux fuel, that you could remove the aux fuel and just swap in a LPFP. I’m just saying 80% of the people with these cars want to make 300whp on e30 or 320whp on a hybrid turbo. Maybe 320-330whp on 108octane gasoline. Because 300whp on pump gas fuel on a hybrid turbo just isn’t going to happen ( aka, 93oct ).
Another, simpler option that a vendor could offer, would be a booster in-line pump. No removing the fuel tank. Little more room for profit. And it would really make a difference for those 80% looking to supplement their fuel system for another 30-40hp. Of course for customers like Mcgee, and myself the 5th injector is the way to go.
Isaac I’vd read the same debates over on the cobalt forums. “You can’t run just one 5th injector” etc etc etc. those threads are years and years old telling ZZP that it would not work correctly and fuel would not be evenly distributed etc etc. and years and years later, ZZP is basically the only name in that game and have countless 500whp builds on 1 single 5th injector. They even did tech posts about the difference cylinder to cylinder being equal to 11.100 or 11.095 AFR. And lots and plenty of “online experts” argued that ZZP wrong and all this, yet.... send me a link to a bolt on 4 port aux fuel for a cobalt SS. There isn’t one because the 5th injector is $500 and the MPFI would cost $1500 for .01 difference in cylinder fuel distribution.
Another thing we can learn from the cobalt SS crowd. They had modified HPFP’s. And it seems all of them ended up having issues with those upgraded HPFP’s, and currently, it seems they just skip the expensive and sometimes problem prone HPFP and just to the 5th injector.
That being said.... We have a MPFI setup. It’s expensive, but reasonably priced for what it is. And it def works ( my focus friends are happy with it ). But for less than 425whp, or even 400whp, Nothing wrong with the TB based 5th injector. And that’s about 97% of fiesta guys. And again.... if you upgrade the LPFP the entire system will be happier.
Do we really think ford built a 170whp car and put a 500whp fuel pump in it ?
The only real way to test this truely ? Take a guy with a car running Out of fuel ( non-aux fuel car ), and swap in a booster walbro or walbro 340lph ( or higher ) and see what happens. From all the research I’ve done, that wasn’t based with core in DHM knowledge/theory, says a LPFP upgrade could surprise us all. And it could do only a little bit, or it could shock us all. But it really
Just needs to be done by someone without a horse in the race ( and that excludes guys with AUX fuel system ). Tons and tons of guys running X37’s that could maybe use E50 instead of E30. Tons of guys running X47’s that could be fueling 300whp on E30. Tons of guys that could be fueling 300whp on C39’s on E30.
So really, the question is why hasn’t someone done this already ( ok, we know why, we were told it wasn’t going to help by a company that sells a solution that is 10times more expensive ). But with the research I’ve done ( before I installed the AUX fuel ), it’s a little more than interesting that no one has dared to upgrade the LPFP.
Then again.... I could be wrong lol. But unlike other sources, I don’t have a reason talk anyone into skipping the fuel pump upgrade. I don’t work for a vendor. I don’t work for Walbro. But it is rather interesting.