Terminator X installed.
 

Got my Holley Terminator X installed over the last few days. The wiring is a bit of a bear. That said, in the end it was worth it. Instantly, just off the base map the throttle response was improved. When you goose it in park it just sounds different. Almost like I went from a heavy iron flywheel to lightweight aluminum. Put a smile on my face right away.

After the wiring, which as I said was a lot, it was very easy. Setup and first start went flawless. No RFI issues like get reported with some sniper systems. Though I believe because they have the ECU in the throttle body they have less wiring. So pick your poison there.

It’s not that the wiring is hard, it’s that it’s hard to make it look good. I will admit that is already not my forte. I’m a get it running guy, not a get it perfect. I tried to not be my usual hot rod hack self with this, but it’s probably a middle ground. It’s just hard to hide that much cabling in an engine bay not designed for it. If you have a full size car it might be easier.

In my case my q jet ran fine. I didn’t need to dump it. Just wanted to try something new. I eliminated my full length return and mounted my regulator in the rear with only a short return.

Far and away the biggest pro for me is that I removed a ton of gauge wiring and gauges. I had the same three gauge pod most classic cars have. And a tack on the steering column. Now I have a single clean little display mounted on my dash where I can see it and that’s it. Easily my favorite part so far.

Cons:

They don’t give you the can to USB cable so you can hook it up to your laptop. That’s a lame extra $60 purchase I have to make.

The normal non LS kits don’t come with a plug for an oil pressure transducer. You can add it, which I am. But you need the laptop to program it in, and you have to splice into you brand new harness to get the 5v and ground signals. Just include the damned plug pre wired in please hollley.

Very cool! What p/n system did you purchase. Are you running the 4150 stealth setup? I installed p/n 550-1013 so I can have the EFI and control my 4l80e. I also did the Holley distributor. I really like the setup. I ended up switching to a progressive linkage setup on the 4150 body because the 1:1 linkage was too jumpy off the line for me. Much better throttle control when driving slow through a neighborhood.

What are your engine specs?

And I totally agree the kit should come with the CAN to usb plug and be pre wired for oil psi. I did both.

Welcome to the world of efi. Enjoy

It’s the terminator x stealth without the transmission control. I considered that for the future but at the end of the day decided to not spend an extra $400 on something I didn’t know if I would ever do.

I will eventually go to timing control, but was advised to start without it. One less thing to go wrong.

I have the same basic 400 stroker everyone does. Mild ported heads and RPM intake. Mild roller. Made upper 500s on the dyno.

Congrats.

The part I highlighted is what I've talked about in the past. It's nice to program those screens to view what you want, and just remove all the extra add on gauges and plumbing to really clean up the car. I even used one screen just for a large tach, which you can set yellow and red shift lights with. The yellow and red warning light deal is pretty cool too, used on anything you care to monitor.

Not sure what you mean about the oil pressure transducer. The Holley Super Sniper Stealths that we used on both cars comes with an extra harness and weather pack plug just for the extra transducers. So it was pretty much a plug and play deal once I connected the transducer wires on the other end. We run an extra transducer for fuel pressure and oil pressure so they both can be data logged and monitored. Surprised the Terminator X doesn't come with that....

Yeah the can to USB cable was a bummer as I knew before I even bought the kit I wanted to tune with my laptop. I ended up buying the split USB cable setup from Chris at EFI System Pro so I can plug the laptop in at the same time and still run the touch screen.

congrats. Neat to hear antique iron respond like modern power.

I saw that split thing. They were out of the canto usb cables so I ordered one from summit. It’s not here yet. I didn’t know I needed it until I opened my terminator box. The terminator has a Can 2 port so I’m not sure it needs the splitter.

As for the oil pressure plug, some Terminator kits come with it and some don’t. I don’t know why. Near as I can tell the LS kits get it and TBs don’t, but it may be more complicated than that. Scott and Chris at EFIsystems said to splice into the ground and 5v wires on the fuel pressure plug. Than run a new wire to pin A20.

I ran the a20 wire but I still have to splice into my fuel pressure plug, which sucks.

Do you need the laptop to ultimately set your gauge display how you want? With the shift light function and all, or can that be done on the HUD?

I dont know anything about the Holley stuff specifically, but I found it helpful on mine to use a junction under the hood for 5vref and signal ground. It allows additional sensors to be added along the way without continuously re hacking the wiring.

Fuel injection is soooooo nice. Unless the car is super original, the carb comes off and FI goes on.


I'd be interested in the gauges if you're gonna sell them.

Somebody beat you to the tach. The wideband is going in my race car. I might consider the OP and WT gauges if you are interested.

You can set up the gauge display how you want it with the handheld.
When you add a new transducer that has to be done with laptop. At least that's how mine works. Once the system recognizes the transducer the rest can be done with the handheld. The laptop is easier though.

Oh boy do I know that one. I have countless hours on my harness, but am very happy with the way it turned out. Very little wires are exposed to plain sight, but there's still some.

I probably have at least 240+ hours in my wiring, which included the AAW full harness. I have $1000s in connector bodies, terminals, seals, retainers, wire, tools, and loom. But luckily, I can use it on other cars as well.

There's stuff I had to change along the way, as the car was assembled, which added to the effort. And there's still some stuff I want to make better, but considering the time already spent, felt I can go back and do that stuff for the sake of getting the car on the road.

One thing I did, was to make sure it all was serviceable, which is not an easy task. It took more connectors, and more planning, than if I were to have just 'hooked it all up'. Circuits are fairly well isolated, so if one thing takes a dump, it doesn't take other stuff with it.

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Yeah see that is exactly what Im talking about myself not having in my DNA. I pride myself on being able to problem solve, but Im not the best with aesthetics.

Right now the main bundle is still plenty visible up on the firewall. all the added wiring really brought home how bad my off the shelf plug wires fit too. I bought a set of more heavily RFI shielded wires to make a custom set. Once I get the plug wires looking better I will focus on moving the main bundle of the terminator harness. THe power harness I did pretty well with, its mostly under the driver fender.

I bought some of those Magdaddy zip tie anchors. Overpriced, but handy. So I can move it with minimal effort. Ultimately I want to slide it further down the firewall behind the motor. This would also get it futher from the plug wires and any potential RFI interference. I would also like to move my o2 from the driver to the passenger so I dont have to fold that harness back on itself if I ever drop the headers.

If you're planning on doing it, I would just jump in. Especially if you haven't yet taken the time to loom and "nicify" all your wiring etc.

I used to believe in the same suggestion about starting with fueling first for a while to sort any bugs. The problem with that methodology is that going to the timing control features means utilizing several other connections that carry signal as opposed to power. A lot of that signal wiring by necessity has to be routed near distributors, coils and plug wires, all of which can emit large amounts of EMI.

I ran my car without timing control for about 5 years and never had a hint of any issues related to EMI. As soon as I installed those components, I had EMI issues in every sensor circuit save for coolant temperature. I had to completely rewire the whole system.

Firing it up without timing control active to check for functionality, leaks etc is fine, but if you think you're ever going to want timing control, just do it now before you get things buttoned up under the hood.

Yeah, Sooner rather than later. Going on a cruise later this week, so probably wait and see if Holley has a Christmas sale.

Its all in and going now. Im pretty happy with the fuel system. The wiring I can live with. I have to make a grommet type deal for where I brought it through the firewall. I have a automatic so I routed it though where the clutch would normally go. Pretty convenient actually. I have an idea about how to do it.


btw I didnt mention it earlier, but I like the idea of the 5v junctions.

I will say that the switch over to timing control was well worth it in my case. I had even talked directly to Ken at FiTech when I purchased back in 2015. He kind of said the same thing and advised that unless you needed spark retard for boosted applications, there may not really be any reason to do anything other than fueling with his product and that a good HEI would be fine.

I ran with that recommendation for a long time and it was just that, fine. Having the system run the timing however has really transformed the car. I got rid of a creeping idle heat issue and the spark map I provided is working a lot better than what I had before. The car is returning better fuel mileage, is readily wanting to pull right up to 6000 rpm instead of plateauing and if you put a set of quiet mufflers on this thing, you'd never know it was anything but a mild, stock type engine. Vacuum is up close to 3" across the board which is making everything work that much better.

In fact, the car is almost too tame at this point, until you punch the loud pedal. So much so that when I do a rebuild on this thing in a couple years, I'm going to blow right past a cam like the OF and look squarely into grinds in the 240+ duration range.

The timing control opens up a whole new world. At least it did for me. It's amazing what you can do when you're not stuck with a linear curve.

Agreed and the FiTech isn't really all that much better than a linear curve. I haven't seen the spark map capabilities on the terminator x, but I believe the software can be updated to a full HP system? If that's the case you can really do some trickery with it.

The biggest thing that is really benefiting me at current is the ability to throw loads of timing at it under light load and I'm also ramping in a tiny bit of extra WOT timing between 3000 and 6000 (currently at +2 degrees)

The car cruises down the highway at 65mph with about 2% tps and map readings around 26KPa. I desperately need an overdrive to actually bring load up at cruise. My TPS and maps are so low that the system will run in and out of Dash/Tail and trigger the DFCO, especially during slight downhill sections of highway.

You gotta run timing control, it's a waste not to. The flexibility is unbelievable, and pretty limitless.

I separated the injector, sensor, and ignition wires into separate harnesses, and it's easy when you do that to isolate and eliminate RFI/EMI. Can use sleeving/loom and other methods to block/control feedback, taking it a step further. With a little foresight and planning, there should be no reason to have RFI/EMI etc. I had to be careful, especially with drive-by-wire.

I used thread-serts/riv-nuts for grounds, the contact area is much greater than a sheet metal screws. Body to frame, engine to frame, panel to panel, I'm certain my grounds are more than efficient.

As for cams, my current cam is a solid roller 260/267 @ .050 on a 112, EFI lobes that have max lift, fast open ramps, easy close, and have about 10.75-12" at idle. No problem. My idle timing is 26, WOT is 34, with 8-10 degrees of 'vacuum' (MAP) advance. Feels like a daily driver.

I haven't used the Terminator software yet, but imagine it's probably close to the v6 stuff. Not sure if you can upgrade to HP/Dominator status on the Terminator X, not sure it's the same as the original Terminator EFI is. Should be easy to figure out though.

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