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One of the things I love about # 1791 is that it seems to have received upgrades at each change of ownership.

Not being in touch with the last PO I am discovering and learning the car on my own.

So far it's been fun and to me part of the Collector Car Experience.

The last upgrade was the installation of the FAST ( Fuel Air Spark Technology ) FXI 2.0 EFI with all the Wilson manifold and ECU wizardry that comes with an aftermarket EFI conversion.

The Pantera starts effortlessly and the Engine runs smoothly..I haven't pushed it as yet.

It seems to be quite a "Neat Bit of Kit" as the Brits'say.

I just purchased the touchscreen that should have been supplied at the time of sale. ( oh well )

It basically controls the ECU

Does anyone else have experience with this System

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Last edited by thrillrider
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I have been using the FAST XFI 2.05 system in my Pantera for six years now. I am currently running it in sequential mode. I also have the on dash touch screen monitor which has been great for helping with the tuning. That monitor makes it easy to detect and clear a fault code also. I am hoping that FAST will follow Holley's lead and upgrade their ECU to allow for coil on plug or coil near plug ignition without the use of the FAST XMI ignition box. To date I have logged about 15k miles on this system and it works great. The gas mileage is very good also considering that the engine is pushing 600 horse power at the flywheel!

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  • Pantera engine with air box

The FAST XFI system stores all memory data on key off. When you disconnect the battery on the car it does not effect the stored data in the ECU. I have left my battery disconnected for weeks at a time and it has not effect of the program. The engine restarts and runs just as it did before disconnecting the battery.

I am not sure about the small touch screen monitor having the manuals. I never looked that far into the small screen unit. They offered a large tablet style monitor for the XFI system and it may have had the manuals installed on it. The XFI system has a direct connection to the battery, so I don't understand how you can actually shut the system down short of hooking a laptop computer up to it.

While I don't have the FAST system EFI, I did install the Holley EFI system.  I would have sold my Pantera without it.  The idea of just turning the key to have the engine erupt into the joyous sound of it running was completely foreign to me.  My pre-EFI procedure was.

1)  Attempt to start by turning key (never started)

2) Pull the air cleaner

3) Dump fuel into the carb

4)  Run back into the car hoping it was still running long enough to squeeze in and rev a bit

5)  Run back out screw the air cleaner back on (and hope it was still running

6)  Attempt to drive away, sometimes successfully, ofttimes not successfully and restart the same procedure.

I hated the thought of starting the car, so I never drove it.  My Jag XKR was quicker, more comfortable, reliable, and NEVER FAILED TO START, so I gave up driving the Pantera.  I seriously thought about selling but couldn't bear to do it.  So, I made the choice to make it a more user friendly experience starting with EFI and ending with redoing much of the car.  I still have some issues which we're working on but at least I save about 20 minutes of grief every time I start it.  Anyone who hasn't considered EFI and is not concerned with absolute originality, should certainly think about it.  You'll wonder why you hadn't done it years earlier.

 

The 1969 Cougar was a nice car. I purchased a new 1971 Maverick Grabber with the 302 V8 and a three speed manual on the floor. I drag raced the car for quite a few years, but sold it because I was tired of drag racing and wanted to put money into the Pantera, which I purchased in 1977. If I had access to the speed parts then that we have now, that little car would be flying! A 9.2 deck aluminum Fontana block would actually fit in the engine bay of one for those Mavericks. The problem is that most people's memory of an old car isn't up to today's standards unless you do a lot of work on it. The Pantera is somewhat in that same boat, but it takes less because the basic layout of the car is so good to begin with. I have done a great deal of chassis bracing on my car along with all the other necessary things go make it a good driver. I couldn't imagine feeding that engine with a carb and the fuel injection just does everything so well.

Thrillrider,

My first car was a 1969 Cougar Eliminator with a 351 Windsor.  By the end of its time with me about 4 years later, when I went out to start it every morning, I would have to jam a pencil to keep the carb butterfly open to get it started, then try and start it, run back, take the pencil out, screw the air cleaner back on and go on my way.  I think it was training me for starting the Pantera years later, it was pretty much the same procedure.

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  • mceclip0

Too bad the FAST EFI wasn't available then.

My Cougar was a Triple White Convertible from Coral Gables Florida.

I moved to Manhattan and took the car with me ( A mistake)

It finally ended when a Mercedes Benz Truck driver rear-ended me while stuck in traffic on the Major Deegan Expressway leaving NYC It was  Totaled !

All succeeding cars had EFI

 

jffr posted:

I have been using the FAST XFI 2.05 system in my Pantera for six years now. I am currently running it in sequential mode. I also have the on dash touch screen monitor which has been great for helping with the tuning. That monitor makes it easy to detect and clear a fault code also. I am hoping that FAST will follow Holley's lead and upgrade their ECU to allow for coil on plug or coil near plug ignition without the use of the FAST XMI ignition box. To date I have logged about 15k miles on this system and it works great. The gas mileage is very good also considering that the engine is pushing 600 horse power at the flywheel!

Apparently the 2.0 can be updated to to 2.05 with a simple download.

tberg posted:

While I don't have the FAST system EFI, I did install the Holley EFI system.  I would have sold my Pantera without it.  The idea of just turning the key to have the engine erupt into the joyous sound of it running was completely foreign to me.  My pre-EFI procedure was.

1)  Attempt to start by turning key (never started)

2) Pull the air cleaner

3) Dump fuel into the carb

4)  Run back into the car hoping it was still running long enough to squeeze in and rev a bit

5)  Run back out screw the air cleaner back on (and hope it was still running

6)  Attempt to drive away, sometimes successfully, ofttimes not successfully and restart the same procedure.

I hated the thought of starting the car, so I never drove it.

Thanks for the laugh. That pretty much sums up my Panteras starting procedure. With billows of smoke. 

shashi27 posted:
tberg posted:

While I don't have the FAST system EFI, I did install the Holley EFI system.  I would have sold my Pantera without it.  The idea of just turning the key to have the engine erupt into the joyous sound of it running was completely foreign to me.  My pre-EFI procedure was.

1)  Attempt to start by turning key (never started)

2) Pull the air cleaner

3) Dump fuel into the carb

4)  Run back into the car hoping it was still running long enough to squeeze in and rev a bit

5)  Run back out screw the air cleaner back on (and hope it was still running

6)  Attempt to drive away, sometimes successfully, ofttimes not successfully and restart the same procedure.

I hated the thought of starting the car, so I never drove it.

Thanks for the laugh. That pretty much sums up my Panteras starting procedure. With billows of smoke. 

Have you considered an EFI System.?

The FAST EFI seems to have cured the annoying aspects of life with a carb car.

I put in an older FAST classic.  I picked it up off a local and adapted it to a TFI distributor from a late model 460 big block motor.  It works pretty good, the newer systems have a barometric sensor which makes a difference.  I'm a little more versed in manually tuning it, so that was part of the draw for me.  I'll try to do a video on my youtube channel specifically on the EFI system.

www.fuelsniffer.com

hustler posted:

I put in an older FAST classic.  I picked it up off a local and adapted it to a TFI distributor from a late model 460 big block motor.  It works pretty good, the newer systems have a barometric sensor which makes a difference.  I'm a little more versed in manually tuning it, so that was part of the draw for me.  I'll try to do a video on my youtube channel specifically on the EFI system.

www.fuelsniffer.com

Does manual tuning mean that it was before the era of the Touchscreen?

I would look forward to seeing your video.

I need to decide where to mount a FAST XFI ECU.  I don't want it in the hot engine compartment and am thinking on the fire wall behind the driver's seat, and mount an MSD ignition behind the passenger seat to separate them to avoid interference.

Suggestions and photos are appreciated.

I bought a FAST XFI harness and because of the longer and unnecessary wires, just bought their harness kit and will build a custom harness with minimum wire.  The harness kit did not include the larger wires from the battery and the FAST support said the two sizes are 12 and 14 gauge.  Does that sound right?  The wires don't look that big.

I've seen a lot of EFI installations do just that, install it behind the seat on the firewall on the passenger side.  It works and is what I did as well that way you can get various things connected including coil and ignition nearby.  The fast classic was kind of a bulky box but it still fits inside the firewall cover.  Due to my ECU being older, it only communicates with a Laptop.  The newer stuff come with touchscreen type controls to take the technical side of hooking up an existing laptop whether that is Macintosh or IBM compatible to the ECU out of the foray.  You need another level of expertise with some of the more advanced systems and most of these companies are trying to get the average joe into installing these kits and making them easier to take on.  Personally I just have a little mini asus notebook I use that is hidden in the car, and then I hid/mounted an Air Fuel Ratio Meter Gauge in the glove box that I leave open while tuning.  I wanted the interior to keep a relatively stock looking appearance.  The boy racer days are long gone for me   I'll see if I can get a video done by the end of the week.

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