MFI Whisperer New England

[50/50]

Recently I brought my 2.2 MFI car to a shop that I had never been to before. The plan was to deal with some leaks. In an odd twist I ended up there, thinking it was another shop that had been recommended to me. Getting old, I guess.

I was thinking of selling and had gone through 6 shops and replacement or rebuild of every component for fuel delivery and ignition to eliminate a consistent back fire at a certain rpm. The last shop I used this past Fall, was in Greater Boston and is highly regarded. The shop owner reinstalled my newly rebuilt pump, stacks, throttle bodies and also recommended a new CDI box, coil, ignition wires etc. On my test drive ,it was more of the same. I returned to the shop and the owner was incredulous when I said the back fire hadn't changed. He said it takes "20 minutes to warm up" We took it out , he proceeds to drive through every salted puddle he could, while insisting it was OK ,but the engine was in need of a rebuild. Having had my fill, I put it away for the Winter.

Flash forward to May, I visit the new shop and the owner inquires why I want to sell it? He says" let's take it for a short ride". Reluctantly I agree. He says , "the car isn't happy, will you let me spend a little time on it before attending to the leaks". Reluctantly I agree. Blow a little more coin, how much worse can it get? About a week goes by and I get a few calls. "Your car is very happy" . Very skeptical, I reply, "I'll kiss your arse in Macy's window".

Long story short the transformation is nothing short of a miracle. One other issue had been hard starting and poor driveability when cold. Both gone and very docile while warming up.. My experience has been the MFI system is complex ,with a lot of variables, (MFI pump, pump timing, pump enrichment.fuel rack, injectors , throttle bodies,idle screws linkages, fuel return, cold start system etc.). Sort of the 5 dimensional chess match. The newest 911's equipped with MFI were built in 1975, so there aren't many shops staffed with people that worked on them back in the day. Add to that, those that are still working on them, see MFI cars so infrequently ,that what is trusted to memory ,can fade. A lot of guys can change parts, making them work in concert is what separates them. I have a second car with the same engine and it has been, set it, and forget it. Now I have two. And icing on the cake, he made some minor tweaks to the front suspension, that has further enhanced the driving experience.
Long story short, The technician is Kevin Saltzman and his shop is Randolph Racing in Stoughton, MA.

[71six]

Good to hear at least a couple of us in New England have finally exorcised the demons from our cars fueling systems. Once all is well they certainly are a delight to drive. I've owned my car for 18 years and this is the first driving season where it has performed as originally designed. Sounds like our mechanical journeys were similar too I might add.

Mark

[Unobtanium-inc]

Kevin is a good dude, he once saved me from buying a car, I knew he had worked on it, and he said, "Don't buy it." I didn't.

MFI is tricky, when set up right it's lovely, but when hunting a problem it's incredibly complex. I remember years ago I bought a 72T that had an S spec engine. It was idling high so I called the late great Gerry McCarthy and asked him how I could lower the idle. He began to tell me a 10 point checklist involving a bendible wrench that went through the fan, while simultaneously turning something else on the back of the pump, then this, then that. When I cleared my head he said, "Or you could just turn up the radio."
Smart man, that Gerry.

My mechanic now knows MFI really well, but he came up through the dealerships in the 70's when it was still used a lot. But there are fewer guys every year who really know it, Gerry sure did.

---Adam

[JackMan]

Great Pix Adam

[RSTarga]

Even in the 70's there were almost no dealer techs who knew how to work on MFI. It took me almost 10 years to find one.

[Unobtanium-inc]

Great Pix Adam

Gerry had some great stories about Bruce Jennings, AKA King Carrera. I had almost enough to do an article, but thought I should interview some of his other folks, but I snoozed because in the last year we've lost most of the crew, Heinz Bada, Ab Tiedmann, and Gerry, all gone. I've been trying to make time to go talk to the old guys and get their stories, I've gotten some really good ones in the last year.

---Adam

[mac73s]

Even in the 70's there were almost no dealer techs who knew how to work on MFI. It took me almost 10 years to find one.

...and such explains why so many MFI systems were put in the trash. I guess the thought was just throw away what you didn't understand

[Unobtanium-inc]

...and such explains why so many MFI systems were put in the trash. I guess the thought was just throw away what you didn't understand

4-Cams too.


---Adam

[50/50]

Them that's gone, are gone. All I know is when you find a talent that can put it all together, it's a beautiful thing. Hopefully the tribal knowledge will be transferred to a new generation.