In 2012, we upgraded our Plymouth Belvedere from a pair of old Carter AFBs to EFI. With the old Polyspherical 318 Mopar, our rare dual quad aluminum intake and lack of four-barrel intakes meant we were pretty much stuck with a dual quad.

The first gen EZ-EFI handheld works, but it’s bulky and monochromatic. There’s help on the way from FAST.

At that time, a dual quad EFI conversion was hard to come by, but FAST came to our rescue with the first generation of the EZ-EFI. The install went well, and as FAST continued to grow, newer versions of FAST fuel injection conversions entered the market.

One of the newest systems to replace the first generation EZ-EFI is the EZ-EFI Fuel System, which includes a very cool, expanded full-color handheld. If you have a first generation EZ-EFI, then you know that the original handheld is, well, rather large and kinda boring. But you’re not exactly stuck with it – there’s good news for you.

The new, full-color handheld can be used with the first generation EZ-EFI with a simple EZ-EFI Retro-Fit Kit (PN 170633-06KIT). Long gone is the old cigarette lighter plug in and the difficult buttons on the larger first gen handheld.

The Handheld Retro-Fit Kit is an all-inclusive kit to put some color into your EFI life.

We performed this upgrade and set up our system with a new profile (mandatory) to erase all prior data, and to start fresh. We de-pinned the original pink wire in our wiring that supplies the trigger for the ECU and connected the pink trigger wire for the new handheld harness.

The rest is a very simple plug-in to the old handheld input on the ECU. Also included with the new handheld controller is a very long extension that allows you to connect the handheld to the ECU and mount it outside of the car where you can see the full-color display as you’re going through the setup process. But this time around, the setup process is much simpler and easier to follow.

Added Features And Set Up

While the basic setup with the new controller is very similar to the original setup, there are several added functions and features that you will be very happy with. For those who have converted from carburetor to EFI, you likely know that there were some inherent hot-start issues that many EFI conversions experienced. So FAST added a couple of advanced enrichment features to help with these issues.

The Cranking Fuel Enrichment feature will allow you to add additional fuel under the crank mode. EFI conversions utilize the wide band O2 sensor for feedback, and when the engine is cold there is a pre-squirt feature to put fuel into the intake when starting. This cold start feature is bypassed when the O2 sensor detects heat, and that can make a hot start problem occur.

The cranking enrichment will help take care of that, allowing you to add fuel during the crank mode. There’s also a cold start enrichment that will thicken up your air/fuel ratio while the engine is cold so that it will run a little richer while it’s warming up. Once the engine is warm, the computer reverts back to the selected A/FR settings.

Still included are the original features and adjustments that are available on the original handheld, but with the added features and the full-color touch screen you’ll be glad you have upgraded. Other than the one-color text on the original handheld, there’s one more feature we don’t miss at all: the push-button switches, which are completely gone and replaced by the touch screen. There’s even a calibration mode for the touchscreen to make sure your selections are accurate.

The expanded diagnostics and additional features, including the much easier to read Live Data selection with several options – including a real time analog-look tachometer display. It’s a worthy upgrade that can provide better and more powerful features to your existing EZ-EFI for a fraction of the cost of a complete replacement EFI system.

The new handheld is available now from FAST and retails at about $300 from the FAST website or through online retailers. Installation is simple, and the features will make you glad you’ve upgraded.