1973 Chevy C10 Buildup - The Pickup Fix-Up Tour

Painless Performance' MEFI 4B fuel injection management system was quite simple to work with. The wiring harness plugged into all of the factory sensors, ignition coil packs and computer. The only real wiring you'll do is to provide power and ground and signal to your gauges. Even the O2 sensors plugged in.

PPC Customs welded a pair of bungs into our Flowmaster exhaust system and then installed a pair of narrow band O2 sensors so that the management computer could read the air/fuel ratio of each bank of cylinders.

On the right is the projected-tip spark plugs we were running. On the left are the NGK plugs we installed along with the supercharger. These plugs have a colder heat range, which is necessary because all that extra cylinder pressure and fuel we are adding to the engine will create more heat.

One of the last steps before we could start the engine was to add the accessory drive belt. Our engine was equipped with a Street and Performance chrome accessory system and we were mightily relieved to find that changing the belt routing path and grabbing a longer belt off the parts shelf was all we had to do to get everything spinning again. The pulleys lined up perfectly with the new blower pulley.

We ventured to Westech Performance Group, in Mira Loma, California, to tune our truck on its chassis dyno.

Very few people speak fuel injection the way Bob Radke from MEFIBURN.com does. He put a tune in our computer that laid down some impressive numbers. Then we hit the highway with his laptop to adjust the fuel maps for maximum fuel economy.

The numbers speak for themselves: over 500 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels at 4,200 rpm. This monster will also tow like a champ thanks to the 400 lb-ft of torque available at 2,900 rpm. Peak power came in at 465 hp at 5,300 rpm.