Lets talk about standard, original electronic fuel injection systems that your modern fuel injected car was delivered with when it was brand new.
Modern fuel injection systems do not need a "tune up" every x thousand miles or kilometers. In fact, there is no factory adjustment for a technician to "tune" a modern fuel injection.
Rather than a tune up, modern engines need to follow a regular maintenance schedule to ensure all of the systems on the engine are working correctly, so the engine can continue to operate as the manufacturer intended.
There are, of course many items than need to be inspected, or replaced during the scheduled maintenance program. These include fluids (oils, coolant), air filter, sparkplugs, and more.
If these items are not attended to in the proper course of the vehicles maintenance schedule, your vehicle may start to lose power, it may start using more fuel, and it may not idle as smoothly as it did when you first bought it.
So, if you are not modifying your engine or its accessories (such as exhaust, intake manifold, turbo, etc) you do not need to have your engine tuned up.
If on the other hand, you are modifying your engine, your engine may well get to the point where it's operating outside of the parameters of the original electronic fuel injection system.
You engine may run very badly, and it may even make less power than it did when it was standard, as the original electronic fuel injection system may be making calculations based on incorrect information.
To overcome this, you need to look at an aftermarket electronic fuel injection system. These systems are now very capable and flexible, and can control most accessories on your vehicle, including many automatic transmissions, while at the same time, controlling your modified engine.
So, if your engine is standard, scheduled maintenance is for you.
If you have modified, or are looking at modifying your engine, it's worth looking into what options you have in regards to programmable electronic fuel injection.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
How to Sell, and How to Buy Electronic Fuel Injection
The Title of this post may be quite long winded, but you will find out as you read this post, that we are talking about matching the product and installation with the application, and how important that is.
If you sell and/or install electronic fuel injection systems, it is advantageous both to you, and your customer to supply the most relevant system, and install it in the most relevant way so that your customer becomes a raving fan of you and your work.
If you are a customer of someone who supplies and installs electronic fuel injection systems, you would also want the ECU that meets your needs, and to have it installed and tuned to best suit your specific application.
Things To Consider:
Overall Application - You want to have a product that both fills the need of the customer today, but also, if possible, into the future. What I mean by that, is that you may decide that as of today, the application only requires an ECU of modest flexibility. But in the near future your customer may be looking at other functionality and accessories to add to their vehicle. They will appreciate it if you take the time to find out about future plans, as there is often way to keep overall costs down, but installing an ECU that will meet their immediate needs, and also meet their future needs.
Age Of The Vehicle - Many older vehicles running factory electronic fuel injection are getting up to 30 years old. After thousands of heat cycles, and years of corrosion, many of the wires, connectors and sensors are way past their expected usable life. If the vehicle you are quoting on is of advanced years, or is a car model known to have engine bay wiring harness issues due to age and/or high under-bonnet temperatures.
Road, Race, Other - How and where is the vehicle going to be driven? Road driven vehicles must have the very best in idle and cruise mixture tune-ability, they must start every time, plus they need to be able to deliver great fuel economy. Installing an ECU that is limited in this area will result in an unhappy customer. Even now days, some people consider, that if a vehicle is going to be used for race-only applications, that it does not need to start and idle well. We don't. Even a race vehicle should start easily and have a stable idle. It shouldn't foul sparkplugs.
What you want as a customer is to have the very best solution for your vehicle so that you are extremely pleased with the result of having an aftermarket electronic fuel injection system installed on your vehicle.
As a supplier and installer, you want your customer to feel you have given them the best solution to their electronic fuel injection requirements. Communicating to the customer before and during installation any concerns or issues that you see may arise will help cement your relationship with loads of good will.
Deciding on the right electronic fuel injection system and the correct installation path is a two way street between both the installer and the customer. If this path is traveled equally by both parties, the final outcome will be one truly worth the effort.
If you sell and/or install electronic fuel injection systems, it is advantageous both to you, and your customer to supply the most relevant system, and install it in the most relevant way so that your customer becomes a raving fan of you and your work.
If you are a customer of someone who supplies and installs electronic fuel injection systems, you would also want the ECU that meets your needs, and to have it installed and tuned to best suit your specific application.
Things To Consider:
Overall Application - You want to have a product that both fills the need of the customer today, but also, if possible, into the future. What I mean by that, is that you may decide that as of today, the application only requires an ECU of modest flexibility. But in the near future your customer may be looking at other functionality and accessories to add to their vehicle. They will appreciate it if you take the time to find out about future plans, as there is often way to keep overall costs down, but installing an ECU that will meet their immediate needs, and also meet their future needs.
Age Of The Vehicle - Many older vehicles running factory electronic fuel injection are getting up to 30 years old. After thousands of heat cycles, and years of corrosion, many of the wires, connectors and sensors are way past their expected usable life. If the vehicle you are quoting on is of advanced years, or is a car model known to have engine bay wiring harness issues due to age and/or high under-bonnet temperatures.
Road, Race, Other - How and where is the vehicle going to be driven? Road driven vehicles must have the very best in idle and cruise mixture tune-ability, they must start every time, plus they need to be able to deliver great fuel economy. Installing an ECU that is limited in this area will result in an unhappy customer. Even now days, some people consider, that if a vehicle is going to be used for race-only applications, that it does not need to start and idle well. We don't. Even a race vehicle should start easily and have a stable idle. It shouldn't foul sparkplugs.
What you want as a customer is to have the very best solution for your vehicle so that you are extremely pleased with the result of having an aftermarket electronic fuel injection system installed on your vehicle.
As a supplier and installer, you want your customer to feel you have given them the best solution to their electronic fuel injection requirements. Communicating to the customer before and during installation any concerns or issues that you see may arise will help cement your relationship with loads of good will.
Deciding on the right electronic fuel injection system and the correct installation path is a two way street between both the installer and the customer. If this path is traveled equally by both parties, the final outcome will be one truly worth the effort.
Electronic Fuel Injection - Injector Sequencing
Electronic Fuel Injection is the obvious solution to modern engine fueling and ignition delivery.
There are dozens of areas within subject of electronic fuel injection where a little more insight will give you big advantages in terms of power, idle quality and fuel consumption, when you configure and tune electronic fuel injection systems.
This post is a brief introduction to the area of Injector Sequencing for your Aftermarket Electronic Fuel Injection System. This is a very advanced part of electronic fuel injection installation and configuration. It will run though the reasons why you would want to sequence your injectors, and a couple of the specific ways you can sequence them, depending on your application. If we don't go through your specific setup, don't worry, just drop by www.wolfems.com and let us know about your application. We will be able to work with you to determine the injector sequencing to best suit your engine.
First of all, lets talk about sequential vs banked or grouped injection.
Banked injection - is where more than 1 injector is pulsed at the same time. On some early fuel injected cars, the injectors on all 4 or 6 or 8 cylinders, were pulsed together. This can lead to fuel mixtures varying from cylinder to cylinder, as there is no control over when in the engine cycle, the injection pulse occurs for each cylinder.
Sequential injection - Every cylinder has its own injector, and that injector is opened at the same point in the engine cycle as the engine rotates. It is pulsed once for every two engine revolutions.
Let's look at an example of sequential injection on a 4 cylinder engine with the firing order of 1-3-4-2.
You will want to ensure that your injectors are pulsed in that same order.
That sounds simple. And it is. But how do you work out where to pulse each injector in the engine cycle? Do you pulse an injector when the intake valve is open or closed?
Lets take a quick look at what happens when the engine is starting, as that is the most critical situation for injector sequencing. That is because the injector pulse takes up a very small amount of engine rotation at that engine speed.
This is more critical in some engines than others, depending on the physical placement of the injectors, and the shape of the intake system.
Imagine the intake valve is closed. There is no airflow. The injector is pulsed. The fuel sprays out of the injector, and some of it hits the other side of the intake runner, and pools there. Some of the fuel that you thought you were injecting is now sitting on the bottom of the intake runner.
This may happen a few times while you crank the engine, until it starts, at which time there may be enough airflow to suck the pooled fuel into the cylinder, making it stumble (since this pooled fuel is not atomized, but rather, it is huge drops).
One the other hand. Picture that the intake valve is open, and that the air is rushing past the tip of the injector, and into the cylinder as the piston moves down the bore.
The injector pulses, and as it does so, the atomized fuel is sucked straight into the cylinder by the inrush of air.
All of the fuel that the injector delivered is now in the cylinder, and ready to be ignited by the ignition system.
Obviously, the best solution is to have the injector pulse when the valve is open and the air rushing past the tip of the injector can transport the fuel into the combustion chamber.
And this basic theory applies to engines with any number of cylinders. So long as you have a camshaft pulse that you can synchronize off, you can setup your injectors to pulse sequentially, giving you the most control over the fuel delivery to your engine.
Sequential injection is the ultimate electronic fuel injection system.
There are dozens of areas within subject of electronic fuel injection where a little more insight will give you big advantages in terms of power, idle quality and fuel consumption, when you configure and tune electronic fuel injection systems.
This post is a brief introduction to the area of Injector Sequencing for your Aftermarket Electronic Fuel Injection System. This is a very advanced part of electronic fuel injection installation and configuration. It will run though the reasons why you would want to sequence your injectors, and a couple of the specific ways you can sequence them, depending on your application. If we don't go through your specific setup, don't worry, just drop by www.wolfems.com and let us know about your application. We will be able to work with you to determine the injector sequencing to best suit your engine.
First of all, lets talk about sequential vs banked or grouped injection.
Banked injection - is where more than 1 injector is pulsed at the same time. On some early fuel injected cars, the injectors on all 4 or 6 or 8 cylinders, were pulsed together. This can lead to fuel mixtures varying from cylinder to cylinder, as there is no control over when in the engine cycle, the injection pulse occurs for each cylinder.
Sequential injection - Every cylinder has its own injector, and that injector is opened at the same point in the engine cycle as the engine rotates. It is pulsed once for every two engine revolutions.
Let's look at an example of sequential injection on a 4 cylinder engine with the firing order of 1-3-4-2.
You will want to ensure that your injectors are pulsed in that same order.
That sounds simple. And it is. But how do you work out where to pulse each injector in the engine cycle? Do you pulse an injector when the intake valve is open or closed?
Lets take a quick look at what happens when the engine is starting, as that is the most critical situation for injector sequencing. That is because the injector pulse takes up a very small amount of engine rotation at that engine speed.
This is more critical in some engines than others, depending on the physical placement of the injectors, and the shape of the intake system.
Imagine the intake valve is closed. There is no airflow. The injector is pulsed. The fuel sprays out of the injector, and some of it hits the other side of the intake runner, and pools there. Some of the fuel that you thought you were injecting is now sitting on the bottom of the intake runner.
This may happen a few times while you crank the engine, until it starts, at which time there may be enough airflow to suck the pooled fuel into the cylinder, making it stumble (since this pooled fuel is not atomized, but rather, it is huge drops).
One the other hand. Picture that the intake valve is open, and that the air is rushing past the tip of the injector, and into the cylinder as the piston moves down the bore.
The injector pulses, and as it does so, the atomized fuel is sucked straight into the cylinder by the inrush of air.
All of the fuel that the injector delivered is now in the cylinder, and ready to be ignited by the ignition system.
Obviously, the best solution is to have the injector pulse when the valve is open and the air rushing past the tip of the injector can transport the fuel into the combustion chamber.
And this basic theory applies to engines with any number of cylinders. So long as you have a camshaft pulse that you can synchronize off, you can setup your injectors to pulse sequentially, giving you the most control over the fuel delivery to your engine.
Sequential injection is the ultimate electronic fuel injection system.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Aftermarket Automatic Transmission Control
One of the most overlooked are of aftermarket programmable electronic fuel injection systems is the ability to control electronically controlled automatic transmissions.
The problem becomes, that if you install an aftermarket electronic fuel injection system on a vehicle that has an electronically controlled automatic transmission, you will generally have to piggyback it over the original ECU so that the original ECU can control the auto trans.
Luckily there have been huge advances in aftermarket electronic fuel injection systems, and you are able to install a fuel injection system that can supply an engine of up to 8 cylinders with sequential injection and ignition control, and at the same time control many electronically controlled automatic transmissions.
This is achieved by using many configurable auxiliary inputs and outputs to switch the gear selection and line pressure solenoids withing the transmission.
Now, the great thing here is that if you thought your transmission was a bit of a slush-box, and you want your shifts to be a bit (or a lot) more solid, you program the electronic fuel injection unit to do this. You can even have it switch hard when you want, and softer when you want.
There are so many possibilities now, with the massive flexibility of some electronic fuel injection systems.
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