Fuel Injection Wiring Bayswater |Dyno Tuning Bayswater

When wiring up a car, or wiring in an ECU, one of the most important aspects, is good wiring.

Now, everyone thinks of wiring as being a good 12V power supply - "I must have a good 12V.  I've run really thick battery leads".   It's not the only thing.  

There are two sources to power supply.  You've got a ground, and you've got power.

Let's take an injector for instance.  That has power, and it has ground to operate it.  An ECU will ground the pin of the injector to open it.

If you are wide open throttle running down the drag strip, and you have a bad ground supply to the ECU, then that will have a bad ground supply to the injector.  That can lead to leaning an engine out, and even causing an engine blow up.

To ensure this doesn't happen, you need to make sure all of the ground points on your engine are in really good condition and good spots.

On and OEM factory car, they often have about 4 different ground points.  They have one at the front of the engine, one at the back of the engine, they generally have one down on the side of the motor, and one that goes from the alternator bracket to the battery.

These are all critical to the way an engine runs.  Whether it's to ground injectors, or ignition coils that need to be grounded to give good spark, once again, if you don't have good ground for your ignition system, you're not going to have a good spark, it's going to break down under load when the engine is trying to produce maximum power.

 

Throttle Body Linkage Bayswater | Fuel Injection Bayswater

The linkage setup to a throttle body is very important.  Whether you've got an eccentric linkage, or just a direct one to one linkage.  

In some cases with big throttle bodies they have an eccentric linkage, and what that means is that as you start to apply the throttle it will open slower than you're actually putting your foot down.  Then, when you get to about 3/4 throttle, it will open up quicker.  That's what an eccentric linkage is, and that's what sometimes we recommend, depending on the scenario and the type of fuel injection.

So there is a lot to be taken into account with a throttle body.

Another thing to look at is, when you go replacing a throttle body with an aftermarket throttle body, there may be no idle speed device on the new throttle body.  Now, an idle speed device is a comfort device.  You want to be able to go out in the morning, hit the key, and have it idle up to 1200 RPM.  While it's warming up, it can slowly come down to normal idle as the engine warms up.

You also want the idle speed to device to "catch" the idle as you are getting off the throttle coming up to a set of lights, or coming to a stop.

Sometimes people will say to us, that they don't care about that, that they'll sit and warm the car up.  That's all good and well for about the first month, until they've gotten over that initial enjoyment of the car, and then they say, it stalls when it's cold, it stalls when I pull up at a set of lights, or they have to keep the car running at 1200 RPM to keep it idling.  This is not the type of feedback that we want to hear.  That is why it's so important to have idle control.

That is something to take into account when buying a throttle body.

Faulty Throttle Sensor Bayswater | Fuel Injection Bayswater

A symptom that I see sometimes, is a misadjusted TPS, which turns out to be a faulty TPS, and it's creating issues for the engine management system.

What this means is, you can have a worn-out lug (the mechanical part that moves with the throttle plate), or they can be worm out electrically, inside the throttle position switch.

Now, what that can create is, if you are holding the throttle position switch at a given point, and inside electrically, it's not actually connected, it's worn out, bent, or just damaged in some way, the engine management system is going "I am at 5% load; no I'm not; yes I am; no I'm not....".  

What this can create, is an acceleration enrichment.  So, you're driving down the street, holding the throttle still, and all of a sudden, you are getting enrichment, then you're not getting enrichment, then you are getting enrichment, etc.  It can create a very poor mixture, very poor fuel economy, and sometimes very poor drivability.

What is can also do, because we have a nice sweeping arc of the throttle position switch, and for if some reason electrically, there are damaged points, as you accelerate, and your acceleration enrichment happens, you've got a break in that acceleration enrichment.  So, all of a sudden it's getting enrichment, it isn't, it is again, so once again, you create a flat spot.

That's working on the acceleration enrichment side of things.  

The throttle position also tells the engine management system where to start to work with the idle speed.  And as we have mentioned in other articles, idle speed devices are very important to achieving a great driving experience.  

So, if for some reason, your throttle position sensor is not working, your idle speed motor doesn't know where to be.

Now you've got two scenarios.

The first is a car that stalls at lghts, and a car that flat spots as it takes off from the lights.

And that could be due to just a faulty throttle position switch.

Pod Air Cleaners Bayswater | Fuel Injection Bayswater

Something that we've done a lot of testing on here is pod air cleaners, also known as pod air filters.

People put pod air cleaners on their car and there is a real misconception that instantly "i've got more power".  What we generally find is that they hear a lot of induction noise, so all of a sudden they feel they've got more power because they can hear the noise.

One common problem we do come across when pod air cleaners are fitted, is that the original air box is designed to pick up cold air, often from in front of the radiator or from behind the headlight area.  The original manufacturer has designed the intake to ensure that only cold air is brought into the start of the intake system.

If a pod air cleaner is fitted after the radiator, we are going to have 80 degree air temperatures going into the engine.  Even if the engine runs an intercooler, why heat the air up before it goes into the engine's intake system.  Why not try and keep it as cold as possible.

Our recommendations is to try to keep an EOM factory style air filter and air box.  You can put your K&N or rechargeable air filters into them, but try to keep the original air box to try to keep the cold air intake system happening.

If you take hot air from behind the radiator, every part of the engine, the turbo, the intercooler, all have to work harder.  And the intercooler has to work harder to try to get the air temperatures down.

Cold air temps, are what you need when EFI tuning for power, and economy.  The more we have cold air, the better the engine is going to run. 

So, having a pod air cleaner may sound like you are making power.  It may perform better than your original one, because you hadn't replaced the element, or your element was restrictive, but it in effect, no good when that bonnets, you've got 80 degree celsius engine bay temperatures, and it's no good for your tune.

Fuel Injector Sizing Bayswater | Fuel Injection

One of the things when selecting fuel injectors for your car, or for your engine, is to know, what type of injector you want.  One of the biggest things you need to know when selecting injectors is the o-ring size of the injector.  

Some injectors come in 14mm o-ring size, and others come with 11mm o-rings.  The dimension from o-ring to o-ring is a big thing.  

Some injectors have 2 o-rings on them (one at each end), meaning it seals in the manifold with an o-ring, and it also seals in the fuel rail with an o-ring.

Another type of injector has an o-ring at the fuel rail end, and a buffer seal at the manifold end.  

This is very important if you are going to start to run some boost, and you don't want to lose boost past where the fuel injector sits.  So, the correct placement and the correct injector is a big thing for high performance and big drivability.

There is another type of injector.  It has a 14mm recess, but you can fit an 11mm o-ring to it.  That may be perfect to help with the scenario of your car.  This all comes back to working out what size injector you want for your engine.  

You can also see there that we have different styles of connectors for different vehicles. Once again, generally you can match the injector to the car to save any kind of further cost and effort in wiring.

One of the other big issues with injectors that we come across a lot is that people go too big with their injectors.  They always think that 800 or 1,000cc injectors is what you need.  You can match an injector to the power rating of what the car requirements are.

This is very easily done.  On average it takes 5cc of fuel injector size for every horse power the car wants to produce.  This is an equation that we use quite often in the trade.

For example, if a car was to produce 400hp, we would install injectors that would supply 450hp.  There is no reason to put injectors in it so it can go to 1,000hp.

It is a waist of time, and the drivability down low, at idle and fuel economy is not there. 

Throttle Body Size Bayswater | Fuel Injection Bayswater

One of the questions I get asked quite a bit, is, "What throttle body size do I run on my engine?"

This comes down to, whether the engine's force fed or not, normally aspirated, and the size of the engine.

People love big throttle bodies, as big or even bigger than 90mm.  They will flow a lot of air.  But, if you're putting this on a 1300cc engine, anything more than about 25% throttle is useless, because, if you open that up more than 25%, it's not going to give you any more power.  

You've already got enough airflow for what the engine's requirements will be at about a quarter open.  So, if anything, it's going to send you backwards because, on a sharp acceleration, you get a big rush of air very quickly, and you have to accommodate that with fuel injection and ignition timing.  

You put a 90mm throttle on a big cubic inch V8, and that might be perfect for it.  So, assessing the size of throttle body size to the engine size is a very important aspect.

You may make power with a huge throttle body, but you may make it undrivable too, because, just remember, as I said, on a 1300cc engine from closed, to 25% open is equivalent to wide open throttle on a standard throttle.

So, that is the equivalent of moving the throttle peddle only 25%, and going from closed throttle, to effectively full throttle.  This is going to make the engine almost undrivable.

Fuel Injector Spray Pattern Effects Fuel Economy| Fuel Injection

One of the most common causes for bad fuel economy, poor acceleration and poor cruise driveability, may not be so much the way you drive the injector, but rather the type of injector you are running.

In this car, in this scenario, we've got 2 Bosch injectors, they look identical, but the spray patterns on the end of the injector can be the problem.  You can have a 15 degree conical spray, or a 30 to 60 degree conical spray.  What that means, is the atomisation of the fuel going into the cylinder.  

At a light cruise, something like on a Skyline, at about 2,200 RPM and 100 kph, you need maximum atomisation.  The airflow over the fuel injectors, the airflow into the cylinders is not at a high speed, so atomisation of the fuel is one of the best things.

If you have a poor quality injector, it won't effect your power at the top end, you'll still make maximum power, but your driveability won't be there.  So, one thing is to look at the type of injector you're fitting to your car, which is what we do here at Wolf Motorsport, we advise you on what type of injector to put into your car, and the right one of the job.

If you've got a drag car, and only top end stuff, then those injectors with the 15 degree spray pattern may be fine.  But, if you want nice economy, nice driveability, nice acceleration off the line, you've got to go for a 30 or 60 degree spray pattern. 

Fuel Injection 12V Power Distribution | Fuel Injection

Another aspect of power distribution when wiring a car up or playing with the wiring in your car, it's not an uncommon perspective to put the battery in the boot.

Now, when you take an OEM car that has the battery in the boot, like a Skyline, they run a battery cable up to a battery terminal in the engine bay.  Then they run from that battery terminal down to the starter motor.

The reason they do this is because the OEM factory know that a starter motor draws a lot of current and has a lot of electrical flyback.

They know that flyback can cause problems with other power distribution centres in the car.  One other thing is that with a starter motor you've got a couple of hundred amps being drawn when the starter motor engages, to turn that motor over.

So, the power draw here, could pull that power source down to 10 volts.  If you're trying to drive 6 injectors and 6 ignition coils and a starter motor off 10 volts, it's not really going to make a nice starting car.

So, if you are moving your battery to the boot, we recommend that you run a negative cable all the way to the engine, as well as to the chassis, and you run a positive cable to a remote battery post.  Then from your battery post to your starter motor.  

You don't connect directly to the starter motor.  Connecting directly to the starter motor, even though it will save a couple of dollars in cable, and installation, you will have head aches further down the line, when you've got current draw and power losses when you are starting the engine.

Can I Have Power and Economy with Rob Sabbadin | Fuel Injection

Power and economy is achievable.

 

You only use the amount of fuel for the amount of power you are actually using in the vehicle.  For instance, if a car is capable of 300kW, at the 300kW mark, you are using 300kW worth of fuel, which would be a fairly thirsty car.

 

This is all dictated by the amount of acceleration that you give the car.  If you're only using 70kW of that 300kW the car is most likely to be economical, by we are meaning that the accelerator  wouldn't be depressed all the way to the floor on every day driving.  Meaning that the computer would be going into different load cells and RPM's, where fuel efficiency would be greater.

 

The 2 main factors giving good fuel economy are ignition timing and air fuel ratios.  90% of your driving time is spent cruising and idling.  So, 60, 80 and 100 kilometre load cells are the most important part of your tune.

 

These load cells must have correct ignition timing and air fuel ratios to determine good fuel economy.

 

How Long to Tune EFI with Rob Sabbadin | Fuel Injection

One of the most common questions I get asked regarding tuning is, "How long does my car have to be there for?" 

Usually, I'll always recommend to a customer that we'll need the car for a minimum of 3 days, and to a maximum of 5 days.

 

Tuning is not just dyno time, where we go through the basic RPM of the car, load points of the car and into the power side of it.  There's a lot more to it, being how it idles, from high revs back to low revs, does it stall, cold starts.  There is nothing worse than a car that you start cold, and you've got to keep restarting it because it stalls.  All of this is part of the tune, and must be spot on - which isn't a 1 day process.

 

We don't like any of the cars leaving the workshop unless we know our customer is not going to get stranded somewhere down the road, or in a week somewhere because the car won't start because it's a different temperature to what it was when it was tuned, or a different condition.  

 

So, we try to put the car through all of the different conditions that we think it will go through.  Along with that, we usually try to take it on a drive on a road where there is various different scenarios, being traffic, being highway driving, being freeways, stop-start.  

 

Then, once we are happy with that, we are happy to give the car back to the customer.

 

 

Rotary Engine Rebuild Basics with Rob Sabbadin | Fuel Injection

One of the common things we do down here is rebuild rotary engines.

When we rebuild rotary engines, it really comes down to what a customer's after and what the purpose of the engine is.

We are currently rebuilding an RX7 Series 8 engine, which the customer is intending on circuit racing.  For that application, we have chosen to go with a stud kit through the housings and through the end plates.  This is to increase the rigidity of his motor, and stop twist.

The other thing we have done with his rotors, all of his rotors have been side clearanced, which gives us extra clearance on the side seals and also the corner seals.

We always opt to use new bearings in all of our rotor assemblies, and also in our stationary gears.

The other thing we do, is to have all of our rotating assembly balanced, and we also get our shafts what we call "isotropic coated" to improve strength.

The other thing that is very critical are the oil control rings in the engine.  A lot of people fail to replace certain things like oil control rings and the different retaining springs behind them.  They must be replaced to maintain the tension in the oil control rings, side seals, corner seals and apex seals.

Apex seals and side seals are pretty much like a piston ring.  Apex seals gain a surface against a rotor housing, and the side seals work with the side plates.

Turbo Charger Basics with Rob Sabbadin | Fuel Injection

 By Rob Sabbadin:

What I wanted to talk to you quickly about today is different turbo chargers and some of the things that people do with manifolds, dump pipes, different gaskets and washers that are used.

With the manifold here that we have in front of us, this manifold's been HPC coated and the dump pipe has been wrapped.

The purpose of this is to actually help with the spool-up time of the turbo.   If we maintain heat in the manifold it actually helps reduce the spool-up time.  So, this whole manifold has been HPC coated, also, the dump-pipe has been heat wrapped.

This is also good for heat distribution in the engine bay because it's maintaining the heat inside the manifold and not expelling the heat under the bonnet.

Also, with a turbo it's very important when they are bolted up to a manifold, that all new gaskets and locking nuts are used.  There can be a fair bit of vibration from an exhaust system attaching to a turbo which goes through the whole manifold.  It's very common for bolts to come loose.

In this turbo here, it's had all new nuts and studs put on with locking tabs, along with locking nuts.

An important thing with turbos is a good quality turbo to manifold gasket.  There are cheaper and higher quality gaskets available.  The type of gaskets that we use are the same as EOM gaskets, which is a thicker gasket, which is three shims internally which are folded together. 

These gaskets give a lot more "crush" and is a lot better with heat, and they will handle severe heat all of the time without failure.

You can check out more information on Turbo Chargers and Fuel Injection by Rob Sabbadin.

Cam Timing Basics with Rob Sabbadin | Fuel Injection

 By Rob Sabbadin:

A commonly asked question by people is whether cam gears on an engine are actually beneficial or a waist of money.

Our R&D will show that cam gears can be very beneficial.  Every engine has its own characteristics and different cam timings can vary between engines and the application.  Also, turbo size and other bits and pieces can make a big difference to the required cam timing.

Cam gears are generally 1 degree or 2 degree adjustable.  Either being 1 degree on the cam, or 2 degrees on the crank.

Advancing and retarding cams can give you more power down low, or up top, or it can also give you a midrange power gain.

The power gain that is needed with vary for the application of the engine.  Whether it was someone that was trying to be a horsepower hero, trying to get power at the top of the rev range and not really worry about the bottom half.  Or whether a customer wanted midrange and top end, or bottom end power, and not really worry about the top end.

As you can see from the results, cam timing has given us a very good increase. It has basically given us an increase from the get-go, all the way to the top of the power curve.  With this we have used exactly the same turbo charger boost, also, we have tried to maintain the same air fuel ratios.

When cam timing is changed, it does alter air fuel ratios, but we have made changes to make sure that was the same, and also ignition timing has been left the same.