Engine Cooling Systems Melbourne | Dyno Tuning Melbourne

When modifying a vehicle, one aspect that should be taken into account is your cooling system.

If you take an example of a 1971 model car, with a 2000 model fuel injected engine.  You can put a 2000 model radiator and thermofans into the engine bay.  One thing to consider is that you will have dual thermofans.  One on the left, and one on the right of the radiator.

You will wont to turn one thermofan on at a time, just above operating temperature, and the second thermofan should come on around 4 to 5 degrees after that.  This saves electrical load on the battery and charging system.  You are not turning on 2 thermofans at once.  And this also lets you turn on the second thermofan when the air conditioning compressor is turned on.

Something else to keep in mind is, if you have an air conditioning condenser sitting in front of the radiator you are restricting air flow passed the radiator.  But then, if you have an intercooler of some kind in front of that, you're restricting air flow passed both the air conditioning condenser, and through the radiator.

So, alway keep this in mind, and try to keep the airways clear and allow air to pass through radiators and intercoolers for maximum efficiency.

One last thing to keep in mind with cooling systems, is that you are going to want to dyno tune your car, you will want to get the maximum out of it.  Make sure all of the pipes and hoseclamps are up to scratch, and there is not something that is second hand that is going to blow out or fly apart when it's on the chassis dyno.

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.