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How-To Section:
Fuel Inject your Escort
How do you fuel inject an Escort? Well this will
try to relate to all Escorts, 1100, 1300, 1600 2000, and twin cams.
Lets start at the rear of the car, and one place where immediate
difficulty will appear for road car escorts.
The fuel tank on a Mk1 for example has only 1
fuel out connection. On an efi car, you definitely require at least
1 fuel out and one fuel in on the tank. The fuel out, as you would
guess, needs to be at the bottom of the tank, but I was informed
that the fuel return MUST be into the top of the tank. I guess to
stop a full tank of fuel from flowing down and filling up the surge
tank. So how to fix this problem. Perhaps put a Mk2 drop tank into
the Mk1. I believe this has a fuel return line incorporated into
it, but I'm not sure it is at the bottom so this may not work. Another
other option might be to put a T piece in the fuel filler neck.
I haven't done this, but as a thought you could try it. Trying to
buy a later model tank, and modifying the floor of the escort boot
to fit it is an idea. Probably the best and easiest idea is to install
a plastic or aluminium drop tank in the boot in place of the standard
drop tank. This should have an upper and lower point for pick up
and return. I guess for a road car you should see the relevant people
about the legality of this.
From here we work our way towards the front of
the car. You must replace all of the fuel line in the car from the
standard crap stuff(a good idea on all escorts) to other fuel hose.
In this instance you will need to use the high pressure efi fuel
line, not the standard stuff. Ensure that you also use the high
pressure non cutting style hose clamps on the connections. You also
need to purchase a few other items. Namely a high pressure efi pump,
capable of at least 45psi. Bosch sell a few that will do the job(such
as the VL Commodore efi 6 turbo one). You will need a low pressure
pump also, something like a Holley blue or a Carter that pumps about
5psi would be fine. Next you need a good EFI fuel filter, you can
perhaps get a non efi filter as well. Lastly for this section, you
need to purchase a surge tank, this should be something like 1 litre,
with 4 connections on it.
To fit all this stuff, try this for an escort.
Mount the Holley blue fuel pump under the boot floor, behind the
rear axle, along side the leaf springs. Run the fuel out from the
bottom of the tank to the inlet side of the Holley blue. Put a fuel
filter between the tank and the low pressure pump (we just put a
high flow efi filter here instead of having 2). Mount the Swirl
pot securely in the boot, keep in mind how you intend using the
boot in the future when deciding placement. Run the out side of
the low pressure pump to one of the upper inlets on the surge tank,
buy running the hose through a hole drilled in the boot floor for
the hose to run through. Ensure you use a grommet to seal the hole
and protect the hose. Run another hose from the top return line
on the Fuel tank directly to the other upper outlet on the surge
tank. This is the return to the tank for when the swirl pot is full.
Next mount the High pressure pump somewhere in
the boot, maybe in the wheel well. Run the fuel hose from the bottom
connection on the swirl pot to the high pressure pump inlet side.
Now run the fuel line back under the car up to the engine bay, leaving
enough length to attach it to the fuel rail. Whilst doing this,
you might as well run the return line from where the fuel rail would
end, back to the top of the swirl pot for the return line. That
should be it for the rear half of the system. We look at wiring
later...
You will now need to look at throttle bodies, fuel
rails, fuel regulators, and trumpets. There are many different throttle
bodies, basically separated into three categories. Factory ones,
Carby style ones and custom throttle bodies. On an escort, there
are a couple of useable factory items.
- On a pinto you can use the sierra throttle body. This is a multi
point setup, but has only one throttle body, and requires mods
to the head to allow for the nose of the injector.
- On a Sierra Cosworth head, you have the standard factory turbo
inlet manifold. I believe it would be possible to use this on
a non turbo application for cost reasons if you had to.
- On a crossflow, I don't think there is any factory style systems
that would fit(I don't know much about the Kent engines)
The next way is the most used. This is where you
get a twin webber manifold for your engine. You can then choose
from a large selection of throttle bodies that will bold on to a
webber manifold, such as the quad throttle body setups from Speed
Technology, Lumination, Motec, and others. These are all above $1000
and up to $2000, but give great performance not available from the
factory manifolds.
I wont go into any detail about custom manifolds,
but at the name suggests, they are custom made for your engine,
and are the ultimate in throttle bodies, and in cost also.
Most will use the quad throttle bodies that bolt
onto a webber manifold, as on a cost/performance, it is hard to
beat them. Choose your injectors depending on your desired maximum
engine power. Look at the flow of the injector and the max power
per injector to get the one that suits your needs best. For high
flow applications, Bosch 803 injectors are in common use. See Wolf's
web site at http://www.aems.com.au/injector_flow_rates.htm for a
list of injectors and flow rates.
Now you need to buy an ECU. This is the point where
the costs of your system, as well as the performance can be decided.
The bottom end systems work well enough, but lack many of the features
that make the higher cost systems better for race type performance.
Options to look for on ECU's include
- Just Fuel, or Fuel and Ignition (including Timing)
- Data Logging
- Sequential injection
- Auxiliary in/out such as shift lights out, turbo controls,
fan controls, A/C controls etc.
- Increments of Ignition/Fuel Maps
- Method of setting up ecu (laptop, led screen, hand held unit
etc)
- Change parameters, such as warm up enrichment's, and over temp
rev limits
- Closed Loop capabilities (self tuning as you drive to keep
co readings right)
- Self Tuning on dyno for setup of engine
- Backup and warranty
- Ignition triggering methods
- Traction Control
You may not need all of these features, and some
are race only options, so choose only what you Must have, as the
more options you get, the more the cost... Here is a list of commercially
available ECU's in Melbourne Australia. The review on them is a
personal review, determined whilst investigating the ecu we purchased
for our car. Some of these systems I have never used, but you can
ring them directly for a more definite list of features. Parts of
this were also compiled using ads for some the ECU's.
Wolf 2d/3d $900-$1300
Wolf is Australian (I know the guys), well made,
great after purchase
support, and very well priced. It does not require a laptop, just
a supplied hand held unit for updates. No sequential injection (though
importance of this can be argued), fuel/ignition control, closed
loop
capable. great medium priced ems. Easier to set up than autronic
and
Motec, but less features. Min/Max datalogging only.
Haltech $ 795-850
Ignition and fuel control, MIN/MAX data logging. Real low end
machine, probably ok on a road car.
micro tech
Lap top required. I don't know much about this
one, doesn't appear to
be widely used, Closed loop capable, shift light, idle speed control.
Seems like a low end ems, don't know price but expect it to be relatively
cheap.
Autronic $1600 up
V8 super car use. Full featured, sequential injection,
crank triggered
ignition available, datalogging, temp controlled rev limits, warm
up enrichment, closed loop capable, aux outputs, etc...etc..etc..
Requires laptop... harder to use than Motec, doesn't not have all
the features that Motec has, but has some of its own that Motec
does not. Motec Dash-Logger compatible.
Motec. $2000-2500 up
Also used by V8 super cars. Top of the Price range.
Similar features to Autronic, but Windows based software is easier
to use. It has more add ons such as dash and datalogging available.
Expensive but very good. Debatable if it is any better than Autronic
except for user interface
Once you have chosen your Ecu, it is time to have it installed,
or to install it yourself. To have it wired into your car should
cost from $200-500 from anyone experienced in doing this work. Gary
Rowe Motorsport Electrics in Melbourne are experienced in doing
this work in Victoria, outside of this state I am not sure who would
be good to get to do it. Why did I not do it myself... I have wired
the rest of the car myself, and it doesn't seem too hard. Well looking
at $200-300 to wire up just the ecu, I doubted that I could do it
cheaper when you include the price of the injector connectors, the
other sensor connectors, relays, fuses, and shrink wrap. To save
money, wiring it yourself would not be too difficult. Most ECU's
come with their own loom, so it is not like starting from nothing.
How to control the Ignition. Well this changes
depending on the ECU. But I will talk on my experience. We purchased
the exorbodently expensive chopper wheel from Motec ($120 for a
small wheel with little tabs on it) and had it carefully installed
on the front of the crank. I modified this wheel so that it had
all but two opposing tabs removed from it (so that it has 4 pulses
per four stoke cycle). Each of these pulses tells the Ecu when TDC
on A cylinder has passed. This is used to get the timing of the
Ecu synchronised with the engine, then after 2 cranks, it fires
the cylinder pointed to by the rotor button at the time. This can
be replaced by firing of coil packs, but we needed to keep the dizzy
for the sequential injection anyhow, so it is a cost effective and
reliable solution. (If you are doing this on a cossie, Use a Peugot
90deg Dizzy cap to get the leads away from the inlet manifold).
So once you have the chopper wheel in place, you need mount the
crank angle sensor (available from Autronic/Motec about $50). Custom
make a mounting bracket for this, and ger the clearances accurate.
As for running the Sequential injection, you need
to tell the ecu when you are at the firing pulse for cylinder 1,
so that it can synchronise the injectors. With an Autronic system,
you can use a hall effect sensor setup with a vaned rotor. We purchased
a non working Camira Dizzy for about $30 so that we could get the
parts. This dizzy was disassembled, and we mounted the bits we needed
into a gutted and locked escort Dizzy (ie removed both the mechanical
and Vacuum Advances).
These bits were wired up to the ecu, and this controlled
the ignition and injectors. The final but to do is to is to mount
the throttle bodies, Throttle Position Sensor (onto a throttle body),fuel
lines, regulator, throttle bodies, and hook up the accelerator.
This is all just bolt up, but ensure you put the out from the efi
pump to one side of the fuel rail, then the regulator on the other
side, and from the regulator, the return line back to the swirl
pot. The accelerator cable is a custom fitting, so you will have
to make that up as you go. Just make sure the butterflies are going
from full close to full open. You may also have to hook up a specific
temp sender (separate from the gauge one) to tell the ecu what the
engine temp is. It can also be advantages to change to a HEI type
ignition system at the same time, such as Bosch HEI or MSD etc.
I guess that is about it. It is a lot more involved
than many expect, but certainly not out of the realms of the back
yard tuner. Also remember to add to all this the cost of dyno tuning,
the only way to really set up the engine and new efi properly. This
is really a must.
(C) jamie_augustine@ansett.com.au 1999
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