All You Wanted to Know About EFI But Were Afraid to Ask.

Chapter 3 - Starting the Project Richard Nedbal - richnedbal@msn.com So now that we have enough basic knowledge to get ourselves in trouble, what say we actually begin an EFI project? Where to begin: I recommend that you complete the modifications to the fuel delivery system first. This is not the fun stuff, but youre going to have to do it sooner or later, so why not get it out of the way now. Remember from before that an EFI fuel system constantly returns fuel to the tank; so youll have to either modify your existing fuel tank, or buy another one that has already been set up for EFI. Here is a list of things to consider: * EFI fuel pumps are high pressure (~45 psi) and they push, they dont pull, so it will have to be mounted in the rear near the tank. * Unless specifically designed, aftermarket pumps are usually external to the tank. This means you will hear it! If your cars exhaust is quiet, you may want to consider an in-tank fuel pump. These pumps are usually sized so that they can only feed about 500 HP or so, but thats enough for most streetcars. Want more HP? Mount a bigger pump outside the tank and live with the noise. * The fuel return should be to a sump area from where the pump draws. I have seen aftermarket EFI conversion where the engine dies on an exit ramp because the fuel level was low and the pump sucked air during the turn. Embarrassing at least! * Why not mount the fuel filters near the pump too? * Pay attention to the diameter of the feed and return lines and use common sense with the routing. Testing the fuel system: So now, with everything installed, you CAN actually test the fuel system before you start the rest of the project. Most V8 EFI systems feed one of the fuel rails from the back, then theres a crossover to the other rail in the front, then the EFI regulator, then the return line. So the feed and return lines can be connected to the regulator with a simple plug where the fuel rails would connect. Since you installed an EFI fuel pressure gauge on the regulator (right?) you can power up the pump and adjust the fuel pressure at the regulator to 45 psi. The regulator controls fuel pressure by restricting the return. No leaks? No stream of 45 psi fuel shooting to the ceiling? No pool of fuel under the tank? No - Is the pump running? For testing purposes, please power up the pump using a switch. Dont just touch wires to the battery NO SPARKS PLEASE! This is only temporary because aftermarket EFI systems, such as FAST, control the fuel pump automatically, and a relay must be used because pumps draw a lot of current. FYI: For cases where the pump is external to the tank, pump voltage controllers are available that automatically back down the voltage during idle when you need less fuel. This keeps the pump cooler and decreases the noise when you are most likely to hear it. But they are expensive. Well? What next? Lets get familiar with all the components. First theres the ECU or Engine Control Unit. This is the heart of any EFI system and its basically a full-blown high-speed computer. It has two jobs: 1) Read all the sensors and compute the injector pulse widths. 2) Read a timing reference pulse and compute engine ignition timing.

This may sound easy but remember it has to do the computation in real time. And by real time, I mean the time between ignition pulses. At high RPM this isnt much time. In the early days of EFI, the ECU never tried to compute anything in real time. It took its time and dumped the information into a secondary box that was actually controlling the engine. This secondary box could run the engine on its own, without the ECU, as long as the required pulse widths and timing never had to change. So the ECU was always behind. In a steady state this was fine, but during the transitions, such as hard acceleration, the ECU was playing catch-up. There are lots of wires and lights but you really have to work at it to connect something wrong. The ECU reads the actual air/fuel ratio from whats called a wide band O2 sensor. These are also called Lambda sensors. These are different from a normal (read cheap) O2 sensor, in that they read the actual A/F ratio. Normal O2 sensors switch at about 14.7:1 A/F ratio, but a wide band can be used to read the true A/F ratio. Yes, you have to have an O2 bung welded on the exhaust manifold after the tubing merge so it can see the entire side of the engine. Then theres the intake manifold with the injectors and the fuel rails. This is a small block manifold, but its a good example of what has to be done to the typical Mopar: * Drill the holes for the injector bungs. * Weld in the bungs. * Grind off any bung material that hangs into the runner. * Figure out how to hold down the rails. * Plumb the fuel in, across, and out (to the regulator). The throttle body comprises the throttle body itself, the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) and the IAC (Idle Air Control) motor. The throttle body bolts right on the manifold just like a carburetor. The TPS tells the ECU how far the throttle is open; and at idle, the ECU tells the IAC motor how much air to bleed into the engine from that small hole in the top near the IAC. So the IAC is really a controlled vacuum leak.

Then theres the toughest part of the whole project the distributor. The EFI system needs to get an ignition pulse from somewhere. This would normally come from the reluctor in a distributor, but an EFI system needs a FIXED timing pulse to occur much earlier - like 50 degrees BTDC. The engine never sees this pulse; it merely tells the ECU when the engine is at 50 degrees, and then the ECU computes the actual timing pulse that will go a normal ignition box like an MSD 6AL. Then there are those people that want to run SEQUENTIAL injector timing. A sequential system requires a separate cam signal too - that occurs once per engine cycle or every two engine revolutions. Where is that going to come from? Another reluctor with 7 teeth filed off or what? We used to take apart a distributor, grind off 7 teeth and relocate the reluctor for the cam signal. Then mount a crank trigger on the front of the motor for the fixed ignition signal. That was a lot of work and costly. But now you can buy a distributor that generates both the cam and ignition signals and bolts right in. So lets finish this session with the final few elements: The Manifold Absolute Pressure sensor, is commonly known as the MAP sensor. This is connected with a vacuum hose to a vacuum port on the back of the throttle body. This tells the ECU how much load the engine is under. Now lets take a look at the final two sensors that youd swear were brothers. First the coolant temperature sensor, that screws into any convenient spot that monitors water temperature. Its a critical sensor because it tells the ECU if an engine is cold and needs more fuel during warm up. Remember - theres no choke! The air temp sensor usually mounts in the air cleaner or any spot that represents the incoming air. Mild engines can also use a knock sensor that allows the ECU to back off on the timing if low octane fuel is being used, but I almost never see a Mopar that would be considered Mild. And before you send me any emails YES, the sensors shown are GM sensors. But GM sensors are cheap and work quite well thank you. Next time well hook everything up and maybe do an initial start.
Air Temp Coolant Figure 2

to