08/31/08

Fuel injection here we come!

Attempt no.1 was trying it the Ford way; Bosch KE-Jetronic as found in the Escort RS Turbo.  Through various means, all the necessary parts were finally acquired - now comes the fitting.

I now know why Reliant didn't bother - there is just nowhere to fit that fuel distributor.  The only place I could physically mount it was in the spare wheel well (one can of tyre weld was also on the shopping list), but this left me with horrendously long pipes from there to the turbo inlet; add that to the lengths of pipework to the intercooler and back and we have around 20ft of pipework which needs to be totally airtight otherwise the system won't work.  Guess what?  It didn't.

Save carrying on with a dead duck, we move to idea no.17.  Let's get this into the 21st century and go EFi (Electronic Fuel Injection).  Now, do I copy Ford again and try the Fiesta RS Turbo system, or try my own?  By my own, I mean the Megasquirt DIY EFi controller (www.msefi.com).  Here is a system made primarily for carburettor replacement (bang on!) with the minimum of parts and tuneable from any laptop.  Cost?  About £150 for the ECU and the rest of the bits are as much as you want to pay!

Now there is an EFi manifold available for the CVH, but needs matching to its own head due to injector cutouts in the ports.  My head was in good condition, so now started looking for another method.  For most engines, the ultimate induction system is a set of ITBs (individual throttle bodies), but to buy these from the likes of Weber, Jenvey or Lumenition are silly money.  What a lot of people on the MS forum are using is ones from high performance motorbikes.  Virtually all bikes over 600cc have 4 throttle bodies suitable for a conventional 4 cylinder car engine.  So off we go shopping (on ebay, of course)...

These Mikuni bodies came from a Kawasaki GPZ1100; with a little jigging and machining they were fitted to a RS Turbo injector mounting plate.  Much cheaper than making them fit the standard Weber DCOE-type arrangement!

Fitted with a set of Sierra Cosworth injectors, the car finally ran using the old RS Turbo ignition system (which can be used standalone without the injection)!

After playing around with the fuel map, I wasn't happy with the lack of manifold vaccuum I could achieve at idle; apparently this can be a side effect of using throttle bodies.  If I wasn't happy now, I never would be.  Great idea which worked, but back to the drawing board..

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