Air / Water Temp

Although the car's dashboard already displays water temperature, the ECU controlling both ignition and injection needs a separate dedicated sensor. I added one near the thermostat housing. Further on, injection control needs to know the air temperature. A simple bracket near the air filters will hold it, the final version will be mounted with the Jenvey throttle bodies. In the pic it is visible right in the middle between the two double carburettors. With the throttle bodies being the same size and bolt pattern, I can easily prepare the cabling of the sensors before the big switch to injection.
Cheers.

Fuel system

 

One of the biggest changes (if not the biggest in all) when converting a car from carb to electronic fuel injection is the fuel system. Carbs have small inner 'tanks' with fuel, injectors don't. That's why the whole system runs under a higher pressure and with the help of a fuel swirl pot, there is always fuel available, even under hard cornering. Although the plumbing is not yet finished in this pic, the concept can be explained. From right to left: a low pressure pump gets the fuel from the tank, pumps it into the swirl pot (middle) where the high pressure pump (left) can get it and route it to the injectors. Excess fuel gets back to the swirl pot which makes a closed loop. If there is still too much fuel in the system (swirl pot), the overflow goes back into the tank. Well... it's not quite as easy as that, but you get the picture. Hope so.  

Cheers.

ECU

 

Why is everything so big in a small car? While looking for a good place for the ECU (electronic control unit), I had to check for enough room to fit the main 36pin connector... and still being able to remove it. At the front you can see the serial connectors, one of them to link with the laptop. And yes, this is the first step to my next major upgrade: fuel injection. More and more of the upcoming posts will treat the conversion from carburettor to EFI.

Cheers.

Oilcooler

 

An additional oil-cooler sits in front of the radiator. With the help of a sandwich plate, the oil is routed from the filter housing to the front of the nose. Maybe not the final version of the brackets, but it works!

Cheers.

Fusebox

 

You may laugh at the view of the actual fusebox, but during the four years I own the car, I already upgraded so many things... but not this little jewel. A new one is ready to be fitted and very much on the top of my tasks list.

Cheers.

Rear

 

Still a lot of work to achieve before I can call it "perfect", but already a nice rear view with the new 225/45R15 tires from Toyo (Proxxes R1R). Have a nice weekend.

Cheers.

Ignition III

... and this is it! The map. It shows the load and RPM (revolutions per minute) axis, the ignition advance in the colored fields and when running, the actual advance with big green digits, the RPM as an analog gauge and the TPS (throttle position sensor) in % , 0% means idle, 100% means full throttle.
Those are the basics of the system. There is a lot more to be told and I invite everybody interested to have a look here:

Cheers.

Ignition II

To find out the exact moment the spark has to be fired, the calculator must know in which position the crankshaft is. According to the previously defined TDC, a sensor captures the exact position. A toothed wheel on the crankshaft gives the information via 36 teeth, one tooth is missing for synchronisation.

Furthermore, a potentiometer captures the position of the throttle axis to determine the load. This can also be done by vaccum, but on my car the intake manifold wasn't equipped.

Crank position and load are then evaluated by the calculator.

 

This calculator in particular works together with the Ford EDIS ignition module, which fires the ignition coils. The picture shows both the EDIS and the coilpack prior to complete wiring.

This is it for the hardware (well... high tension leads and spark plugs are common to almost every ignition system). My next post will show what a map looks like and what it does to alter advance.

Cheers.

Ignition I

Animated GIF "borrowed" from mediaculture-online.
As you can see, the spark has to be fired just before the piston goes down, the highest point being called TDC (top dead center). This is commonly known as ignition advance. It is calculated in degrees as part of one 360° revolution of the crankshaft. An advance timing of 10° therefore means that the spark is fired 10° before TDC. As the engine runs faster and faster, the spark must be fired even earlier.
Complicated? You have to decide for yourself, normally - in older cars - a mechanical distributor does it for you. The down side is that mechanical advance is limited and you cannot have the full advance when revving high, i.e. you cannot take full profit out of the engine's potential power. With 3D electronic ignition you can do so, that's why I modified the ignition system on my car.
I opted for a system called Megajolt. It's a calculator you have to feed with some information (position of the crankshaft, position of the throttle axis of the carburettor or injection throttle body) depending on your car's specs. In return it fires the coils at the right moment and ignites the sparks. It's fully programmable and has free access. Megajolt can do a lot more but you can have a look for yourself at the installation guide .
One of the interesting things is to find out where exactly the TDC is. I manufactured a tool to find it which you can see here:

It is a dial gauge I mounted on an adapter I can screw into the spark plug thread. With the piston coming up, the gauge turns one direction (wrench on crankshaft - manual cranking without ignition!). The exact moment it turns the other way around, the piston goes down again. This method is quite precise.
Next 'episode'  will show the sensors and electronic components.
Cheers.