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KitCarlson EMS
We've already told you how well the fuel injection works; just see below the phenomenal near 33% gain in HP and torque. Now on to how easy it is to install.
To make a long story short, the next level of testing completed at RAT was to install Dave's system on my 912E that has seen 60,000 miles in just 22 months of driving. This car sees Driver's Ed events as well as full street abuse and pure neglect as I don't have time to service the engine, I just drive it. Although this engine is already in the car and we'll be doing the install right onto the engine and won't be able to dyno it, I do have 60,000 miles of real world experience with this motor and I'll be able to detect every slight nuance of the engine.
Here Dave is installing his brain in my modified 912E brain box, so the install looks stealth and nearly stock to the untrained L jet eye!
Here is Dave and Brent working out a quirk with the wiring diagram. Once we got all the wiring done, the rest of the conversion started coming together. To aide in tuning the vehicle while in motion, we installed an inverter to run the laptop and additional 12v outlet to accommodate our LM-1 wide band o2 sensor. Together with these two instruments, we're ready for the road.
With the engine looking as good as we hoped it would be running, Charles from LN Engineering adjusted the fuel map and dialed in idle settings so that we would have a good starting point before heading out the shop. Once we got it idling, we were ready for the road. Mind you that this engine from the get go has a cam designed and optimized for carburetors, so the tuning and idle characteristics were hard to pin down. I never dreamed that It would ever be outfitted with an EMS system when it was assembled.
As an overview, I was amazed that the MAP was as easy and as fast to set as it was. I have heard guys say that it takes weeks to get their maps correct at all operating ranges- we did this in less than 3 hours and had zero dyno tuning with the system before hand. We set the spark advance very close to what the Mallory was originally set to on my dyno when it was installed in the engine and found that the setting crossed over to the EMS very well. Note that the volumetric efficiency is over 100% across from 2000 rpm to redline! If one thing I learned today is that Dave is more than genius, he's a godsend- fuel injection is just one more step we're taking to bring the aircooled engine into the 21st century. Thanks Dave, you have created something from scratch that has impressed the HELL out of me, and that's not very easy to do! I will drive your system hard, and try my best to give it more miles than anyone else. Let the fun begin! To view more pictures from our EMS install, visit this page: Jake Raby Copyright 1997-2008 Raby’s Aircooled Technology. |
Hitting
the road, with Charles at the co-pilot position with LM-1 in one
hand and laptop in the other, the tuning began. My task was to
drive the car normally, while allowing Charles to analyze the
air fuel ratio and accordingly adjust the map to lean or enrich
the mixture. Cruising the back roads as well as driving in
traffic allowed us to tune a wide range of load vs. rpm on the
map, allowing us to dial in the fuel delivery as well as
ignition in under a few hours, all on the open road.
Best
done with more than one person in the car, Brent, Charles, and I
worked together to produce the fuel curve map. Let me tell you,
this thing is wild, and I did a better job of designing my
combination for this engine than I thought. With volumetric
efficiencies over 110%, across the majority of the MAP, it's no
wonder this engine averages 36 MPG on the highway and has gotten
38 and even 40 mpg. Throttle response is crisp, power delivery
from below 1000 rpm to 6500 rpm is precise and without the
frustrations of carburetors. 
Another
observation we were able to carefully document was lower head
temps, across the board, averaging about 50 degrees cooler. This
is even with AFRs ranging from 12.8 to 14.7. And yes, we
observed no pinging, detonation, or overheating running
stoichiometric 14.7:1 air fuel mix ratios, when the factory
limited the AFR to 11.7 on d-jet and l-jet systems alike. It's
all about the combo, which allows for economy, efficiency, and
more power than before! 
Keep
in mind that I have driven this car with absolutely no changes
for 60,000 miles before this EMS was available. I know every
mood and habit of the car and engine. The differences that I
felt were amazing, the power was so much better! With myself,
Charles, and Brent all crammed in the car the power was equal to
when I drove the car alone with the carburetors! My head temps
consistently ran the same with carbs, in each specified gear at
my various cruising speeds, 50+ degrees we saw head temps drop-
across the board. I would think that very few people drive their
car/engine as long as I did with carbs before they switch to EFI,
and may not notice the differences quite as much as I did due to
that- The gains are amazing, as the dyno and the road has shown
me all week!
