Fuel Injected Midget

[Morris]

It's 12:15AM January 2nd, and I just completed installing and wiring the ECU for my soon to be injected Midget. In spite of my complete exhaustion, I am pretty jazzed. I just wanted to share with a group of guys who might appreciate the accomplishment.

My incredible wife is excellent at pretending she is excited about my major automotive accomplishments, but it's not the same.

morris

ps. British Leyland searched the whole back warehouse to find the finest pieces of recycled carboard when they built the glove boxes for the late 70's Midget. Sheesh!

 

[Bugeye58]

Morris, full specs, technical details, and a complete road test to follow, we assume?
Congratulations!!
I've got a '74 sitting here doing nothing, if you want me to experiment. You really should have at least an A to B comparison for subjective data, after all.
Jeff

 

[aeronca65t]

Morris:

Are you using the MegaSquirt system, or something else?

 

[Morris]

Nial,

I am using MegaSquirt. Though the parts I am using may be adapted so that they can be used with a GM computer in the future.

Jeff,

I hope to have her injected and on the road by the end of the month so that means sometime in late February or early March *sigh*. I will put up tech specs and pics as I get closer to completion, but to give you a brief overview, it will be a throttle body system that will use the stock carb (in this case a ZS150) as the throttle body. In fact, the conversion will be difficult to spot from more than a few feet away. (heh-heh). AND, I would love to work with you on injecting your '74. It is my goal to design and sell fuel injection kits for a living in the near future. I am in need of willing co-conspirators to achieve this goal. How is your '74 set up? How far away is it from stock configuration?

Morris

 

[Bugeye58]

Morris, the '74 is bone stock, right down to the air cleaners. It' been setting for about 10 years, so its locked up, but that ain't no big deal.
Jeff

 

[Morris]

Oh man! That's perfect! I would love to tackle that project whenever you are ready.

Morris

 

[Bugeye58]

Morris, It will have to wait until the snow is gone up here.
I've got my spare 1275 sitting here, that is still stock. I can't remember what year it is, but it was a "smog" motor. Also, a stock '72, that is my nice weather daily driver. All of the above have the original twin SU's.
Remind me in the spring.
Jeff

 

[dklawson]

Help me with some history. What year did the swap to the Triumph 1500 happen? Are you injecting a 1500 or a 1275?

I do not wish to detract in any way from your efforts but the A-series engine is known to have problems when switching to injection due to the siamesed ports. The A-series and its successor the A+ have been injected but generally as throttle body installations when using a stock cylinder head. Marcel Chichak in Canada has spent a fair amount of time working on injecting the A-series. If you run into difficulties you may wish to drop him an email. You can visit his web site and get his email address at:
https://www.planet.eon.net/~chichm/

Good luck with your project! I hope it works to your expectations.

 

[Matthew E. Herd]

Space issues aside, it may be that he needs to use 4 injectors instead of 2. This would enable smaller fuel metering at idle, which could also be injected sequentially (or at least more frequently than it currently is). The Megasquirt operates on a batch firing, and I'm not sure how Marcel's DTA operates, but this could mitigate the problem in the batch firing case, or even cure it in sequential fire. I'm reasonably sure other injected engines have been siamesed port, but I can't testify to that.

 

[aeronca65t]

Morris:

I am keen to hear about your Megasquirt fuel injection system. One of the lads I work with is building one for his 20-valve VW Rabbit (first gen Golf)....he explained some of it and I've been to the Megasquirt forums, but it all seems a mystery to me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I know there it the "Emerald" DIY system sold in the UK...seems similar to the Megasquirt.

Anyway, here's a question for all (and maybe I'll post this as a seperate post as well):

Do any of you recall the short DIY fuel injection article that ran in the MOSS MOTORS MAGAZINE? (the one that many of us get for free)
That article ran maybe about 5 years ago and it gave review of a do-it-yourself, non-computerized fuel injection sytem that could be built for about $100 USD of junk parts. It was fitted to a 1500 Midget. The basis for the system was a Renault throttle body injection unit (to replace the single carb) and a Ford fuel pressure regulator pulled from a fuel-injection Ford Tempo. The Ford unit is adjustable, so it was used to "tune" the sytem. No feedback or O2 sensor was involved. I thought it sounded great and they promised a follow up, but none came.
Anyone recall this article or have a copy of it?

 

[Matthew E. Herd]

I'm curious how something like that might work, but I wonder how much better than a carburetor it would be?

 

[Morris]

Jeff,

You're on!

DK,

The Midget shipped with the 1500 in 75. The system I am working on now is a 1500. All of my fuel injection plans currently revolve around throttle body injection, so I do not anticipate any problems from the A-series engine. The link you posted is quite impressive, but IMHO the advantages of port injecting an A-series engine do not justify the dollar/hour investment. If one wanted to set up a performance injection system, there are many dual point throttle bodies available that will bolt right up to a DCOE manifold. I think the dollar to performance ratio of this set-up would be much more satisfactory.

Matthew,

I can testify that siamesed port engines have been injected. The late model Minis (English Minis not BMWs) came from the factory with both single and dual point injection systems.

Nial,

If you are REALLY curious about MegaSquirt, perhaps I can set you up as a beta tester for my kit?

I have not seen the Moss article that you speak of, but in the "Success Story" section of the MegaSquirt forum, there is a post from a fellow who has adapted a Renault L-jetronic system to run on a BGT using a Ford Tempo throttle body. I think $100 might be a bit of a stretch, but it defintely looks like it could be done rather inexpensively.

Morris

 

[dklawson]

Thanks all for the additional information.

 

[DesertSprite]

I don't know how viable this suggestion would be for an A-Series engine, however, coming from the land of aircooled Volkswagens Weber carburetors are king. Redline (kind of a Weber carb clearing house it seems) has a fuel injection kit that a lot of VW guys fit to their cars.

Now, I don't know how well a 40/45 DCOE carb works on A-Series engines, but they're advertised in every parts catalog so somebody must run them. Redline probably has an injection system to match that carburetor model. Who knows how much it costs, but I suppose it might be worth a look if you want a clean setup.

Redline Fuel Injection

There's a link to their injection website. Personally, I think their setups are pretty clean looking.

Good luck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thirsty.gif

 

[Branson]

anything ever come of fuel injecting a 1275 motor? I caught this post and immediately started day dreaming about my Sprite being a fuel injected, supercharged, nitrous breathing flame throwing....and then I woke up. But fuel injecting a sprite sounds like a pretty cool way to modify a sprite.

 

[PHerder]

anything ever come of fuel injecting a 1275 motor? I caught this post and immediately started day dreaming about my Sprite being a fuel injected, supercharged, nitrous breathing flame throwing....and then I woke up. But fuel injecting a sprite sounds like a pretty cool way to modify a sprite.

The only one I have read about is here:

https://www.msruns.com/viewtopic.php?t=20848

 

[Morris]

Hey Boomer,

My EFI project is a bit stalled right now, but I have been putting a lot of thought into how to make my set-up work on the 1275, and I think I have it worked out. OKC is only 5 hours away from me and I have family in North Texas, so if you are serious about injecting your car, maybe we can work something out.

 

[Branson]

just a thought...Nial (i believe and please forgive me if I am wrong) has an S&S Carb from a harley grafted onto his intake manifold....would it be possible to do the same with a fuel injection kit for a harley?

like I said....just a thought.

 

[Morris]

Very possible. But Harley EFI stuff is wicked expensive. There are many EFI bikes from Nippon that make much more affordable doners.

 

[Atrus]

Hey Morris, I have a question for your setup...What did you do for fuel delivery? Are you running a regulator with a return line?