EA81 supercharger revamp by Tweety

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:19 pm

same as carby at the heads then of course !?

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:30 pm

steptoe wrote:same as carby at the heads then of course !?

Yeah they are, I was just getting at the fact you'd have squat chance of getting a factory EA81 SPFI system

Cheers

Bennie

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 5:42 pm

Talk about a revamp. Before the SPFI should go on and the enw engine rebuilt and swapped into tweety there were some rather major works to the alloy chassis to take place.

For those interested Tweety, a Panther Australia Trike has an alloy frame. For years trike manufacturers in the clever country had to use alloy material to keep the overall weight down to below the ADR of 450 kgms. Tweety, with his heavier auto transmission without accessories was 448kgms. Then in January 2011 the rules changed- they eliminated the 450kgm limit altogether. Trikes from Germany eg Rewaco and Boom powered by Ford Focus drivetrain are around the 600 kgms mark and if you havent seen one already gracing our roads - you will soon.

Back to Tweety. Alloy acts in mysterious ways. Instal a custom roof with 50 extra kgms and you could have problems. Briefly, the rear engine bar that surrounds the engine is not a support bar, its there just to keep you and me from being near the ngine, but the roof weight, half of it, was on that bar. It caused bits to crack and or break off. Eventually the alloy tank essentially the centre of a monocogue chassis, had a leak on both sides near the custom swing arm mounts. the swing arms are also fabricated. Everything except the drivetrain is hand made.

Finally the trike is towing 500 kgms of caravan. The trike is made to tow a maximum of 250 kgms with a ball weight of 30 kgms. Which explains why a mounting lug on the alloy fuel tank broke.

I found a darn good auto engineer that runs a mobile welding service for mainly farmers near Shepparton. He made- a full length towbar that is mounted in a far more superior manner to take the vans weight and with a secondary purpose- to help carry the weight of the transaxle held on by only the VW style ram horn support hangers. Alloy bits were gusseted and Tweety is tight as a drum. Now he is ready for the SPFI when I get to mount the fuel pump, ECU and find the best place for the extra wiring loom.

This is the bottom of the ram horns. The hole at the end of the lug held the weight of the towball. That lug has a new plate for a web effect and the bolt is horizontal- as it should be.

This is where the tank leaked. There is now a web inside there you can just see. It is immediately above the swing arm mount which is just a square piece of alloy.

This is the full length towbar. Before, it ended where the van wires come out on the left hand side.

This is locking tabs to prevent the swing arm bolt from turning.

In a few weeks will be putting on the SPFI. Trikes have differences. For example the ECU has to stay dry. A car like a Leone or Brumby has under dash areas. So the ECU might need a waterproof cover unless I can get it to reach the top box but I'm not keen on that idea because the loom would want to flex each time I lift the body, stress the loom normally doesnt get with a car instal. Certainly dont want breaks to occur in the loom and have to trace them....yikes!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:13 pm

Tweety's looking good mate! I bet it's a sigh of relief having all that work finally done and dusted.

Now on to even better things

Cheers

Bennie

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:38 pm

Better things is right El Freddo

Debbie made a waterproof cover for the ECU.

I'll prbably put a plastic bag over it also inside the cover.

Finding a proper location for the eCU wasnt easy. The length of the loom from the engine connections to the ECU dictated the location. I found that there is a large area under the body ahead of the radiator overflow bottle.

As long as it stays dry it wont be a problem.

The mount was easy to make. The ECU has its own mount for a start then there is a mount I made up- to mount the mount so to speak. Both mounts are rubber mounted so the ECU has two sets of rubber before the suspension shock gets to it.

Next will be the non self priming fuel pump to the rear of the lower part of the fuel tank.

This is fun.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:03 pm

Have posted this on USMB also. Help needed.

Have mounted the SPFI electric fuel pump. thought I'd test it. placed 12 volts over the terminals (correct +ve to red etc) and nothing. is it suppose to rattle. want to know if its working if not can order another from the states.

What do you reckon? also what pressure should a replacement pump have?

Post by **TOONGA** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:48 pm

Don't bother getting one from the USA unless you can get it cheaper than this one.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ELECTRIC-FUE ... 3382e50e7d

it is rated to 3 bar or 130l/h

If I had found this one before I bought my replacement, I would've bought this one instead of the one I got, which was 10 dollars more and very similar to this one.

TOONGA

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:10 pm

Couldn't hear anything at all from the pump tweety? That's a bit odd. Sucks too. Are you going to run a surge tank?

Regards

Doug

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:59 am

a little tap from a hammer ? Used to work for mine until it died completely.....

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:37 am

no sucking no rattles, power getting to it without doubt. so bought onne that Toonga suggested. all good. thanks Toonga.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:23 pm

Got ym bung and plug for the O2 sensor today. Get that welded on next week about 200mm from the LHS head and 100mm from the crossover pipe. All fuel lines being replaced.

Can you tell I'm excited?

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 7:33 pm

Close to installing the SPFI on my EA81. Waiting on a few things in the mail including a new O2 sensor from the states. Posted this also on USMB.

Would like to brainstorm you guys for the best location for the sensor. In Oz trikes arent subjected to anti pollution requirements. So the custom twin exhaust has no cat.

There is a connecting pipe between both exhausts. This pipe is only 7" (180mm) from the exhaust manifold. I'm assuming it best be placed about 4" from the exhaust manifold meaning 2" from the connecting pipe? On a 45 degree angle. What are your thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXwh4z8d66o

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:11 am

not on the outside bend for fear of some superstition for starters, just after the two sides meet, what ever is easiest to fit and retain access

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 9:26 am

yeh Jonno, reckon anywhere after that connecting pipe before the muffler. and what about one on each side in the same position, could I hook two up to get and average of detection? probably not.

Post by **TOONGA** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 9:27 am

on the balance pipe would be the best place, closer to the middle join, that way you would get a reading from all the cylinders (more so than on one side)

Make sense?

TOONGA

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:31 am

Toonga, I have two concerns there.

Firstly ther emight not be enough exhaust 'flow' there. ie the level of flow is unknown whereas on one pipe a few inches further along the exhaust ther eis definate flow.

Secondly I've heard that the O2 sensor is also dependant on heat. T'is why some later types have more wires for preheat (as you'd know). And heat as with flow in that pipe is unknown.

Exaust from both sides could counter each other inside that pipe causing back and forth flow and not continuous flow. ??? Somewhat different to a 'Y' pipe

purp · Post by **purp** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:35 am

TOONGA wrote:on the balance pipe would be the best place, closer to the middle join, that way you would get a reading from all the cylinders (more so than on one side)

Make sense?

TOONGA

But is there sufficient flow through the balance pipe for at to be accurate? Genuine question. I would have thought the exhaust out tend to go back and forth, but not really flush through?

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 12:52 pm

From what I've read the O2 sensor is critical as to the running of the engine.

I can only guess, that at low revs there is more ebbing and flowing of gases along that pipe. At high revs I think it would diminish.

Maybe just past the balance pipe on the dizzy side exhaust. that way if gases from the other side make it through the pipe an accurate measure would be registered.

But if at some rev point the gases equal out and maybe counteract each other then Houston we have a problem. what you reckon Jules?

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:21 pm

Tweety wrote:what about one on each side in the same position, could I hook two up to get and average of detection? probably not.

I'm sure SubyDoug could knock up some sort of device that reads the two O2 sensors and gives a single reading to the ECU for best result.

Is it possible to add the required wiring to successfully run the heated O2 sensor? This would be an advantage as you don't have to rely on the exhaust heat alone to heat the O2 sensor - I would imagine there would be some weather conditions where the temp of the O2 sensor would make it drop out of it's operative temp.

Just putting it out there!

Cheers

Bennie

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:48 pm

Yeah its called an averaging circuit.

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_8/8.html

very simple thing to make, can run it into an amp for different reasons, mainly for high impedance output to the ecu. Could be more of an issue then a blessing though. The o2
sensors would have to work absolutely identically and if one was to heat up faster then the other it would make for very poor cold engine performance. You would probably need to run a separate micro taking in both o2 samples and either compensating with a map of some description or also reading both head's EGT's to determine if the o2 is correct on each head. Lots of messing around for very little gain I think.
I see no reason why you have to sample both heads. It is SPFI and it has a common manifold. The only time one head is going to be running different is if you have valve or spark issue. I think if you stuck the o2 sensor in the pipe coming across the engine that it would be fine. Nice and warm and good flow. Just my thoughts fella's

Regards

Doug