|
By: Jason Giacchino
Email: offthepegs @ atvsource.com
March 2009 - Off The Pegs
Fuel Injection
Rejection
Fuel Injector Spray
Dyno Jet Power Commander |
I’m constantly bombarded with conflicting
emotions about the industry’s unofficial move
away from carburetion and into fuel injection.
For the most part, and being a tech-geek by
nature, I welcome the digital age as it pertains
to ATVs. After all, the carburetor has been
around for a long, long time. The technology
involved with its bobbing floats and
ultra-sensitive jets dates back to a time when
engines themselves were much less complicated
and performed to much lower demands. I suppose
the carb still had a honest chance for supremacy
back in the two-stroke era of where tuning or
making adjustments was still a fairly reasonable
option and commonly took place at race tracks
all across the globe, sometimes even between
motos!
While the four-stroke revolution has been
credited for rejuvenating the OEM race ATV
effort, the non-oil-burning mills brought with
them quite a bit of complexity. Racers and
backyard mechanics alike can share tales of
endless frustration in trying to dial in a
modern four-stroke carburetor only to get
everything back together before realizing the
changes made were all wrong. The proverbial
writing was on the wall through the sheer number
of jets, circuits, and accelerator pumps
required in an effort to mate the antiquated
carburetor to the modern performance engine. In
the two-stroke days, rejetting was not only
simpler but it was more rewarding and certainly
more instantaneous in letting the rider know
whether or not what they did was in fact an
improvement. EFI does away with almost all of
the guesswork that separated the true tuners
from the wannabes in the old days.
Of course, the technology required to bring fuel
injection to the ATV scene isn’t exactly cutting
edge either. In fact, for the most part, it’s
been around for quite a while. The biggest hang
up for engineers to overcome was the added
weight of a generator, fuel pump, and battery.
The four strokes managed to solve a big part of
this issue without even trying through the use
of electric starting, which already demanded a
battery be present.
Arguably, perhaps the biggest negative to the
switch is the increased cost associated with
making changes to the fuel mixture. While
tedious and imperfect by nature, carb jetting
changes were typically cheap. These days EFI
demands expensive software for laptop computers
or a self-contained device (such as a Power
Commander) to make alterations. The cost can
often accumulate to several hundred dollars not
counting the cost of the computer itself. This
has many riders investing in universal
programmers that can continue to be used even if
the rider decides to switch brands or if the
manufacturer completely obsoletes a past model
with an updated one.
I bring all of this up because I’ve just
recently attended a Kawasaki press meeting that
pertained exclusively to the fuel injection
technology being made standard on some of their
2009 models. Not only have the manufacturers
mastered attaining fuel injection without the
use of a battery (but rather through a capacitor
which stores the electrical charge produced by
the kickstarter) but they’ve also gone above and
beyond with what was conceivably possible with
the software packages accompanying the fuel
injection system.
“Team Green’s” software will not only allow the
rider to fine tune fuel maps and spark advance
but it will also store telemetry from a ride for
later analysis. Say what? Indeed, say on your
third lap out, you happened to feel a bog while
charging through the whoops or a slight
hesitation on the face of the double; this new
system can graph the entire ride out on your
computer screen so that you can identify exactly
why it happened and how to prevent it from
happening again. Until now, this type of
technology has been limited to factory riders
and mechanics.
While I’m unbelievably excited about these
innovations for the simple fact that this is
truly the dawning of a whole new age of
technology in the off-road arena. Computers may
be able to remove what little guesswork remains
in the equation of engine performance but one
can’t help but wonder what this will do to the
backyard mechanic or small-engine-tinker with a
small workbench in the shed? The sad news is
that as our ATVs become more complex, fewer
individuals will have the skill, technology, or
confidence to repair them. The foreign car tuner
scene went through a similar dilemma a few years
back. Like most industries, a compromise was
eventually established where mechanics were
forced to come to grips with electronics and
computers in addition to wrenches and sockets.
Those who couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt were left
out in the cold.
|
