On Fri, 12 Feb 1999 Shaun.Hendricks@bergenbrunswig.com wrote:
[...]
> You don't need to redesign the valves or engine at all, just optimize the
> whole setup to begin with. My personal preference would be to eliminate the
> intake manifold altogether, design a custom venturi air valve for controlling
> air flow to each cylinder, an O2 sensor at each exhaust output reporting
> combustion efficiency back to the computer and each cylinder being totally
> independent of the other, the intake venturi valve adjusting for each one
> optimally at whatever level the demand is.
Does the Viper engine use something like this? I seem to recall
looking at a picture of the Viper crate motor in the MP catalog, and
I think it had a "throttle body" type thingie for each cylinder.
> I can draw up the idea for the system, but it certainly wouldn't be cheap
> to make...
True. :-) You know, this is one area where the consumer would
really benefit if the auto manufacturers were to embrace "open source"
software. Or at least "open specs"... Can you immagine if Dodge were
to publish a manual that basically laid out what they expect to
see from each of the sensors, what certain readings from certain
sensors mean, etc.?
That would allow a shadetree mechanic to rather easily implement
a system such as you describe above. The hardest part would be
the actual machining of the manifold, venturis, etc. Tools for
programming microcontrollers are readily available, and any poor slob
with a basic understanding of C or Assembly could create their own
computer. Its sad, really... The computer holds the key to unlocking
the true potential of our engines, but instead of being our savior,
they are nothing but a hinderance. Its stuff like this that makes
me wish I had some beater motors to play with; you could probably
design your own computer from the ground up, but I don't want to
screw up my daily driver. :-) (I have the feeling there is a
lot of money to be made in this arena, if someone were so inclined.)
Immagine a computer that you could buy and use INSTEAD of the stock
or MP PCM; but you could hook it up to your desktop computer or
laptop and change absolutely everything that the computer can
control... I can see a section of the DML home page dedicated
to "engine images". Someone finds a particulary sweet configuration
for a particular setup, and uploads it. Anyone with one of these
computers could download it and try it on their own truck...
Oh well, time to snap back to reality. :-( (this is gonna
hurt) ;-)
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ----------------------------------------.
| Jon Steiger * AOPA, DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA * RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.58@93.55), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`--------------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:12:35 EDT