56 cubic inch engines; ECUs

[Craig Dotson]

> I've got a 61 cid motorcycle (Suzuki TL1000R) that's injected from the
> factory.  It runs like crap at lower speeds, primarly because of the
> induction that's required to produce high specific output (big cams, big
> intake ports, big throttle bodies, really big exhaust primaries).  That,
and
> the hardware doesn't seem to be developed to the level of, say, Honda's
> VFR800 or CBR929 (both of which now *finally* incorporate closed-loop
> technology, as the EPA is starting to crack down on bikes).

As you may have read, I'm currently looking at possibilities for refining
the EFI conversion of a Honda CBR600 F4 engine.  We have two that currently
run EFI successfully (one F4 and one F3 turbo), both using the Haltech E6K.

There is a possibility that we will be able to acquire a Honda CBR600 F4i
engine.  Do you know anything about the quality of this EFI system compared
to the VFR800 or CBR929?  There are only two main reasons we are considering
using the F4i over the F4, namely bike-sized injectors and increased
alternator output.  We will still build custom intake/exhaust manifolds
(including an intake restrictor as per FSAE rules) and as such will be using
a programmable ECU.  We currently do not run closed-loop mode, so I am
wondering about the EFI systems' quality ignoring the use of closed-loop.

On that note, I've been looking for commercially available ECUs that would
be a good replacement for the Haltech.  Possibilities include
ElectroMotive's Tek3 or maybe Tek2, Autronic, and Motec.  I haven't fully
investigated other possibilities that are still on my list.  We have used
Tek2 in the past, and I'm currently unsure of the reason there was a switch
to Haltech.  Competing teams have used the Motec, but it has proven to be
difficult to use and is extraordinarily expensive (i.e. out of our price
range).  The Autronic looks promising, as it appears to retain ease of
programming that the Haltech has, yet expands its set of features.

Our goals are to have a 600cc F4 engine fuel injected, running stock bike
coils, sequential multiport fuel injection (will run sequential phase-pair
injection if need be), and cold-start fuel maps.  The Haltech's limited
number of outputs has allowed us to run the stock bike coils, but forces us
to use batch-fire injection.  We don't run a distributor, and can not spend
the time/money to develop one that will allow us to run SMPI on 4 of the
outputs and cut ignition outputs down to 1.  My question:  Does anyone know
which of the above (or other) units have a sufficient number of outputs to
run both electronic ignition (4 outputs) and SMPI (4 outputs) with possibly
spares left over?

Thanks for any input

Craig Dotson
crdotson at vt.edu
2002 VT FormulaSAE

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