[Diy_efi] Evaporative fuel injection: or why they all fail

[Phil Lamovie]

Hi Mike,

The cost of design test and production is often in excess of what a
small market like Australia can return to investors.

It is possible to estimate fairly accurately how many sales you require
per $million invested, then you look at aftermarket uptake rates and
conclude you need "X" million vehicles of an identical build so that the 2%
uptake rate is sufficient.

Really, since the 80's it's not even a pipe dream it's just a silly waste of
money.

There was a rule of thumb back then that if you could lower fuel consumption
by 15% you went aftermarket or if you could lower production cost by 30%
you went OEM.

When our LPG Liquid Injection was ready for market we found that our sponsors
at the time, Ford Australia, had been spending a multimillion dollar budget on
a twin converter vapour system that cost about the same.

This was despite featuring our system on the front cover of the Ford in-house
product magazine and never mentioning their own developments.

It had "special air box retainers" that were essentially springs that were
capable
of saving the airbox from exploding each time the car backfired. The airbox
cost about $300 and the taxi drivers were wrapping them in "ocky straps" as
a solution.

On top of that there is all the costs associated with manuals and training and
testing and spare parts.

Worst of all our conversion had more torque with a std engine than Ford's
Special Vehicle's go fast model with the funny camshafts etc. We all failed
to grasp that even though it was better in every way it didn't fit into their
product line up and thus would never be sold.

We always saw the improvements as a great selling point but it was really
naive of us not to consider their marketing depts horror at the thought.

In the end, the Boss of Tickfords (Ford's Partner in Special Vehicles) Howard
Marsden and his Powertrain Engineering Manager took the car we prepared
for a "drive it like you stole it" ride around the industrial estate.

After 20 minutes they parked in the car park and switched off the engine.
The ticking noises as the exhaust cooled were loud. Nobody moved, the
powertrain manager counted to himself and after 20 to 30 seconds he
restarted the engine. We had just passed a heat soak test without fuel rail
insulation.

As I drove away that day I was thinking about buying an Island for Christmas.

It never happened.

Phil