By John De Armond Introduction ‘This article is the first of a series on building and using a fuel injector testing and cleaning machine. The machines easily built, isbased onan IBM-PC and can costaslitle as $200 to build. This first article will show you how to build the machine and will present some basics of testing, Subsequent articles will go into considerable detail about using the machine in a high perfor- mance environment. “The purpose of this machine fs fairly simple - To allow you to measure and record allimportant parameters of an electronic fuel Injector. The design and construction of this machine is also fairly simple, Some of the underlying concepts may not be. Of course, thal is why this magazine exists, to de-mnustify this stuff, Some Basics What is the purpose of any fuel metering system? Keep it simple now. That's right, to create the optimum fuel/air mixture Photo 1 - The fuel injection flowbench, front & back views, | Performance Engineering Magazineunder all conditions, See, that was easy. This holds true whether the device metering the fuel is fuel injection, carburetion or someone pouring gas down the intake, As with many things in life, while the theory is simple, implementation is quite complex. Let's presume for amomentthat the best mixture under all conditions is the chemically comect one, 14.7:1 for gasoline. Thatis, for every one part by weight of gasoline, there must 14.7 parts by weight of air to completely bum the fuel. This is known as the stoichiometric mbxture. 1 tend to abbreviate this as “stoch”, pronounced just like it looks. ‘Achieving this, particularly with fuel injection, should be easy, Just measure the ait low, calculate a proportional amount of fuel and shoot it in. Problem is, physics rears, its ugly head. Both air and fuel have the inconvenient tendency to change properties with temperature and pressure. Air is even worse because it changes density \with pressure. If we didn't have all these considerations, a simple, all mechanical system such asthe Hilbon would ‘work perfectly underall conditions. Reality dictates all the fancy electronics we have today. In order to configure any kind of fuel injection control | system, one must know the characteristics of the final actuator, the fuel injector. That is, the tuner must know how much fuel per unit time the injector will deliver, how. much delay after he commands the injector open before the actual delivery starts and how long after he commands it shut it actually stops flow. See the sidebar for more details on injector parameters. futhare coi Figure 1 - Piping Performance Engineering MagazineOverview ‘What must an injector tester do? Not that much realy. Itmust supply the injector with a stable supply of fuel (or other working fluid) at a known pressure. It must supply the proper voltage for the injector. It must provide the means to precisely and repeatedly actuate the injector. Finally it must provide the facilities to measure the injector's operating parameters. Thanks to the ubiqui- tous IBM-tyle PC and a touch of hardware we will fabricate or inexpensively buy, these requirements are simply achieved. In addition to a PC and the hardware we are going to fabricate, you will need a couple of other pieces of equipment. The most expensive san oscilloscope. Since ‘we are dealing with relatively slow events, most any old scope will work. The cacillac of scopes for automotive ‘workis the digital storage scope. This instrument isreally a special purpose computer that digitizes the signal in question and displays it on a screen. Because the signal is stored in the scope’s memory, it is visible until either replaced with a new trace or erased. That means very «low events such ignition or fue! injection cycles can be viewed at will It also means that with the right equip- ment, hardcopy of the trace can be generated Inthe automotive context, the cadillacof digital storage ‘scopes (DSO) is the Fluke 97 Scope Meter. This hand- held unit combines the functionality of a dual trace, 50 MHz oscilloscope and a digital voltmeter. See Photo 2. All the scope traces and data presented in this series of articles are generated from PE's Fluke 97. At $1795 reiail, this scope is within the reach of the professional Performance Engineer and even for many hobbyists. Note that this scope is not necessary in order to build and use the fuel injection tester. Nice but not necessary. One of the tests you will perform on a fuel injector is to measure the opening and closing time. Thisis done by ‘mounting an accelerometer on the injector and record ing the vibrations generated by the injector opening. See Photo 3. An accelerometer is a device that converts acceleration to an electrical signal. Typically the output is specified in terms of signal magnitude per G of acceleration. The accelerometer we use here at PF is a fairly expensive commercial piezoelectric accelerometer made by Endevco. These units typically cost $200 or more. However, avery satisfactory accelerometer can be constructed from an ordinary knock sensor. Tester Description The tester is pretty simple. A miniature fuel supply Joop, almost identical to that found on the car, is set up under controlled conditions. The loop consists of a standard Fl fuel pump, filter, bypass regulator and pres- sure gauge. See Fig, 1. The regulator pictured is a fixed pressure unit from a Datsun 2802. For a more general ‘purpose tester, use an adjustable regulator available from Photo 2 - The Fluke 97 Scopemneter 6 Performance Engineering MagazinePhoto 3 - Accelerometer and in- jector clamping detail a variety of sources. See the Re- source List. The pump is supplied with 12 volts through a switch and a theo- stat, The theostat is provided to adjust the speed of the fuel pump ntl the bypass régulatorjust starts to bypass. The purpose is to intro- duce as little heat to the fuel as possible. Fuel is supplied to the injector through a flex hose and is secuted via a homemade quick action clamp. The injector is held in the fixture by a comrhon wood- working toggle-clamp. The accel- erometerisattachedto this clamp. Photo 4 illustrates this assembly, You will observe that there is a small flowmeter in the line to the injector, This meter is optional and is not necessary to conduct any test in this series. The meter is convenient but very expensive so the design wasdevelopedwith- out it. Below the injector mount is a spray catch-cup used to catch the spray from the injector when ‘observing the spray patter. It is fabricated from a 4" CPVC pipe cendeap. Itis designed so it can be quickly moved out of the way for testsso requiring. See photo 1. In this photo the cup is white so it will show up better. Itshould be paint- ced flat black with appl- ance epoxy paint so the spray pattern can be mote easily observed The cup hanger is fabri- cated from a piece of gas line flattened in a vice and drilled for at tachment to the panel The bends are accom- plished with an ordinary tubing bender available at the car parts store. ‘The loops that hold the cup to the hanger are ordinary nylon wire clamps avail- able from Radio Shack or other electronic supply houses. A quick peek at the schematic in Fig. 2 reveals the simplicity of the electrical circuit. The reason this circuit is so simple is that the PC does all the work. The printer port adapter isnicely buffered. The soft- ware does all the actual testing Ain't PCs grandl?! The circuit pro- Vides the ability to test both saturat- ed mode and peakhold mode injectors. Which mode isin effectis strictly the function of the software. The potentiometers are aciusted to provide the proper peak and hold current in peakhold mode or VR- Photo 4 - Regulator, flowmeter, pressure gauge and piping detail. Note the homemade T-handle clamp at bottom-center. Performance Engineering Magazine1 alone is used to set the saturated ofthe liquid in the reservoir in order current for saturated-mode opera- 0 minimize foaming and evapora~ tion, Welllcoverthisaspect ingreat tion. Be sure to plugthe opening to detail in the next issue. the reservoir with some fiberglass cloth as shown, This a vapor barri- Construction er anda fire stop. The electrical constructions sim ‘The chassis of the tester is con _plicity personified. See photo 6 for structed from plywood. All joints details. Basically, everything s sim- areglued, braced andscrewed with ply screwed to the wooden chassis. sheetrock screws. This makes 2 The heatsinks on the transistors very sturdy but easily “machined” are not necessary and were includ- base. A heavy coat of aerosol ep- ed in an early stage of develop- coxyapplianceppaint providesanon- ment. Theyremain completelycool stain finish. Control legends were tothe touch. None of the wiring or created by laying outthe pattem in layout is critical. I recommend us- CorelDraw andlaser printingthem ing shielded wire for the lead to the onoverheadtransparencyfilm. The PC. legend is ghied to the panel using Power for my tester is supplied ultraviolet curable epoxy. If you by a regulated power supply. This don'thave such esoteric glue(Mine is convenient and may be neces- ‘was stolen from Doreen's stained sary for some of the SAE specified lass studio), superglue willdoffine, testing but is not required. A car The piping is three-eighths inch battery will work just fine. If youdo brake line: Iused metal piping be- use a regulated power supply, be ‘cause it is sturdy and fireproof, a sure to include an outboard filter consideration that should not be — capacitorasillustrated on the sche- underestimated. The relur piping _maticand in Photo 6D, This capac- should extend to below the surface itor filters the switching transients, Performance Engineering Magazine (Baan in es# Fig. 2 - Schematic Diagram | | | created by firing the fuel injector. | Jeamed from experience thal these transients will burn out the power supply unless trapped. Most any value capacitor larger than about | 30,000 uF will work fine The Software ‘Thesoftwareisamazingly simple considering what it allows us to do. {Its basic function is to tum the fuel injector on and off for precisely timed intervals and to total the amount oftimethe injectorisopen. The software uses the hardware timer bull into each PC. The timer is used in a high resolution mode that gives us the ability to measure time in microseconds. The actual timer routines were taken from some public domain code written bby David Kirschbaum. This soft- ware is writien to be as portable as possible and has run on every type of PC tested to date. The operation is simple, Four |values must be specified. These + The time the peak current flows. Tipeak) + The total on time. Tlon) Tote > PiTlocald Voltage CURRENT——> VOLTAGE ——> Coil Current (OPEN > Pintle Motion ve Fig. 3 - Idealized voltage and current waveforms and pintle motion for Peak/ Hold (solid lines) and saturated driver (shaded lines.) Performance Engineering MagazineB + The total eycle time. Tleycle) ‘+ The total number of cycles. See Fig. 3 for details, Once these parameters are specifi, the go command can be issued to fire the injector. During each cycle, both transistors (bits 0 ‘and 1) are fired for Tipeakl Then the peak transisior is fumed off (bit 0} and the injector is held on for the time interval equal to Tlon) - Tipeak). The hold transistor (bit 1) is turned off for Ticycle) - Tlon) and then the cucle repeats until the total number of cycles are rin or a key is pressed. A keupress ter minates the test. The total on time is accumulated during test 10 ing and ts displayed at the end of each cucle. This time is vital for computing the fuel delivery of the injector. Thistimeaccumnlatorcan, be reset at any time, A second mode is the current/ purge mode. This mode simply fires the injector continuously so that the peak and hold current can be set, Some caution must be used Iecause excessive curentcan quick ly bum out injectors. Because the peak current is often many times the rating of the injector, the peaks ‘on time is limited to one second at a time. A second use of this mocle is to turn the injector on continu ‘ously so air may be pinged after an injector change and iorelease pres sure prior to changing the injector. Performance Engineering Magazine D Photo 6 - Wiring Details A third mode is the software calibration mode. Because every computer requires a finite amount of time to execute a sequence of instructions and hecause the time intervals we are dealing with are very short, a. compensation factor must be developed for each ma chine, The software ships with compensation valueappropriale for my 25 MHz 386sx laptop. The calibration mode allows you to al: temately generate a 0.5 ms and a 5 ms pulse from bit 0 while chang ing the compensation factor. You would place the program in this mode and then observe the pulse output on an oscilloscope while dithering the compensation factor Until the pulse widths are exact.This compensation factor only matiers when creating intervals shorter than about 2ms. The value vyou develop may be polaced in an environment variable called FIFCOMP. See the documenta tion that accompanies the code for details Please refertothe Resomnce List for software availabiity A_5VDC. B SVOFF 500ms/DIV SINGLE Trig: A Cyele Starts a Cycle Cvcle| Testing End Peak Begin Hold Tsuggest you test the mechanical components first. Install an injec tor, fill the tank with gasoline and fire off the pump at full speed Quickly look for leaks and verify the pressure requlator is function ing, Vary thespeed knob and verify ihe pump changes speed, Turn off the pump and bleed the pressure byloosening the pine clamp on the injectorand allowing the gasto leak | Fig. 4 - Lamp test waveform into the catch bow! Flectricaltestsareconducted with Performance Engineering Magazine 1a small 12 volt, approx icles mately 2 amp (tailight) Seeeeee) | ara), lightbulb installed in place oes eel ee of the injector. Connect the PC and start the pro- gram. This is important because thefirstthing the program does isreset the parallel por. In my expe= rience, abouthalfthe time parallel port will power ‘up with the output bits set; Le., the transistors fired. This could, of cose, burn out the in- jector. Apply power and verify thereis 12-14 volts available at the injector power switch. Ifthat isin ‘order, turn on the injec- tor power switch. The lamp shouldbe off. Iinat, check your wiring. Enter the eur see the Resource List fora known lamp come on dimly for a second, rent/purge mode. Fire the peak good parallel port card. Turn the go full intensity for a second and transistor. The lamp should light, hold transistor off. Retum to oper- tum off for a second. If you have a Tum the peakpot. Thelightinten- ate mode. Set the following pa- scope connected to the monitoring Fig. 5 | Standard connection diagram sity should vary. Turn the peak rameters point, you should see a waveform transistor off and fire the hold tran- similar to Fig. 4. Testing is com- sistor, The lamp should again light. * Total cycle interval 3000 ms plete. Press any key to terminate Turn the hold pot. The lamp in- + Peale interval 1000 ms the test tensity should vary. In each case, + On interval 2000 ms. with the lamp at full briliance(min-» Repetitions 100 Operation imum resisiance), verily that the + Peak potentiometer fully collector of the applicable transis _counter-clockwise, maximumre- This is going to be brief because tor is switched within about a half sistance the majority of the next issue's voltof ground. Ifitisnot,eitherthe +» Hold potentiometer fully clock- article wll cover operation. This is transistor has low gain or your wise, minimum resistance. just enough to get you going, parallel port has insufficient drive. Install an injector. Connect the If insufficient drive is the problem, Run the test. You should see the _scopeasillustratedin Fig, 5. Setthe A svoc 8 soonvc Fig. 6 200mW OC A voc 8 Tmg/OW SINGLE _Tig:AL meV SINGLE Teg A aay Fig. 7 eI Performance Engineering Magazinescope as follows: * Chan A - monitoring point, 2 volts per division + Chan B - accelerometer, full sensitivity, usually 5 mv/division * Trigger - Chan A, DC cou- pled, negative slope + Sweep - 1 ms/division, Normal trigger. Set the peakand hold pots fully counter-clockwise (maximum resis- tance}, ‘Sart the softwareand apply pow- ce to the injector. Leave the fuel pump off at this stage. Set the following parametersforpeak/hold injectors: * Peaks time 5 ms * Total cycle time 15 ms * On time 10 ms + Repetitions 10,000 Start the test. You should see some activity on the scope. Adjust the trigger level fora stable display similar to Fig. 6. The injector may bemakingsomenoise but probably is not opening. Start tuning the peak pot clockwise. You should hear the sound of the injector change. At some point the change will become marked.-This will oc- cur when the injector gets enough peak current to actually start open- ing. You should see some activity con channel B, the accelerometer. You should see a vibration spike shortly after the current is applied and perhaps a second spike as the Injector closes when the peak cur- rent tums off. Ifthe injector closes when the peak current tums off, gradually turn the hold current pot Until the injector stays on for the duration of the on time. You have now determined the approximate peak and hold cur- rent requirements of that injector. You can back the peak time off Lunt the injector fails to open. This uill determine the approximate peak time required. Thisisnormal- Iyabout 1-2 ms Fig. 6 illustrates a typical peak/hold waveform. You ‘may now go to current mode and evaluate the currents you have set For Saturated Driver Injectors, Use the following parameters: + Peak time 0 ms * Total cycle time 15 ms + On time 10 ms + Repetitions 10,000 Start the test and observe the scope. You should see a display similar to Fig. 7. Start tuming the Holdpotclockwise, Atsome point the injector should start opening, The accelerometer should show someactivity and the sound should change. Continue increasing the currentby further tuming the hold pot and observe the opening de- lay. The delay should decrease rapidly at first and then remain fairly constant. Just a bit more than what is necessary to turn the delay “knee” isusually about right If the injector is a high impedance {no ballast resistor) unit, the hold pot should end up near zero ohms. If a ballast resistor is used in an existing installation with low im- pedance injectors, the pot should end up near that value. Since we don’t have any fuel flowing at this point, don’t run these tests for too long lest you ‘overheat the injector. Once you get the approximate electrical pa- rametersset, voumay start the fuel ump and actually inject some full Working Fluids For most testing, you will want to use the actual fuel you will be ‘burning in the engine. If you plan ‘on testing a lot of injectors, you might want to consider using N- Heptane as outlined in SAE 41832, It has a lower vapor pres- sure than gasoline and is much more stable over time, If you use «gasoline, you should use new gas- cline each day. Pump the old gas cout and use it in your hotrod lawnmower or something, Performance Engineering Magazine This tester Is very effective in cleaning dirty injectors. The worl ing fluid I've found very effective is. a half-and-half mix of gasoline and Chevron Techron® fuel cleaner. Simply clean the con the outside and then connect it to the tester. Run the injector at about a 50% duty cycle for 15 minutes. The vibration of firing the Injector appears to assist in the cleaning operation. More on this next issu. In Closing This just about wraps up the first installment in this series. Use the time to build your tester, acquire the software, acquire a copy of SAE J1832 and get everything working, 13Resource Guide Software The software may be obtained from the following sources * Courts of Chaos BBS 501 985-0059 + Bye Mall Send request to lstserveidixie com * By ial from PE Magazine Send a LargeSASE and $5.00 Fuel Pressure Regulator ‘A stock regulator from your car of choice may be used or an adjustable regulator may be ordered from: Kenne Bell, 10743 Bell Court, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730, 714 941 6646, 714 941 0985 (tech support) Electronic Parts Q1,Q2TIP-120 Transistors Radio Shack P/N 276-2068, DI Diode, 64, 50PIV Radio Shack P/N 276-1661 V1.2 Rheostat, 1002,12.5 watt Newark P/N 87F3611-50 [1] VR-3.— Rheostat, 200,25 watt Newark P/N 8716390-20 [2] S1S2 Toggle Switch, SPST. 3 amp Radio Shack P/N 275-322 BNC 1 BNC panelinount connector Radio Shack TP-l Dual Bananna Jack Radio Shack: - ‘Compatable Printer Port Card Magibonies P/N 8109 [3] Toggle Clamp This is a standard 1" woodworking toggle clamp available from most hardware Bere ele ate sapped Clea Meta Peive Tool Song Mem ta, GA 404 446-8390, Accelerometer The knock sensor mentioned is a standard automotive knock sensor. Mine is from a Dodge Turbo Lazer. ‘Iiue accelerometers can be had from Endevco PCB Piezotronies Ine 30700 Rancho Viejo Rd. 716 684-0001 San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675 714 661-7231 SAE 11832 may be ordered from the SAE, 400 Commonwealth Dr . Warrenclale, PA 15096, 412 776-4970, 412 776-0790 (FAX) Hard-to-Find Parts The above marked items are available from Rapid Deployment Systems Inc, PO Box 670386, Maricita, GA 30066, 404 578 9547. Add $4 to each order for S/H, Allow 6 weeks {or delivery. [1] VRA,2- $10.00 each. IZ] VR3- $15.00 each {3} Card- $19.95 each